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EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
V 
 
Excursions in Greece 
 
 "Recentlg BjploreD Sttes of Classical interest : 
 
 MYCENAE, TIRYNS, DO DONA, DELOS, ATHENS, OLYMPIA, 
 ELEUSIS, EPIDAURUS, TAN AGRA. 
 
 31 ^0?xttlar ^aotint irf the |flc«ttlts of Recent Sxcabatiuns. 
 
 CHARLES DIEHL 
 
 (Late Member of the French Schools of Rome and Athens, and Professor at the 
 University of Nancy). 
 
 TRANSLATED BY I 7 P ' 
 
 EMMA R. PERKINS , 
 
 {Headmistress of the Girls' Grammar School, Thetford). J/^ ^ 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 REGINALD STUART POOLE, LL.D. 
 
 {Professor of Archceology at University College, London; Corresponding Member 
 of the Institute of France), 
 
 WITH NINE PLANS AND FORTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 H. GREVEL AND CO., 
 
 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 
 
 New York : B. WESTERMANN & CO. 
 
 1893. 
 

 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 MDIEHL has done a great service to archaeo- 
 • logical students. In the compass of a 
 small volume he has given a clear summary of the 
 recent discoveries in Greece. The list of contents 
 is enough to show the largeness of the enterprise. 
 He has only been able to accomplish it by a 
 judicious acquaintance with the wants of the 
 students. The matter is various, treating of no 
 less than ten subjects : the range of time is vast, 
 extending from the age of the earliest monuments 
 to the fall of the Greek religion, a period of at least 
 seventeen centuries, probably much more ; yet the 
 work is eminently satisfactory, marked by the French 
 qualities of measure, form, and elimination. Those 
 who desire to know more have only to refer to the 
 list of works prefixed to each section, and after the 
 judicious training afforded by the author they will 
 have no difficulty in choosing the part most fitted to 
 their special tastes. Few, we think, will attempt the 
 whole circle of knowledge here so well planned. 
 Mycenae very properly begins the volume. It is 
 
 577588 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 beyond question a very early site, perhaps the 
 earliest, and it is the most interesting of its class. 
 Its association with the romantic story of Schlie- 
 mann enables the author to sketch that remarkable 
 career, and in the later essays to deal with the 
 discovery and not the discoverer. Otherwise the 
 work would have been drawn out to an undue 
 length. Yet in every case due honour is paid to 
 the explorer of each site, whatever his nationality. 
 
 The probable date of the remains at Mycenae and 
 the main results of the excavations are stated with a 
 wise caution. Nowhere is the reader better prepared 
 to form an independent judgment of a very difficult 
 question. The approximative age, and the plan of 
 the buildings on the Acropolis are not very difficult 
 to grasp with the aid of the similar works at Tiryns. 
 The problem which still awaits solution is the 
 origin of the art, at once simple and advanced, which 
 marks the structures of Mycenae, Tiryns, and 
 Orchomenus. Two sources seem clear, one Asiatic, 
 coming by land, and the other Egypto-Phoenician, 
 coming by sea. As the products of these sources 
 are intermixed, it is obvious that the date of either 
 must direct us towards that of the other. It has not 
 escaped M. Diehl that the tribute of the Kefta or 
 Phoenicians to the Egyptian king Thothmes III. 
 comprehends vases strikingly like those of Mycenae 
 and other objects more analogous, as the bulls' heads 
 of precious metal. In the accompanying hiero- 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 glyphic inscription these presents are said to be 
 brought by the Phoenicians of the islands of the 
 Mediterranean. The style is not purely Egyptian, 
 it is more varied and more fanciful ; but this in no 
 way perplexes the question. The Phoenicians were 
 never original. They adopted and gave their 
 colour to the successive local styles of the Eastern 
 Mediterranean ; and from B.C. 1500, the age of 
 Thothmes III., for about five centuries, the Egypto- 
 Phoenician was the style of portable objects and 
 wholly of decoration. At the same time nothing 
 forbad the transport of purely Egyptian works easy 
 to carry, and even of small objects brought to Egypt 
 from the farther East. What is needed for a clearer 
 solution of this question is a closer study of the 
 Egyptian representation of the products of Phoenician 
 art from B.C. 1500 downwards. 
 
 At Tiryns we see a fuller illustration of the 
 architecture and art of the age of Mycenae than the 
 greater citadel affords. The works of defence of the 
 Acropolis and the decorations of the palace are in 
 far better preservation ; and here we clearly have the 
 influence of the Phoenicians, both as builders and as 
 decorators, and this, to a large extent, puts aside the 
 influence of Asia Minor. The evidence of Orcho- 
 menus points in the same direction. Decorators skilled 
 in Egyptian style must have worked at both sites. 
 As a commentary on the Odyssey, Mycenae, Tiryns, 
 and Orchomenus are of the highest value. An 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 almost new branch of inquiry should here be started. 
 We have at Tell-el-Amarneh, in Upper Egypt, an 
 example of an Egyptian high-priest's palace of the 
 same age, represented in a tomb of the place, not 
 indeed fortified, yet constructed with the same object 
 as a great dwelling-place, and remarkably similar in 
 the main plan. Thus the Phoenician influence in 
 Greece has again an Egyptian origin. Had the old 
 Egyptian palaces within forts been discovered and 
 planned, it is probable that the analogy would be 
 complete. 
 
 The transition from the citadels with their palaces 
 of the heroic ages to the oracle of Dodona seems 
 violent. This is due to the great catastrophe of the 
 old civilisation, which has made it hard for scholars 
 to admit a gap in the documents which must be 
 faced, and to see in the new and more primitive art 
 the real parent of the wonders of the fifth century. 
 But all that lies behind the actual remains at the 
 Epirote Sanctuary is really very archaic. Thus 
 Dodona is a survival of a very early worship, and 
 a necessary commentary on the primitive palaces. 
 The oracle, again, and the methods of consulting it 
 carry us back to the heroic ages. 
 
 In the chapter on the excavations at the Acropolis 
 of Athens, the author examines the late important 
 discoveries of the statues of the old Parthenon 
 broken during the Persian occupation of the city 
 and used as mere material for the support of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 new building. The character of the art before 
 Pheidias is now clear ; and the whole early movement 
 of Greek sculpture may be traced, in remarkable 
 justification of the date to which the vase-painting 
 formerly assigned to the age of the Parthenon, is 
 now generally carried back. This may be called the 
 pre-Raphaelite period of Greek art, which will be 
 more and more appreciated as its value in illustra- 
 tion of the succeeding bloom is more clearly per- 
 ceived. We must no longer imagine the art of the 
 Parthenon to have sprung into existence in full 
 beauty as in the birth of Athena. That which the 
 coins clearly tell us is now equally seen in the art 
 to which they owed their origin. 
 
 The excavations in Delos, if less startling than 
 others in their results, form a singularly complete 
 chapter in the story of the restoration of the Hellenic 
 past. The island is an example of a tract without 
 vegetation, and with the solitary advantage of a port, 
 which owed its fortune to the temple of Apollo and 
 its surroundings, and as a place of pilgrimage pro- 
 tected by its sanctity won great commercial power — 
 the Mekkeh of the Greek islands. In an admirable 
 chapter the reader can study the long-continued and 
 complete organisation, which gave Delos a many- 
 sided importance, only to fall by the violence of 
 Mithradates and the growth of the Roman ports of 
 Italy. 
 
 The temple of Apollo PtoYos in Boeotia is the 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 subject of a brief chapter, awaiting the publication of 
 the large work of M. Holleaux the explorer. 
 
 A large space is given to Olympia, the most 
 fruitful, because practically the most central site 
 in Greece. No one can read Pindar, or study any 
 branch of Greek antiquities, without seeing the 
 widespread importance of the Olympic games and 
 the place they held in Greek life wherever it was 
 planted. In Macedon on the north, in Sicily on the 
 west, in Cyrene on the south, they are alike com- 
 memorated more than in central Greece, Elis alone 
 excepted. The treasuries also were mostly of the 
 more remote cities, Syracuse, Metapontum, Sybaris, 
 Selinus, Gela, and Megara. This is at first sight 
 perplexing, for one would have expected rather that 
 the cities of Greece Proper should be represented. 
 Looking, however, at Pindar, and the coins, we note 
 that these cities won and commemorated victories in 
 the chariot race, which needed the wealth of their 
 tyrannoi and in their commemoration reflected 
 honour on the seats of the rulers by whose power 
 they were won. It must be remembered that the 
 tyrannoi did not personally contend, but were at the 
 cost of sending their chariots and charioteers to 
 the great contest. Though the presence of women 
 was forbidden, they also could in this manner win 
 a victory by deputy. 
 
 An excellent account is here given of the Olympic 
 Games, on which the excavations have thrown great 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 light. The knowledge of the site and of the position 
 of the courses removes the contest from the circle of 
 mere book-knowledge into that of the practical. No 
 doubt there was a certain savage element in the 
 personal combats not wanting wholly in the chariot- 
 races, but it must be remembered that the physical 
 training of Olympia hardened the Greek for war, and 
 its decline was the presage of his loss of pre-eminence. 
 The element of fierceness is not wanting in the prac- 
 tical picture here represented, but at its height it is 
 far superior to the barbarism of the Roman gladia- 
 torial shows. And the reference by St. Paul shows 
 that the contest had a truly noble side in its courage, 
 its endurance, its desire of glory alone. 
 
 The sculptures of Olympia form an archaeological 
 puzzle, here stated but not resolved. Those of the 
 pediments of the Temple of Zeus have been to a 
 large extent discovered, and it is quite possible to 
 judge of their style. Individual statues have also re- 
 warded the explorer, two of which are of the highest 
 merit, the Nike of Paionios, and the Hermes of Prax- 
 iteles. The pedimental sculptures which were con- 
 temporary with those of the Parthenon and anciently 
 attributed to Alcamenes and Paionios, are undoubt- 
 edly disappointing. To account for their inferiority 
 to the marbles of the Parthenon two theories may be 
 advanced. Either they were of earlier execution, 
 dating from soon after the foundation of the temple 
 in about B.C. 470, or the execution of the designs was 
 
XU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mostly entrusted to local artists. There is a want 
 of that unity of design which marks the sculptures 
 of the Parthenon, and makes it hard to discriminate 
 between the work of Pheidias in the pediments, and 
 that of his students in the frieze, although the 
 different hands in the metopes assert themselves. 
 It is here alone in the Parthenon that a link may 
 be traced with the sculptures of Olympia. It seems 
 surprising that when Pheidias, called here to execute 
 the crowning work of the temple, the gold and ivory 
 statue of Zeus, built a workshop in which he could 
 produce it with every advantage of light and position, 
 yet the people of Olympia were content with the in- 
 ferior art of the pediments ; but we look in vain for 
 an instance of sculptures removed for the purpose of 
 replacing them by finer works, and it must be recol- 
 lected that such a labour would have retarded other 
 and more pressing enterprises, above all, the com- 
 pletion of the great statue. 
 
 To turn from Olympia to Eleusis is to go from 
 sunlight into the dusk. The sanctuary indeed has 
 been discovered, and traces of the neighbouring 
 temples, but its purpose remains obscure. The 
 Eleusinian mysteries remain true to their name. 
 The ancients preserve a religious silence, and the 
 early Fathers of the Church cannot be expected to 
 have known much of that which was guarded with 
 a masonic secrecy. At the same time the main 
 outlines of the purpose of the mysteries, and their 
 
INTRODUCTION. xiii 
 
 mode of celebration, are known to us, and it seems 
 that they had no barbarous or foreign element, 
 but are reflected though not revealed in the literature 
 which they originated. 
 
 The excavations at Epidaurus have restored to us 
 a special and very interesting phase of Greek belief. 
 The idea of a healing power, sometimes apart from that 
 of the physician, and sometimes associated with it, 
 but never in opposition, lies at the root of the worship 
 at Epidaurus. The Asclepieion was rather a 
 hospital than a temple. Although it had the services 
 of a temple with a regular priesthood, yet it was fre- 
 quented by worshippers who came to be healed, and 
 who remained for various periods lodged in the porti- 
 coes of the temple awaiting dreams and undergoing 
 various kinds of treatment usually of an elementary 
 character, far inferior to that of contemporary medi- 
 cine and surgery. It is characteristic of the Greek 
 instinct that birth and death were rigorously excluded 
 from the temples and the sacred precincts which sur- 
 rounded them. Therefore a poor sufferer might come 
 from the ends of the Greek world only to perish of 
 exhaustion at the threshold of the temple, or to be 
 pitiably carried away at the last moment. It is a 
 great honour to the memory of Antoninus Pius that 
 he built outside the peribolos a great house where 
 the dying could pass away in peace. This is a 
 curious contrast between the humanity of the Greeks 
 and that of the Romans, and a startling illustration 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION, 
 
 of the opposite ideas of the Hellenes and the 
 Egyptians. 
 
 Tanagra, and indeed Boeotia generally, has in our 
 times strangely reversed the judgment of antiquity, 
 by which the stupidity of the Boeotians passed into 
 a proverb, in spite of Pindar, Corinna, Epaminondas, 
 and the lesser fame of Plutarch. Throughout the 
 country a multitude of terra-cottas have been dis- 
 covered similar to those from all parts of the Greek 
 world, yet clothed with a special charm which renders 
 them far superior to those even of Italy and of Asia 
 Minor. 
 
 The question of the origin of these terra-cottas has 
 never been proposed. How did this new art arise ? 
 In the bloom of Greek art, youth and maturity are 
 the periods chosen by the sculptor, and the preference 
 is given to man. In these terra-cottas, of which the 
 finest are undoubtedly of the beginning of the decline, 
 after Alexander, girlhood and womanhood are the 
 favourite themes, and all ages are represented. Here 
 are the marks of a social change. If we call in the 
 aid of history we see that the success of Alexander 
 brought the Greek woman out of the oriental seclu- 
 sion which marked Athenian life into a publicity 
 consistent with modern ideas in the West. The 
 kings had courts, and the nobles imitated their 
 manners. A court made a queen necessary ; almost 
 immediately that queen became the sole wife, and if 
 she had political skill her life was not alone public. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 but political, and even military. Hence there arose 
 a series of queens unrivalled in history, because they 
 were on their trial. Phila, the admirable wife of 
 Demetrius Poliorcetes, and the long series of Egyptian 
 queens, the two great Berenices, the second and third 
 Arsinoes, the first and last Cleopatras, will occur to 
 every one as women of capacity and even of genius, 
 and in most cases of exemplary character. This 
 social revolution seems to be the key to a fresh 
 bloom of art. As the school of Lysippus inaugurated 
 the new heroic style of sculpture, so the terra-cottas 
 mark a new epoch in the representation of women 
 and their cycle. Nothing could be more striking 
 than the comparison of the infant Dionysus carried 
 by Hermes, so unworthy of the great statue of 
 Praxiteles that some critics have attributed it to 
 another hand, and the delightful children of the 
 terra-cottas beginning little more than a century 
 later. 
 
 The actual purpose of the terra-cottas is more 
 difficult to determine than their origin. Originally 
 they were no doubt sepulchral, but it is hard to 
 associate the finest with a purely sepulchral purpose. 
 It seems better to consider them as primarily 
 portraying everyday life, whatever their use in 
 tombs. At least there is a curious analogy with the 
 Italian art of the Renaissance. It begins with the 
 most sincere religious feelings, and passes into a pure 
 artistic love of beauty, wholly apart in many cases 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from the earlier instinct, which ultimately disappears. 
 Whatever the purpose of the terra-cottas their con- 
 nection with sepulture is beyond doubt, and the 
 stronger sense of the reality of the future state may 
 account for the representation of the life on this side 
 of the tomb as the truest type of the life beyond. 
 Here certainly the influence of Egypt would have 
 been powerful if it touched the Greek mind, which 
 in the decay of Hellenic belief was strongly attracted 
 by any other form of faith, especially if it was con- 
 cerned with the great mysteries of the future. It 
 may be however that Eleusis is really the parent 
 of the terra-cottas. 
 
 REGINALD STUART POOLE. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IT was M. Diehl's wish, as he expressly states in 
 his preface, to popularise a knowledge of the 
 results of recent excavations in Greece, and especially 
 to draw attention to their importance as throwing 
 light on Greek manners, religion, and history. 
 
 It has been my hope, in undertaking the trans- 
 lation, that his book in its English form might 
 introduce some readers to the study of classical 
 archaeology, and give them a portion of the pleasure 
 which that study once gave me. A few notes have 
 been added and a good many references. 
 
 I have to thank my sister. Miss S. R. Perkins, for 
 her help in the translation ; Professor Stuart Poole 
 for his great kindness in writing the Introduction ; 
 and Mr. E. A. Gardner, Director of the British School 
 of Archaeology at Athens, for advice and criticism 
 on several points ; and to express my sense of the 
 value of the permission to read in the Library of 
 the FitzwilHam Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge, 
 granted me some time ago by the kindness of the 
 Director, Professor Middleton. 
 
 EMMA READ PERKINS. 
 
 The School House, Thetford, 
 Sept. zSth, 1892. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION . page v 
 
 PREFACE xvii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT MYCENAE (1876-88). 
 
 I. Schliemann's Autobiography— His Early Life— Acquisition of 
 Wealth— Scientific Undertakings — Excavations at Hissarlik 
 and Discovery of Troy pp. 2 — 7 
 
 n. Position and Ruins of Mycenae— Its Historical Associations — 
 Excavations on the Acropolis — Discovery of Six Graves 
 — Ornaments contained in them — Tomb of Agamemnon — 
 Importance of Discoveries made at Mycenae , pp. 7 — 22 
 
 III. Different Theories regarding Civilisation of Mycenae— Ex- 
 
 cavations of 1887 and 1888 — Different Elements of this 
 Civilisation — Oriental Influence in Early Greece — Objects 
 imported from the East — Objects of Home Manufacture at 
 Home — Mycenaean Style — From what People was this 
 Civilisation derived ? PP. 22—37 
 
 IV. Analogies between Mycenaean Objects and those discovered 
 
 at Hissarlik, Santorin, Tiryns, Spata— Date and Char- 
 acteristics of Mycenaean Civilisation . . . PP- 37— 40 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EXCAVATIONS AT TIRYNS (1884-85). 
 
 Position and Ruins of Tiryns — Schliemann's Excavations — 
 Their Importance. 
 I. The Citadel at Tiryns — Walls — SubterraneanGalleries — Gates 
 — Royal Palace — Men's Apartment — Women's Apartment 
 — Use of Wood in the Building — Frescoes — Comparison 
 between this and the Homeric Palaces . . pp. 46 — 59 
 II. Comparisons between Palaces of Tiryns and Mycenae — 
 Oriental Influence at Tiryns — Date of Tirynthian Civilisa- 
 tion — Its Duration and Downfall . . . pp. 59 — 62 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA (1876). 
 
 I, Epirus and the Valley of Dodona — Position and Ruins of 
 the Sanctuary — Excavations of M. Carapanos — Chief 
 
 Results pp. 66 — 68 
 
 II. Origin of the Cultus of Dodona — Priestly Corporation of 
 Dodona — Asceticism in Antiquity — Oracle of Zeus — 
 Questions addressed to it — Methods of Consultation — 
 Leaden Plates with Inscriptions — Offerings of the Wor- 
 shippers pp. 69 — 78 
 
 III. Clients of the Oracle — Fame and Reputation of the Shrine — 
 
 Its Decadence — Imagines of Philostratus . . pp. 78 — 82 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EXCAVATIONS ON THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS (1S82.89). 
 
 The Early School of Attic Sculpture — Importance of Recent 
 Excavations. 
 I. Discoveries made in 1863— Finds of 1882 — Excavations of 
 1885- — Discovery of Fourteen Female Statues — Their Date 
 — Costume and Coiff'ure — Subjects Represented — Why 
 they were buried in Ancient Times — Works undertaken 
 by Cimon on the Acropolis — Pediment Sculptures in Tufa 
 — Group of Heracles and Typhon — Polychromy in the 
 Pediments — Later Discoveries of Female Statues — The 
 Acropol's in the Time of Pisistratus — The Old Temple 
 of Athens pp. 87 — 106 
 
CONTENTS. xxi 
 
 II. The Beginnings of Greek Sculpture— Creation of an Artistic 
 Type — Its Successive Transformations — The Series of 
 Female Figures — The Male Figures — The Type of 
 Athena PP- io6— 119 
 
 III. Various Sculptors who worked on the Acropolis — The 
 Works of the Samian School— The Early Works of Native 
 Sculptors— The School of Chios and its Influence — The 
 Development of Attic Art pp. 119— 127 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS (1873-88). 
 
 I. Position of Delos — Causes of its Ancient Splendour — The 
 Worship of Apollo — Trade and Commerce — The Festivals 
 of Delos — History of the Excavations— The Explorations 
 of M. Homolle— Appearance of the Ruins previous to Ex- 
 cavations — Inadequacy of Literary Sources — Importance 
 
 of the Discoveries made pp. 130— 142 
 
 II. Topography of Delos — General Appearance — The Sacred 
 Port— Gates — Temenos — Temple of Apollo — Sanctuary 
 of the Bulls — Temenos of Artemis — Merchants' Quarter — 
 Schools of the Italians — Portico of Philip — Mount 
 Cynthus pp. 142—150 
 
 III. History of Delos — The Attico-Delian Confederation and the 
 
 Athenian Rule — Delos in the Fourth Century B.C. — The 
 Confederation of the Cyclades — Influence of Rhodes — 
 Protectorates of Egypt, Syria, and Macedonia — Prosperity 
 and Aims of Delos in Third Century B.C. — The Romans in 
 Delos — Delos a Free Port — Commercial Relations of the 
 Island— The Trading Guilds— The Port— The Downfall of 
 Delos pp. 150—170 
 
 IV. The Administration of the Sacred Treasure — The Hieropoioi 
 
 — Accounts and Inventories of the Offerings — The 
 Revenues of Apollo — Leases and Loans — Expenditure — 
 Public Works and Expenses of Public Worship — The 
 Offerings— The Inventory of the Treasure— The Plate and 
 Wardrobe of Apollo— Works of Art . . .pp. 170—185 
 V. The Marble of Delos— The Archaic School of Naxos— The 
 School of Chios— The Statue of Archermus— Archaic Statues 
 ofArtemis— Pediments of the Temple of Apollo . pp. 185—193 
 
XXll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 EXCAVATIONS AT THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTO'/OS 
 
 (1884-88). 
 Ruins and History of the Temple of Apollo Pto'fos — The Ptoian 
 Games— Importance of M. Holleaux's Excavations— The 
 Archaic Type of Apollo — Transformed by the Boeotian 
 School — Successive Modifications of the Type — The 
 Statues of Perdicovrysi — Qualities of the Boeotian School 
 — Another Archaic Type of Apollo — The Bronzes of the 
 Temple of Apollo Ptoios — The Apollo of Canachus and 
 Replicas . ^ . pp. 154 — 209 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA (1875-81). 
 I. Position of Olympia — Origin of the Olympian Games — Their 
 Importance in Antiquity — Development and Splendour of 
 the Festival— Ruins of Olympia — History of the Excava- 
 tions — Montfaucon and Winckelmann — The Expedition 
 of the Morea — The German Excavations — The Museum of 
 
 Olympia pp. 210—225 
 
 II. Topography of the Sanctuary — The Country— The Roads — 
 The Gates of the Altis — The Temple of Zeus — The 
 Heraeum — The Treasuries — Buildings in the Altis — 
 Stadium and Hippodome — Leonidaeum . . pp. 225 — 235 
 
 III. The Olympian Games — Their Gradual Development— Pre- 
 
 paration for the Festival — The Hellanodicae— The Com- 
 petitors — The Spectators — The Foot-race — The Wrestling 
 — The Boxing — The Pancratium — The Chariot Race — 
 The Pentathlum — The Victors — The Offerings and the 
 Statues pp. 235 — 254 
 
 IV. The Temple of the Olympian Zeus — Its Pediments — Descrip- 
 
 tion of the Scene represented — The Style of the Marbles 
 of Olympia — Inequality between Composition and Execu- 
 tion — ^Paeonius and Alcamenes — The Victory of Paeonius — 
 The Metopes of the Temple — The Forerunners of Phidias 
 — The Statue of the Olympian Zeus . . . pp. 255 — 280 
 V. The Heraeum — Its Construction—Use of Wood and Terra- 
 cotta in Early Greek Architecture — Archaic Bronzes from 
 Olympia — Oriental Influence — Pediment of the Treasury 
 of Megara — The Hermes of Praxiteles— Qualities and Style 
 of Praxiteles pp. 280 — 293 
 
CONTENTS. XxHi 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXCAVATIONS OF ELEUSIS (1882-89). 
 
 The Hymn to Demeter and the Myth of Eleusis — The Institution 
 of the Mysteries. 
 
 I. Pious Memories attached to Eleusis — History and Buildings 
 of the Sanctuary — The Buildings of Pericles — Eleusis in the 
 Fourth Century and under Roman Rule — The Excavations 
 at Eleusis .... ... pp. yxi — 308 
 
 II. The Sacerdbtal Body at Eleusis — The Administration of the 
 Temple — Part taken by Athens in the Eleusinian Cultus 
 — The Mysteries — Our Information concerning them — 
 The Lesser Mysteries — The Mystae and the eirdirTeia — The 
 Greater Mysteries — The Miracle -play of Eleusis — Im- 
 pression produced by these Sights — Character and Influence 
 of the Eleusinian Mysteries ..... pp. 308 — 323 
 
 III. Topography of the Sanctuary — The Hall of Initiation — The 
 Archaic Statues discovered at Eleusis — The Eubuleus of 
 Praxiteles ........ pp. 323 — 330 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS (1881-87). 
 
 I. Character of the Cultus of Asclepius — Plan of the Sanctuaries 
 of the God — The Buildings of Epidaurus — The Temple — 
 The Tholus of Polycleitus — The Theatre — The Sacerdotal 
 Body — Nature of Religious Medicine — Lay Medicine in 
 Antiquity pp. 332—340 
 
 II. Religious Therapeutics at Epidaurus — Tablets recording 
 Miraculous Cures — The Fees of the Physician-god — 
 Asclepius and the Sceptics — Wide Diffusion of the Worship 
 of Asclepius — One Day of a Patient — The Prescriptions of 
 the God— The Offerings of the Faithful . . pp. 340-354 
 
 III. The Marbles of Epidaurus— The Pediments of the Temple — 
 Decadence of the Sanctuary — Epidaurus and Scientific 
 Medicine PP- 354—357 
 
XXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EXCAVATIONS AT TAN AGRA (1870-89). 
 
 I. Evil Reputation of Boeotia — Situation and History of Tanagra 
 — Excavations at Tanagra — High Reputation of the 
 Statuettes — Shape of the Tombs — Their Contents — 
 Diversity of Terra-cottas found — The Figurines stamped 
 on Flat Cakes — The Stamped Busts— The Statuettes of 
 
 the Fourth Century pp. 359 — 369 
 
 II. Methods of Manufacture — The Moulds — How the Coroplast 
 retouched and transformed the Figurine — Its Colouring 
 — Industrial Character of this Manufacture . . pp. 369 — 375 
 
 III. What do the Tanagra Figurines represent? — M. Heuzey's 
 
 Opinion — Are the Figurines Images of Divinities ? — Genre 
 Subjects — Popular and Industrial Nature of the Coroplast's 
 Art — "Why were Figurines placed in the Tomb ? — Greek 
 Conceptions of the Life beyond the Grave — Did the 
 Statuettes serve to protect the Dead ? — Were they to 
 afford him Company in the Tomb ? — Use made of the 
 Statuettes by the Ancients — The Figurines have not an 
 especially Sepulchral Character — They are Offerings to 
 the Dead pp. 375—39' 
 
 IV. Everyday Life depicted in the Figurines — Male Figures — 
 
 The Child — The Ephebus — Female Life — Diversity of 
 Figurines — The Young Girl — Education — Games — The 
 Woman — Toilette — Costume — Coiffure . . pp. 391 — 401 
 
EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MYCENAE. 
 
 Books of Reference : 
 Schliemann, Mycenae. 
 Schuchhardt, Schliemann's Excavations, 
 Furtwangler and Loeschke, Mykenische Thongejasse. 
 Furtwangler and Loeschke, Mykenische Vasen.. 
 Dumont & Chaplain, Les Ce'ramiques de la Grice propre. 
 Rayet and Collignon, Histoire de la Ce'ramique Grecque. 
 For Spata, see Bull, de Corr. Hell., vol. ii. 
 For Menidi, see Das Kitppelgrab von Menidi. Athens, 1880. 
 For Orchomenus, see Schliemann, Orclwmenos. Leipzig, 1881. 
 Newton, Essays on Art and Archceology. 
 Milchhoefer, Anfiinge der Kunst in Grieclienland. 
 Helbig, Das Homcrische Epos. 
 Perrot, History of Art, vol. v. 
 
 For latest excavations the recent volumes of the UpaKTiKo, and 
 'E0i7/Lie/){S. 
 
 Among the monuments which Athens offers to the 
 traveller's curiosity, among the sights which he must 
 visit after the Propylaea and the Parthenon, the guides 
 point out on the boulevard of the University a large house 
 surrounded by porticoes and surmounted by statues 
 representing the Homeric heroes. It bears on its facade 
 the following inscription, which is at first sight rather 
 surprising and disconcerting : 'IXiov fiiXadpov — the 
 
 I 
 
2 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE 
 
 palace of Troy. Every passer-by will tell you, for it is 
 one of the glories of the town, that this palace ie in 
 fact the house of Dr. Schliemann, the great admirer of 
 Homer, the famous archaeologist who has explored the 
 ruins of Troy and of Mycenae, and has without doubt 
 discovered the treasure of Priam and the tomb of 
 Agamemnon.* Go further, and seek an introduction to 
 this hospitable mansion, you will be met on every side 
 by the memory of Homer and of the heroes whom he 
 has sung. Nor must it cause you too much surprise, as 
 you are shown the fine collection of antiquities gathered 
 by the master of the house among the ruins of Hissarlik, 
 to hear hundreds of lines of Homer recited even by a 
 woman's lips, and the children of the house called by 
 the harmonious and heroic names of Andromache and 
 of Agamemnon. For in that house Homer is God and 
 Dr. SchUemann is his prophet ; and we may well believe 
 that the prophet is more honoured than the god. 
 
 I. 
 
 Before we begin the story of Dr. Schliemann's mar- 
 vellous discoveries it will not be amiss briefly to sketch 
 the history of the man himself. 
 
 Dr. Schliemann has been his own biographer. At 
 the beginning of the book called " Ilios," in which he 
 related in 1882 the result of his excavations in Troy, 
 he published a long account of his own Hfe and work,, 
 a kind of " Confessions " of a singularly attractive 
 
 * It has been thought best to leave unaltered this notice of Dr. 
 Schliemann, written before his death on December 26th, 1890. For 
 a fuller estimate of his work readers are referred to an article by 
 Professor Gardner in Macmillan's Magazine, April 1891. 
 
MYCENAE. 3 
 
 nature. This autobiography is a very remarkable 
 document, an extraordinary mixture of intentional 
 naivete and frank infatuation, a strange combination, 
 made up in equal proportions of a strongly commercial 
 spirit on the one hand, of a rare talent for business, 
 and profitable business too ; and, on the other, of lively 
 religious feeling — a religious feeling, it is true, which 
 partakes slightly of that Teutonic character which is 
 inclined to monopolise the Divine favour for its own 
 benefit. We may trace in it, side by side, a passion for 
 archaeology and for science, and a strong infusion of 
 German sentimentality ; above all, we find in it that 
 marvellous confidence in himself which it seems to have 
 been the aim of Dr. Schliemann's adventurous life to 
 justify. The life of this man indeed, who, by dint of 
 perseverance only, without means and almost without 
 teaching, succeeded in educating himself and making 
 his own fortune, reads like a romance : and the life of 
 this merchant who spent five-and-twenty years in 
 amassing a fortune, in order to spend a half of his 
 income during the rest of his life in archaeological 
 discoveries, is a romance of no common kind. We 
 may forgive Dr. Schliemann much for the sake of the 
 noble use he made of his riches ; for the sake of his 
 undertakings, " no less bold than disinterested " (the 
 expression is his own, and we may regret that he did 
 not leave to us the pleasure of suggesting it) ; for the 
 sake of that thirst for knowledge which was so keen 
 that it sometimes overstepped the bounds of prudence 
 for the sake of that untiring and generous activity which 
 never flagged nor grew weary. 
 
 Since, as it seems, there is nothing unimportant in a 
 
4 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 great man's childhood, Dr. SchHemann has given us 
 numerous details of his early years, spent in a village of 
 Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and of the " vows of eternal love" 
 which he gravely exchanged, when between nine and 
 twelve years old, with a little neighbour of his own age. 
 This love, we must admit, was more archaeological than 
 passionate. By a strange predestination — so remarkable 
 that it may have been, perhaps, to some extent retro- 
 spective — Schliemann from his childhood was inspired 
 by a passionate love of Homer and a desire to recover 
 Troy. He talked of it with his little friend, and they 
 agreed that they would be married when they grew up 
 and would go to dig among the ruins of Troy. " Thanks 
 to God," continues Dr. Schliemann, " my firm belief in 
 the existence of that Troy has never forsaken me amid 
 all the vicissitudes of my eventful career. But it was not 
 destined for me to realise till in the autumn of my life 
 — and then without Minna — our sweet dreams of fifty 
 years ago." Minna had not waited, and Dr. Schliemann 
 seems to have consoled himself. At the beginning of 
 the volume devoted to Mycenae, an affectionate preface 
 dedicates the work to Mrs. Schliemann, "as a shght 
 proof of my admiration for her Homeric studies, of my 
 gratitude for her zeal and devotion, and for the energy 
 which sustained my courage when severely tried." 
 
 Family misfortunes soon transformed the admirer of 
 Homer and of Minna into a grocer's shop-boy ; circum- 
 stances afterwards took him as cabin-boy on board a 
 merchant-vessel, and a storm cast him penniless on the 
 coast of Holland. We find him again in Amsterdam, 
 clerk in a merchant's office with a salary of thirty-two 
 pounds a year, lodging for less than seven shillings 
 
MYCENAE. 5 
 
 a month in a fireless garret, breakfasting on a little 
 rye-soup, dining for twopence, and devoting half his 
 income to the completion of his interrupted education. 
 With invincible tenacity, with indomitable energy, whose 
 only drawback is that perhaps Dr. Schliemann speaks 
 too much of it, he devoted his scanty leisure to study, 
 and even encroached upon his hours for meals, in order 
 to learn successively, English in six months, French in 
 as short a time, and then, more rapidly still, Dutch and 
 Spanish, ItaHan and Portuguese, at the rate of six weeks 
 for each language. Then it was the turn of Russian ; 
 and in order to make better progress by reciting aloud 
 all he was learning in that difficult language, he hired a 
 poor Jew for four francs a week to come every evening 
 for two hours and listen, without understanding a 
 word, to Dr. SchUemann repeating his Russian. These 
 studies were to be of great use to him, for it was in 
 Russia that he made all his wealth. At this point the 
 autobiography resembles a ledger : the turnover of 
 Schliemann & Co. is carefully recorded, and the articles 
 of import and export are complacently enumerated. 
 
 In eight years Dr. Schliemann made twenty-four 
 thousand pounds ; he then doubled this capital in one 
 year, 1854. As a reward he gave himself the pleasure 
 of learning Greek, and he adds modestly that he is per- 
 fectly acquainted with all the rules, without even know- 
 ing if they are or are not in the grammars. Meanwhile 
 his business was prospering, and he was now making 
 on an average ten thousand a year— a handsome sum 
 for a man who had once been obliged to beg on the 
 quays of the Texel. " Divine Providence," he says, had 
 "marvellously protected him." 
 
6 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 He was now rich enough to realise, at last, the dream 
 of his life ; and after several long journeys, in which he 
 travelled all round the world from Egypt to the United 
 States by way of China and Japan, he resolved in 1868 
 to devote to Homer the wealth he had acquired and 
 the .remaining years of his life. He visited Ithaca, 
 Mycenae and Troy, and in 1871 he dug the first trench 
 in the hill of Hissarlik. The story of his excavations, 
 frequently interrupted, and six times resumed with 
 unconquerable perseverance, in which he believes him- 
 self to have discovered under the superincumbent ruins 
 of five successive settlements, the authentic and indis- 
 putable remains of the Troy of Homer, should be read 
 in the book itself There we find all the characteristic 
 features of the man, the thoroughly commercial love of 
 order which causes him to keep an exact account of the 
 money spent upon the work, the ardent imagination 
 which leads him to recognise the very material of the 
 Homeric poems in the ruins of Hissarlik. Nothing is 
 missing, neither the treasure of Priam nor the jewels of 
 Helen, neither the gates of the city nor the skulls of its 
 inhabitants, — nothing, not even the traces of the great 
 fire which overwhelmed the city at the final catastrophe. 
 Certainly it is an ingenious effort of imagination to dis- 
 cover in the " burnt city," as Dr. Schliemann calls it, the 
 very town of Hector and of Priam, and to reconstruct, 
 down to its minutest details, the plan of the Homeric 
 Ilium ; but we must admit that Dr. Schliemann's devo- 
 tion to Homer is too great for him to be quite impartial 
 in this matter. The recovery of Troy gives a different 
 kind of pleasure, and causes more sensation in the 
 world, than the discovery of some nameless pre-historjc 
 
MYCENAE. 7 
 
 town ; and Dr. Schliemann's imagination could not 
 resist the temptation. Unfortunately, to any one to 
 whom the profound faith of the explorer is wanting, all 
 these attributions seem somewhat doubtful ; but what of 
 that ? The tangible results of these excavations, the 
 ornaments discovered, the ten treasures explored, form 
 a sufficiently splendid conquest for science. There are 
 many other things in Dr. Schliemann's autobiography : 
 there is the story of his excavations at Mycenae from 
 1874 to 1876, and of his explorations in Ithaca in 1878, 
 and at Orchomenus in 1881. But for him these are 
 merely interludes, and though to my mind they are 
 more interesting than the play itself, his thoughts were 
 always turned towards Troy. At the present time 
 (1890), after having explored, with a more truly scien- 
 tific method, the acropolis of Tiryns, and followed the 
 footsteps of Homeric heroes at Pylus and in Laconia, 
 we are informed that Dr. Schliemann is returning to 
 Hissarlik, and we must do outspoken homage to the 
 energy and generous activity of a man to whom 
 archaeology is indebted for discoveries of the utmost 
 importance. 
 
 II. 
 
 Such is the man. Now let us turn to his work as 
 it appears in one of its most brilliant episodes — the 
 exploration of the acropolis of Mycenae. 
 
 There are few people, I imagine, who have not heard 
 the name of Agamemnon : if they do not know him from 
 Homer, they will at least have met with him in Browning 
 or certainly in Lewis Morris. It is not so generally 
 known that the king of men reigned, according to tra- 
 
8 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 dition, in a town of Argolis called Mycenae, and there is 
 still greater ignorance of the fact that considerable ruins 
 of this town still exist. At the farther end of the plain 
 of Argos, near the little village of Kharvati, and precisely 
 at the opening of the narrow and picturesque pass 
 through which the road runs from Argos to Corinth, on 
 an extensive rocky plateau triangular in shape, there 
 
 Plan of Mycenae. 
 
 1 Lion Gate. [ 4 Doric Temple. 
 
 2 Circular Enclosure of 1 5 Court of Palace. 
 
 Graves. 6 Megaron. 
 
 3 Pre-historic House. | 7 Staircase. 
 
 8 Towers, 
 g Postern. 
 10 Supporting Walls. 
 
 rise the ruins of the ancient citadel of the princes of 
 Mycenae. On one side a deep ravine defends the ap- 
 proach to the fortress ; the whole circuit of the acropolis 
 is surrounded by lofty walls whose height varies from 
 thirteen to nearly thirty-three feet, and which are more 
 than sixteen feet thick. The way in which these walls 
 
The Lion Gate. 
 
10 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 are built is worthy of notice ; the blocks are not laid 
 in regular courses and carefully cemented ; polygonal 
 Stones built up without mortar, and, in the parts which 
 are most carefully worked, quadrangular blocks laid in 
 horizontal courses but not bound together by any 
 mortar, make up these fortifications. The name 
 Cyclopean is given to this kind of building. A second 
 circuit in the interior, nearly thirty feet high, completes 
 the system of defence. 
 
 The fortress has two entrances — a little postern on 
 the northern side, which may have served for unexpected 
 sallies in the rear of a besieging force, and the principal 
 gateway at the north-west angle of the citadel. Between 
 the circuit-wall and a large quadrangular tower com- 
 manding the approach, there extends a roadway nearly 
 fifty feet long by rather less than thirty wide, at one end 
 of which rises the famous Lion Gate. It is an almost 
 square opening, formed by two uprights on which rests 
 an enormous stone lintel. Above this is a triangular 
 space closed by a slab of basalt, on which are carved 
 two lions heraldically opposed, whose paws rest upon 
 an altar surmounted by a column ; it is well known as 
 one of the earliest pieces of Greek sculpture. Thus, as it 
 were, the sovereigns of Mycenae set up their scutcheon 
 at the entrance of the acropolis, and by its design, 
 essentially Asiatic in origin, took pleasure in recalling 
 their Oriental descent. 
 
 Below the citadel extended the lower town, also 
 surrounded by fortifications. There too we meet with 
 remains of Cyclopean buildings, the most remarkable 
 of which is the treasury of Atreus. A " dromos " or 
 passage, lOO ft. long by 20 ft, broad, lined by rather 
 
MYCENAE. 1 1 
 
 high walls, leads to a doorway, surmounted by an 
 enormous stone lintel, through which we enter a large 
 circular chamber about 50 feet high, with a dome- 
 shaped roof. The walls were formerly, in accordance 
 with a custom mentioned in Homer (Od. vii., 84 — 87), 
 covered with plates of metal ; bronze ornaments 
 fastened to the doorway, and a coating of coloured 
 marbles, decorated the exterior of the monument. In 
 this splendid building, which was doubtless merely a 
 tomb, popular credulity early insisted upon discerning 
 a royal treasury ; and the report of the riches which 
 were believed to be buried there has more than 
 once attracted the greed of treasure-seekers. The 
 treasury of Atreus was stripped by a Turkish governor, 
 Veli-pacha, of the ornaments which covered it,* and it 
 has come down to us empty. The same fate has befallen 
 the other buildings of the same kind, six in number, 
 discovered in what remains of the lower town, one of 
 which, partially excavated by Mrs. Schliemann, wife of 
 the archaeologist, has received her name. 
 
 It will no doubt be asked how buildings of such great 
 antiquity, the remains of a prehistoric period, have 
 been preserved almost unharmed, while so many cities 
 still flourishing in classical times have disappeared, 
 leaving scarcely a trace behind them. This surprising 
 duration is due to the fact that Mycenae early ceased to 
 exist as a city. In the beginning of the fifth century 
 the jealousy of Argos proved fatal to its ancient rival, 
 which had already lost much of its early splendour, and 
 Mycenae fell in spite of the desperate resistance offered 
 by its inhabitants behind the walls of the citadel of 
 
 * Some fragments are now in the British Museum, 
 
12 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Agamemnon. Undoubtedly a village existed upon the 
 same site down to the end of the second century, but 
 from the time of the Romans the place was deserted. 
 The Slavonic invaders, the men of the Middle Ages, 
 Byzantine and Latin, and the Turks, passed by these 
 desolate ruins without pausing ; no great neighbouring 
 town sought materials there for its buildings, and the 
 citadel of the Atridae, consecrated by the great 
 memories of the Homeric poems and by the tragic 
 legends which clustered around its walls, still rose 
 upon its solitary rock. 
 
 Few towns, indeed, enjoyed in early ages a more 
 brilliant fame. History and poetry vie with one another 
 in bearing witness to the might and the riches of the 
 sovereigns of Mycenae. Homer calls Mycenae " the wide- 
 wayed " * city, " rich in gold " {iroXvxpvao'i f). Thucy- 
 dides, too, mentions its reputation for wealth. J Legendary 
 history assigned its origin to Pelops, the Phrygian, from 
 the land of Pactolus, the remote founder of the dynasty 
 of the Atridae, and told how Atreus and Agamemnon 
 had extended their empire over a great part of the 
 Peloponnesus. The tragic history of the house of 
 Pelops gave no less interest to the walls of Mycenae : 
 Agamemnon massacred on his return from Troy by 
 Clytemnestra and Aegisthus ; Orestes returning after- 
 wards to avenge his father's death by the murder of his 
 mother, — all these subjects, which grew famous in the 
 hands of the tragic poets, had for their background the 
 acropolis of Mycenae. This was the theatre in which 
 
 * Iliad iv. 52 : evpvayvia MuKripr]. 
 
 f Iliad \\\. 180, Od. iii. 305 : iroKOxpvo'os, 
 
 J Thuc. i. 9. 
 
MYCENAE. I 3 
 
 were played the early scenes of the Orestes of Euripides 
 and the Electra of Sophocles, and it would seem, from the 
 exactitude and precision with which the poet describes 
 the citadel of Mycenae and the surrounding country, 
 that he had himself visited the scene of the tragic events 
 which he put upon the stage. So many famous memories 
 gave an especial interest to the ruins of Mycenae. From 
 the earliest times its visitors were numerous ; and just 
 as in Jerusalem to-day one tries to connect some special 
 memory with each stone, so at Mycenae they tried to dis- 
 cover the precise spot where so many dramatic incidents 
 had taken place. The guides not only pointed out the 
 Lion Gate, the circuit wall, and the treasury of Atreus, 
 but they asserted that they could show the sepulchres 
 of the kings of Mycenae, and especially the tomb of the 
 illustrious victims of the Trojan tragedy. A traveller 
 of the second century * relates how he was shown, on 
 his visit to Mycenae, the five tombs of Agamemnon and 
 of his companions, and also the graves of Clytemnestra 
 and of Aegisthus, who were buried at no great distance, 
 but outside the sacred precincts within which their 
 victims rested. It is to this statement of Pausanias 
 that we owe the discoveries of Dr. Schliemann. 
 
 To find the tomb of Agamemnon — what a dream for 
 an archaeologist ! what a temptation for such a passionate 
 lover of Homer as Dr. Schliemann, his appetite already 
 whetted by the discovery of Troy ! As a matter of fact, 
 all those who had up to that time studied the words of 
 Pausanias placed the tombs of which he speaks in the 
 lower city ; but Dr. Schliemann was not a man to be 
 alarmed or disconcerted by contradiction. He main- 
 
 * Pausanias, ii. i6 
 
H 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 tained energetically that these famous monuments must 
 be sought on the acropolis itself. 
 
 In February, 1874, he began the work by sinking trial 
 shafts. Two years later, on August 7th, 1876, he definitely 
 hazarded the venture. He must certainly have felt a 
 momentary alarm as he surveyed the vast acropolis 
 covered with ruins, and asked himself anxiously where 
 he should begin. But he had faith. He wished to find 
 
 Ancient Tombstone. 
 
 the tomb of Agamemnon ; he was convinced that he 
 would find it. He had money, too, which, even more 
 than faith, moves mountains ; and above all he had the 
 indomitable tenacity which is not discouraged by any 
 check. Success has crowned his efforts by discoveries 
 which are perhaps the most remarkable of our time. 
 
 On August 7th, 1876, Dr. Schliemann ordered the 
 workmen to begin to dig near the Lion Gate, and 
 after having brought to light the ancient threshold, he 
 found himself upon an extensive terrace covering the 
 
MYCENAE. 1 5 
 
 western side of the hill ; here excavations were actively 
 pushed on. Soon, at a distance of a few yards from the 
 surface, they found pieces of archaic pottery and remains 
 of Cyclopean buildings ; and among the debris they 
 brought to light were nine large slabs of stone, or stelae, 
 in which Dr. Schliemann immediately recognised the 
 sepulchral monuments of the royal necropolis which he 
 was seeking. Among these stelae, four were decorated 
 with rude sculpture, childish and barbarous in style — a 
 sure sign of the high antiquity of the objects he was 
 about to discover. The excavations which followed 
 soon showed that these tombstones had been erected 
 in the midst of a circular enclosure about 82 feet in 
 diameter, surrounded by a double circle of stones fixed 
 in the ground, upon which other slabs were laid hori- 
 zontally in such a way as to form a kind of bench or 
 seat round the open space. 
 
 Dr. Schliemann at once thought he recognised the 
 place. He remembered that in Homer * the old men 
 sit in a circle on polished stones within the sacred 
 enclosure ; he remembered, too, that these public places 
 where the king's counsellors met to deliberate were 
 formed of large stones sunk in the soil and skilfully 
 adjusted, and that Euripides, in his tragedy of Orestes,^ 
 speaks of a circular agora at Mycenae ; lastly, he re- 
 membered that in antiquity citizens of distinction were 
 buried without hesitation in the midst of the place of 
 assembly. t From this moment doubt was no longer 
 possible : this circular enclosure, situated at the very 
 
 * Iliad W. 53-96-99; Od. viii. 4-7. 
 f Orestes 919: dyopds kOkKov. 
 X Pausanias, i 43. 3. 
 
l6 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 entrance of the acropolis of Mycenae, was the agora 
 of the city. The remains of Cyclopean work which 
 surround the enclosure formed part of the palace of 
 the Atridae, and as to the stelae they proved that the 
 tombs so ardently desired were now at hand. It only 
 remained to find them. 
 
 Fortune aided Dr. Schliemann beyond all hope. At 
 the end of October, 1876, below the spot where the stelae 
 had been found, there was discovered a quadrangular 
 cavity 21 ft. 5 in. long by 10 ft. 4 in. broad, hewn 
 in the side of the rock. It was undoubtedly a tomb. 
 Unfortunately it was almost empty ; and for a moment 
 it was feared that the graves they were seeking had 
 been broken open in antiquity. Soon, however, there 
 appeared a second tomb at a depth of 1 5 ft. below the 
 level of the rock ; and here they discovered, stretched 
 on a layer of pebbles, three skeletons whose heads 
 were turned to the east. Three other similar cavities 
 were successively discovered within the circuit of the 
 agora, and shortly afterwards a sixth was found outside 
 it. Each of these tombs contained several bodies ; the 
 bones of seventeen persons in all were found there, 
 three of whom were women and three children ; and 
 one of the corpses, thanks to a kind of embalming 
 which it had undergone, was almost intact. All the 
 bodies, moreover, seemed to have been placed in the 
 tomb in a singular way : instead of laying them length- 
 wise in the grave, they had been placed parallel to its 
 shorter sides ; and as the cavity measured scarcely 5 ft. 
 6 in. in breadth, it had been necessary in more than one 
 instance to press the corpse down with considerable force 
 into a space too narrow for it. Upon this circumstance 
 
MYCENAE. 1 7 
 
 — which was certainly remarkable, but which no doubt 
 arose from the desire to give for religious reasons a 
 particular orientation to the dead body — Dr. Schliemann 
 built up an ingenious romance, to which we shall return 
 later. We must first finish the story of the discovery, 
 and point out in what its exceptional interest consists: in 
 the quantity, that is, of ornaments and articles of value 
 accumulated in these graves. 
 
 It was a very ancient custom among the nations of 
 antiquity to bury with the dead the objects they had 
 used or cherished during their life on earth. It was 
 the habit of the Egyptians, and the excavations of 
 Tanagra will soon show us how long this tradition 
 endured. The same custom existed in primitive Greece. 
 Not only was the dead man arrayed in his richest 
 garments, with his arms and jewels by his side, but 
 care was even taken, if he were a man of rank, to secure 
 that he should have in death a following worthy of his 
 dignity. 
 
 We see Achilles in the Iliad sacrificing prisoners 
 upon the tomb of Patroclus,* to do him service in the 
 lower world ; and it is probable that a similar reason 
 will explain the great number of corpses buried in the 
 graves of Mycenae. 
 
 The incomparable splendour with which these dead 
 are buried has never been equalled elsewhere. They 
 were dressed in robes of state to leave this world, and 
 were laid in the tomb with their golden diadems upon their 
 foreheads, wearing their richest jewels and most sump- 
 tuous raiment. On their heads were crowns, belts and 
 baldrics of gold around their breasts, while their faces, 
 * //jWxxiii. 171-84. 
 
1 8 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 by a singular custom which seems to have been borrowed 
 from the East, were covered by a golden mask which 
 reproduces the features of the deceased. Their garments 
 were ornamented with thin plates of gold, seven hundred 
 of which were found in a single tomb ; and their 
 richly-inlaid weapons, whose sheaths are curiously 
 adorned with bosses of gold, lay within reach. The 
 women were no less splendidly attired : they also wore 
 diadems on their heads, necklaces round their throats, 
 rings on their fingers, as well as brooches, earrings, 
 and bracelets of admirable workmanship. Lastly, by 
 the side of each of the corpses were placed vessels, 
 often of gold and silver, which contained the provisions 
 needful for the sustenance of the dead in the lower 
 world. Certainly these were no insignificant person- 
 ages buried here, — they were sovereigns interred in 
 state, and in this respect at least Dr. Schhemann's 
 hopes were not deceived. 
 
 It is impossible not to recognise the extreme import- 
 ance of these memorable excavations, and the surprising 
 harmony which exists between their results and the 
 legends of the wealth of Mycenae. Estimated simply at 
 the value of the gold which they contain, the jewels dis- 
 covered in the tombs of the acropolis are worth more than 
 four thousand pounds ; while their value from an artistic 
 or scientific standpoint is simply incalculable. They 
 reveal to us in fact with positive certainty the civilisation 
 and social state of Greece three thousand years ago ; 
 they reveal the existence, long before the Dorian invasion 
 of the Peloponnesus, of a rich and powerful empire, to 
 which tradition attaches the name of the Pelopidae; 
 they reveal the influences under which society in the 
 
MYCENAE. 19 
 
 heroic age attained its development, and the primitive 
 art of Greece arose. These are splendid results, and 
 sufficient to reward more than one archaeologist. 
 Nevertheless, Dr. Schliemann was not content. He 
 wished to deprive these dead men of their incognito, 
 and to give a name to these masks and corpses : as to 
 the name itself he could not hesitate. It was to dis- 
 cover the tomb of Agamemnon that he had set to work, 
 nor did he doubt for a moment that he had succeeded in 
 doing so. On November 28th, 1876, he despatched the 
 following triumphant telegram to the King of Greece : 
 " I have the greatest pleasure in announcing to your 
 Majesty that I have discovered the tombs which tradition, 
 according to Pausanias, pointed out as the graves of 
 Agamemnon, Cassandra, Eurymedon, and their com- 
 panions, all murdered at a banquet by Clytemnestra 
 and her lover Aegisthus. I have found immense 
 treasures in these graves, sufficient by themselves 
 alone to fill a great museum, which will be the most 
 wonderful in the world, and for centuries to come will 
 bring thousands of strangers to Greece. God grant 
 that these treasures may become the foundation of 
 great national riches ! " At the same time Dr. Schhemann 
 proclaimed to the four winds that he had found the 
 actual corpse of Agamemnon : this face with its golden 
 mask, on which is still imprinted the majestic smile 
 of the king of men, could be his alone ; and his, too, 
 the corpse with eyes half closed and jaws scarcely 
 meeting — sure signs of the criminal negligence with 
 which Clytemnestra forgot to pay the last respect due 
 to her murdered husband. This seductive hypothesis 
 explains every detail of the discovery and the ingenious 
 
20 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 romance constructed by Dr. Schliemann, and which 
 Mr. Gladstone has even surpassed in his preface to the 
 volume called " Mycenae," deserves to be read. If the 
 remains of Agamemnon, in spite of his ignominious 
 death, have been given honourable burial in the agora 
 of Mycenae, it was because the murderers, fearing a 
 popular outbreak,' dared not refuse the last rites to the 
 king of men, but this satisfaction once ostensibly given 
 to the sympathies of the multitude and the grave made 
 ready, the corpses were hastily thrown in, careless of 
 the hurt they might receive through this unseemly dese- 
 cration. It was not until later years when Orestes had 
 taken startling vengeance on the murderers, that he 
 reopened the grave of the conqueror of Troy to render 
 him the last honours. Then solemn reparation was 
 made to the dead : they were arrayed in their burial 
 robes, and the bodies burned in accordance with sacred 
 custom ; and finally, in order to point out to popular 
 reverence the spot where these illustrious dead were 
 resting, the restored government set up in the midst of 
 the agora the funeral stelae which marked the situation 
 of the royal burying-ground. 
 
 Certainly all this is extremely ingenious and subtle, 
 — perhaps too ingenious and too subtle to be true. If 
 we suppose that Agamemnon ever existed outside of 
 the imagination of poets, which is by no means proved, 
 upon what evidence do we presume to connect the 
 graves of Mycenae with his name ? There can be 
 no doubt that the tombs opened by Dr. Schliemann 
 are in reality the graves of kings — obscure private 
 individuals were not buried with such splendoui. 
 But, admitting this, what must we think of the rest ? 
 
MYCENAE. 2 1 
 
 Here is Pausanias, replies Dr. Schliemann, whose 
 account plainly proves that it is a question of Agamem- 
 non. Unfortunately the author's text is not as certain 
 as is necessary for the argument ; it is susceptible of 
 more than one rendering, and we may quite as easily 
 conclude from it that these illustrious graves are to 
 be sought in the lower city. Dr. Schliemann himself 
 allowed that the graves discovered on the acropolis 
 were probably no longer visible in the time of Pau- 
 sanias, buried as they were under the fallen earth 
 from the upper part of the citadel. Finally Pausanias 
 expressly names five tombs ; and Dr. Schliemann's 
 excavations came to an end at the precise moment 
 when he had discovered within the sacred circle the 
 mystic number of graves necessary for his demonstra- 
 tion. Unfortunately the Greek government, attracted 
 by such splendid discoveries, continued the work on its 
 own account, and a sixth tomb was found no less rich 
 than the former. This additional tomb is in danger of 
 being a tomb too many for the hypothesis. It is certainly 
 more attractive to accept Dr. Schliemann's romance 
 without discussion, and to believe that we possess the 
 mortal remainsof Agamemnon, just as we have recently 
 discovered in Egypt themummified corpse of Rameses II. 
 but the great Pharaoh had his documents with him in his 
 tomb — Agamemnon has none. After all, what does it 
 matter to us ? The royal tombs of Mycenae, whatever 
 were the name of the princes buried there, have revealed 
 to us a whole unknown period of Hellenic civilisation ; 
 and this is of more value than the discovery of the 
 fabulous remains of Agamemnon. 
 
 Hitherto no writer would have dared to trace the 
 
2 2 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 history of Gieece further back than the eighth or ninth 
 century, or the history of its art beyond the sixth or 
 seventh. To-day, thanks to the excavations of Mycenae, 
 we can ascend much further : we can connect the early 
 ages of Greece with the ancient Oriental civilisations of 
 Egypt and Chaldea, of Assyria and of Phoenicia, by 
 whose side, to use the words of Plato, the Greeks were 
 but children ; we can reach those remote ages beyond 
 the horizon of Homeric poetry, which are separated 
 from us by more than three thousand years ; and thus 
 bringing into the region of history centuries which 
 were only known to us by religious or poetical tradi- 
 tions, we can, thanks to our definite information, carry 
 into those distant ages the clearness and the certainty 
 of scientific method. This is worth more than merely 
 placing this civilisation of a past age under the name 
 of Agamemnon, a convenient and simple method which 
 answers to everything but teaches nothing. Now, 
 there are many things to learn in the civilisation of 
 Mycenae ; it is not enough to affirm its existence, it 
 must be explained as well. 
 
 III. 
 
 The telegram in which Dr. Schliemann announced 
 his discovery threw the learned world into a state of 
 extreme excitement. The study of the objects found in 
 the course of the excavations still further increased this 
 surprise, for it was an entirely unknown world which 
 they revealed. The ordinary types of Greek art were 
 sought in vain. No familiar face, if I may say so, was 
 found among them. Archaeologists were struck by the 
 strange and barbarous character of this civilisation, and 
 
MYCENAE. 2 3 
 
 by the heaviness and intricacy of its art ; the designs 
 they found were foreign to the accustomed style of 
 Greek art, while on the other hand they presented, in 
 place of the naive clumsiness of primitive work, such 
 a heavy and overloaded elegance, that many competent 
 judges assigned them, under the influence of this first 
 impression, to a civilisation in its decadence rather than 
 to an early stage of art. In the face of Schliemann's 
 romance other romances arose, equally ingenious and 
 equally false. One eminent archaeologist unhesitatingly 
 assigned these ornaments to the Byzantines of the 
 Middle Ages, and declared that they dated from the 
 twelfth century of our era, almost in the same way that 
 the officers of the expedition to the Morea were deceived 
 by the heraldic aspect of the lions sculptured on the 
 gate of Mycenae, and saw in them a work of the Middle 
 Ages. Others, deceived by the points of resemblance 
 between the objects discovered and the ornaments of 
 the barbarous tribes of the North, and struck by the 
 analogy which existed between these monuments and 
 the tombs of the Crimea, imagined that the graves 
 discovered at Mycenae were those of some barbaric 
 chiefs, either of the Gauls who ravaged Greece in the 
 time of Pyrrhus, or of the Heruli who invaded the 
 empire in the fifth and sixth centuries ; and they 
 thought that in these graves were heaped up at random 
 the products of the workmanship of the north, and 
 Greek ornaments stolen by the barbarians from the 
 temples of Argolis. Others have constructed still bolder 
 romances ; and upon the evidence of imaginary resem- 
 blances discovered between the ornaments of Mycenae 
 and the objects found in the necropolis of Hallstadt 
 
24 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 in Germany, or in those of Hungary, Denmark, and 
 Sweden, they have imagined a race, unknown to history, 
 coming from the North, which between the period of 
 the Dorian invasion and the sixth century, estabhshed 
 itself upon this rock of Mycenae, and lived there with- 
 out intermingling with the neighbouring Greek tribes. 
 
 To-day, in spite of certain repetitions of the attack, 
 all these disputes are at an end. Numerous other 
 discoveries have brought to light, not only upon the 
 soil of Argolis, but in various other localities in Greece, 
 at Spata, at Menidi in Attica, even upon the acropolis 
 of Athens, and from Boeotia and Thessaly in the north 
 to Laconia in the south, objects of the same kind and 
 of the same style as those discovered at Mycenae. 
 Resemblances at first unperceived have been established 
 between these and other objects found in the islands 
 — at Santorin and Rhodes, and quite recently in Crete 
 and in Cyprus — and thus these excavations, extending 
 beyond the narrow limits of the plain of Argos, have 
 proved at once the antiquity of the objects discovered 
 and the extent of the civilisation to which they bear 
 witness. Lastly, new and important excavations have 
 been made quite recently at Mycenae itself, and have 
 added new elements to the delicate and difficult study of 
 this vanished civilisation. 
 
 Dr. Schliemann, after his fortunate campaign of 1876, 
 had not left Mycenae without meaning to return. It 
 remained to remove the debris accumulated upon the 
 summit of the acropolis, and to explore the numerous 
 groups of tombs scattered around the lower city. The 
 Archaeological Society of Athens, by taking upon itself 
 this task, did. not leave Dr. Schliemann the glory of 
 
MYCENAE. 25 
 
 completing his work. The Society began its excava- 
 tions in 1886 on the summit of the citadel, and had the 
 good fortune to discover beneath the ruins of a Doric 
 temple the debris of a large palace, in which the royal 
 abode of the sovereigns of Mycenae has been gladly 
 recognised, and which seems to have been decorated 
 with very curious paintings, some fragments of which 
 have been found. Thanks to this building, which is 
 contemporary with the tombs discovered by Dr. Schlie- 
 mann, and the arrangement of which recalls the 
 palaces described in the Homeric poems, another 
 aspect of this Mycenean civilisation is unfolded before 
 our eyes, whose especial interest we shall explain 
 when studying the excavations of Tiryns. At the 
 same time the explorations made at the foot of the 
 acropolis and on the neighbouring slopes were not less 
 successful; in 1887 and 1888 fifty-two tombs were 
 explored, and a great number of objects in gold and 
 silver were found, as well as in bronze and ivory, 
 together with pieces of pottery, very curious engraved 
 stones, and — which is remarkable, for Mycenae had 
 hitherto given no proof of the use of the metal — two 
 iron rings. All these discoveries presented striking 
 analogies with those made before on the acropolis ; and 
 even the arrangement of the tombs offered no fewer 
 points of resemblance. Arranged around the lower 
 town in a certain number of little groups, several of 
 which have as their centre one of the domed tombs 
 reserved for people of rank, these graves, almost all of 
 which contain several corpses, are entered by a rather 
 long passage-way, filled up in order to close the entrance 
 to the tomb; and the dead who were laid there are 
 
26 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 buried in the same way as the bodies found within the 
 sacred circle of the fortress. 
 
 These discoveries, which have taken place quite 
 recently, have again drawn attention to this Mycenean 
 civilisation ; and without pretending, in the present state 
 of our knowledge, to offer a full solution of an enigma 
 which is perhaps to remain for ever unsolved, we 
 cannot escape certain pressing inquiries raised by this 
 difficult problem. To what race does this brilliant 
 civilisation belong, the traces of which we find upon 
 the acropolis of Mycenae ? In what century did it 
 arise ? under what influences was it developed ? In 
 what respects was it original ? Is it, lastly, an isolated 
 phenomenon in history or a part of a greater whole ? 
 These are questions to which learning has offered, and 
 still offers, contradictory answers, and of which we 
 must only seek solutions of the most general kind. In 
 an enquiry which is continually renewed, and to which 
 every day brings new materials, it would be imprudent 
 to press the truth too closely, and, in the study of this 
 complex civilisation, wisdom consists in distinguishing, 
 in the first place, the different elements of which it is 
 made up. 
 
 If the objects discovered in the course of the earlier 
 or the later excavations at Mycenae are studied from the 
 standpoint of merit of style or skill in workmanship, 
 even a superficial observer may easily separate the 
 jewels and weapons and pottery and paintings into 
 two classes. The workmanship of some is still coarse 
 and barbarous ; and although we find in them already 
 the signs of a natural genius for the arts, this genius 
 is nevertheless only just awakening, and is still 
 
MYCENAE. 27 
 
 making its first attempts. Others show more advanced 
 technique and a style which is more completely formed. 
 There are two distinct civilisations represented here ; 
 the one is still rudimentary, while the other has already 
 reached a degree of refinement which infers a long 
 previous development. We must ascertain, if possible, 
 the precise limits of these two classes, mingled in the 
 same grave ; must find whence comes the more highly- 
 developed art whose presence is undeniable, to however 
 small proportions some may have wished to reduce it ; 
 and must discover what are the distinctive and original 
 characteristics of the indigenous art. 
 
 The historical importance of the legends which we 
 find current in the childhood of a nation is well known. 
 Primitive peoples like to express the ideas which have 
 guided them in a concrete form, as long series of events 
 modifying their destinies ; they like to personify these 
 gradual and obscure influences under a few great 
 names, and in this way their legends throw light upon 
 their history. It is by no means unimportant, then, 
 that we should meet in the heroic traditions of Argolis 
 with foreign princes, who bring with them great ad- 
 vances in civilisation. There are Danaus from Egypt, 
 and Pelops from Asia ; and we find foreign heroes land- 
 ing in the same way on other parts of the eastern 
 coasts of Greece, the Egyptian Cecrops in Attica, and 
 the Phoenician Cadmus in Boeotia. Translated into 
 plain prose, these poetical legends mean that the 
 imagination of the Greeks has summed up in these 
 famous expeditions a thousand unknown journeys 
 which gradually brought into Greece, from the coasts 
 of Asia, the arts of the great civilisations of the East. 
 
28 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Let us turn now to the historians and poets. They, 
 too, have preserved the memory of great maritime 
 powers, which from the coasts of Asia transmitted, 
 together with their merchandise, the knowledge of the 
 arts to the islands and to Greece, There is the great 
 Phrygian empire established in the defiles of Sipylus 
 and round the mouth of the Hermus in the twelfth 
 century before our era, or even earlier, with which the 
 fabulous names of Tantalus and Pelops are connected, 
 and whose monuments offer more than one striking ana- 
 logy with those of Argolis. There is a Carian Empire,* 
 the date of which is lost in the darkness, but of which 
 the memory survives throughout the Aegean, whose 
 sovereignty extended over the islands, and even to Ar- 
 golis, at the time when these bold adventurers, sailors, 
 merchants, and pirates all at once, were establishing 
 the first permanent relations between the nations in the 
 eastern basin of the Mediterranean. There were the 
 Phoenician navigators of the fourteenth and thirteenth 
 centuries before our era, whose commercial activity 
 made them the intermediaries between Greece, still 
 uncivilised and barbarous, and the countries of the East. 
 
 Even in Homeric times, all objects of value come 
 from Phoenician hands. On every page the poet extols 
 Sidon, "rich in bronze," and praises the beautiful em- 
 broideries, the rich jewels, the marvellous weapons, the 
 splendid ornaments, which the merchants of Phoenicia 
 offer to the admiration of Greece. These bold and 
 skilful sailors had already long been pushing their expe- 
 ditions and their factories further, day by day. Every 
 year they came to sell the treasures accumulated in 
 * Herod, i. 171 ; Thuc. i. 4. 
 
MYCENAE. 29 
 
 the warehouses of Tyre and Sidon to the Greek tribes, 
 whose fresh and youthful minds were awakened by 
 them to a feehng for art. Unscrupulous, moreover, very 
 cunning, very skilful in deceiving, and over-reaching, 
 merchants and pirates at the same time, they sold 
 and stole by turns. They came to Greece to exchange 
 for the produce of the country the articles of luxury 
 which they brought from their workshops, brilliant 
 stuffs figured or dyed with purple, splendid embroideries, 
 silver vessels artistically chased, wonderful ornaments ; 
 but they did not disdain upon occasion to act as slave- 
 dealers, and to carry off from the coasts of Greece young 
 men and maidens for whom they gained high prices 
 in the markets of the East. In the beginning of his 
 history,* Herodotus shows us Phoenician merchants, the 
 commercial travellers of antiquity, bringing the wares 
 of Egypt and Assyria into Argolis, producing jewels and 
 rich stuffs for the admiration of the women, and availing 
 themselves of these attractions to allure the young girls 
 of Argos on board their swift ships, and thus carry 
 them off. The Odyssey is full of similar adventures, of 
 which the best known is that of Eumaeus, the faithful 
 servant of Ulysses, f 
 
 The father of Eumaeus was king over two cities 
 in one of the islands of the Archipelago. One day, 
 Phoenician merchants were seen to arrive in the country 
 — " mariners renowned, greedy merchantmen," who 
 brought in their black vessels the goods which they 
 were accustomed to exchange with the Greeks. Now, 
 the king of the country had among his slaves a woman 
 of Sidon, " tall, fair, and skilled in bright handiwork." 
 * Herod, i. i. f Odyssey xv. 414. 
 
30 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 As she was washing on the seashore she made the 
 acquaintance of her countrymen, and one of them spoke 
 to her sweet words of love ; " for love," says the old 
 poet, " beguiles the minds of womankind, even of the 
 upright." The strangers proposed to the slave to take 
 her back to her native land ; and in order to faciUtate 
 her escape, they feigned not to have noticed her, and 
 began to sell their goods. On the day of their departure 
 one of them went to the king's house carrying one of 
 their necklaces of amber and gold, such as have been 
 found in the excavations of Mycenae ; and whilst the 
 women of the house crowded round to admire the jewel, 
 the Phoenician made a sign to the slave. She left the 
 palace, carrying away three cups, and the king's young 
 son ; and a few hours after the strangers had disappeared, 
 going to Ithaca, where they sold Eumaeus as a slave. 
 
 Such is the artless story we are told. It shows the 
 relations which existed between the Phoenician mer- 
 chants and Greece in the Homeric age. Things were 
 much the same some centuries earlier, when Mycenae 
 the Golden reigned over Argolis. 
 
 This is not all. The Egyptian documents which 
 record the victories of Seti I., Rameses II., and 
 Menephtah, show us the " nations of the sea," Trojans, 
 Mysians and Lycians, Pelasgi, Tyrrhenians, Achaeans, 
 and Schardani, in the fourteenth century before Christ, 
 twice allying themselves with the populations of Syria 
 and Phoenicia in order to attack the monarchy of the 
 Pharaohs. Nothing proves more clearly the antiquity 
 of the relations which united the tribes of Asia Minor, 
 of the Cyclades and of Greece to the Phoenicians ; and 
 we catch a glimpse of incessant migrations in those dis- 
 
MYCENAE. 3 1 
 
 tant centuries across the eastern basin of the Mediterra- 
 nean, of constant relations between the two coasts, and of 
 an undoubted influence exercised by the more advanced 
 nations on the arts and the manners of the less civilised. 
 Now, what legend suffered us to divine, what history 
 permitted us to conjecture, archgeology has undertaken 
 to fully prove, by showing the place held by objects 
 imported from the East in the civilisation revealed by 
 the excavations of Mycenae. 
 
 It is from the East that those vessels of gold and silver 
 come, whose graceful forms, delicate ornamentation, and 
 skilful technique would suffice to attest their foreign 
 origin, even if a singular proof were not forthcoming 
 to complete the demonstration. In the paintings of an 
 Egyptian vaulted chamber at Thebes, we see the 
 tributary nations bringing their presents to the Pharaoh, 
 Thothmes III. ; and among them the inhabitants of 
 Kefta — who are Phoenicians — present vases whose 
 shapes strikingly recall those of Mycenae. They offer 
 — and here the analogy is still more close — heads of 
 oxen in silver, enriched with golden horns, which are 
 exactly similar to a monument of this kind found at 
 Mycenae, and which from an artistic point of view is 
 very noteworthy. From the East come those fantastic 
 animals of gold and ivory, Egyptian sphinxes and 
 Assyrian griffins, and those lions rampant on the vases, 
 whose excessive and altogether conventional length 
 betrays their foreign origin. That fine lion, too, cast 
 in solid gold and chased with care, whose very aspect 
 reveals Egyptian work, comes from the East ; and thence 
 come the ivory trinkets, the figurines of women with 
 foreign faces, the mitred heads redolent of Assyria, 
 
32 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the ostrich eggs adorned with patterns, the fragments of 
 Egyptian porcelain, the purely Asiatic ornaments, and 
 the animals face to face or locked in mortal struggle. To 
 prove our point more clearly, let us 
 examine those jewels which differ so 
 profoundly from the art of Mycenae 
 — the seals and the skilfully wrought 
 perforated ornaments of chased gold 
 belonging to a necklace, the subject of 
 which — lion-hunting — is frequently 
 found in the monuments of Egypt 
 and Assyria, and the highly charac- 
 teristic style of which displays a 
 mixture of Egyptian and of Syro- 
 Chaldaean influence, which of itself 
 is sufficient to show Phoenician 
 handiwork. Other proofs may be 
 adduced. A large seal, which recalls 
 Babylonian cylinders, bears engraved 
 upon it, besides three women in 
 characteristic dress, the symbols 
 of the Chaldaean cosmogony — the 
 lynx's head which represents the 
 planets, and the celestial stream 
 which is the Milky Way. These 
 figures of goddesses with doves upon 
 their heads, this little golden temple, 
 with doves again upon the corners, 
 mark the cultus of the great goddess of Babylonia and 
 Phoenicia, the powerful Istar. Above all, these mag- 
 nificent daggers,* the blades of which are ornamented 
 
 * Bull. Corr. Hell., x., p. 34 1. 
 
 Sword-blade. 
 
MYCENAE. 33 
 
 with an engraved plate of gold or with a bronze plate 
 inlaid with gold of different colours, by their skilful 
 technique as well as by the subjects they represent — 
 panthers pursuing aquatic animals, scantily-clothed men 
 hunting the lion — by the length of the bodies and the 
 character of the design, forcibly recall Egyptian work, 
 and have no local characteristics. 
 
 But among these objects which recall Egypt and 
 Chaldaea, and some of which, no doubt, came directly 
 from those distant countries, have all the same origin ? 
 Even in the daggers of which we have just spoken, we 
 find an imitation of Egypt rather than actual Egyptian 
 workmanship. It is, as M. Perrot says, art Egyptian- 
 ised, rather than Egyptian art. Now, amongst all the 
 nations, which is it whose art has been able to imitate 
 the productions of Egypt and Assyria, to mingle these 
 two dissimilar elements in its own artistic creations, 
 and to diffuse its products throughout all the Mediterra- 
 nean ? It is Phoenicia. The great empires of Egypt 
 and Assyria, powerful as they were, had no navy ; it 
 was the seafaring people of Tyre and Sidon whose mis- 
 sion it was to make the arts of these countries known 
 in Greece. Their imitative genius first underwent 
 Egyptian influence ; a vassal of Egypt until the twelfth 
 century, Phoenicia was long a stranger to Assyria; 
 and it is on that account that we find so few Assyrian 
 objects at Mycenae. It was not till later, in the tenth 
 and ninth centuries, that the Phoenicians brought to 
 Greece the models they had borrowed from the great 
 Mesopotamian empire. This is the second period of 
 Phoenician influence in Greece. But by the side of 
 these foreign importations a national art reveals itself. 
 
 3 
 
34 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Native goldsmiths existed at Mycenae, who were already 
 skilful, and possessed of some of the secrets of the 
 craft. From their hands came the golden masks which 
 covered the faces of the dead, and which all the 
 evidence leads us to believe were made on the spot, 
 as well as those thin plates of stamped gold, the 
 method of whose manufacture has been disclosed by 
 the excavations. Hollow moulds have been found in 
 granite and in basalt, presenting some of the designs 
 which the gold plates offer in relief. The goldsmith 
 did not fill them with molten metal ; but with the aid 
 of a hammer he beat into the mould the gold leaf 
 which he wished to stamp. Certainly the Mycenaean 
 gold-beaters may sometimes in their productions have 
 been inspired by Asiatic designs, and may have rudely 
 imitated those monuments of a superior civihsation ; 
 but the fact of local manufacture remains. We may 
 assign to this local manufacture the common pottery 
 found in great quantity in the ruins of Mycenae, and 
 the paintings which decorate the palace of the kings ; 
 in all of these a particular style makes its appearance 
 — a national genius, of which we must determine the 
 original characteristics. 
 
 The designs associated with this decorative style 
 seem at first sight singularly complicated ; in fact, they 
 may be reduced to a rather small number of very 
 simple elements, which may be traced back to three 
 principal types. Sometimes they are geometrical orna- 
 ments, not formed, however, by the use of straight 
 lines which multiply combinations by intersections at 
 right angles; they are curves, spirals, scrolls, circles, 
 which are woi ked out with freedom and varietv. More 
 
MYCENAE. 3 5 
 
 often the artists seek their models in nature with a 
 careful observation and a delicacy of visual impression 
 which are already remarkable. It is vegetable life, with 
 its flowers, its leaves, and especially its aquatic plants 
 it is animal life, with its flies and its butterflies, and 
 especially all the fauna of the sea and the shore — shells 
 of every kind, the octopus, the jelly-fish, the starfish 
 — which inspire the goldsmiths and the potters of 
 Mycenae. Soon too, this art, at first so childish, 
 extends the field of its studies ; it attempts the repre- 
 sentations of animals, especially of dogs and horses ; 
 nay, more, it ventures to depict the human figure 
 processions of warriors appear in the pottery and in 
 the paintings, whilst on one fine silver vase recently 
 discovered, the goldsmith avails himself of the re- 
 sources of gold and enamel.* In these latter develop 
 ments Mycenaean civilisation already approached the 
 style of those ancient vases found at Athens — that 
 Dipylon civilisation, as it is called, which seems to 
 have succeeded in Greece to the culture of which My- 
 cenae is the type. If our attention is directed, among 
 these various elements, to the noteworthy position 
 given to marine fauna and flora, we shall conclude 
 that the choice of these subjects could only have been 
 made by a people of fishers and sailors. This people 
 had already reached a high degree of riches and power; 
 it was possessed of considerable skill in the industrial 
 arts, and of a flourishing civilisation. It could itself 
 manufacture, and sometimes with a sureness of hand 
 which bears witness to long practice, objects original 
 in style. Its maritime and commercial relations, on 
 
 * Mitth., viii. I. 
 
36 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the Other hand, were extensive, for it cannot have 
 found on its own soil the gold and silver which its 
 workmen employ so liberally. Lastly, it had under- 
 gone an Asiatic influence, of which the Phoenicians were 
 the medium, and which was principally Egyptian. But 
 when all this is said, what was this people ? Are 
 these princes, who sleep in the tombs of Mycenae, the 
 ancestors of the Greeks of history ? Are they really 
 those Achaeans whose memory is immortalised in poetry 
 and legend ? or are they strangers ? Do they belong to 
 some of those races whose maritime supremacy in the 
 Cyclades is recorded in history ? Did they come from 
 Phrygia, as so many of the designs found at Mycenae 
 would make us believe — from the lions face to face on 
 the gateway of the acropolis, to those beehive graves 
 of which Phrygian art offered the first model ? Do 
 they belong, as some have maintained, not without 
 probability, to that Carian race which was formerly 
 supreme in the Archipelago, and extended its colonies 
 as far as Hermione and Epidaurus ? The manner in 
 which the dead are buried at Mycenae, the resemblances 
 between their tombs and those recently discovered in 
 Caria, the analogy between the methods of the My- 
 cenean gold-beaters and the technique of the Carian 
 hammered ornaments, might serve to sustain this 
 hypothesis. Or are they Cretans rather, as a recent 
 theory affirms ? and do they date from the time of that 
 first . Hellenic empire founded in the Archipelago, to 
 which tradition attached the name of Minos ? It is 
 very difficult to solve such problems, very difficult too 
 to give a date to this civilisation. It is allowable to 
 hesitate between those who put its date back to the 
 
MYCENAE. 37 
 
 seventeenth century before the Christian era, and those 
 who would bring it up to the eighth century b.c. ; and on 
 this point we must perhaps adhere to those who take 
 a middle course, and for many reasons place the civili- 
 sation of Mycenae in the twelfth century before our 
 era.* As to the rest, as to the origin of those princes 
 whose age-long sleep Schliemann has disturbed, perhaps 
 we shall never know anything ; perhaps, as M. Perrot 
 has happily said, this nation of builders and hoarders 
 will remain masked in history as were the faces of its 
 sovereigns in the tomb. 
 
 IV. 
 
 But in default of more precise statements, history may 
 make some conquests at least in those remote centuries, 
 and may succeed in stating some more general con- 
 clusions. 
 
 The civilisation of Mycenae is not in fact an isolated 
 phenomenon in the history of the early ages of Greece ; 
 other discoveries have enabled us to compare analogous 
 objects with the Mycenaean monuments, and have proved 
 that the state of civilisation which we find at Mycenae 
 was at one time that of all the eastern basin of the 
 Mediterranean. In 1877 the excavations carried on at 
 Spata in Attica displayed, in the tombs explored there, 
 the same medley of native and Asiatic productions, and 
 revealed by the side of Oriental importations still more 
 numerous than those of Mycenae, and beside a foreign 
 influence still more extensive and distinct, incontestable 
 
 * Cf. Petrie, Egyptian Bases of Greek History, J. H. S., xi. 271 
 See also xii. 199. 
 
38 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 traces of a local manufacture which presents the same 
 characteristics as those of Mycenaean art. In the 
 beehive tombs of the Heraeum near Argos, and of 
 Menidi in Attica, in the monuments of the same kind 
 explored in 1881 by Schliemann at Orchomenus, and 
 recently excavated at Dimini in Thessaly (1887), and 
 at Vaphio in Laconia, the plan is similar to that of the 
 circular tombs of Mycenae ; and the objects of gold, 
 bronze and ivory, the glass paste, the pottery and the 
 arms — above all, the two splendid golden cups found 
 at Vaphio adorned with representations of combats be- 
 tween men and bulls, afford the most striking analogies 
 with those of Mycenae.* It is the same with recent 
 excavations at Tiryns (1885), where a palace Hke that 
 of Mycenae has been brought to light on the summit 
 of the acropolis. But this is not all. The remains 
 discovered in the Archipelago beyond the Hmits of 
 continental Greece belong to the same civilisation. 
 The engraved stones of the islands reproduce the 
 ordinary motives of the architecture and the painting 
 of Mycenae ; and in the discoveries of Santorin (of 
 objects anterior in date to the volcanic eruption which 
 overwhelmed the island), in the excavations carried on 
 at Rhodes, particularly in the necropoHs of lalysus, as 
 well as in the necropolis of Cnossus in Crete and in 
 that of Arsinoe in Cyprus, and in the ruins of Hissarhk, 
 a multitude of objects have come to light, a comparison 
 with which is singularly instructive. Thus a new 
 group of antiquities has been formed and is increasing 
 every day, which is represented by these six names — 
 Hissarlik, Santorin, lalysus, Mycenae, Tiryns and Spata ; 
 
 * "Les Vases d'Or de Vafio" {Bull., 1891). 
 
MYCENAE. 39 
 
 and a whole epoch in the civilisation of the ancient world 
 has been revealed to us. At all these different points, 
 so far separated one from the other, we discover a state 
 of art and industry hitherto unknown to us, which was 
 common to all the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. 
 Doubtless, this civilisation was not developed in a 
 day ; its types, as the sites of the different excavations 
 present them, succeeded each other during a period of 
 several centuries. " Hissarlik marks its remote origin 
 and early development, Santorin its more advanced 
 condition ; Cnossus and lalysus display the perfection 
 of vegetable ornamentation ; Mycenae and Tiryns the 
 abuse of these principles of decoration, and the mar- 
 vellous progress of this art ; Spata marks the point at 
 which the Asiatic influence which had long been felt, be- 
 came preponderant." * Two streams of tendency, in fact, 
 run through all these civilisations : on the one hand 
 there is an indigenous and local art whose forms do not 
 change, whose decorative principles, whilst perfecting 
 themselves by long practice, nevertheless retain their 
 specific character ; on the other hand a foreign influence, 
 increasing every day, mingles with these indigenous 
 elements the productions of a more highly developed 
 civilisation and art. M3'cenae preserves in its vases 
 the shapes of Santorin and lalysus, but there is greater 
 variety and more studied elegance in their ornamentation, 
 and Oriental influence is more marked. But let us 
 compare Mycenae with Spata. If certain shapes are 
 still akin, if certain types are analogous, the general 
 aspect is entirely different. The relative dates too 
 of these civilisations are incontestable. Hissarlik is 
 
 * A. Dumont, Les Ce'ramiques de la Grece propre, i. 69. 
 
40 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 older than Santorin and lalysus, while these precede 
 Mycenae, which in its turn is older than Spata. If any 
 one insists on fixing approximate dates, we may place 
 Hissarlik before the sixteenth century, Santorin in 
 the sixteenth, lalysus in the fourteenth, Mycenae and 
 Tiryns in the thirteenth or the twelfth, Spata in the 
 eleventh century, before the Christian era. No doubt 
 it is difficult to establish well-defined relations between 
 this Mycenean civilisation and strictly Hellenic art. 
 Mycenae marks almost the last stage of a long 
 artistic development ; and between the period of its 
 greatness and that in which Greece became conscious 
 of her own powers, a formidable convulsion, the Dorian 
 invasion, swept over the soil of Greece. What matters 
 it ? In that remote civilisation there was an independent 
 effort which should form a natural introduction to the 
 history of Greek art. The discoveries of Mycenae were 
 at first sight like a strange and unknown land ; to-day 
 they form the earliest chapter in the history of Greek 
 antiquities. 
 
CHAPTER ir. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS (1884-5). 
 
 Books of Reference : 
 
 The same as Mycenae, together with 
 Schliemann, Tiryns. 
 Marx, "Der Stier von Tiryns" {Jahrbuch d. d. Arch. Inst, Vol. 
 
 IV.). 
 Perrot, Tiryns {Journal des Savants, 1890). 
 Prof. Middleton, yoMr. Hell. Studies, Vol. VII. 
 Prof. Gardner, "The Palace of Tiryns" {New Chapters in Greek 
 History), 
 
 At the southern extremity of the plain of Argos 
 at a short distance from the sea, in the midst of a strip 
 of marshy lowland, there rises a rocky height which 
 commands the road from Nauplia to Argos. On this 
 plateau, scarcely eighty-five feet high, there rose of old 
 the ancient and powerful citadel of Tiryns, whose mighty 
 walls passed for one of the wonders of ancient times, 
 and seemed worthy, by their colossal mass, of being 
 compared with the pyramids of Egypt. Legend attri- 
 buted these gigantic structures to fabulous architects, 
 the Cyclops from Lycia, and told how mighty kings had 
 formerly reigned over this fortress ; according to the 
 myth one of the most famous of Grecian heroes, Hercules, 
 was born within its walls and long bore rule there. 
 Nevertheless the great name of Mycenae had early 
 eclipsed its humbler neighbour, and Tiryns accepted the 
 lordship of the princes who reigned in the lofty citadel 
 
42 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 of Agamemnon, and seems to have shared the fate of 
 its masters until the day on which the jealousy of Argos 
 overthrew both suzerain and vassal at one blow. 
 From that time Tiryns was deserted, and gradually 
 
 Plan of the Upper Citadel of Tiryns. 
 
 A Tower in two Chambers. 
 B Vaulted Chamber. 
 • c Gallery. 
 
 D Corridor and Staircase. 
 E Portico. 
 F Large Forecourt. 
 G S.W. Corner of the 
 
 Palace. 
 H Great Propylaea. 
 I Portico. 
 
 K Little Propylaea. 
 
 L Large Courtyard. 
 
 M Men's Megaron. 
 
 N Small Courtyard. 
 
 O Megaron of the Women. 
 
 1' Vaulted Chambers. 
 
 Q Cistern. 
 
 R Gallery in the E. Wall. 
 
 s Side Entrance. 
 
 T Cellar-like Rooms. 
 
 u Small Staircase. 
 
 V Entrance to Middle 
 
 Citadel. 
 w Middle Court. 
 X N.E. Tower. 
 
 Y Ramp of Main Ascent, 
 z Gate of Citadel. 
 
 1 Altar. 
 
 2 Door to Gallery. 
 
 buried under heaps of rubbish; nothing was to be seen 
 on the summit of the plateau, among the remains of a 
 few Byzantine buildings, but a confused heap of calcined 
 walls which seemed to date from the Middle Ages. 
 The enclosure walls, overthrown, or partially buried 
 
, THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS. 
 
 43 
 
 beneath the soil, had lost their former imposing aspect, 
 and the travellers coming from the powerful citadel^of 
 
 %:fi 
 
 ■ ;;/ ir. ' 
 ■ ' t-)■■t^ 
 
 Mycenae, which rises so proudly on its rocky base, had 
 scarcely a glance for the ruins of Tiryns, where scarcely 
 anything seemed to attract their attention. Nevertheless 
 
44 ' EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the enormous size of the blocks used in the buildings, 
 the remains of subterranean galleries curiously con- 
 structed in the thickness of the walls, and a few isolated 
 columns of an unknown building on the summit of the 
 acropolis, had already drawn the attention of archaeo- 
 logists to the old fortress, when the excavations recently 
 undertaken by Schliemann came to bestow on it fresh 
 celebrity. 
 
 Trial shafts were sunk in 1876, but the work was 
 almost immediately abandoned, and it was not until 
 1884 that Dr. Schliemann resumed the excavations; 
 and here again, during two successive campaigns (1884, 
 1885), fortune crowned his efforts with surprising 
 success. Not only has the ancient wall of the 
 citadel, carefully freed from the debris which covered it, 
 been restored to us, with its towers, its posterns, and 
 its subterranean galleries, thus revealing to us the 
 skilful and complicated system of early fortifications, 
 but on the summit of the acropolis an extensive palace 
 has been discovered amidst the ruins, with its propylaea 
 ornamented with columns, its courts surrounded by 
 porticoes, its vast halls decorated with paintings ; and 
 the plan of this building, restored with the utmost 
 exactitude down to its smallest details, gives us a 
 living picture of the splendid palaces of Alcinous and 
 of Menelaus, described in the Homeric poems. Dr. 
 Schliemann, who liked triumphant telegrams, announced 
 his discovery to the world in the following terms : 
 ' Three cheers for Pallas Athene ! I have indeed 
 worked here with surprising success. A vast palace 
 with innumerable columns has been brought to light. 
 The wall-paintings are of the greatest interest, and the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS. 4$ 
 
 vase-paintings not less so — the most primitive repre- 
 sentations of plants and animals. The plan of this 
 wonderful prehistoric palace can be exactly restored, 
 and its discovery, which has no parallel, will arouse 
 general admiration." 
 
 At first, we must confess, it aroused some scepticism. 
 Eminent archaeologists, among them the distinguished 
 English architect Penrose, maintained that the so- 
 called Homeric palace was only a Byzantine building 
 of the tenth or eleventh centuries. Schhemann's dis- 
 covery was treated as an " extraordinary hallucination 
 of an unscientific enthusiast " ; and the Times, which 
 took part in this warfare, made merry over this result of 
 an archaeological crusade the triumph of which had been 
 announced to the world with a great flourish of trumpets. 
 Fortunately Dr. Schliemann, warned by his experiences 
 at Mycenae, and wisely mistrusting his adventurous 
 imagination, had taken all possible precaution at Tiryns. 
 He had secured the assistance of a man of proved 
 scientific merit. Dr. Wilhelm Dorpfeld, now the director 
 of the German Archaeological School at Athens; and 
 this distinguished architect had conducted these ex- 
 cavations on a perfectly trustworthy and scientific 
 plan. Entrusted in 1885 with the completion of the 
 excavations, he had, in the work published by Schlie- 
 mann, given an account as exact as it was remarkable 
 of the discoveries which had been made ; and his testi- 
 mony is worthy of all confidence. This was plainly 
 seen when, in 1886, the Hellenic Society held a solemn 
 debate in London on the question : Doctors Schliemann 
 and Dorpfeld, both of whom came from Athens for the 
 purpose, had no difficulty in convincing their opponents. 
 
46 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 About the same time also, the remains of a palace similar 
 to that of Tiryns were discovered on the summit of the 
 acropolis of Mycenae. It is constructed according to 
 the same plan and after the same methods, is decorated 
 with paintings of the same style, and dates from the 
 same time. To-day all opposition is at an end, and we 
 may fearlessly admire at Tiryns a fortress and a palace 
 erected some thirteen or fourteen centuries before our 
 era. 
 
 I. 
 
 The citadel of Tiryns rises on a rocky platform 328 
 yards long and 109 yards broad, which slopes slightly 
 from south to north, so as to form three successive 
 terraces. On the highest terrace, from which there is 
 an uninterrupted view over the sea towards the south, 
 was built, in the finest situation in the fortress, 
 the palace of the king ; a little lower, in the middle 
 of the fortress, another terrace about 33 yards broad, 
 and connected with the palace by a narrow staircase, 
 served to lodge the retinue and a part of the garrison, 
 below this stretched the lower citadel, long and narrow, 
 which doubtless contained the storerooms and the stalls 
 for the horses ; here, however, the excavations have not 
 yet been completed. The plateau is entirely surrounded 
 by thick and lofty walls built of great blocks of roughly 
 hewn limestone, some of which are of colossal size, 
 measuring between six and ten feet in length, and more 
 than three feet in height and thickness. Although very 
 roughly put together, and much more archaic in appear- 
 ance than the polygonal stones of the circuit-wall of 
 Mycenae, these blocks were not, as was long believed 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS. 
 
 47 
 
 kept in place by their weight alone ; in the interstices, 
 filled up by smaller stones, traces have been found of the 
 
 a Chambers in Wall 
 b Lower Gallery. 
 c Upper Gallery. 
 d Window. 
 
 CO 
 
 use of mortar. In this way a gigantic wall was built 
 round the whole circumference of the plateau, 23 to 26 
 feet in thickness, and at least 29 feet high in the lower 
 
48 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Citadel ; in the upper citadel its proportions were still 
 more formidable. In the latter the walls reached a 
 thickness of 49 to 57 feet, while the height was 
 not less enormous ; the most powerful means of de- 
 fence were here accumulated round the palace, which 
 formed the centre of the citadel ; numerous projecting 
 and re-entering angles broke the outline of the fortress ; 
 enormous towers covering the principal entrances were 
 thrown across the wide roadway ; a large semicircular 
 projection formed a kind of exercising ground on the 
 western side, and on the top of the wall, a colonnade, 
 forming an upper covered passage, sheltered the de- 
 fenders. But undoubtedly the most remarkable part of 
 the fortification consisted of the subterranean galleries, 
 which on the south and east were introduced into the 
 thickness of the wall. It has long been known that the 
 southern wall contained two galleries parallel to the 
 line of defence, built on different levels and probably 
 communicating with one another ; a similar gallery also 
 existed along the eastern wall ; and all three, roofed 
 with mighty overlapping blocks of limestone, seemed 
 intended to give access to the lower parapet of the 
 citadel. Recent excavations have shown the inadequacy 
 of this explanation by laying open a much more compli- 
 cated network of galleries than had been known to exist. 
 As had been supposed, a staircase connected the upper 
 with the lower gallery ; but the latter, it was discovered 
 with astonishment, opened into five chambers with 
 pointed vaulted ceilings constructed in the thickness of 
 the wall ; in the same way the gallery of the eastern wall 
 gave access to six chambers of this kind, while a narrow 
 loophole in the wall gave the necessary light to the 
 
50 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 corridor. Other subterranean rooms were constructed 
 in the interior of the great towers of the western wall, 
 and thus a whole series of casemates were arranged, 
 which served as cisterns and subterranean storehouses. 
 Lastly, special fortifications protected the royal palace 
 on the north and east, in such a way as to separate it 
 from the lower citadel, and to afford a powerful defence 
 to the principal entrance of the fortress. 
 
 Two gates, as was usual, gave access to the inclosure ; 
 on the western side a postern in the semicircular pro- 
 jection led to a narrow passage practicable for foot 
 passengers only, which led to the middle citadel by a 
 staircase, sixty-five steps of which are still visible, and 
 thence ascended by a few steps to the palace. This was 
 a secret exit on the side towards the sea, and played a 
 very important part in the defence of the place. The 
 principal approach, which served for wheeled vehicles 
 and horses, lay on the eastern side. In order to mount 
 gradually to the level of the fortress, 65 feet above the 
 plain, the road ascended by a long ramp to the foot of 
 the circuit-wall, whose towers and projecting angles com- 
 manded and covered it. It debouched at the summit in 
 a narrow passage opened in the wall, and flanked by a 
 colossal tower ; it then ran between the eastern wall of 
 the citadel and the fortified terraces of the palace, and led 
 to the gate of the fortress, which was very similar in its 
 size and construction to the lion gate of Mycenae. We 
 can still see the heavy stone threshold and the enormous 
 posts which formed this doorway ; and traces have been 
 found of the heavy beam which, slipped through the 
 uprights, served to bolt the door. Even this was not 
 all; for, this obstacle surmounted, a narrow passage, sixty 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS. 5I 
 
 feet or more in length, still remained to be traversed ; 
 then at last towards the south-east angle of the fortifi- 
 cations, the road terminated in a wide open space, on the 
 opposite side of which was an imposing doorway. This 
 was the entrance of the royal palace. 
 
 We see with what extreme care everything had been 
 foreseen which was necessary for the defence ; with 
 what prudence every access to the fortress had been 
 protected, and the enemy compelled to advance for 
 a long distance under fire, through narrow passages 
 commanded by high walls and covered by strong 
 towers ; and with what skill the projecting angles of the 
 walls had been constructed and the terraces raised one 
 above the other, so as to make the palace a kind of 
 donjon within the fortress itself. The methods of con- 
 struction, too, however rude they may be, bear witness 
 to a workmanship which is already skilful and master 
 of the means at its disposal. Experienced architects 
 were needed to bring into position the blocks of the 
 wall — the smallest of which weigh from three to four 
 tons, and some as much as thirteen ; as well as workmen, 
 already masters of their trade, to vault these galleries 
 and casemates ; above all, it needed an army of 
 labourers, long years of peace, great resources and 
 enormous riches, to construct this formidable strong- 
 hold. 
 
 The purely defensive works ended at the first gate- 
 way and there the palace began. In the latter the 
 buildings had to meet new conditions : vast court- 
 yards and spacious halls were needed there, easy 
 communication between the different apartments, light 
 and especially abundance of shade and coolness, the 
 
52 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 elegance in fact and luxury which would make the 
 palace worthy of the king who dwelt in it. Until 
 now we had little more than the material afforded 
 by the Homeric poems and the descriptions given there 
 of the palaces of Ulysses and of Priam, of Alcinous 
 and of Menelaus from which to picture to ourselves the 
 palaces of the heroic age, and in spite of ingenious 
 efforts to reconstruct the plan of these buildings, 
 many questions remained unanswered. Now, upon the 
 acropolis of Mycenae or of Tiryns we can admire the 
 design of the old Homeric palace in its full development. 
 These princely dwellings, unearthed by the pickaxe of 
 the excavator, are unquestionably older and in some 
 respects more luxurious than those described in the 
 poems ; but the main features of the design, the general 
 principles of the building, are the same, and it is this 
 which gives so much interest and importance to the 
 recent excavations at Tiryns and Mycenae. 
 
 Now let us pass through the great propylaea opening 
 on the " terrace," the ground plan of which remained un- 
 changed from heroic times down to the erection of the 
 Propylaea on the Acropolis at Athens. We enter a large, 
 almost rectangular courtyard, surrounded by chambers 
 and porticoes, from which the stairs lead down to the 
 subterranean galleries in the wall ; crossing this we 
 enter, through a second imposing gateway in the north- 
 west corner called the little propylaea, the palace 
 properly so called. Here we find another large 
 rectangular courtyard surrounded by porticoes, 5 1 ft. 
 7 in. deep by 66 ft. 4 in. broad : it is the court of the 
 men's apartments, the highest point and the centre of the 
 whole palace. On the southern side rises the traditional 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS. 53 
 
 altar of Zeus Herceius, a massive square of masonry 
 below which the circular pit destined to receive the 
 blood of the sacrifices was hollowed out; while facing 
 the altar, on the northern side of the courtyard, is 
 the men's megaron. Ascending two steps, we reach 
 a vestibule adorned with columns, the floor of which 
 is still covered, like that of the court itself, with a kind 
 of plaster ; through three large doors we pass into an 
 ante-chamber, and thence into the state apartment, the 
 court of the men or megaron, a large room nearly 40 ft. 
 long by 32 ft. broad, which was the chief apartment of 
 the palace; four columns in its midst supported the roof, 
 and between them upon the ground, which the red and 
 blue patterns of the concrete floor seemed to cover with 
 a kind of Oriental carpet, was the hearth. 
 
 To the left of this great hall were a number of 
 corridors and small rooms in direct communication with 
 the court or megaron, among which an interesting 
 apartment has been recognised — the bath-room. The 
 importance attached in the early ages of Greece to clean- 
 Hness, and the attentions of this kind always offered to 
 guests are well known, and account for the situation 
 of the bath-room, near the ante-chamber and not far 
 from the reception-room. The arrangement of the 
 room itself is very remarkable : the floor is made of a 
 huge block of limestone weighing no less than 20 tons; 
 the walls were formerly panelled with wood ; in the 
 middle was a bathing-tub of terra-cotta and the water 
 ran off through underground pipes constructed below 
 the floor of the palace in such a way as to collect into 
 one large drain the surface water of the courtyards 
 and of the house. 
 
I ,^^ ^ M m 
 
 nPOAOMOZ 
 
 '- — s.»3 *;<• s.ao— -»f< — a. 
 
 Plan of Men's Apartment. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS. 55 
 
 To the right of the men's was the women's apartment, 
 which was also entered through a courtyard surrounded 
 by porticoes, and which consisted of a vestibule and a 
 rectangular hall like that of the megaron, but smaller. 
 The women's apartment, which had no direct communi- 
 cation with the rooms set apart for the men, was cut off 
 from the rest of the palace by a succession of doorways 
 and passages. It was connected on the one hand with 
 the great propylaea by an inner courtyard and a long 
 corridor, on the other with the great courtyard of the 
 megaron by a series of passages which went completely 
 round the men's apartments and ran through the whole 
 left side of the palace. In this, the most retired and the 
 most isolated part of the palace, was situated the sleeping 
 apartment of the royal couple, entered through an ante- 
 chamber, as well as the arsenal and the treasury. Such 
 is the plan of the palace of Tiryns, but we must set up 
 the fallen walls again on their stone foundations, which 
 are almost all that remains of them ; we must rebuild 
 the roofs that have fallen in : we must recover the de- 
 coration of these halls and the main outlines of their 
 arrangement, in order to restore to this royal dwelling 
 its former aspect and animation. For the most part the 
 walls of the palace of Tiryns were built of unhewn 
 blocks of limestone bonded with clay-mortar, and long 
 wooden beams were fitted into the masonry across its 
 breadth, which played the part of chains and gave more 
 solidity to the building. Unburnt brick was often used 
 in the upper parts of the walls, and the whole was 
 covered with a coating of clay and plastered with lime. 
 Wood in especial played an indispensable part in the 
 building. 
 
56 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 The corner-pieces which sustained the facing of the 
 walls, the door-posts, the pillars and their capitals, the 
 pilasters, the ceiling, sometimes even the thresholds of 
 the rooms, were of wood ; and wooden panels covered 
 the walls of certain apartments, such as the bath-room 
 and the vestibule of the megaron. The roofs supported 
 on squared beams were horizontal, and arranged in ter- 
 races after the fashion of the East. Light was admitted 
 through the doorway, and by means of lateral openings 
 in the upper part of the wall under the roof* Lastly, 
 the halls were carefully paved with a kind of mosaic, 
 in some places resembling a carpet, and decorated with 
 mural paintings and carved ornaments, of which some 
 very interesting fragments have been recovered. One 
 of the most remarkable is a charming alabaster frieze, 
 inlaid with blue glass-paste, which ornamented the 
 vestibule of the megaron, and reproduced patterns 
 already familiar at Mycenae, at Menidi, and at Orcho- 
 menus. The frescoes on the walls are not less interest- 
 ing, and throw a curious light on the early history of 
 painting in Greece. Sometimes wide parallel stripes 
 of different colours are painted upon the coating of 
 lime ; sometimes we find flowers, rosettes, meanders, 
 spirals, the arrangement of which offer striking 
 analogies with the sculptured ceiling found in the bee- 
 hive tomb at Orchomenus. In other places the human 
 figure begins to appear ; a quantity of fragments have 
 been discovered, forming part of those winged monsters 
 so dear to the imagination of early artists, but the most 
 remarkable of these paintings is that which represents 
 a furious bull, upon whose back is a man, half-kneeling. 
 
 * Ttrytis, p. 129. See Professor Middleton, J.H.S., vol. vii., p. 161, 
 
5 8 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 It must be admitted that the technique of these frescoes 
 is still very rude. The painter's palette has only five 
 colours— black and white, blue, red and yellow — but their 
 effect was none the less striking when they shone with 
 all the brilliancy of their simple colouring. 
 
 Nevertheless, we must not allow ourselves to be 
 dazzled by the seeming splendour of this decoration. 
 The Homeric palaces, of which that of Tiryns is the 
 model, were destitute of many refinements of comfort 
 and cleanliness, which seem indispensable to us to-day. 
 Cooking was carried on all day on the hearths which 
 form the centre of the principal apartments, and the 
 smoke covered the walls with a thick coating of soot ; 
 the smell of burning fat floated in the heavy atmosphere, 
 and the offal of the beasts, as they were slain, the heads 
 and feet of oxen, and hides wet with blood, were dragged 
 aside into the corners. 
 
 Before the very door of the house there was a heap 
 of dung, on which lay the dogs, infested with vermin. 
 It is possible that the civilisation of Tiryns, though more 
 ancient, was more refined than this — for the Homeric 
 palaces possessed neither the wall paintings nor the 
 paved floors which we find on the acropolis of Tiryns, 
 but the general effect must have been much the same. 
 In order to bring before ourselves a true picture of 
 what these palaces were like, we need only think of 
 the condition, in modern times, of the ' konaks ' of the 
 pachas and beys of Asia Minor. " Wood and stone are 
 mingled there in the same way throughout the vast 
 extent of the buildings ; the * selamlik ' corresponds 
 to the megaron, the harem to the women's apartment ; 
 in the vast and filthy courtyards, surrounded by the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS. 59 
 
 lodgings of the slaves and the storehouses for provisions, 
 there is the same medley of idlers loitering and animals 
 wandering freely about ; in the interior of the dwelling 
 there is the same contrast of luxury and neglect. Thus 
 the Ufe and habits of the East in modern times still 
 furnish in many respects the best commentary on the 
 Homeric age."* 
 
 II. 
 
 The discoveries made at Tiryns — and this is not the 
 least part of their interest, complete in a very curious 
 way the picture of that early civilisation which was 
 revealed by the excavations of Mycenae. The buildings 
 and remains found on the one and the other acropolis 
 date, in fact, from the same time, and belong to the 
 same period of greatness and glory. We have already 
 pointed out the striking analogies which exist between 
 the paintings of Tiryns and the carved ceiling of 
 Orchomenus. There is no less resemblance between 
 these frescoes and those which decorate the palace of 
 Mycenae, where we again find the long parallel bands of 
 different colours, and the timid attempts in which the 
 artist endeavours to represent the shapes of men and 
 animals. The pottery found at Tiryns is on the whole 
 in the same style as the vases of Mycenae ; the frieze 
 of the palace is exactly similar in design to the patterns 
 in use both there and at Menidi ; lastly. Oriental in- 
 fluence has left its traces on both, — and this is not the 
 least interesting of the lessons taught by the discoveries 
 at Tiryns. 
 
 The traces of Phoenician influence are visible every- 
 
 * Pcrrot, Revue des Deux Mondes, July 15th, 1885. 
 
6o EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 where, both in the methods of construction and in the 
 style of the decorations. The subterranean galleries 
 contrived in the thickness of the walls, together with 
 the vaulted chambers, beside them, are met with again 
 in the fortifications of the Phoenician cities of Africa, 
 at Carthage and Thapsus, at Hadrumetum and Utica, 
 and the resemblance between the two systems of forti- 
 fication is so great that we must consider it an un- 
 doubted fact that Phoenician architects, or at all events 
 architects trained in Phoenician methods, were present 
 at Tiryns. It is from Phoenicia, too, that the technical 
 processes employed in the construction of the palace 
 walls were derived ; the Phoenician workmen who 
 built the temple at Jerusalem for Solomon interspersed 
 the courses of masonry with beams of cedar, and the 
 same mingling of wood and stone is found both at 
 Tiryns and Mycenae. Lastly, the blue glass-paste, 
 with which the alabaster frieze of the megaron is inlaid, 
 is an Oriental importation. This method of decoration 
 was in use in Egypt from the most remote antiquity, 
 but she received the raw material from Phoenicia, and 
 it was from Phoenician manufactories that those glass- 
 pastes, coloured with copper-salts, were brought into 
 Greece, which are found at Menidi and at Spata, at 
 Mycenae and at Tiryns, with which Homer, too, was 
 acquainted, and which he speaks of under the name of 
 kyanos as decorating the frieze in the palace of 
 Alcinous.* 
 
 It is impossible then to overlook the Oriental influences 
 which have so deeply affected the civilisation of Tiryns. 
 The palace of Tiryns, too, is of later date than the graves 
 * Od. vii., 87. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS OF TIRYNS. 6 1 
 
 of Mycenae. A single day did not give birth to the long 
 series of monuments which mark the growth of this 
 remote civilisation ; the graves cut in the rock of the 
 acropolis at Mycenae are older than the beehive tombs 
 in the lower town and the palace on the summit of the 
 hill. The passage-tombs of Spata and Nauplia are 
 still later than these latter remains. The general 
 features are everywhere the same, but the details differ 
 infinitely as the centuries pass on ; art becomes more 
 certain of itself, and Oriental influence grows more 
 powerful, until the day arrives on which a new civili- 
 sation, represented by the Athenian Dipylon vases, 
 replaces the older culture of Mycenae. The palace of 
 Tiryns is contemporaneous with the beehive tombs of 
 Mycenae, but it seems to have lasted longer than the 
 Mycenaean buildings. Some fragments of pottery in the 
 geometrical style, ornamented with human figures exactly 
 resembling those of the Dipylon vases, have been found 
 amongst its ruins, as well as some still more curious 
 fragments which seem to form the transition between the 
 Mycenean vases and those of the next period. Thus 
 Tiryns shows us, after the greatness of the Mycenaean 
 civilisation, its closing efforts and its decadence. 
 
 When the Dorian invasion passed over Argolis all 
 that remained of this brilliant civilisation was swept away 
 by the storm. A ruder race replaced the wealthy and 
 luxurious princes who reigned at Tiryns and Mycenae ; 
 and long years of warfare rendered their manners still 
 coarser and more barbarous. At the same time the 
 Phoenicians who had been the teachers of primitive 
 Greece, were gradually forgetting the way thither. 
 Banished from the islands of the Archipelago one after 
 
62 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 another, deprived of the monopoly of sea-borne trade, 
 driven away by the incessant warfare which destroyed all 
 security, they no longer maintained the same close rela- 
 tions as formerly with the western shores of the Aegean. 
 Civilisation could not but suffer by the change, and in 
 fact the Homeric is far more barbarous and uncivilised 
 than the Mycenaean period. Still, even then the gains of 
 the past had not been wholly lost, and the palace of 
 Tiryns is still the model in wood and stone of those of 
 the heroic age. It is on account of this connection that 
 the building so closely concerns the history of human 
 dwellings, for the Greek house is merely a development 
 of the Homeric palace such as we see it in the excava- 
 tions on the acropolis of Tiryns. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA (1876). 
 
 Books of Reference : 
 
 Carapanos, Dodone et ses Ruiites, Paris, 1878. 
 
 Girard, "Dodone et ses Ruines"' {Revue des Deux Mondes, Feb. 
 
 1879). 
 Bouche Leclercq, Hisloire de la Divination dans rAnttquite. 
 Hoffmann, Orakel-inschriften aus Dodona. 
 
 Roberts, " Oracle Inscriptions discovered at Dodona " {Jotiin. 
 Hell. Studies, vols. i. and ii.). 
 
 The scenery of the natural highway which passes over 
 Mount Pindus from the Greek province of Thessaly into 
 the Turkish province of Epirus, and which has from 
 ancient times been the means of communication between 
 the Adriatic and the Aegean, offers a remarkable con- 
 trast to the traveller. On leaving Larissa he ascends 
 the lofty valley of the Peneus through forests of oak and 
 plane-trees, and passes at the foot ofthe strange monas- 
 teries of the Meteoroi, clinging boldly to the summits of 
 the lofty peaks of basalt, and hanging, as it were, between 
 earth and heaven. As the road winds up the mountain 
 side, his eye sweeps over the whole extent ofthe fertile 
 plain of Thessaly ; but no sooner has he passed through 
 the defile of Mezzovo than the whole scene is changed. 
 Around him are bare and rugged slopes, a chaos of moun- 
 tains rising confusedly one behind the other; in the words 
 
1 Acropolis. 
 
 2 Temple of Zeus. 
 
 3 Votive Offerings 
 
 4 Propylaea. 
 
 5 Sanctuary of Aphro- 
 
 dite. 
 
 6 Stadium. 
 
 7 Theatre. 
 
 8 Temenos. 
 
 9 Buildings connected 
 
 with the Oracle. 
 
 Plan of Dodona. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA. 6$ 
 
 of M. Girard, Nature here is harassed and ungenial, and 
 cannot expand freely in any direction. Even the lake, 
 which lies at the foot of the mountain and reflects in its 
 waters the citadel and minarets of Janina, scarcely softens 
 the severity of the scenery ; and elsewhere on all sides 
 the lofty peaks are separated by deep valleys which are 
 covered with marshes, or form the beds of mountain 
 torrents. The climate is as ungenial as the scenery. 
 During a great part of the year the mountains are 
 covered with snow, the wind howls through the narrow 
 passes, and the thunder rolls around the peaks. In 
 some of the valleys of Epirus the average number of 
 stormy days in a year is forty-nine — the highest in all 
 Europe. 
 
 It was in the midst of this gloomy scenery that Greek 
 mythology localised some of the legends of the lower 
 world, and it was here too, where Nature exercised a 
 powerful influence upon the fresh unhardened minds of 
 the nations of antiquity, that one of the most ancient 
 and venerated of the shrines of Greece arose. In the 
 cold and narrow valley of Dodona, under the shadow of 
 the great oaks which surrounded the sanctuary of Zeus, 
 Greek mythology received its earliest form, and the 
 first of the great Greek oracles arose. Under this 
 rigorous sky there grew up a stern, harsh worship, some 
 of whose observances seem to savour more of the 
 asceticism of the Middle Ages, than of the joyous 
 freedom of the ancient world. It is this individuality 
 which lends interest to the sanctuary of Dodona, and 
 makes the history of its oracle stand out so clearly 
 against the usual colouring of the ancient world, as to 
 deserve something better than oblivion. 
 
 5 
 
66 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 I. 
 
 Until the last few years the sanctuary of Dodona was 
 scarcely more than an illustrious name. Even its exact 
 site was unknown, though history and legend were full 
 of its fame. In Childe Harold Byron writes : — 
 
 " Oh, where, Dodona, is thine aged grove, 
 Prophetic fount and oracle divine ? 
 What valley echoed the response of Jove, 
 What trace remaineth of the thunderer's shrine ? " 
 
 Canto ii. 35. 
 
 It was well known that Dodona was in Epirus, and it 
 had been sought in the neighbourhood of Lake Janina ; 
 but until the day on which in 1876 M. Constantine 
 Carapanos, in the course of his memorable excavations, 
 actually discovered the sanctuary itself, the most com- 
 plete uncertainty prevailed as to its site. To-day it is 
 beyond a doubt. To the west of Lake Janina, in the 
 moist and fertile valley of Tcharacovista, at the foot of 
 the barren peak of Tomaros, situated in a picturesque 
 and gloomy spot, M. Carapanos has discovered the 
 ruins of the oracle of Zeus. The narrow circuit-wall 
 of the ancient citadel, studded with towers, rises on an 
 out-lying height commanding the plain, in the midst of a 
 mountain valley between 1600 and 1700 feet high. At 
 the foot of the acropolis a fine theatre, still in a perfect 
 state of preservation, served to celebrate the games in 
 honour of the gods of Dodona ; and on the slope of the 
 hill, close by it, the walls are still standing which mark 
 the boundaries of the sacred enclosure, in whose midst, 
 on the summit of the plateau, there rose the temple, 
 afterwards transformed into a Christian Church. M. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA. 
 
 67 
 
 &^'^ k 
 
 Carapanos has succeeded in tracing the ground plan of 
 the sanctuary in its main outlines, as well as that of 
 two adjoining buildings, which no doubt contained the 
 treasure of the god, or were in some way connected 
 with the service of the oracle. 
 Below these buildings there 
 extended a large open space, \ 
 
 entered through a vestibule of 
 considerable size, and bordered 
 by porticoes along which the 
 ex-votos offered to Zeus by 
 the piety of the faithful were 
 arranged on rows of little 
 pedestals. In the centre of the 
 square there doubtless stood 
 the grove of sacred oaks to 
 which Dodona owed its fame, 
 and which concealed within its 
 recesses the prophetic tree of 
 Zeus, the miraculous spring, 
 and the oracle of the god. M. 
 Carapanos has made more than 
 one interes ting discovery among 
 the ruins of the ancient sanc- 
 tuary. It is true that he has 
 not found an extensive series 
 of marble statues — marble was 
 
 rare in Epirus — nor any collection of treasures in gold 
 or silver, for during its latter years the temple was 
 plundered more than once, and even completely de- 
 stroyed; and the traces of a great fire which laid it 
 waste are still visible among the ruins. Nevertheless, 
 
 Bronze Statuette from 
 Dodona. 
 
68 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 if he has not found any objects of great value, he has 
 discovered a multitude of ex-votos and pious offer- 
 ings, vases or candelabra of bronze, tripods and 
 wreaths, and a quantity of trifling articles of daily 
 use — arms and ornaments, spurs and spear-heads, 
 bracelets and earrings, hairpins and mirrors, and 
 even those small spatulas used by women for applying 
 paint. Just as at the present day the worshippers at 
 famous shrines hang gold and silver hearts or images 
 of saints on the walls of their chapels, so they offered 
 to the gods in ancient times statuettes of bronze, or 
 of terra-cotta ; and many of these bronzes found at 
 Dodona, whose beautiful green or blue patina strikes 
 the eye at once, are of the greatest importance 
 for the history of archaic art. The series of small 
 leaden plates, however, from the temple archives, on 
 which the pilgrims, who came to consult the oracle, 
 engraved the words of the questions they asked, are of 
 still greater interest. Although only a small number of 
 these fragments have come down to us — scarcely forty- 
 five have been found — they undoubtedly form the most 
 interesting part of M. Carapanos' discoveries. Thanks 
 to these unique documents, we can penetrate behind the 
 scenes in these oracular shrines, and are admitted to the 
 privacy of religious life in the ancient world. It was in 
 this remote district of Greece, in "wintry" Dodona, 
 as the poet calls it, in the midst of the vast woods and 
 the murmuring fountains, among all the mysterious 
 sounds of nature, that the Greeks first thought they 
 heard the voice of the gods, and that we must look 
 for the cradle of Greek religion and its earliest 
 manifestations. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA. 69 
 
 II. 
 
 The pious pilgrim, when he reached Dodona, found 
 that both the worship and the priestly body there were 
 twofold : with the cult of Jupiter was associated that of 
 a goddess, Dione ; and by the side of the priests called 
 Selli or Tomouri there existed a body of priestesses, 
 known as Peleiades or doves. What was the origin 
 of these divinities and of the priestly bodies devoted 
 to their worship ? The question already occurred to 
 Herodotus, who visited Dodona at the end of the fifth 
 century, and made careful inquiries of the priests con- 
 cerning their sacred legends. Such inquiries caused 
 no embarrassment in the case of any ancient cult, and 
 the priestesses of Dodona related a very interesting 
 story to their inquisitive visitor. It always seemed a 
 pleasure to the ancient Greeks to connect their oldest 
 traditions with Egypt ; the powerful monarchy of the 
 Pharaohs not only gave the tone in art and fashion, but 
 was the object of their admiration in religion as well. 
 Accordingly it was in Egypt that they sought for the 
 remote origin of the shrine of Zeus. Two doves, they 
 said, flew away one day from the city of Thebes in 
 Egypt, and, like the pigeon in the fable, took their flight 
 into distant lands. One alighted in Libya, on the spot 
 where the oracle of Jupiter Ammon was afterwards 
 established ; the other, crossing the sea, flew as far as 
 Dodona, and, perching on an oak, uttered in human 
 voice the command to those who heard her to establish 
 there an oracle of Zeus. Such was the story told to 
 Herodotus by the three priestesses of the temple ; but 
 the old historian, in his naive zeal for the solution of 
 
70 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 religious problems, wished to learn more. When in 
 the course of his travels he chanced to arrive at Thebes, 
 in Egypt, he consulted the priests again ; and this time 
 he was told that two priestesses had been carried off 
 from Egypt by the Phoenicians and sold into slavery, 
 the one in Libya, the other at Dodona. " And on my 
 inquiring how they came to know so exactly what 
 became of the women, they answered that diligent 
 search had been made after them at the time, but it had 
 not been found possible to discover where they were ; 
 afterwards, however, they received the information 
 which they had given me." * Herodotus, who was not 
 exacting in the matter of belief, thought this sufficient, 
 and with the ingenuity of a Greek contrived to reconcile 
 the two legends. In the black dove of Dodona he 
 gladly recognised the dark-complexioned Egyptian, 
 whose barbarous and unintelligible language had been 
 compared to the twittering of a bird, " a curious example 
 of the candid and reasoning credulity of the Greeks, 
 and of the childish trifles which could still beguile the 
 powerful intellect which at the same time was the first 
 to undertake the historian's task." -j- 
 
 Nevertheless there was a basis of truth underlying 
 these sacred legends. After the usual fashion of primi- 
 tive races, the first inhabitants of the valley of Dodona 
 had deified and adored the mysterious forces of nature 
 — Zeus, that is to say, as his surname Naius indicates, 
 the water which penetrates and fertilises the earth, and 
 Dione, the productive forces of the earth itself. But 
 
 * Herodotus, ii. 54-58. (Rawlinson.) 
 
 f Girard, " Dodone et ses Ruines," Repue des deux Mondes, 15 Fev, 
 1879, p. 941. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA. y\ 
 
 Other elements were afterwards added to this primitive 
 conception : the symbol of the dove, closely connected 
 with the oriental cultus of Aphrodite, is an evidence 
 of the importation of foreign rites, an importation which 
 the Egyptian priests pointed out to Herodotus. The 
 primitive goddess, Dione, was confounded with the 
 Syrian deity, and to the Pelasgic priests of Zeus were 
 added a body of foreign priestesses who had followed 
 in the train of Astarte. Hence this double priesthood, 
 of which, without dwelling longer on these mythological 
 mysteries, some details must be given here. 
 
 In the religious history of antiquity, the priesthood 
 of Dodona merits special attention. In a passage of 
 the Homeric poems, Achilles addresses a solemn prayer 
 to the national deity of the barbarous and gloomy 
 country of his birth : " King Zeus, Dodonean, Pelas- 
 gian ! thou that dwellest afar, ruling over wintry 
 Dodona, and around thee dwell the Selli, thy prophets 
 with unwashen feet and couching on the ground." * 
 
 These austere observances, which make the care of 
 the body a hindrance to holiness, would not be sur- 
 prising among the fakirs of Hindostan ; but in the 
 Greek world, in the midst of the free and joyous life 
 of the Homeric poems, this stern apparition contrasts 
 strangely with the general tone of the picture. With- 
 out these few lines of Homer, we should never have 
 suspected the existence of asceticism in the early days 
 of Greece, and we should be tempted to say that the 
 Hellenic world had never known it. In the same way, 
 as we read the sparkling story of a Froissart, we see 
 nothing in the Middle Ages but a world of elegance and 
 
 * I-ang Leaf, Myers, Iliad, xvi. 234. 
 
72 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 frivolity, where all is noise and gaiety, and wears 
 a joyous air till the very day of death, yet, notwith- 
 standing, at that very time was written the Imitatio 
 Christi, so full of melancholy and asceticism.* 
 
 By the side of these pagan cenobites the priestesses 
 of the temple were subjected to an equally severe dis- 
 cipline. In the gloom and barbarism of Epirus, under 
 the stern sway of the ascetics of Tomaros, they 
 soon lost their former grace. They too had to 
 adapt themselves to the atmosphere of the place ; a 
 rigorous system of discipline replaced the laxity of the 
 Syrian temples, and a high-priest, at the head of the 
 double community, was charged with the supervision 
 of the priestly body, lest any external and mundane 
 interests should deprive the deity of their exclusive 
 devotion. 
 
 There was still another reason for the brilliant reputa- 
 tion which the sanctuary of Dodona enjoyed throughout 
 Greece. The mysterious breath of the gods passed 
 through the sacred groves surrounding the temple ; 
 miraculous voices were heard amidst the murmurs of 
 the spring, which gushed out at the foot of the mighty 
 oaks ; the divine will was manifested in the vibrations 
 of the tripods shaken by the wind ; and in all these 
 voices of nature the initiated were enabled to dis- 
 tinguish and to interpret the oracles of the king of 
 heaven. The part played by the oracles in the ancient 
 world and the importance they possessed are well 
 known. To a pious Greek the oracle rendered almost 
 the same services which we now require of our lawyers 
 and doctors. Not only did the cities send official 
 
 * Cf Havet, Le Christianisme et scs On'gines, vol. i., pp. 16-17. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA. 73 
 
 deputations to the god to learn from him the principles 
 of sound policy and the rules of good government, but 
 the most insignificant private person, if at a loss to 
 knov^ what line of conduct to pursue, submitted his 
 doubts and scruples to the oracle. Some sought the 
 means of preserving their own health and that of their 
 relatives, others asked for advice concerning the rearing 
 of their flocks ; merchants inquired whether their 
 speculations would succeed ; and an heir asks whether, 
 in the division of the property, he would do well to 
 take the town or the country house. All come to tell 
 the god their private affairs, and often their communi- 
 cations are of a most confidential character. M. Cara- 
 panos has found among the ruins of Dodona a whole 
 series of questions addressed to the oracle of Zeus, 
 some of which display an amusing nai'veie and indiscre- 
 tion. On one of the small leaden plates, on which the 
 worshipper wrote his question, one worthy man inquires 
 of Zeus whether he has lost the coverlets and pillows, 
 which had disappeared, or whether they have been 
 stolen. Another would like to know, beforehand, 
 whether heaven has other children in store for him 
 besides the daughter he has already ; while other in- 
 quirers were in still greater difficulties, and their 
 questions must sometimes have been extremely embar- 
 rassing to the god.* 
 
 Occasionally, indeed, the oracle was in difficulty. 
 
 * Cf. Carapanos, Dodone et ses Ritines, p. 75. The inquirer often did 
 not tell his name; sometimes, it seems, he asked a mental question. 
 One of the few answers preserved is, no doubt, a response to a 
 question of this kind : " This is the oracle I pronounce — you would 
 be mistaken." 
 
74 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 The questions the faithful wished him to answer were 
 sometimes real riddles. On one of the leaden plates 
 discovered by M. Carapanos, the worshipper inquires 
 whether he will succeed in the undertaking he contem- 
 plates if he acts in the way he proposes. That is all : 
 it was for Zeus to penetrate the intentions of this 
 somewhat incommunicative adorer ; it is not for nothing 
 that one is endowed with second sight. In cases like 
 this, the priests, whose duty it was to interpret the 
 divine revelation, needed rare dexterity and remarkable 
 diplomatic skill, to extricate themselves with credit 
 from such inquiries. Unfortunately very few of the 
 answers of the oracle have been preserved among the 
 inscriptions of Dodona. The reason is evident ; the 
 worshippers were careful to carry away with them the 
 advice given by the god ; but nevertheless, for our sakes, 
 the loss of these documents is greatly to be regretted. 
 We can well imagine, however, from all we know, that 
 the priests were not lacking in ingenuity. They had 
 at their service the dark and obscure style proper to 
 an oracle, in which the goodwill of the faithful could 
 easily find all it wished. Moreover, like wise men, the 
 priests took care ingeniously to regulate the methods 
 of consultation so as not to compromise by awkward 
 answers the credit of the Dodonean Zeus, so lucrative 
 a source of profit to his priests. There were several 
 methods at Dodona of ascertaining the will of the gods. 
 Sometimes it was by listening with religious awe to the 
 rustling of the prophetic oak, sometimes by watching 
 the flight of the doves which, perching on the sacred 
 tree, awoke its voiceless accents. Now they interpreted 
 th^ murpiurs of the miraculous spring, which possessed 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA. 75 
 
 the singular property of extinguishing hghted torches, 
 and lighting those which had gone out, when they were 
 dipped into its waters. Again, they made inquiry 
 of the bronze basins hanging in the sacred grove 
 around the oak of Zeus, whose echoes, indefinitely pro- 
 longed as the sound passed from one to another, gave 
 the answer of the oracle to the questions asked of it. 
 In later times, in order to retain by some ingenious 
 invention the adhesion of the faithful, they invented a 
 new system of divination by bronze. By the side of a 
 bronze basin, upon a column, they placed a statue of a 
 child with a whip in his hand ; and whenever the wind 
 rose, the whip, which was made of three small chains 
 of metal, struck the bronze and made it resound. The 
 echoes cannot have died away for some time ; for it was 
 common in ancient times to compare great talkers to 
 the basin of Dodona. 
 
 Those who had come to consult the oracle did not, 
 however, enter into direct communication with the god. 
 They would have found it difficult indeed to interpret, 
 in a satisfactory way, all the mysterious voices of 
 nature through which the divine will was made known ; 
 and on the other hand, there were many reasons why 
 the priests should wish to exercise a close supervision 
 over the rites of divination. Accordingly they gave small 
 leaden plates to the worshippers who were desirous of 
 consulting the god, upon which each wrote his question 
 and generally his name and country as well ; but they 
 were on their guard lest any one should put a question 
 which would be too indiscreet — that is, too difficult to 
 answer. There were certain sacred formulae, certain 
 regular models, suggested or dictated by the priest, 
 
76 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 according to which the inquirer framed his question. 
 The people of Corcyra, for instance, wished to know 
 how they might re-estabhsh a settled government in 
 their city, which was distracted by civil discord ; but 
 the oracle was too wise to accept the question in such 
 a shape. It had no desire to take the part of any of 
 the factions which were then dividing the state, and the 
 ingenious priest discovered a device by which Zeus 
 need not be entangled in the thankless business of 
 politics. He dictated to the Corcyrean envoy the 
 following question, which is not so difficult to answer. 
 " To which of the gods must prayers and sacrifices be 
 offered, that peace may be restored ? " The gain was 
 twofold, for Zeus was no longer in danger of faUing 
 out with the republic, and, what was more, he could, 
 like a courteous deity, direct the faithful to the altars 
 of another god, thus carrying on a very profitable ex- 
 change of civilities with the neighbouring shrines, which, 
 without compromising his credit, might bring him a 
 windfall in his turn. The leaden plate was next com- 
 mitted to the priestesses of the temple, whose special 
 office it was to interpret the meaning of the divine 
 manifestations. Formerly the priestesses themselves 
 communicated the answer of the god to the inquirers, 
 but in later times it was found unseemly to bring the 
 women engaged in the service of the temple into direct 
 contact with worshippers whose temper was somewhat 
 rough and coarse ; and from that time the priests became 
 the interpreters to the people of the will of Zeus, and 
 dictated to them the oracles given by the priestesses.* 
 In order to show their gratitude to Zeus for his kind- 
 
 * Bouche Leclercq, Histoire de la Divination p. 297. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT UODONA. J"] 
 
 ness and his good advice, the faithful before carrying 
 home the answer of the oracle, vied with one another 
 in zeal and liberality. Numbers of pious offerings were 
 placed by them in the treasury of the temple, or solemnly 
 sent as thank-offerings to the great god of Dodona. 
 A certain number of these ex-votos have been found 
 in the course of the excavations: tripods of bronze, 
 vases of the same metal, jewels and articles of the 
 toilette, all gifts bestowed by the obscure worshippers 
 who flocked to the shrine. The offerings of the cities 
 were more magnificent ; Athens, which was always 
 specially devoted to Dodona and even in the last days 
 of its existence as a free state zealously consulted the 
 oracle, sent a solemn embassy with great pomp, to bear 
 a complete set of ornaments for the statue of the 
 goddess Dione. Princes like Alexander bequeathed 
 considerable sums to the sanctuary. But by the side 
 of these contented clients some, it might be feared, 
 would be found who were dissatisfied. During his 
 prolonged career as a prophet Zeus sometimes made 
 mistakes, and those who suffered from his ill-advice had 
 occasionally the bad taste to complain. Consequently, 
 it was found desirable to preserve carefully in the sacred 
 archives the text of the questions put by the faithful, 
 that it might be produced in case of necessity, so as 
 to prove by documentary evidence that they had not 
 expressed themselves clearly and had only themselves 
 to blame for their misfortunes. It is to this custom 
 that we owe the leaden plates discovered by M. Cara- 
 panos. Nevertheless, a choice was made among this 
 mass of documents : the more important were put on one 
 side ; and on busy days the old plates of no particular 
 
78 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE, 
 
 interest were given out again to the faithful. This is 
 the reason why some of the plates found at Dodona 
 bear several inscriptions. 
 
 III. 
 
 The discoveries of M. Carapanos are sufficient to 
 prove the high reputation of the oracle and the variety 
 of people who consulted it. In the inscriptions dis- 
 covered at the shrine we meet with the names of great 
 states like Corcyra and Tarentum, and of private 
 individuals from all parts of Greece, Dorians and 
 Aeolians, inhabitants of the coasts of Epirus and of the 
 neighbouring islands, Athenians and Spartans, men and 
 women of every tribe and every rank, shepherds and 
 merchants, sailors and labourers. Still, an oracle which 
 valued its reputation could not for its own credit's sake 
 be satisfied with such obscure patronage ; and just as 
 in some hotels the names of illustrious visitors are 
 inscribed upon a' marble slab, so a register was kept at 
 Dodona of the people of distinction who had consulted 
 the oracle, and all the mythical heroes of Greece were 
 to be found in this Golden Book. Achilles and Ulysses, 
 Orestes and Aeneas, had come to beg for advice or 
 information from the god ; nor had the gods themselves 
 disdained to ask for guidance from the oracle : Bacchus 
 had come to seek the reason he had lost ; and Hercules, 
 who had caused such an uproar at Delphi, had conducted 
 himself at Dodona as an obedient son of Zeus, and had 
 learned in return that the end of his sufferings was 
 approaching. Many other titles to fame were inscribed 
 in the records of the sanctuary, and in especial that of 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODONA. 79 
 
 having furnished the wood of which the Argonauts 
 built their ship. 
 
 These were briUiant records, and very necessary in 
 order to maintain the fame and credit of the temple. 
 Soon indeed the ancient cult of Zeus saw that of 
 younger divinities arising by its side, and the oracle of 
 Delphi entering into competition with that of Dodona. 
 This was not to the advantage of the Epirot priests, who 
 consequently spared no efforts to restore their waning 
 popularity. They invented new ways of prophesying, 
 similar to those of Delphi. The Pythia drank of the 
 miraculous spring, and was seized with the sacred 
 frenzy ; the priestess of Zeus did the same, and her 
 predictions also were in verse. Apollo had splendid 
 games at Delphi, whose magnificence was an eyesore 
 to the priests of Dodona ; so they devised others in their 
 turn, and celebrated the Naian games in the great theatre 
 built at the foot of the temple. For a long time they 
 kept the balance even, thanks above all to the uprightness 
 with which they uttered their predictions and to the 
 reputation for truthfulness they were able to preserve. 
 When Delphi swerved from the straight path and the 
 Pythia philippised, Dodona was incorruptible ; and so 
 great was the credit that it gained, that Sparta, although 
 an hereditary adherent of Apollo, sent ambassadors to 
 its shrine. Athens was profuse in her attentions, and 
 all the great men of Attica, poets like Aeschylus and 
 Sophocles, statesmen like Xenophon and Demosthenes 
 could not sufficiently express their admiration and 
 respect for the Epirot sanctuary. 
 
 But popular veneration is both changeful and capri- 
 cious, and finally it deserted Dodona. Zeus, too, was 
 
80 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 on the decline : he had advised the SiciHan expedition, 
 and the Athenians had sufficient reason to regret having 
 followed his advice. No doubt he had explained after 
 the event that the Athenians had misunderstood the 
 oracle, and that the Sicily he meant was a small district 
 in the neighbourhood of Dodona. Still it would have 
 needed a robust faith to return to so clumsy a deity. 
 Mistake followed mistake ; the princes of Epirus, under 
 the protection of Dodona, perished one after the other, to 
 the great confusion of the oracle, and some other unfortu- 
 nate incidents caused it to fall into complete discredit. 
 A new method of consulting the deity had been invented, 
 when an unlucky monkey chanced to upset the vessel 
 containing the lots, and threw all the arrangements for 
 drawing them into confusion. The oracle could not 
 withstand the blow. It was in vain that the priests left 
 no stone unturned. While the oracle of Ammon for- 
 warded the water from its miraculous spring to lovers 
 of magic spells throughout the world, the priests of 
 Dodona submitted their sacred groves to an annual 
 cutting, and retailed the wood in small quantities to 
 pilgrims as a kind of domestic oracle easy to carry on 
 a journey. It was all of no avail. Overthrown by the 
 Aetolians, plundered by the Romans and afterwards by 
 the Thracians, the temple of Dodona was deserted as early 
 as the first century ; and not long after, that merciless 
 jester, Lucian, brought upon the stage the unfortunate 
 Zeus of Dodona, forsaken by every one and whining 
 over his forlorn condition like a high priest in an 
 operetta.* "There was a time," says the god, "when 
 men took me for a prophet and a physician, when I was 
 
 * Lucian, Ikaromenippos, 780-81. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DODOt^A. 8 1 
 
 everything, in short, and streets and market-places were 
 full of the name of Zeus. Then Dodona and Pisa were 
 brilliant and famous, — I could not see for the smoke of 
 the sacrifices ; but since Apollo set up his oracle at 
 Delphi, and Aesculapius his surgery at Pergamum, 
 since Thrace built a temple to Bendis, Egypt to 
 Anubis, and Ephesus to Artemis, they are all running to 
 these new gods ; they are holding solemn assemblies and 
 offering hecatombs. As for a poor worn-out old god like 
 me, they think it honour enough if once in five whole 
 years they offer me a sacrifice at Olympia ; and so my 
 altars have grown colder than the laws of Plato or 
 the syllogisms of Chrysippus." To end like Calchas 
 when one has been Jupiter is a sad fate, and this 
 melancholy episode, which recalls the Dteux en exit, 
 must not be our last impression of Dodona. In the 
 imaginary picture-gallery described by the sophist 
 Philostratus, one painting represented Dodona in its 
 glory. "The wise dove with golden wings is still 
 perching upon the prophetic oak to repeat the oracles 
 sent by Zeus ; fillets are hung upon the tree ; for, like 
 the Delphic tripod, it utters oracles. Here comes one 
 to ask a question, another to offer sacrifice. He is sur- 
 rounded at the moment by a band of Thebans. As to 
 those soothsayers of Zeus whose feet are untouched by 
 water, and who sleep on the hard ground, they are men 
 without thought for the morrow, with no certain liveli- 
 hood. Moreover they desire none, declaring that they 
 are well-pleasing to Zeus when they thus content them- 
 selves with whatever first comes to hand. Among these 
 priests of Zeus one is engaged in decorating the walls 
 of the temple, another is reciting prayers ; here one is 
 
 6 
 
82 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 arranging the consecrated cakes, another the barley and 
 the baskets ; one cuts the victim's throat, another skins 
 it. On this side you will recognise the priestesses of 
 Dodona by their grave and venerable aspect ; one might 
 say that they inhale the odour of perfumes and libations. 
 Moreover the painter has represented the smoke of the 
 incense which envelops the scene, and even the divine 
 voices with which it resounds. Here is a bronze statue 
 of the nymph Echo laying her hand upon her lips ; 
 in fact, among the offerings consecrated to Zeus in the 
 temple of Dodona, there was a basin which resounded 
 the greater part of the day, and which was only silent 
 when it was touched." 
 
 I do not know whether this picture ever existed, but 
 it certainly offers a lively representation of the reality 
 which has passed away. In the ancient world, such as 
 we imagine it, these austere forms of mystic cenobites, 
 these grave and gentle figures of priestesses walking in 
 a cloud of incense, are a strange and unprecedented 
 sight, and we must be grateful to the learned Greek 
 whose filial piety has excavated the site of the vanished 
 shrine, and restored to our sight the sacred spot which 
 was the cradle of religious life in Greece. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EXCAVATIONS ON THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 
 
 Books of Reference : 
 
 Prof. Gardner, " New Chapters in Greek History." 
 
 Harrison and Verrall, "Mythology and Monuments of Ancient 
 Athens." 
 
 Cavvadias, Mtise'es d'Athenes, 1886. 
 
 Boetticher, "Die Akropolis," Berlin, 1888. 
 
 Ephemeris archaiologike, 1886, '87, '88. 
 For sculpture : — 
 
 E. A. Gardner, Journ. Hell. Studies, vol. viii. 
 
 Studnicza, Mitth. XL, Jahrbuch d. d. Arch. Inst., ii. 155; and 
 
 Winter, Mitth. XIIL, Jahrbuch ii. ; and 
 
 Bruckner, Mitth. XIV. 
 
 Lechat, Bull, Corr. Hell,, xii. and xiii. 
 For Temple of Athena : — 
 
 Doerpfeld, Mitth. XL and XII. 
 Reproduction of statues in Ephemeris and in the Antike Denkmaeler, 
 pi. I, 2, 18, 19, 29, 30, and 39. 
 
 Before the hour of full expansion arrives, in which 
 art reaches its perfection, there is in all schools a time 
 of slow preparation, during which the artist, whether 
 painter or sculptor, is groping his way, and by patient 
 and fruitful efforts sowing the seed which time shall 
 ripen and gather in. Before Raphael and Michael 
 Angelo came the early masters of Florence and Sienna, 
 before Phidias and Praxiteles, the early Attic sculptors. 
 It is true that the works of these old masters are some- 
 times very natfin their inexperience; their hand is still 
 uncertain, and sometimes fails to express their thought ; 
 
84 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 they are fettered by traditional methods, and the con- 
 ventions of their school, yet this inevitable awkwardness 
 is redeemed by precious qualities — by the sincerity of 
 their inspiration, by the freshness of their imagination, 
 and by the singular charm of that grace, not yet free 
 from stiffness, which marks the works of early art. 
 The works of these ancient schools have yet another 
 attraction : they arose amid closely circumscribed sur- 
 roundings and under certain narrowly limited influences 
 which have made each of them original ; whereas in 
 a period of full artistic development there is a free 
 exchange of methods and ideas, early schools are as it 
 were thrown back upon themselves, and draw from 
 their own stores the inspirations which they render on 
 marble or on canvas. The Italian cities of the Middle 
 Ages — Sienna, Assisi, Perugia — each strike a different 
 note in the great harmony of art, and thus they leave 
 on the mind of a visitor a distinct impression which 
 charms him by its very unity ; and in the early Attic 
 school as it has been revealed to us by the recent 
 excavations on the Acropolis the case was almost the 
 same. Until the last few years the old school of Attic 
 sculptors was little more than a name ; all our know- 
 ledge of it was derived from a few passages in the works 
 of ancient writers, and a few artists' signatures; its 
 works had almost wholly disappeared. All we knew 
 was that artistic development was slower in Attica than 
 in other parts of Greece. Attic art scarcely existed 
 at the time when the schools of Samos and Chios 
 were flourishing, and those of Sparta and Sicyon were 
 already springing up. Towards the middle of the sixth 
 century we meet with one name — that of the sculptor 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 85 
 
 Endoeus, who ac- 
 cording to the 
 legend was a pupil 
 of the famous 
 Daedalus, and this 
 name, with a few 
 others, represented 
 all we knew of 
 the first school of 
 Attic sculpture. 
 Later on, at the end 
 of the sixth century 
 or the commence- 
 ment of the fifth, 
 we caught a 
 glimpse of a second 
 group of artists, 
 Antenor, Critius, 
 Nesiotes, H e g e- 
 sias ; and it was 
 believed that in 
 a celebrated group 
 now in the|^ Naples 
 Museum we might 
 catch a faint echo 
 of one of the most 
 famous works of 
 this school — the 
 Tyrannicides, 
 Harmodius and 
 Aristogiton. But 
 in reality we pos- 
 
 Harmodius (Museum of Naples). 
 
86 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 sessed nothing more than the name of any of these 
 masters. A few sentences from ancient critics attempted 
 to describe their style, and from these scanty notices 
 we divined that it was sinewy and dry, " rigid, exactly 
 outlined, and marked by strain and effort." * 
 
 The recent excavations on the Acropolis have thrown 
 a flood of light upon the history of this early art, in a 
 way which is as remarkable as it was unexpected. On 
 the spot where the masterpieces of Phidias seemed to 
 have left no room for any glory but his own, on ground 
 which had been explored in every direction, and which 
 seemed to admit no hope of any further discovery, there 
 has been found an incomparable series of precious 
 monuments. Under the heap of debris above which 
 the Parthenon of Pericles rises like a statue on its 
 pedestal, fragments have gradually been brought to 
 light of all the ancient monuments which covered 
 the rock of the Acropolis before the Persian wars ; and 
 the museums of Athens contain to-day a collection 
 of statues in marble, bronze and calcareous tufa, or 
 "poros," which the soil has given back to us still 
 brilliant in the freshness of their colouring, and adorned 
 with the strange and mysterious charm of early art. In 
 this unbroken series of monuments, which brings before 
 us the gradual progress of Attic art from its earliest 
 days, science has found invaluable data, not only for 
 the history of this branch of art, but for the early 
 history of Greek sculpture as a whole. The artist and 
 the archaeologist have found materials for long years 
 of study, and the lover of the beautiful that which will 
 both excite his curiosity and satisfy his admiration, in 
 * Lucian, Rhetorical Precepts, p. 9. 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 8/ 
 
 these wonders of an art which is at once naif and 
 scientific. We cannot be sufficiently grateful to the 
 Greek government, which has undertaken the immense 
 labour of these excava- 
 tions, or to M. Cavvadias, 
 the Director of Antiquities, 
 who has brought them to 
 a successful termination. 
 Thanks to him, dis- 
 coveries have been made 
 on the Acropolis which 
 undoubtedly form the 
 most memorable archaeo- 
 logical achievement of this 
 century, if not of all time. 
 
 I. 
 
 As early as the year 
 1863, several discoveries 
 made bychance had raised 
 a suspicion of the riches 
 which were still buried 
 under the masses of debris 
 accumulated on the Acro- 
 polis. At the foot of the 
 northern slope of the rock 
 below the Erechtheum 
 had been discovered a 
 seated statue of Athena, which was a curious relic of 
 archaic art ; and in the following year a statue of a man 
 carrying a calf on his shoulders, which was soon known 
 under the name of the Moschophorus, was found on 
 
 The Athena of Endocus (Acropolis 
 Museum). 
 
88 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the east of the Acropolis. At the same time other 
 fragments of statues, and especially a fine head of 
 the goddess Athena, were found in the great mass of 
 earth which extends below the eastern front of the 
 Parthenon. A single glance was sufficient to show that 
 these figures had nothing in common with the art 
 of Phidias ; but at the moment other matters claimed 
 the attention of the Greeks, and no attempt was made 
 to follow up the vein which chance had opened. 
 
 It was not until 1882 that it was resolved to attack 
 the great embankment, thirty-three feet high, which 
 supports the Parthenon on its eastern side, and then a 
 number of interesting discoveries were at once made. 
 There were found, among many other things, a marble 
 bas-relief of very early style, representing Athena seated 
 and receiving the homage of her worshippers, also statues 
 of women in long robes enriched with bright-coloured 
 ornaments, among them a marble bust of exquisite fresh- 
 ness and grace ; and above all, a multitude of scattered 
 fragments which, when put together with admirable 
 patience, make it possible to reconstruct several fine 
 decorative sculptures. Some fresh fragments belonging 
 to the head of Athena, discovered in 1863, afforded a 
 glimpse of the attitude of the goddess, represented as in 
 the heat of battle ; while others, again, by showing her 
 adversaries, enabled archaeologists to divine the subject 
 of the scene. It was an episode of the struggle between 
 the gods and the giants ; and the group, as is shown 
 by the condition of the marble, left unworked at the 
 back, served to adorn the pediment of some very 
 ancient temple. A still more remarkable discovery was 
 that of fragments from another pediment, representing 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 89 
 
 Hercules fighting with the Lernaean hydra, which is 
 undoubtedly one of the oldest remains of Attic sculpture. 
 Both material and technique are, in fact, particularly 
 strange and curious. Carved from a block of tufa, 
 rather coarse in grain and grayish in colour, the figures 
 stood out in very low relief against the background of 
 the pediment. In order to supply the deficiencies of 
 a still unpractised chisel, the artist called colour to his 
 aid, and the red hue of the flesh and the black of the 
 eyes, hair and beard throw the figures into stronger 
 relief against the deep blue background. 
 
 At the same time, these were merely interesting 
 archaeological discoveries, of the kind which only reveal 
 their secrets with difficulty to the few experts, not 
 such as by their brilliancy excite the interest and strike 
 the attention even of the uninitiated, A success of the 
 latter kind was, however, about to crown the excavation 
 on the Acropolis, These excavations had been resumed 
 in November 1885 in the space between the northern 
 wall of the Acropolis and the end of the Erechtheum, 
 when suddenly, on February 5th and 6th, 1886, fourteen 
 female statues of Parian marble were discovered, eight 
 of which, by a piece of good fortune rarely vouchsafed 
 to ancient marbles, had kept their heads upon their 
 shoulders. The circumstances of this unexpected dis- 
 covery were well fitted to stimulate curiosity. Buried 
 from ten to fourteen feet beneath the surface, in the 
 midst of a confused mass of debris in which ancient 
 inscriptions, rough stones and fragments of buildings 
 were heaped together, and hidden in a layer of rubbish 
 which extended from the rock itself up to the founda- 
 tions of the Acropolis-wall, these statues had preserved 
 
90 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 in their hiding-place a wonderful brilliancy of colouring. 
 Scarcely had the marks of fire in a few cases dimmed 
 the bright colours which adorned their faces and set 
 off the whiteness of the marble with brilliant designs. 
 Whence came these strange idols, so unlike the goddesses 
 
 Archaic female figure (Acropolis Museum). 
 
 of Greece ? What century gave birth to these maidens 
 with their dyed hair and painted faces, with their orna- 
 ments and jewels? What do these heads represent, 
 with this strange expression, this mysterious and 
 haughty smile ? What train of circumstances immured 
 them in this subterranean prison, from which the pick- 
 axe of the excavator has just released them ? While 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 9 1 
 
 archaeologists were seeking a solution of these difficult 
 problems, each day brought new discoveries, female 
 statues similar to the earlier ones, and bronze work of 
 the most skilful execution, thus rendering the search 
 more exciting, and rousing a more passionate interest 
 in these wonderful remains of archaic art. 
 
 Although they were not all of the same date, a close 
 relationship existed among all these monuments. In 
 spite of differences of detail, a continuous progress 
 was visible in them, and from the clumsy imitations of 
 sculpture in wood up to the work of an art which was 
 already expressive and almost perfect, all bore the 
 impress of the old sculptors of the early schools. The 
 attitude of all the female figures is stiff, and their pose 
 almost hieratic. They stand erect, their arms close to 
 their sides, and while the left hand raises the folds of 
 their long robes, the right arm is extended and holds 
 an apple or a pomegranate. The fore-arm, generally 
 worked in a separate piede, is wanting in almost all these 
 statues. They are all dressed in the same way ; and this 
 is particularly important in connection with the history of 
 ancient dress : they wear a long, closely fitting tunic or 
 chiton, falling in large folds to the feet, over which is a 
 short chemisette or vest, carefully crimped and plaited, 
 which reaches to the waist; and in the majority of 
 cases a thick woollen mantle besides is arranged in wide 
 full folds over the bust. 
 
 Their coiffure is truly marvellous. Like all primitive 
 races, the Hellenes of this early age introduced number- 
 less refinements and the most studied elegance into 
 their toilette, both in the splendour of their dress and 
 in the skilful and coquettish arrangement of their hair. 
 
92 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Among the inhabitants of the Ionian cities especially, 
 pomatum and curling-tongs were in constant use, "They 
 comb their curling locks," says an old poet, "before 
 they repair to the temple of the goddess ; they array 
 themselves in splendid garments, and their tunics, white 
 as snow, sweep the ground ; their hair waves in the 
 breeze from beneath their gilded circlets, and golden 
 ornaments glitter on their heads." The same customs 
 prevailed in Athens, and the fashionable youths of 
 ancient Attica, with their long floating locks covered 
 with jewels and dripping with perfume, almost re- 
 sembled women in appearance. It is related that 
 Theseus, when a boy, as he was once walking abroad in 
 this rich attire, met with a very amusing misadventure. 
 Some workmen who saw him passing in all his finery 
 began to titter and to say, " What young girl is this, old 
 enough to be married, who is running about the streets 
 alone ? " Theseus said nothing, but, like a true hero of 
 romance, he unyoked the oxen "from a passing cart and 
 threw them over a neighbouring temple, thus proving 
 conclusively that they had been mistaken in him. 
 
 This characteristic feature of archaic art is not wanting 
 to the Acropolis statues. Their hair is arranged on 
 their foreheads in three or four rows of little curls, 
 one above the other, and kept in place by a metal 
 circlet. At the back of the head the hair falls in long 
 parallel tresses, some of which are brought forward and 
 arranged symmetrically over the breast. Sometimes 
 metal spirals are intertwined with the curls on the fore- 
 head, to keep them in place ; sometimes simpler and 
 lighter curls form the only ornament; while in other cases 
 there are large golden flowers on the crown of the head, 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 93 
 
 springing from an iron stalk. In all we notice the love of 
 ornament, and the coquetry, versed in every art of 
 pleasing, with which the archaic sculptors endowed their 
 works. The heads of these statues are not less character- 
 istic than their head-dress. The eye is long, sometimes 
 narrow and oblique, always very prominent ; the mouth 
 is drawn into the typical smile, still somewhat awkward 
 and foolish, which very early artists place upon the lips 
 of their statues ; they present, in fact, the traditional types 
 of archaic figures, such as we shall meet with again at 
 Delos and at Eleusis. What is most remarkable about 
 them, however, is the brilliancy of their colouring, which 
 makes the outlines of their features, and the splendour 
 of their dress stand out against the whiteness of the 
 marble. Their robes are bordered or enamelled with 
 embroideries of various colours, with the key-pattern in 
 green or purple and with crosses in blue or green ; heavy 
 discs of gold hang from their ears ; bracelets and diadems 
 enhance the splendour of their dress ; while their reddish 
 hair and eyeballs tinged with carmine give a strange 
 expression, a glow of life as it were, to their faces. 
 We need to see, if not the statues themselves, at least 
 an exact reproduction of them, in order to understand 
 the delicate charm of these strange faces, and the 
 attraction of their somewhat ironical and mocking 
 expression, in which disdain is sometimes touched with 
 a shade of haughty benevolence ; and I cannot too 
 strongly recommend all those who have access to the 
 Antike Denkmaeler, published by the German Archaeo- 
 logical Institute, to examine the fine plate (No. 19), 
 in which two of these marvellous statues are repro- 
 duced in all the splendour of their brilliant colouring. 
 
94 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the antiquity of these 
 works of art which have been so strangely recovered : 
 they certainly date from the sixth century b.c. But 
 whom do these statues represent ? Are we to recognise 
 divinities or simple mortals in these youthful figures ? 
 It was thought at first, and many still think, that we 
 might identify them with the tutelary divinity of Athens 
 the great goddess Athena. But, apart from the fact 
 that the individual character of many of these heads 
 seems to show that they are portraits, a still graver 
 objection has been raised against this explanation. 
 Long before the time when these statues were made, 
 the type of Athena seems to have been already fixed ; 
 and both in the seated statue found at the foot of the 
 Acropolis in 1863, in which archaeologists have thought 
 they recognise a work of Endoeus, as well as in a series 
 of archaic bronze statuettes found in the course of the 
 recent excavations, the goddess is represented with the 
 aegis on her breast, a helmet on her head, and some- 
 times a shield in her hand. There is nothing of this 
 kind in the Acropolis statues ; one must seek elsewhere 
 for the cause which gave them birth. We know that 
 in certain ancient cults it was customary for the wor- 
 shippers to place their own images in the temple of the 
 god, that they might be always before his eyes and 
 merit his constant favour by a perpetual act of adoration : 
 the greater part of the statues found by M. de Cesnola in 
 the island of Cyprus owe their origin to this custom. 
 It appears that the same usage existed among the 
 Greeks ; and on the Acropolis itself statues of 
 priestesses or of private individuals have been found, 
 set up as votive offerings around the temple, — as for 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 95 
 
 example the figures of seated scribes, archaic marbles 
 of which some fragments have been preserved, and the 
 statue of the Moschophorus, who is undoubtedly nothing 
 but a sacrificer. In all probability the youthful female 
 statues on the Acropolis owe their origin to the same 
 custom ; their attitude of offering and adoration seems 
 to confirm the theory, and it is natural to regard 
 them as statues set up in honour of the priestesses 
 of Athena.* 
 
 We must now explain how it is that these figures, 
 which are almost intact, were nevertheless thrown like 
 refuse into the midst of a heap of rubbish ; and in 
 order to do so we must recall a fact which it is easy to 
 forget in the presence of the incomparable buildings 
 erected on the Acropolis in the age of Pericles — namely, 
 that long before the fifth century other buildings stood 
 upon Athena's sacred hill. The goddess had a temple 
 there in very early times, and Pisistratus the tyrant, 
 who was especially devoted to her worship, adorned 
 this primitive building with unusual splendour. Other 
 monuments rose upon the rocky plateau of the citadel, 
 within the narrow compass defended by the old Pelasgic 
 wall, but there is scarcely any mention of these early 
 temples to be found in the ancient authors ; all traces 
 of them had disappeared from the Acropolis. Between 
 the time of Pisistratus and that of Pericles a terrible 
 disaster had fallen upon the citadel of Athens. During 
 the second Persian war, in 480 B.C., the Persians seized 
 the Acropolis, and avenged upon its monuments the 
 defeat of their fathers at Marathon. Its temples were 
 
 * [For objections to this view see Professor Gardner, New Chapters 
 in Greek History, p. 250. — E.R.P.] 
 
96 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 97 
 
 given to the flames, its statues carried away or shattered 
 into a thousand pieces ; and, as though this first cata- 
 strophe was not sufficient, in the following year the 
 Persians returned to complete their work of destruction. 
 When at last the victories of Salamis and Plataea 
 enabled the Athenians to return to their ruined city, 
 their first care was to rebuild the temples of their gods, 
 and by the erection of stronger walls to ensure their 
 more efficient protection for the future. It was indeed 
 a gigantic undertaking. The Acropolis was covered 
 with debris, and before they could begin to rebuild, the 
 heaps of rubbish must be swept away. On the other 
 hand, they wished to enlarge its area in order to give 
 the new buildings a splendour worthy of the new city, 
 and to protect them better by building the new walls 
 on the outer edge of the rock ; for this purpose the 
 inequalities of the old Acropolis must be levelled, and 
 an extensive artificial plateau constructed in its place. 
 To complete this great work Cimon employed all the 
 debris, now useless for any other purpose, of the 
 buildings and statues which had been overthrown. 
 What else could he have done with them ? Almost all 
 the older temples were built of calcareous tufa, and he 
 wished to cover the new Acropolis with marble; while as 
 for the statues, the greater part of them were lying on 
 the ground broken into a thousand fragments, and as 
 no sacred character attached to these offerings dedicated 
 by the piety of the faithful, he had no scruple in em- 
 ploying the stone, which had lost all value through its 
 mutilation, in the reconstruction of the citadel. 
 
 We may still see in the north wall of the Acropolis 
 the columns, the metopes and the triglyphs of the old 
 
 7 
 
98 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 temple of Pisistratus, and the lower courses of the 
 southern wall are entirely constructed with blocks of 
 tufa from the buildings overthrown by the Persians. 
 Everything which could be of service as building material 
 was made use of in this way ; and the remainder, that 
 is, the dedicatory inscriptions, architectural fragments, 
 broken pedestals, and mutilated statues, were used as 
 rubbish to level the inequalities of the hill. This has 
 been conclusively proved by the recent excavations. 
 In the great heap of rubbish in which the Acropolis 
 statues were found, several layers of unhewn stone 
 have been observed, which correspond to the courses 
 of the outer citadel wall. This shows us clearly in 
 what way the building was carried on. When the 
 circuit-wall had reached a certain height, a mass of 
 broken pieces of stone and rubbish was shot into the 
 empty space left between the wall and the sloping side 
 of the rock, while over this, in order to give the work- 
 men who were constructing the wall a solid foot-hold, 
 was placed a layer of unhewn stones. This was 
 repeated on the plateau thus broadened and the soil 
 thus raised, until the day when a new foundation was 
 ready for the new Parthenon. In this way all that 
 had formerly adorned the Acropolis of Pisistratus still 
 existed beneath the buildings of the fifth century, and 
 it only needed a lucky stroke of the pickaxe to restore 
 to us these buried treasures. From the time of the 
 startling discoveries of February 1886, the excavations 
 which had had so brilliant a beginning continued 
 without interruption until January 1889. Every corner 
 of the Acropolis was minutely explored ; and the heaps 
 of earth which covered it were cleared away down to 
 
 V 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 09 
 
 the reck itself. For three years this marvellous vein 
 was not exhausted ; for three years the pickaxe con- 
 tinued to bring to light a series of remains as beautiful 
 as the earlier products of these surprising excavations, 
 and still more remarkable. Up to the end of 1887 
 marble and bronze were the materials of the finest 
 works discovered, but in 1888 new sculptures were 
 brought to life in calcareous tufa, very like the pedi- 
 ments in soft stone found in 1882, one of which 
 represented the struggle between Hercules and the 
 Hydra. The groups discovered in the course of these 
 excavations seem also to be connected with the legend 
 of Hercules ; and although they were found shattered 
 into a thousand pieces, it has been possible by patient 
 and skilful restoration to reconstruct them in the 
 Acropolis museum sufficiently to give us a clear con- 
 ception of these ancient and interesting remains. 
 
 The first of these groups represents the struggle 
 between Hercules and Triton, a subject found in one 
 of the pediments of 1882, and which also figures in 
 the bas-reliefs from Assos in the Louvre. The hero, 
 whose head, larger than life, is painted in the most 
 brilliant hues, kneels with his right knee on the ground, 
 and presses the body of the monster firmly against his 
 breast, while its hinder part stretches away in snaky 
 coils. The other group, which undoubtedly formed 
 a companion to the first, is very similar in design, but 
 still more interesting. Here we see three monsters, 
 or rather one monster with three human bodies, each 
 with a man's head, with huge wings upon its back and 
 with a long snaky tail, which extends in winding coils 
 for a length of about six feet. It probably represents 
 
100 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the monster Typhon, defeated by Hercules, and a 
 head of tufa found near it seems to have belonged to 
 the victorious hero. The subject of the third group 
 is quite different : it represents a bull brought down by 
 two lions, which are already beginning to devour it; 
 its head touches the ground, its open mouth utters 
 its last bellowing, whilst the lions, laying their mighty 
 paws on the fallen beast, are 
 tearing it until its blood flows. 
 In order to give an exact 
 idea of these interesting works, 
 our imperfect description should 
 be accompanied by a faithful 
 reproduction of the sculptures 
 themselves, and all who have 
 access to the Antike Denkmaeler 
 of the German Archaeological 
 Institute will do well to consult 
 the fine plate (No. 30), which 
 gives one of the heads of 
 Typhon, that already famous, 
 from its brilliant colouring, under the name of Bluebeard. 
 One of the most noteworthy points, indeed, in these 
 old statues is the strange and almost violent colours 
 with which they are painted. Every part of the 
 body is covered with brilliant hues. The beard and 
 hair are blue, the eyeballs green ; and in a little hole 
 which represents the pupil a sort of black enamel 
 lights up the face with a gleam of life. The ears, 
 lips and cheeks are coloured red, and the exposed 
 parts of the body are painted a light red, almost rose 
 colour, in imitation of the natural colour of the flesh. 
 
 Poros head of Typhon 
 (Acropohs Museum). 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF^ ATHENS. lOI 
 
 The serpentine coils in which these monstrous figures 
 end are painted in wide parallel bands, alternately red 
 and blue ; the same colours are found in the wings of 
 Typhon, and make the minutely worked details of the 
 feathers stand out clearly. The same realistic tendency is 
 evident in the group of animals. The bodies of the lions 
 are light red, and contrast strongly with their bright red 
 manes ; the bull is blue, with large red spots here and 
 there, where the blood is escaping through open wounds. 
 The colouring of the head is especially remarkable, and 
 thanks to its wonderfully good preservation, the com- 
 bined effect is as strange as it is powerful. "It would 
 be rash to attempt to analyse the qualities of groups in 
 so fragmentary a state. Yet in the better preserved 
 portions we find a powerful chisel and a practised hand; 
 they are the work of a sculptor who is still bound by 
 certain artistic conventions, but is already free from all 
 clumsiness."* In the Typhon group, the three bodies 
 placed one behind the other are not the work of an 
 incompetent artist ; in the Hercules, although the 
 muscles of the right leg are in almost exaggerated 
 relief, the long torso is vigorous and supple, and 
 the bodies of the serpents, so powerfully twisted and 
 interlaced, show a desire to be forcible which has not 
 been fruitless. It is true that if we compare these 
 sculptures in tufa, the workmanship of which is some- 
 what hasty and rough, with the graceful female 
 figures in marble of which the Acropolis Museum 
 contains so many, we shall not find in them the same 
 delicacy of modelling, the same minute attention to 
 detail, or the exquisite and studied refinement in 
 
 * Lechat, "Fouilles de I'Acropole" {Bull, de Corr. Hell., xiii. 141). 
 
102 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 ornament and attire which distinguish these delightful 
 sculptures. 
 
 The excellence of the pedimental groups consists 
 in their somewhat rugged strength and their rather 
 uncouth power ; for the uneven quaUty of the stone 
 in which they are carved did not admit of delicate and 
 careful workmanship, nor did the place they held in 
 the decoration of the buildings they adorned render it 
 necessary. It is probable that these groups, which are 
 from ten to thirteen feet in length and not quite two 
 feet and a half in height, served to decorate the pediment 
 of a temple. The coils of the serpents' bodies gradually 
 grow more slender, as though they were designed to fill 
 the gradually diminishing space in the angle of the 
 pediment. "As we see the favour which legends of 
 this sort have met with among archaic sculptors, we 
 may ask whether the cause of this favour was not the 
 ease with which the coils of these snake-like monsters 
 could be made to fill the triangular space of the 
 pediment."* 
 
 At the time when these interesting monuments were 
 found, which are contemporary with the very beginnings 
 of Attic art, other works also were being constantly 
 brought to light to enrich the Museum of Athens. 
 There were very ancient bronze statuettes, like that 
 of Apollo, the modelling of which is so good and the 
 anatomy so perfect ; or those little figures of Athena 
 Promachos, mounted on small plinths bearing the 
 dedicator's name, which still show the marks of the 
 great fire kindled by the soldiers of Xerxes. There 
 were also precious marbles — heads of youths, ex- 
 * Lechat, Bull. Corr. Hell,, xiii. 133. 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. IO3 
 
 quisitely graceful and delicate, and winged Victories 
 with the bust in full front view, while the legs, in 
 accordance with archaic convention, are seen in profile, 
 in which we already find a strange mingling of ancient 
 traditions and new tendencies. Most important of all, 
 there were other female statues, with the mysterious 
 smile and the brilliant adornment usual with these 
 painted idols, fit subjects for the brush of a Gustave 
 Moreau or the pen of a Pierre Loti. These new-comers 
 have the same attitude and the same costume as their 
 sisters, as well as the same coquetry in dress, the same 
 care in the arrangement of their hair, and the same ex- 
 pression ; still there are several exquisite statues among 
 them, three of which are deserving of especial attention. 
 The first of these is a marvel of colouring ; its chiton 
 with broad red stripe, its upper garment of dark green 
 bordered with purple, its mantle adorned with finely- 
 drawn designs in key pattern, the red and green crosses 
 which are scattered over its robes and reappear in the 
 diadem encircling its head are of incomparable brillianc}'. 
 Beneath the warm tones of these rich and exquisitely 
 arranged colours the marble seems to turn to living 
 flesh, and the figures breathe out a mysterious charm. 
 Another, of later date, in all probability one of the 
 latest of the series, shows a skilful artist striving to 
 produce an original work. In the slender shape, the 
 small delicate head, and the arms extended in front of 
 the body, we trace the master's wish to depart from 
 precedent, to do otherwise than his predecessors : the 
 traditional smile has become almost imperceptible, the 
 eyes which used to smile in unison with the lips no 
 longer slant upwards towards the temples, while the 
 
I04 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 hollow cheeks have grown full and round. In works 
 of this kind archaism draws to a close ; the sculptor's 
 personality has freed itself from the traditions of his 
 school. 
 
 The third and last is one of the most remarkable pro- 
 ductions of Attic art. Older than the one just described 
 it is far superior to it in artistic merit. The modelling 
 is exquisite, and its marvellous delicacy contrasts 
 strangely with its technique, which still savours of 
 convention. The eyes, in accordance with the tra- 
 ditions of archaic art, are narrow and oblique, and 
 the smile still draws the lips into a grimace ; but 
 these eyes are no longer fixed and expressionless, — 
 they are lit up with life and thought, and the smile 
 upon the lips is no longer dry and hard ; it has grown 
 soft and gentle. The statue shows no striving after 
 novelty, but amongst those works of archaic art in 
 which the sculptor has dutifully followed the beaten 
 path, this, with its "open, slightly melancholy expres- 
 sion," is one of the most admirable. 
 
 This is not all. By the side of these ancient sculp- 
 tures, the actual remains of the buildings which formerly 
 covered the sacred hill have reappeared from beneath 
 the layer of debris heaped up by the ages, and to-day we 
 know almost as much of the Acropolis as it was before 
 the Persian war, as of the Acropolis in the age of 
 Pericles. The old Pelasgic walls, which confined the 
 original citadel within narrower limits, have been 
 discovered, as well as the remains of the ancient royal 
 palace which crowned the summit of the hill, as at 
 Mycenae and at Tiryns; above all, between the Erech- 
 theum and the Parthenon, have been brought to light 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 105 
 
 the foundations of the temple of Athena, which was 
 built before the sixth century, and enlarged and adorned 
 by Pisistratus. It belonged to the Doric order, and after 
 it had been surrounded by a portico under Pisistratus 
 it had six columns in front and twelve at the side. It 
 was not built of marble, but, with the exception of the 
 metopes, pediments and roof, of grey limestone ; and 
 after the fashion of Greek temples, it was painted in 
 bright colours ; in its pediment Pisistratus caused to 
 be represented the battle of Athena against the giants. 
 The hill around it was covered with other temples, and 
 votive pillars with painted capitals supporting a multi- 
 tude of statues. It is undoubtedly difficult to discover 
 the exact situation of each building and each monument 
 among these ruins of the sixth century ; for the Persians 
 when they sacked the temples of the Acropolis scattered 
 their debris all over the hill, and it is not unusual to 
 find fragments of the same building or remains of the 
 same statue at a considerable distance from one another, 
 but we may at least arrive at the main outlines of the 
 buildings, and learn to know the early school of Attic 
 sculpture. 
 
 The middle of the sixth century, when Pisistratus was 
 ruling in Athens, was an important period in Greek 
 history. States were rising, commerce was extending 
 and civilisation developing in all directions ; while 
 poetry and the arts were awaking and unfolding their 
 powers. We should do wrong to look upon the old 
 masters of this period as almost barbarous, somewhat 
 in the same way as we long regarded the early painters 
 of Italy as barbarians. In truth these ancient sculptors 
 deserve to be held in high esteem. The fact that they 
 
I06 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 left a name behind them, and founded a school, is 
 already a testimony to their worth ; and their works, 
 which have been recovered in such large numbers, do 
 not contradict this presumption in their favour. None 
 among the early schools of Greece is better known to- 
 day than the Attic, and none better deserves to be 
 known : before the days of Calamis and Myron, before 
 the time of Alcamenes and Phidias, Athens had given 
 birth to great though unknown artists, whose works 
 discovered on the Acropolis display, throughout an 
 almost uninterrupted series of monuments, their patient 
 efforts and gradual progress. It is true that they did 
 not always find their (Chisels capable of faithfully re- 
 producing the boldness of their thought, or of doing 
 justice to their thirst for truth; but the history of 
 their attempts is none the less one of the most curious 
 and instructive chapters in the history of Greek art. 
 
 II. 
 
 Greek sculpture and Greek architecture both derived 
 their early models and their first lessons from carvings 
 and buildings in wood. Just as the marble temple still 
 recalls, in certain of its details, the wooden beams 
 of primitive buildings, so the first rude statues which 
 early sculptors carved of stone and marble were inspired 
 by the primitive figures cut out of a plank or the trunk 
 of a tree. In later times, long after art had attained 
 its full perfection, rude idols called Xoana were pre- 
 served in many temples, whose figures seemed bound 
 up in a stiff and narrow sheath, beneath which no part 
 of the body was visible. Their arms, glued as it were 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. IO7 
 
 to the bust, were barely indicated by a line cut more 
 deeply in the stone ; their legs were not separated, but 
 confined in a square sheath ; the closed eyes were barely 
 marked by a horizontal line. Such, doubtless, was that 
 ancient statue of Athena Polias piously preserved in 
 the Erechtheum ; such also in some respects were those 
 ancient statues found at Delos, at Eleusis, and quite 
 recently upon the Acropolis. Nevertheless these works 
 are by no means to be regarded as the production of a 
 really primitive art ; in the Xoanon of Athens especially 
 the execution of certain portions displays a technique 
 which has already made considerable advances, and the 
 face is a very free imitation of its sacred and venerable 
 model. These works, however, are none the less inter- 
 esting : they show the remote beginnings and even the 
 starting-point of Greek sculpture. 
 
 The Greeks symbolised the early transformations of 
 this primitive art by a beautiful legend. They attributed 
 a great number of these archaic works to a marvellous 
 sculptor named Daedalus, who was the first, they said, 
 to make statues walk and see and live. He awoke the 
 rude stone idols from their long sleep ; he opened their 
 eyes, unbound their limbs, and freed them from the 
 immobility to which they had been condemned by the 
 inexperience of early artists. This is the meaning, too, 
 of the beautiful story of Pygmalion and Galatea : the 
 sculptor gave motion and life to the sleeping statue, and 
 made a living figure of the rude and senseless idol. 
 
 Thanks to the patient efforts of these nameless 
 masters, an artistic type was early formed, which hence- 
 forth every generation endeavoured to perfect. Every 
 age, in its ardent desire for progress, introduced some 
 
108 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 modification of this type ; but at the same time every 
 master, as the docile and respectful slave of ancient 
 traditions, limited his ambition to some slight change. 
 " Sustained in this way by the lessons transmitted to 
 him by the accumulated efforts of his predecessors, the 
 artist ran no risk of losing his v^^ay, and employed all 
 his inventive powers, his boldness, his originality, in 
 perfecting some detail of the work of many centuries. 
 Thanks to this prudent method, no effort remained 
 unfruitful, and the ground once gained was never lost ; 
 progress, although it was never sudden or impetuous, 
 was rapid because it was continuous." * There are no 
 abrupt interruptions in this art, no retrograde move- 
 ments due to individual caprice ; and barely a hundred 
 years sufficed to lead the Attic school by a slow and 
 certain advance from its modest beginnings to its 
 highest development. 
 
 The characteristic elements of this type can be found 
 nowhere better than on the Acropolis ; nowhere can we 
 better penetrate the obscure history of its transformation. 
 
 Let us examine all the statues discovered in the 
 course of these excavations : some are standing motion- 
 less, their legs stiff, their attitude solemn and hieratic ; 
 others are seated, like the Athena of Endoeus, in the 
 stiff and awkward attitude which betrays the imitation 
 of ancient wooden statues; but in both the artist's 
 chief care and his first thought has been the arrange- 
 ment of the drapery which envelops the figure. Archaic 
 sculpture is not yet sufficiently experienced to represent 
 the nude ; it prefers to envelop the human form in 
 drapery arranged with the most minute care, falling 
 
 * Perrot, Journal des Savants, 1887, pp. 230, 231. 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 109 
 
 in heavy folds, and broken with an intentional sym- 
 metry which is sometimes very monotonous. The hair 
 is treated with the same care as the dress, and with a 
 curious mixture of awkwardness and refinement. In 
 short, every external detail of dress and ornament is 
 rendered with the utmost nicety and care. It was the 
 face, with its numerous planes and comphcated lines, 
 which presented the greatest difficulties to the hand of 
 the artist ; and there, where his chisel is not so much 
 at home, where his inexperience betrays itself most 
 plainly, the characteristic elements of the archaic type 
 can be most clearly recognised, and the progress of the 
 school can best be traced. The eye, almost round at 
 first, soon lengthens into an almond shape, and slants 
 upwards towards the temples ; it is narrow, like the 
 eyes of the far East, and as yet only slightly opened, 
 as though blinking at the light of day ; while at the 
 same time the eyeball, which was at first very promi- 
 nent, grows flatter as art gains more complete mastery 
 over its methods. The mouth, generally with full, 
 fleshy lips, wears an awkward, affected smile, which is 
 characteristic, and the gradual disappearance of which 
 corresponds to the development of art. The forehead 
 is strongly marked, the nostrils broad and full ; but the 
 most striking points are the shape of the head, which is 
 very round, and the modelling of the flesh, which is 
 plump and full, and sometimes even soft and bloated 
 in appearance. Expression is as a rule almost entirely 
 lacking in these faces ; the eye is fixed and stony, the 
 head without character. The artist feels the want, and 
 endeavours to supply it; but in vain he attempts to 
 give life to the face by the smile upon its lips, and to 
 
no EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 lend it the semblance of an expression, — he is compelled 
 to have recourse to other means which are characteristic 
 of Archaic art. Just as the architect set off the form 
 and the decoration of his temples by the brilliancy of 
 his colouring, so the sculptor summoned painting to 
 his aid, somewhat like those Italian masters of the 
 fifteenth century who heightened the dull tints of their 
 frescoes by the application of coloured stucco. The 
 archaic sculptor coloured his figures to make them 
 more lifelike ; he painted eyes, hair and flesh, he marked 
 the folds of his draperies by a touch of colour — nay, 
 more, he called metal to his aid, and heightened the 
 vividness of the expression and the brilliancy of the 
 eyes by ornaments and ingenious combinations of gold 
 and bronze. In short, just as in the modelHng of the 
 body he concealed his ignorance of anatomy by the 
 use of drapery, so he endeavoured to atone for his 
 incapacity to render expression by giving apparent 
 animation to the face. 
 
 It is particularly interesting to seize the history of 
 the successive transformations of the primitive type by 
 the study of the monuments. In this respect no series 
 is more instructive than that of the female figures found 
 on the Acropolis. From the coarse and clumsy work 
 of the primitive cultus-statue down to the almost 
 finished elegance of the latest archaic work, they dis- 
 play, in an uninterrupted series, the progress of Attic 
 sculpture ; and the study is the more interesting be- 
 cause in these figures, so closely related to one another, 
 it is easy to detect the successive insensible modifica- 
 tions of the same type. There is a long succession of 
 transitions and of more or less rude attempts between 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. I I I 
 
 the oldest model, the xoanon, with its long, narrow, 
 closely-fitting tunic, encasing the body in a stiff sheath 
 almost without a fold, and the elegant figures which 
 form the last stage of this evolution ; and each of these 
 steps marks an advance. It is true that the essential 
 elements have not greatly changed : the attitude is the 
 same, the costume similar; but what a difference in 
 the more or less happy arrangement of these almost 
 invariable elements, and what progress ! As we pass 
 from one to another, what an effort is visible to give 
 more life and more expression to the face ! The figure, 
 at first massive and heavy, becomes supple and graceful ; 
 the attitude, originally stiff and awkward, gains in grace 
 without losing its traditional and hieratic immobility ; 
 the drapery grows more pliant, and the robes fall in 
 more harmonious lines. In place of the stiff bodice or 
 cuirass which compresses the bust of the primitive 
 xoanon, instead of the carefully stiffened upper garment 
 of early archaic works, instead of the thick heavy 
 draperies with their monotonous and wearisome sym- 
 metry, we find new combinations originated by the 
 continual striving after progress. The difference in the 
 materials, which have become lighter and more pliant, 
 makes itself felt ; and a large cloak, enfolding the bust, 
 completes the figure and gives it balance. But the 
 advance is most apparent in the head : the hair, which 
 was at first a heavy mass upon the head, and which, in 
 spite of an astonishing variety of combination, always 
 retains something artificial and affected in its arrange- 
 ment, is lighter, and is arranged with simpler elegance 
 in natural waves ; the face^ which was at first round 
 and bloated, without precise anatomy or prominent 
 
112 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 features, is modelled with more fidelity to nature. In 
 the early works of this type it is still somewhat coarse 
 and harsh, but soon gains suppleness and life ; the 
 surfaces, at first roughly marked out, with strong pro- 
 minence given to the bony framework, are more happily 
 combined ; the cheek-bones, originally very prominent, 
 with a deep furrow hollowed out in the cheek beneath 
 them, are less marked ; the large, staring eye grows 
 longer ; the nose is finer and thinner ; the mouth 
 gradually loses the smile which was even more foolish 
 than mysterious, and assumes a less conventional ex- 
 pression. These successive transformations must be 
 studied in the statues themselves ; all we can do 
 here is to show the final stage in this evolution, 
 and the point which it reaches, by two or three fine 
 examples which have lost almost all traces of archaic 
 tradition. They are to be found in two interesting 
 plates (Nos. 13 and 14) of the Musees d'Athenes, a 
 pubHcation which has unfortunately been discontinued. 
 One is especially noteworthy. The primitive type 
 reappears, it is true, in this exquisite head ; but what 
 a transformation it has undergone ! The eye has 
 lost its former • prominence ; the forehead no longer 
 projects ; the modelling of the rather long head is 
 refined and delicate ; the profile is charming in its 
 grace ; the mouth, serene and serious in expression, 
 is animated by the grave and unconscious smile which 
 Calamis is said to have lent to the lips of his statues ; 
 the bust is of the most finished elegance ; the drapery 
 perfectly simple. The master has not in this statue 
 succeeded in forgetting all the traditions of his school, 
 but his personality is striving to free itself from the 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. I 1 3 
 
 influence of conventional teaching, and in his hands 
 archaic art has almost attained perfection. The same 
 effort on the part of the artist, the same mingling 
 of old conventions and new tendencies is evident in 
 the statues which represent winged Victories. Their 
 
 Archaic head (Acropolis Museum). 
 
 attitude is archaic, and exactly similar to that of the 
 old statue of Archermus, found at Delos, but they 
 show a much more profound knowledge of anatomy ; 
 their draperies are raised by more impetuous motion, 
 and their loosened locks float more freely on their 
 shoulders. With this same group of sculptures we 
 
114 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 must connect the fine bas-relief in the Acropolis 
 museum, which represents a woman mounting a chariot. 
 Here we already find the long slender shapes which 
 
 Woman in a chariot (Acropolis Museum, Athens). 
 
 involuntarily recall Florentine sculpture ; and we al- 
 ready notice that lightness and delicacy in the execution 
 of the drapery, and that minghng of strength and grace, 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OP ATHENS. IIJ 
 
 which were to be the distinguishing characteristics of 
 Attic art. 
 
 The series of male figures, which are not so fully 
 
 Hermes Moschophorus (Acropolis Museum). 
 
 represented on the Acropolis of Athens, are equally 
 instructive and not less interesting. We already know 
 the Moschophorus, with its somewhat rough, coarse 
 
Il6 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 J^ 
 
 contours, the strength of its modelHng, the firmness of 
 its framework, the boldness of its pose. It is one 
 of the oldest statues found on the Acropolis, and the 
 inscription recently discovered on 
 its base enables us to fix its date 
 as far back as the first half of 
 the sixth century. With this statue 
 should be compared several works 
 resembling it in execution, par- 
 ticularly a remarkable head of an 
 athlete of singular appearance, whose 
 hair, arranged with the utmost care 
 and elegance, is a masterpiece of 
 the hairdresser's art. The build of 
 the two heads is the same ; there 
 are the same strongly marked planes, 
 the same prominent cheek-bones, the 
 same large ears pressed close to the 
 head, the same original and indi- 
 vidual aspect which makes us feel 
 them to be portraits, the same freedom 
 in the composition, and, although 
 the second of these figures is the 
 more skilful, the same taste for 
 dryness and precision of outline, for 
 smooth surfaces and sharply-outlined 
 Stele of Aristion planes. Beside these powerful works, 
 (Central Museum, (.^ ^hich we may also add the 
 Athens). -^ 
 
 beautiful painted bas-rehef known as 
 the " Soldier of Marathon," we meet with a whole 
 series of sculptures in which remarkable elegance and 
 astonishing deUcacy of modelling are visible. There is 
 
 ifrbri-tb^ 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. II 7 
 
 the Discophorus, with his delicate elongated features, 
 his hair arranged in plaits and held together by a kind 
 of band, his slanting eyes, and that quaintness which 
 is not without its charm. There are, above all, the 
 exquisite heads of ephebi, recently discovered on the 
 Acropolis, whose beardless faces have somewhat of 
 the penetrating charm of Florentine work. They are 
 
 Stele of the Discophorus (Central Museum, Athens). 
 
 closely allied to the latest examples of the female type, 
 and, like them, have retained just that trace of archaism 
 which is needed to give them a peculiar charm. In 
 them art has already cast off its fetters ; their execution 
 is delicate and careful almost to an extreme. One of 
 them is especially remarkable : its chin is strongly 
 marked, its lips compressed, its nose fine, its ears 
 small and delicate ; its eyes were once filled with glass. 
 
Il8 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 or with a ball , of metal ; its hair falls in curls over a 
 diadem of bronze, and alone retains some traces of 
 archaism. These works, like the latest of the female 
 figures, bring us to the verge of the period of perfection, 
 and may be attributed with probability to the early 
 years of the fifth century.* 
 
 It would be not less interesting to trace in the works 
 of this early Attic school the transformations under- 
 gone by the type of Athena, from the seated statue of 
 Endoeus, with its stiff hieratic pose, to those little 
 bronze figures, some of which are already so lifelike. 
 In the former the arms still chng closely to the sides, 
 and even the forearm is scarcely detached ; a long robe, 
 with carefully arranged folds, envelops the body, and 
 the heavy aegis covers the breast ; it possesses neither 
 grace nor charm, and has scarcely any value except 
 as the first of a series. Next to it we must place the 
 Athena which decorated the pediment of the temple 
 of Pisistratus. Here, too, all the characteristics of 
 archaic art are still present, — the large prominent eyes, 
 the traditional smile, the symmetrical arrangement of 
 the hair under the helmet, — but the modelling is already 
 far better, the cheeks are full but not bloated, the face 
 is not without charm, and the expression is remarkably 
 lifelike, while the attitude is full of spirit. The tech- 
 nique of this work is already advanced ; it is true that 
 the execution is lacking in delicacy, but delicacy would 
 be out of place in pediment sculpture. It displays an 
 increased breadth of treatment, combining strength and 
 elegance ; and if it is wanting in the anatomical know- 
 ledge possessed by the Aeginetan school, it is also free 
 * Lechat, Bull, Corr, Hell., xii. /j.34. 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. II 9 
 
 from the hardness of contour which marks their work. 
 In the bronze statuettes a further advance is made. 
 Several of these figures are remarkable ; one of them, 
 once covered with gilding, is still a little awkward in 
 its motions, but at least it has broken loose from the 
 immobility of centuries, it moves, and the workmanship 
 of its drapery is excellent. Others represent Athena Pro- 
 machos, the aegis on her breast, upon her head a helmet 
 with lofty crest, one arm raised to brandish her spear, 
 the other stretched out before her holding the shield. 
 The greater number of them date from the sixth century, 
 as the accompanying inscriptions prove ; yet the latest 
 of the series are singularly lifelike, especially the one 
 whose head resembles the Athena on the pediment of 
 Aegina. It is true that this is not the divine form 
 which a few years later the goddess was to receive from 
 the chisel of Phidias ; but it would be unjust to crush 
 with the weight of that great name the early efforts of 
 Attic art. We owe them more justice, and also more 
 regard ; for, thanks to them, during the whole of the 
 sixth and the early part of the fifth century, Athens 
 produced works in bronze and marble all of which bear 
 witness to an ardent desire for progress, and many of 
 which are noteworthy in themselves. 
 
 III. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is by no means easy to assign to the 
 Attic school its share of the multitude of statues found 
 on the Acropolis, and to ascertain with certainty which, 
 among so many marbles, are from the hand of an 
 Athenian artist. More than once in the course of the 
 
120 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 excavations, there have been found among the statues 
 the bases on which they once stood, the hght columns 
 and pillars which raised the figure without making 
 it heavy, and, by isolating it, made it appear more 
 slender ; more than once, too, on these bases which 
 expand into brightly-coloured capitals, there has ap- 
 peared the name of the man who dedicated the work 
 and that of the artist who wrought it. These inscrip- 
 tions show us the great number and variety of the 
 masters who worked under the shadow of the Temple 
 of Athena. All the great sculptors of the sixth century 
 were represented by some work on the Acropolis — 
 Theodorus of Samos, who was the first to work in 
 bronze, Archermus of Chios, an authentic work by whom 
 has been brought to light by the excavations at Delos, 
 Alxenor of Naxos, to whose hand we owe the stele of 
 Orchomenus, Aristion of Paros, and Aristocles of Crete, 
 the great masters of the Aeginetan school, Callon and 
 Onatas, and other strangers besides, such as Gorgias 
 of Laconia and Endoeus himself, whose Ionian origin 
 is proved by a recent inscription. It is by no means 
 easy, at the present time, when the signatures of these 
 artists have been violently parted from the works 
 to which they belonged, to distinguish, among these 
 anonymous marbles, between those which are from 
 the hands of foreign artists and those which belong to 
 the pure Attic tradition of Callonides and Antenor, 
 Euthycles, and Philo, Euenor and Critius. Some, it is 
 true, of the works themselves show unmistakable signs 
 of foreign origin ; such as the two female statues, 
 so dull and lifeless in appearance, which belong to a 
 different type from the other figures of the series, and 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 12 1 
 
 offer such a striking resemblance to the Hera of Samos, 
 now in the Louvre. In these marbles, where the 
 absence of polychromy seems to point to the imitation 
 of work in bronze, we may with confidence recognise 
 the productions of the Samian school, which was the 
 first to learn and practise the art of working in metal. 
 Others of the Acropolis marbles offer striking analogies 
 with the works of the Aeginetan school, or with the 
 sculptures which adorned the pediments of Olympia ; 
 and in the presence of such a mass of evidence we 
 cannot doubt that the Attic school was subject to 
 varied and complex influence. But from which masters 
 did it receive the most fruitful lessons ? Whose teach- 
 ing produced the greatest results ? At what period did 
 it seek their instruction ? and which works, among those 
 found on the Acropolis, have remained untouched by 
 this foreign influence ? These are delicate questions, 
 concerning which discussion is still rife, and the jealous 
 patriotism of the Greeks, unwilling to owe anything to 
 others, sometimes does injury to science. Still these 
 questions must be considered, although we cannot hope 
 as yet to offer any but the most general solutions. 
 
 When we examine the Acropolis statues we can 
 easily divide them into two groups. The first, and 
 espepially the youthful female figures, show a striking 
 resemblance to the works of Ionian art. The artistic 
 principles of the two schools are the same. The body 
 is a mass without precise anatomy or clear rendering of 
 the muscular system ; the form is round and full, and 
 concealed by the voluptuous amplitude and richness of 
 the drapery. The modelling of the head is heavy : the 
 fleshy covering, treated with loving care, hides the bony 
 
122 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 framework ; the lower part of the face is soft and 
 rounded, the lips thick and fleshy. No detail has been 
 neglected in the careful and skilful working of the 
 marble ; the artist's chisel has delighted in endless 
 delicacies and refinements of detail, in the intricacies of 
 the coiffure, in the richness of the ornamentation and 
 the coquettish arrangement of the attire. In contrast 
 with these statues we find another group whose 
 sculptors have been inspired by other rules. In these 
 we find the draperies less ample, but we perceive a 
 human body Hving and breathing beneath them ; in the 
 place of those profuse ornaments and that luxurious 
 dress, simpler garments, fitting more closely to the 
 body, allow its outlines to become visible, and it has 
 been studied with a more watchful eye and drawn with 
 a firmer hand. 
 
 The heads are more firmly built and less fleshy, 
 the features are more marked, the cheek-bones more 
 prominent, the lips less full and more closely com- 
 pressed. These statues are less graceful and elegant 
 than those of the other group, but they show more 
 strength and vigour ; the actual workmanship is less 
 minute and skilful, but the hand that guided the chisel 
 was more powerful and not less practised. Compare 
 the Moschophorus, for example, with one of the female 
 statues of the Acropolis, and you will perceive at a 
 glance the essential difference between the two series 
 of monuments. It is not only that the technique is 
 not the same — there is a radical difference in their 
 principles. One of these figures comes from Asia, and 
 has passed from Ionia into Attica by way of the islands, 
 through the medium of the sculptors of the school of 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 1 23 
 
 Chios ; the other and older figure is connected with the 
 very beginnings of Attic art. 
 
 It is in the pediment sculptures of tufa or " poros," 
 and in statues like the Moschophorus, cut from a block 
 of marble of Hymettus, that we must look for the 
 earliest efforts of Athenian masters. In these works, 
 the most advanced of which undoubtedly date from 
 the first half of the sixth century, we already trace the 
 names of artists rendered skilful by long practice ; it is 
 true that in the more ancient, as also in some of the 
 pediment sculptures in tufa, the shapes are coarse and 
 clumsy, and the attitudes awkward and ungraceful. It 
 is also true that, in order to hide their feeble workman- 
 ship and imperfect modelling, as well as to conceal the 
 defects in the stone (grayish tufa with occasional black 
 spots), the artist has made excessive use of colour. 
 Nevertheless, in the large pediments we can already 
 trace a skilled hand and a powerful chisel. Later on, 
 when tufa has given place to marble, although the 
 technique is the same, and the methods formerly used 
 in working in stone reappear in the treatment of the 
 earliest marbles, the indigenous masters of early Athens 
 produce powerful and vigorous works. 
 
 Parian marble, however, soon took the place of that 
 drawn from the quarries of Attica, and with it a foreign 
 influence made its way into the native school. Ionian 
 sculptors transmitted their artistic teaching to Greece 
 by way of the islands of the Archipelago ; to the some- 
 what massive and rugged forms of the native sculptors 
 they opposed the grace and elegance, the minute and 
 delicate execution of their statues, the penetrating 
 charm of their richly and carefully attired female 
 
124 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 figures ; and the artists of Chios, after they had gained 
 a footing in Delos, soon invaded Attica as well. 
 
 It was they whom Pisistratus commissioned to 
 decorate the temple he was dedicating to Athena; it 
 was their teaching which from the middle of the sixth 
 century moulded the sculptors of the Attic school ; and 
 from their hands or their influence sprang the female 
 statues of the Acropolis, and those winged figures of 
 Victory which are so evidently inspired by an authentic 
 work of Archermus of Chios. From the plates in the 
 Muse'es d'Athenes (Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5) we may gain some 
 idea of these sculptures, in which the school of Chios 
 reveals itself in carefully finished works. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Attic school did not lose its indi- 
 viduality under this foreign influence. By the side of 
 what it owed to imitation we must not fail to recognise 
 its original qualities, an ardent desire for progress, a 
 remarkable fertility of invention, careful and attentive 
 observation of nature. This is no modest and timid art, 
 such as that of Egypt or Assyria, in which the traditions 
 and technique of a school almost exclude individual 
 initiative. The art of the Attic school is already 
 ambitious and inventive, and as early as the sixth 
 century it has discovered different methods of inter- 
 preting nature and of handling its tools. Now it unites 
 surprising delicacy of modelling with a deep feeling for 
 grace and refinement — and again it combines a boldness 
 of attitude, a firmness of build, an admirable moderation 
 and precision, with vigorous and incisive execution. 
 We trace in it two distinct tendencies, which are, how- 
 ever, modified and^transformed with the utmost freedom, 
 so as almost from its earliest days to unite the germs of 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 12$ 
 
 the varied qualities which were to mark the Attic school 
 — the delicacy and grace of Calamis, Alcamenes and 
 Praxiteles, and the spirit and strength of Critius, of 
 Nesiotes and of Myron. 
 
 Formerly, a few scanty fragments barely afforded us 
 a glimpse of the merits of these old masters, while to- 
 day they are revealed to us by a number of their works, 
 some of which bear their signatures. It has been 
 possible to connect several of the bases found on the 
 Acropolis with the statues which they formerly sup- 
 ported ; and if some of these attributions are still doubt- 
 ful—as, for example that which credits Theodorus of 
 Samos with a fine head in bronze, with curling hair — one 
 at least is certain, and of the highest importance. On 
 one of the pedestals which have been discovered there 
 appears the name of Antenor, the famous artist who 
 carved the group of Harmodius and Aristogiton, which 
 Xerxes carried off to Susa, and of which there is a copy 
 in the Naples museum. He was one of the most 
 distinguished sculptors of the latter part of the sixth 
 century. It has been possible to find, among the female 
 figures, the one which formerly stood upon this base ; 
 and to-day Antenor's statue stands in the chief room 
 of the Acropolis museum, " precisely as it once appeared 
 to the Athenians — the feet and legs brought close 
 together upon its narrow pedestal, the upper part of the 
 body broad and amply developed, the folds of the mantle 
 daintily drawn towards the left, the himation hanging 
 in heavy folds, graceful in spite of the stiffness of its 
 attitude, lifehke though motionless, at once mannered 
 and majestic." * It is needless to dwell on the importance 
 
 * Lechat, Bull. Corr. Hell. xii. 151. 
 
126 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 of this discovery, which brings before our eyes an 
 authentic work by one of the great masters of the Attic 
 school.* 
 
 Still, among the tourists who climb the Acropolis, 
 there may be some who fail to recognise the charm of 
 these old sculptures. Some will say, as they leave them, 
 as Fauvel once said of the Aeginetan marbles : " They 
 have neither grace nor correctness — they are hyper- 
 antique and that is their only merit." Nevertheless, let 
 us take notice that this "hyper-antique" work con- 
 tains in the germ all the living principles of perfection. 
 Wait but a few years, and the women whom these old 
 masters have sculptured somewhat stiffly, will march, 
 graceful and supple, along the frieze of the Parthenon. 
 They will have learned — it is but a little thing — not to 
 droop the corners of their lips, to dress their hair more 
 simply, to suffer their robes to fall in more graceful 
 folds ; but they will retain their rich attire, their splendid 
 ornaments, their modest bearing, and all the grace and 
 elegance and delicacy which the early masters had 
 bestowed upon them. 
 
 This archaism, too, still naive and uncouth, has a 
 singular charm for a highly civilised and somewhat 
 blase period like our own. In this sceptical age we take 
 delight in the frescoes which reveal the sincere faith 
 and candid piety of a Fra Angelico ; in this period of 
 exaggerated refinement we gladly turn to the studied 
 and intentional simplicity which a Puvis de Chavannes 
 has learned from the old masters. The old sculptors of 
 
 * (The author of this discovery, M. Diehl wishes to make known, 
 was M. Franz Studniczka. Doubt is, however, cast upon this view 
 by Mr. E. A. Gardner, /oMr. Hell. Studies, April, 1890. — E. R. P.) 
 
EXCAVATIONS ON ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS. 12/ 
 
 Attica charm us in the same way. When Rome grew 
 blase, and wearied of classical sculpture, the archaic 
 schools of Greece won its favour ; the collectors of the 
 first and second centuries eagerly sought after the 
 works of those early artists, and the sculptors of 
 the day made them their models. We do not ask as 
 much as that ; but'at least the place it merits must be 
 given to-day to the Athens of Solon and Pisistratus 
 as well as to the Athens of Pericles ; and we must 
 cease to consider as barbarians those masters whose 
 hand was still somewhat unskilful, but whose talent was 
 so real and genuine, and whose sculptures adorned the 
 earliest buildings raised upon the Acropolis of Athens. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS (1873— i 
 
 Books of Reference: 
 
 M. Homolle, various articles in the Bull, de Con-. Hell. 
 
 Comptes des Hieropes, 1882. 
 
 Inscriptions Archdiques, 1874. 
 
 La Confederation des Cy eludes, 1880. 
 
 UAmphictionie Attico-de'lienne, 1884. 
 
 Les Romaines a De'los, 1884. 
 
 For the statues see 1879, 1880, 1881, 1885, and 1889; also 
 articles by M. Hauvette (1882 and 1883); by M. Reinach 
 (1883, 1884, and 1889); by M, Paris, 1884, 1885, 1889, and 
 others. 
 
 De Antiquissitnis Diance Sintulacris. Paris, 1885. 
 
 Les Archives de I'Intendance Sacre'e de De'los. Paris, 1886. 
 
 Les Statues de Diane a De'los (Vervot, Journal des Savants, 1887). 
 
 Prof. Jebb, " Delos," J ourn. Hell. Studies, vol. i. 
 
 In the midst of the Archipelago, almost in the centre of 
 the Cyclades, lies a little island, or rather rock, one of 
 the most bare, arid, and desolate that is to be found 
 in those seas — and this is saying a great deal. It is the 
 island of Delos. Lying beyond all the principal trade 
 routes, only connected indirectly by a single weekly 
 steamer with Syra, the commercial centre of the 
 Cyclades, Delos remains unknown to the tourists who 
 travel in crowds, " personally conducted " from Athens 
 to Constantinople, from Constantinople to Damascus 
 and Jerusalem. Even the cultured traveller, on his 
 way from Syra to Asia Minor, hardly notices, as he 
 passes, the steep and lofty summit of Cynthus, standing 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DEI.OS. 129 
 
 <5ut against the sky, and overshadowing the whole 
 island ; in order to induce him to visit Delos itself, he 
 must possess more ardent curiosity and more scientific 
 tastes ; he must also have, together with a passion for 
 antiquity and a love of ruins, the courage to endure 
 many privations. At first sight, Delos appears but 
 unattractive ; on the bare rock there is not a single 
 tree, and only a few traces of a withered and stunted 
 vegetation. Formerly, it is said, the island possessed 
 .a river, but no trace of it is now to be found ; and at 
 the present time the waters of Delos are limited to a 
 brackish pond, once the sacred lake. As to inhabitants, 
 there are none : not a village, not a hamlet recalls the 
 existence of men ; only here and there empty huts are 
 to be seen, where each year the people of the neigh- 
 bouring island of Mycono come for a few days, for 
 the sowing or the reaping, and farther on, since the 
 archaeological discoveries have drawn the attention ot 
 the Greek Government to this barren rock, a little 
 iiouse for the keeper of the antiquities, who is the 
 only inhabitant of Delos. It adds to the charm of the 
 excursion that at Delos, as in the lion's den, it is much 
 easier to enter than to leave. The surrounding seas 
 are often very stormy ; the wind blows furiously in the 
 narrow channel separating Delos from Mycono, and 
 renders navigation difficult and sometimes dangerous 
 for the little boats which make the passage. Thus one 
 runs the risk of remaining, sometimes for days together, 
 weather-bound in Delos ; and, as may be imagined, too 
 prolonged a stay in this desolate island is by no means 
 agreeable. But then, it will be said, why go to Delos 
 at all ? We go there to study the remains of its 
 
 9 
 
130 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 former splendour and prosperity, and to seek carefully 
 for the scattered memories of a glorious past. 
 
 I. 
 
 To-day Delos is a deserted land. Formerly none 
 was more rich, more famous, more venerated. Around 
 it clustered the oldest legends of Greece, and its early 
 history was as brilliant as its name (Delos signifies 
 bright, shining) — as brilliant as the god of day who was 
 born there. Leto, like many other mortals, had won 
 the love of Zeus ; and, like many other mortals, she had 
 thereby incurred the jealous hatred of Hera. Pursued 
 by the implacable goddess, she wandered through 
 the world, seeking in vain a refuge where she might 
 be delivered ; Delos alone was hospitable. There at 
 the foot of the sacred palm tree, " on the banks of the 
 Inopus, in the golden sunshine, in the midst of perfumes 
 exhaled on all sides," Apollo and Artemis were born. 
 
 Hence arose all the good fortune of Delos. Apollo, 
 as the legend relates, raised an altar to himself with 
 the horns of the goats slain by his arrows, and left it 
 to the people of Delos as a token of his gratitude, as 
 a pledge, too, of the great destinies reserved for his 
 favourite island. To this primitive altar all the heroes 
 of Hellenic mythology came in turn, to do homage to 
 the god ; on the sacred island whose inviolable neutrality 
 offered a safe refuge to all, there landed in succession 
 the warriors of Troy as well as those of Greece, Ulysses 
 as well as Aeneas, the primitive kings of Attica, Theseus 
 and Erisychthon, and in their train the inhabitants of 
 the neighbouring islands, which, as the poets sang, were 
 ranged around Delos like a festive garland or a chorus 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS IN DELOS. 13! 
 
 of worshippers prostrate before the god. After these 
 came every Hellenic tribe, the lonians of Greece and 
 Asia, as well as the Dorians of Crete or the Pelopon- 
 nesus ; in short, all who venerated Apollo — that is, all 
 who were Greek.* More than ten centuries before the 
 Christian era, Delos and its sanctuary were already 
 famous, and during ten centuries, thanks to the god 
 whose temple it contained, Delos was one of the chief 
 religious centres of the Hellenic world. All that Delos 
 was, all that she possessed — her riches, her security, 
 her poetic fame, her moral power — she owed entirely to 
 Apollo. 
 
 ' ' But, as mundane interests always mingle even with 
 the most sincere religion, these men, whom their faith 
 assembled round the sanctuary, early began to trade 
 there ; piety was associated with commerce, and a fair 
 became an integral part of the festival of the god. It 
 is so in all countries and in all ages ; everywhere the 
 great fairs coincide with the great religious festivals.! 
 Delos was also an admirable commercial centre ; it is 
 situated in the very heart of the Cyclades, equally 
 distant from Greece and Asia ; placed between Rhodes 
 and Crete on the south, and Chios and Lesbos on the 
 north, it forms a central point in the Greek world 
 towards which all the great trade routes converge, those 
 from Syria and Egypt as well as those from Sicily and 
 Italy, and also from the distant shores of the Black 
 Sea, where according to the legend, the worship of 
 the Tauric Artemis had already been introduced from 
 Delos. 
 
 * Homolle, Ulle de Delos, pp. 20-21, 
 t Ibid., p. 22. 
 
132 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 A shrine and a commercial centre — such was 
 Delos throughout antiquity ; her whole destiny is ex- 
 plained by her religious traditions and her geographical 
 situation ; on her shores trade grew up in the shadow 
 of the temple, and the temple was enriched by the aid 
 of commercial interests. It is this double character 
 which gives to Delos its originality : it was this fruitful 
 union of the commercial town and the holy city which 
 made its glory and prosperity. 
 
 We understand now how it was that the Delos of 
 antiquity was populous, rich and fertile. Around the 
 temple and the harbour clustered a numerous popula- 
 tion, continually enriched by the profits of commerce 
 and by the pious offerings which the whole world sent 
 to Apollo. In the harbour there was a constant 
 succession of vessels from every land, in the streets 
 an uninterrupted line of sacred processions, before the 
 temple a continual sound of feasting and worship. 
 ^' There," said the old Homeric poet, in a hymn to 
 Apollo of Delos, "there are assembled the long-robed 
 lonians with their children and their chaste wives ; they 
 wrestle, dance, and sing in memory of Apollo. Who- 
 ever should behold them then would pronounce them 
 immortal, and unassailable by old age ; so much grace 
 would he see everywhere, and so delightful would it 
 be to contemplate the men, the women with their 
 beautiful girdles, the swift vessels, and the riches of 
 all kinds. Near them are the young girls of Delos, 
 priestesses of the far-darting god, who celebrate in 
 their songs, Apollo, Leto and Artemis, the memory 
 of ancient heroes and heroines, and charm the hearts 
 of mortals by their hymns." 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS IN DELOS. I 35 
 
 Once every five years, in the spring, a solemn 
 festival recalled the anniversary of the birth of the god. 
 The maidens of Delos, wearing their richest attire, and 
 crowned with flowers, united in joyous chorus around 
 the altar and represented in sacred dances the story of 
 the birth of Apollo. Others, with garlands of flowers 
 in their hands, went to hang them on the ancient statue 
 of the goddess which Theseus had, according to tra- 
 dition, brought from Crete to Delos. From all parts 
 of Greece, from the islands, and from Asia, solemn 
 embassies, sacred theoriai, landed in the harbour. The 
 most brilliant was that of the Athenians who were long 
 the suzerains of the island. Each year a state vessel, 
 the Paralian galley, conveyed the sacred embassy to 
 Delos ; the crew was composed of free men, the vessel 
 decked with flowers. At the moment of its departure 
 the whole town was purified; the priests of Apollo 
 bestowed on the galley a solemn benediction, and the 
 law forbade that the purified town should be defiled 
 by any sentence of death until the return of the vessel. 
 The members of the embassy were chosen from the chief 
 families of the city, and they were accompanied by 
 choruses of young men and maidens, who were to chant 
 the sacred hymns in honour of Apollo, and perform 
 around the altar of the Horns, one of the marvels 
 of Delos and of the world, an ancient and solemn 
 dance — the geranos. The day of the arrival of these 
 theoriai was a festival in Delos. Amid the acclama- 
 tions of an enthusiastic crowd, the embassy dis- 
 embarked in the harbour, and such was the joy and 
 impatience of the people, that sometimes its members 
 had not even time to don their robes of ceremony 
 
134 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 and to crown themselves with flowers. Thus 
 more • than once the sacred deputation, instead of 
 landing immediately on the holy island, went to make 
 their preparations in the little island opposite Delos ; 
 this was done in particular by Nicias, an Athenian 
 general of the fifth century, and one of the most pious 
 men of the time, who was thus able to prepare a 
 magnificent spectacle for the Delians. He had brought 
 from Athens in separate pieces on his ship, a wooden 
 bridge adorned with gilding, painting and tapestry ; this, 
 during the night, he caused to be thrown across the 
 narrow channel separating the island from the port, and 
 in the morning the people of Delos had an incomparable 
 spectacle before their eyes. Over the bridge wound the 
 sacred procession of the Athenians, with its splendidly 
 dressed musicians, its choruses chanting the sacred 
 hymns, its rich offerings destined for the god ; received 
 at the end of the bridge by the official charged with the 
 reception of these pious embassies, it pursued its way 
 to the temple, there to present its offerings and prayers, 
 and to pour out on the altar the blood of its hecatombs. 
 During the rest of the day feasts were provided for the 
 people, games and contests filled the island with the 
 sounds of rejoicing. Such was the reputation of this 
 venerated sanctuary that during the Persian wars the 
 iconoclastic Persians, who cruelly ravaged the temples 
 of other Greek gods, respected, by a special order from 
 the great king, the dwelling of the Delian Apollo. Thus 
 early was affirmed that sacred and inviolable character 
 of the island which was destined to do so much for its 
 prosperity. 
 
 When the gods of Paganism departed, Delos, which 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS IN DEL03. 1 35 
 
 lived only by their worship, fell. The homage of the 
 world was paid to other altars, and ruins gathered 
 around the abandoned sanctuary. It is only in our 
 own day that life has returned to this deserted shore ; 
 once more, as in ancient times, Athens sends each year 
 a deputation to the temple of Apollo, but not, as formerly, 
 to guide the motions of sacred processions by the 
 sound of chants, or to light the fires of sacrifice upon the 
 altar. The altars have been overthrown for eighteen 
 hundred years ; the marbles, which a traveller in the 
 fifteenth century still counted by hundreds on the 
 strand of Delos, have become the spoil of sailors in 
 want of ballast, or of the lime burners who have cal- 
 cined in their kilns so many ancient masterpieces. Yet 
 it is still Artemis and Apollo whom these modern 
 pilgrims come to honour ; what they desire is to find 
 among the heaps of ruins which cover the sacred island 
 the plan of the temple and the buildings which sur- 
 rounded it, of the warehouses and the port, as well as 
 the inscriptions engraved in marble or bronze, which 
 relate the history of this famous sanctuary. This 
 ambition has been gratified, and the excavations at 
 Delos have yielded marvellous results ; they have re- 
 vealed the hitherto unknown history of this temple, 
 where all the great events which agitated the Hellenic 
 world have left their trace, where all the successive 
 masters of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean have 
 taken care to engrave their names and to raise monu- 
 ments of their power ; they have revealed in wonderful 
 detail the administration of the sanctuary and the rites 
 of its worship ; by the discovery of curious statues 
 they have thrown light on the development of Greek art 
 
136 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 from the seventh to the fourth century ; lastly, they have 
 made it possible to restore the ground plan of the build- 
 ings and of the splendid assemblage of temples which so 
 many generations built, maintained, and adorned. The 
 honour of these important discoveries belongs entirely 
 to France and to the French school of archaeology at 
 Athens, which quietly and with indefatigable persever- 
 ance has for long years carried on at Delos those 
 excavations whose success has surpassed their brightest 
 hopes. 
 
 The attention of the French school at Athens was 
 early directed to Delos, and several papers were written 
 on the history of the sacred island. This preliminary 
 work, however, could yield but little result ; the soil mus 
 be examined if it was to yield any important infor- 
 mation, and among the extensive ruins which covered 
 the shores of Delos it was not easy to decide where to 
 begin the excavations. It was M. Lebegue who was 
 entrusted in 1873 with the honour and the responsibility. 
 His researches were directed to the summit of Mount 
 Cynthus ; he discovered there a curious primitive 
 shrine and two temples, but absorbed by the study and 
 exploration of this narrow platform, led astray also by 
 the astronomical theories of M. Burnouf, he had neither 
 the leisure nor the means to occupy himself with the 
 buildings near the harbour. After his departure, the 
 Archaeological Society at Athens continued and com- 
 pleted his excavations, and discovered also on the slope 
 of the mountain the shrines of certain foreign deities — 
 Serapis, Isis, and Anubis. However, it was only in 
 1877 that extensive and fruitful researches were begun, 
 when Albert Dumont decided to resume the exploration 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS IN DELOS. 1 37 
 
 of the island and confided the oversight of the work to 
 M. Homolle. 
 
 M. Homolle perceived at once that these new ex- 
 plorations must be carried on after a different plan. 
 Every ancient town has a special character which 
 decides the nature of the exploration to be pursued 
 there, and, so to speak, determines the point of attack 
 to be chosen. Delos had been, above all, a sanctuary 
 and a commercial centre ; it was the holy city and the 
 trading town which must be the principal objects of 
 search. All along the western coast of Delos, too, 
 a long breakwater was still to be seen ; on the shore 
 the pillars were visible of those vast warehouses where 
 the products of Europe, Asia, and Africa had been 
 heaped up ; and by means of well-directed excava- 
 tions it might be possible to recover the plan of 
 the harbour, the quays, and the docks; to recon- 
 struct the trading quarters, and restore the living 
 image of one of the great commercial cities of the 
 ancient Mediterranean. Unfortunately this task was 
 long, costly, and difficult, and by undertaking it they 
 ran the risk of once more sacrificing to a vain curiosity 
 the most essential thing — that is, the temple of Apollo. 
 It was, besides, comparatively easy to find the site of 
 the temple : it certainly stood on the only plain in the 
 island, on the only spot which was suited to the con- 
 struction of large buildings, between the foot of Mount 
 Cynthus and the western shore of Delos ; and on the 
 plain around it rose all those famous edifices which 
 former generations had accumulated in the sacred island. 
 But among the heaps of ruins it was not easy to find 
 one's way ; on the plain nothing appeared but heaps of 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS IN DELOS. I 39 
 
 rubbish, which here and there showed the indistinct 
 outlines of buildings ; not a single structure rose above 
 the ground, a few stones only seemed to have remained 
 in their places, and everywhere a layer of earth of 
 greater or less thickness, sometimes slightly undulat- 
 ing, covered and concealed the monuments. One could, 
 at most, vaguely distinguish under the heaps of ruins 
 a few groups of buildings scattered around the sacred 
 lake or along the western shore ; towards the middle 
 of the plain there was a vast parallelogram, before and 
 behind which two parallel lines of ruins seemed to 
 indicate two porticoes ; to the left a vast rectangular 
 enclosure was to be seen, with here and there the 
 bases of statues, one of which formerly supported the 
 Colossus, raised by the people of Naxos in honour of 
 Apollo.* 
 
 To crown their difficulties, there was no ancient 
 description to serve as a guide to this labyrinth of 
 monuments. Pausanias did not visit Delos, and as to 
 the monograph which the Delian Semus devoted to the 
 antiquities of his native land, and in which he described 
 in eight books the pious legends of the island, the 
 origin and rites of the different cults, the arrangement of 
 the temples, the monuments and votive offerings — this 
 precious book, which would have left us little to learn 
 as to the organisation of the shrine and the admini- 
 stration of the sacred treasure, has been hopelessly lost. 
 Lost also are the treatise of Aristotle on the Republic of 
 the Delians, and the greater part of those epic or lyric 
 poems of which the hymn of Callimachus to Apollo 
 
 * Compare Homolle, " Les Fouilles de Delos " (Mon. Grecs, 1878, 
 p. 26). 
 
I40 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 may give some idea, and in which poets Hke Demotelesr 
 of Andros, Amphicles of Rhenaea, Ariston of Phocaea, 
 with others as well, named in the inscriptions, had 
 celebrated the religious traditions and the local legends 
 of Delos. All that antiquity tells us of the topography of 
 the island may be summed up in a few lines, and those 
 scattered and confused indications were too vague to- 
 permit even of conjecture. This important under- 
 taking was therefore entered upon somewhat blindly, 
 and in spite of good reasons for hope much anxiety 
 was still felt as to its ultimate success. The cata- 
 strophe in which the prosperity of Delos perished 
 justified all fears. In the year 87 b.c, Menophanes, 
 a general of Mithridates, had plundered the temples, 
 thrown the statues into the sea, and massacred or 
 enslaved the inhabitants; everything had been over- 
 thrown, broken, scattered, and Delos does not appear 
 to have recovered from this catastrophe. Later on the 
 island was used as a quarry. The Hospitallers of St. 
 John built several churches and a strong fortress from 
 the ruins of its buildings ; the inhabitants of the neigh- 
 bouring islands came to seek among them for excellent 
 building materials, cheap and ready to hand ; the church 
 of Tinos is entirely built of the stones from ancient build- 
 ings and the Turkish tombstones of the neighbouring 
 islands are often carved from marbles taken from Delos. 
 Less still was to be hoped in the case of the statues. 
 Many had been carried off or destroyed in the course of 
 centuries, and the explorers remembered with terror 
 the exploits of that provveditore of Tinos who plundered 
 the ruins of Delos to enrich Venice, and broke in the 
 removal the Colossus of Apollo. All they expected ta 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS IN DELOS. I4I 
 
 find were the architectural facts necessary for the 
 restoration of the buildings, and, above all, inscriptions. 
 As was the case with all ancient temples, the shrine of 
 Apollo was at once a depository of archives, a treasury, 
 and a kind of museum. The Delians deposited 
 there the public documents relating to the admini- 
 stration of the town and of the sanctuary ; foreigners 
 sent thither copies of treaties and official documents to 
 which they wished to assure full publicity ; lastly, from 
 all parts of the ancient world, numerous offerings were 
 brought and consecrated there."* In order to find 
 these records therefore it was first of all necessary to 
 find the temple itself After a few days' digging 
 they were fortunate enough to discover its foundations ; 
 thenceforth they had reliable data to work from, and 
 every stroke told. 
 
 From the first year the results surpassed all hopes, 
 and the work begun has not again been interrupted. 
 Between 1877 and 1880 M. Homolle made four 
 campaigns at Delos ; he has since returned there, in 
 1885 and 1888. In the intervals other members of the 
 French school at Athens, whilst exploring with success 
 other parts of the island, as well, have continued and 
 completed the work of M. Homolle ; and although the 
 island is beginning to be exhausted, interesting or 
 important discoveries are still made there each year. 
 Delos has thus become as it were the property of the 
 School at Athens, which, with its own modest resources 
 alone, has during the last ten years won from Apollo's 
 sacred island the greater part of its secrets. 
 
 To-day, thanks to these memorable discoveries, we 
 
 * Homolle, "Les Fouilles de Delos" {Mori. Grecs, 1871, p. 28). 
 
142 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 can traverse with ease the sacred city of Delos, study 
 its plan and re-construct its temples, visit its trading 
 quarter, the quays and the port. Thanks to the in- 
 scriptions, of which more than fifteen hundred have 
 been discovered, we can form an idea of the history 
 of Delos till now unknown : and this history is 
 not merely the dry and monotonous chronicle of a 
 celebrated shrine ; during many centuries Delos was a 
 centre of religious and commercial activity, and its 
 annals are singularly instructive in all that relates to 
 the economic history of the ancient world. Thanks 
 also to the inscriptions, we may learn to know the 
 administration of an ancient temple, and the manner in 
 which the property of the god was managed and turned 
 to account; lastly, thanks to the statues which have 
 been discovered, we obtain new and interesting infor- 
 mation as to the history of ancient art. It is true that 
 very few objects in gold or silver have been found, 
 and not one monument in that Delian bronze so 
 famous in the Greek and Roman world ; everything 
 valuable that the temple contained disappeared when 
 it was sacked, and in spite of the marvellous legends 
 current in the islands of the Archipelago as to the 
 riches of Delos, no treasure has been found there ; 
 history has won more spoil in these excavations than 
 archaeology properly so called. 
 
 II. 
 
 There were two essential parts, as M. Homolle says, 
 which made up an ancient temple — a building and a 
 sacred enclosure. The former was the dwelling, the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS IN DELOS. I43 
 
 house of the god ; the latter included the whole of 
 the ground consecrated to the divinity — that is, the 
 shrine with the buildings belonging to it, and all the 
 surrounding space. This consecrated ground was sur- 
 rounded by a wall, separated by landmarks from the 
 unconsecrated territory in such a way as to form as it 
 were a sacred city, which was called the periholos or 
 temenos of the temple. It is this sacred enclosure 
 which we must consider first, in order to determine 
 its limits and describe its monuments. 
 
 Let us imagine that, like the ancient traveller, we are 
 entering the harbour of Delos in the distant days of 
 its prosperity. Before us stretches a high wall over- 
 looking the sea, a sort of terrace laid out in front of 
 the temple, which forms the western limit of the 
 temenos. On the right a wall of granite, now almost 
 entirely destroyed, rises perpendicularly from the shore 
 and the harbour, and runs eastward ; behind the 
 temple rises another wall exactly similar, built of 
 finely-dressed stone and perfectly preserved ; lastly, to 
 the left, that is to say on the north side of the peribolos 
 stretched a series of porticoes whose inner wall served 
 to bound the temenos. Such was the enclosure sur- 
 rounding the sacred city. To the north and south of 
 peribolos along the shore the trading quarter was 
 built, with its warehouses, its docks and the offices of 
 its great trading companies, while higher than the 
 temple on the slopes of Mount Cynthus rose a suc- 
 cession of edifices, houses and temples, whose white 
 walls overtopped the tall trees of the sacred wood. 
 
 Such was the general aspect of Delos to the travel- 
 ler. The landing-place was, as it seems, on the left. 
 
144 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 at the boundary of the two cities, in a large and richly 
 decorated open space adorned with statues, exedrai, 
 and a portico. Bounded on the east by the sacred 
 buildings, it had a wide opening to the left in the 
 direction of the trading quarter. Three streets went off 
 from it : one to the north, towards the agora ; a second 
 to the east which led along the walls of the temple to 
 the northern gates of the shrine, a grand, monumental 
 portico opening towards the trading city; lastly, a 
 third road turned towards the south, and led to a 
 secondary entrance to the peribolos, constructed behind 
 the terrace quite near the building called the house of 
 tufa (Porinos Oikos) on account of the material of 
 which it was built. 
 
 On each side of the enclosure there were gates, some 
 of which led to the upper part of the plain, the others 
 to the merchants' quarter ; but the principal entrance 
 was on the south side of the temenos, to the right of 
 the harbour and the quays where the pilgrims landed. 
 There rose the propylaea of the Doric order, the gift 
 of the Athenians to Apollo : each of the great states 
 of antiquity had thus brought to the god some archi- 
 tectural offering ; each had been desirous of leaving in 
 the sacred enclosure some splendid monument of its 
 piety. From this structure the road started which led 
 to the temple ; its line is still clearly marked by the 
 bases of the numerous statues which bordered this 
 sacred way. Over all the vast space which extended in 
 front of the temple, the most frequented part of the 
 iemenos, were in fact displayed the most beautiful works 
 of art, the most magnificent offerings consecrated to 
 Apollo, and the most important and famous public 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 45 
 
 records, with which it was desired that all Greece should 
 be acquainted. There, among many others, rose the 
 famous Colossus of the Naxians, and among these 
 monuments a wide passage was left free to form the 
 road destined for the religious processions. The festival 
 processions in all their pomp and splendour, advanced 
 slowly across the open space, passed behind the temple^ 
 whose principal fagade according to ancient usage turned 
 towards the east, and along the two buildings parallel 
 to the sanctuary of Apollo. The sacred way coming 
 from the northern gates led to the same spot ; and 
 the two roads, thus joined, after having wound along 
 a semicircular line of buildings facing the road, which 
 were doubtless treasuries containing the offerings of 
 the faithful, reached at length the open space imme- 
 diately in front of the temple itself. 
 
 This building, such as the excavations of Delos have 
 restored it to us, is not however the primitive shrine 
 of Apollo ; it is a building of the first years of the 
 fourth century, erected by the liberality of Athens 
 in the place of a more ancient structure. Built 
 entirely of Parian marble, somewhat similar in its 
 plan and dimensions to the Theseum at Athens, it was 
 very small and, in spite of the beauty of its proportions, 
 astonishes one a little by its insignificant size. The 
 reason for this is that in antiquity the temple was 
 intended exclusively for the use of the god ; it was his 
 dwelling, to which only the priests and a few magis- 
 trates had access, it was not the spot where the faithful 
 came to offer their prayers and homage. It was outside 
 the temple, on the altar built before it, that the sacrifices 
 were offered and the crowd assembled to worship the 
 
 10 
 
146 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 ■deity. But in spite of its intentionally small size the 
 building is of exquisite elegance, and the fragments 
 of it which have been preserved allow us to restore 
 with perfect accuracy the appearance of this vanished 
 shrine. We can raise its Doric columns, which with 
 intentional singularity were not fluted, we can replace 
 in the pediment the sculptures which adorned it, and 
 gain an exact idea of what this temple, one of the most 
 famous of ancient Greece, really was. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe here all the 
 buildings crowded together in the sacred enclosure. 
 But among the principal ones must be mentioned 
 two smaller temples of later date, which rose beside 
 the sanctuary of Apollo. One was doubtless conse- 
 crated to Leto, the other to Aphrodite. There were 
 also treasuries and refectories, and all around the 
 temenos, especially along the north wall, immense 
 porticoes where the priests lodged the pilgrims. These 
 were, so to speak, great hostelries, which the god placed 
 gratuitously at the disposal of his worshippers. In 
 the same way in our own day, at the great festival of 
 the Panegyria of Tinos and all over the East, around the 
 Ottoman mosques there are apartments prepared at 
 the foot of the sanctuary to receive the crowd of the 
 faithful which recall the hospitable traditions of the old 
 Hellenic sanctuary. Among these porticoes at Delos 
 one was especially remarkable : it was that raised by 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, which owing to 
 its triglyphs adorned with heads of oxen was named 
 the Portico of the Horns. 
 
 Opposite the temple of Apollo rose a curious structure, 
 one of the most famous in Delos. It was a temple raised 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 47 
 
 on pillars, which had for capitals a pair of kneeling bulls. 
 Before this building, which formed a sort of narrow 
 passage, 328 feet long, was doubtless placed the Altar 
 of the Horns, one of the most venerated marvels of the 
 sacred island. Here, in memory of Theseus, was danced 
 the famous geranos, whose mazes symbolised the 
 labyrinth of Crete ; and it was doubtless through the 
 long and narrow passage of the temple that this sacred 
 dance wound on days of festival. 
 
 By the side of Apollo, his sister Artemis also had 
 altars at Delos. In a separate temenos, situated to the 
 north-west of the great enclosure, and bordered by two 
 Ionic porticoes, there were two temples consecrated to 
 the goddess. One, the more ancient, appears in the 
 inventories under the name of the Temple of the Seven 
 Statues ; the other was called the New Artemisium. 
 Lastly, yet other gods were associated with Apollo. At 
 the south-east angle of the peribolos Zeus Polieus had 
 an altar ; farther off was the temenos of Dionysus, and 
 in another part of the enclosure the shrine of Asclepius. 
 Among the buildings of Delos were also mentioned the 
 tomb of the Hyperborean virgins, and near the temple 
 the dwelling of the priests or neocorion. 
 
 Such was the sacred city of Delos. On leaving this 
 enclosure on either side, one entered the merchants' 
 quarter, and there also the excavations undertaken have 
 yielded important results. Without entering here 
 upon an investigation of the commercial development of 
 Delos, which is only one chapter in the history of the 
 island, we must notice that the importance of this centre 
 early led to the establishment of great trading companies. 
 Shipowners and merchants established offices at Delos 
 
148 . EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 and soon organised themselves into powerful corpora- 
 tions ; the inscriptions mention among others those of the 
 Heracleistai of Tyre, the Poseidoniastai of Beyrout, 
 the Hermaistai of Italy. Other merchants again had 
 founded at Delos a kind of clubs which resembled at 
 once an exchange and a temple, and were meeting- 
 places for men of the same nationality. It was to the 
 north of the temenos, between the temple and the sacred 
 lake, that all these buildings stood, and the excavations 
 have restored to us all those vast and beautiful struc- 
 tures which surrounded the lake, temples, porticoes and 
 ftv^fl^mz", magnificently decorated with mosaics and statues, 
 among which one of the richest and most elegant is the 
 schola of the Italians, with its great courtyard and vast 
 warehouses filling all the basement. Near the offices of 
 the great trading corporations and between these build- 
 ings and the shore, stood the agora — the market place, 
 with the warehouses and docks where the goods were 
 stored in great granite buildings two stories high. 
 In this district however the thickness of the earth to be 
 cleared away is so considerable that the excavations 
 still remain unfinished. 
 
 To the south of the temple lay another market — the 
 square portico. This was composed of a double gallery, 
 one side of which formed a covered walk, whilst the 
 other was lined with shops. Lastly, two other porticoes 
 bordered the main street leading to the propylaea. The 
 larger of the two, that on the west, formed a double 
 gallery, open on one side to the sea and on the other to 
 the street ; this was also a gift, made to Apollo and the 
 Delians at the end of the third century by Philip V. of 
 Macedonia. It was certainly one of the most frequented 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 49 
 
 •spots, and one of the most fashionable promenades, in 
 Delos ; the street is lined with seats, and the numerous 
 statues placed beneath the porticoes made it, in fact, one 
 •of the most beautiful parts of the town. Even to-day 
 it is one of the most picturesque spots in the island ; 
 nowhere are the monuments better preserved, nowhere 
 does one penetrate more thoroughly into ancient life. 
 In the midst of the colossal remains of the portico of 
 Philip, among the still living ruins of this wide street of 
 Delos, one might imagine oneself in a corner of Pompeii. 
 
 In the plain to the east of the temple were numerous 
 private dwellings, which even climbed the slope of 
 Mount Cynthus. These were in general very handsome 
 and elegant villas, the internal arrangements of which 
 are not without importance for the history of Hellenic 
 domestic architecture. A little to the north lay the 
 'theatre, and, further still, a recently discovered gymna- 
 sium, covered with curious drawings scratched by idlers 
 •on the walls of the building. Lastly, in the upper part 
 of the town, on the platform immediately below the 
 summit of Mount Cynthus, was the temple of the foreign 
 gods. As the trading relations of the island were 
 chiefly with the East, thence, in the train of the 
 foreign merchants settled at Delos, came their Oriental 
 •deities as well. Egypt sent Serapis, Isis, Anubis ; 
 Syria introduced the worship of Aphrodite ; here, as 
 everywhere else at Delos, commerce and religion went 
 hand in hand. 
 
 Such is the topography of Delos ; in these surround- 
 ings once moved the people of the sacred island. 
 Thanks to these excavations, a whole town has risen 
 anew from the heaps of ruins ; and so undeviating 
 
I50 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 are the laws of Greek architecture, that a few fragments 
 serve for the reconstruction of a whole building. It is 
 not simply, therefore, the skeleton of a dead town that 
 the explorations have given us : the pencil of the 
 architect can retrace the exact image of the fallen 
 buildings ; and M. Nenot, the skilful colleague of M. 
 Homolle, has been able to raise again the long-destroyed 
 temples of Apollo's holy island. Thanks to the accuracy 
 of this restoration, Delos lives again : the solitudes be- 
 come animated, and its vanished splendour shines with 
 its ancient brilliancy. Nor is this all : imagination, after 
 having restored to Delos its buildings, can also, without 
 difficulty, restore its inhabitants. It is only necessary to 
 question the archives found in the temple, all those public 
 records laid up under the protection of the god in the 
 precincts of his sanctuary, all the mass of epigraphic 
 material, decrees, dedications, complimentary inscrip- 
 tions, found among the ruins : and these inscriptions will 
 tell us with wonderful certainty, precision and fulness of 
 information, the long and curious history of Delos and 
 its temple. 
 
 III. 
 
 The inscriptions of Delos range from the seventh 
 century before Christ to the first century of our era. 
 It is true that they are unequally distributed among 
 these eight centuries ; but nevertheless they throw 
 some light on all periods of its history. It is true 
 that, for the distant times of the seventh and sixth 
 centuries, for that obscure and half-legendary age 
 when, nevertheless, Delos already held a high place in 
 men's regard, the monuments are rare ; a few statues^ 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. I 5 I 
 
 a few inscriptions accompanying these offerings are the 
 only representatives of this primitive period ; at the same 
 time the sources of these gifts, which come from Chios^ 
 from Cos, from Naxos, agree with the impression 
 which the Homeric hymn gives us of Delos, the meeting- 
 place of the islanders of the Archipelago, the centre of 
 the worship of Apollo. When, in the fifth century, 
 Athenian rule was established at Delos, it might seem 
 that inscriptions would become more numerous. It is 
 not so however. In order to know the history of Delos 
 in the fifth and fourth centuries, we must go to Athens : 
 it is there that we must seek for the archives of the 
 temple of Apollo and the accounts of the sacred treasury. 
 During this period the political life of Delos was de- 
 stroyed for the advantage of its suzerain, and only a very 
 few records relate to this time. But at the end of the 
 fourth century the inscriptions become more numerous. 
 At this moment, about 315 b.c. Delos became once more 
 the mistress of her own destinies, and then began the 
 most fortunate and brilliant period of her history. For 
 a hundred and fifty years, during the whole of the third 
 century and the first half of the second, the renown of 
 her sanctuary drew to her the homage of the whole 
 Greek world, enlarged as it now was by the conquests 
 of Alexander. Her influence was felt throughout the 
 East, and her commerce prospered surprisingly. It is 
 true that in 166 b.c. Delos lost her independence, and 
 was restored by Rome to the Athenians ; but under the 
 protection of the Romans her progress was not arrested,, 
 and this last epoch of her history was perhaps the most 
 brilliant. These three periods in the history of the 
 sacred island deserve to be studied with equal attention. 
 
152 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 During the whole of her political life Delos, through 
 her geographical position and her religious renown, 
 never led a life apart from the rest of Greece ; and 
 all the great powers which aspired to the rule of the 
 eastern Mediterranean tried in turn to bring under their 
 authority, their protection or their influence, this post 
 which in the hands of an enemy might become for- 
 midable, this shrine whose renown was so glorious, this 
 port which offered so convenient and secure a situation 
 for commerce. 
 
 When, immediately after the Persian wars, Athens 
 saw the necessity of uniting all Greece in order to main- 
 tain a successful struggle against Persia, a league of all 
 the Hellenic tribes, both of the mainland and of the 
 islands, was formed under the presidency of the Athen- 
 ians. In order to continue the war, and free the Asiatic 
 Greeks, both money and a fleet were needed ; each of 
 the allies was called on to furnish a contribution and 
 the common treasure was placed under the protection 
 of Apollo at Delos. In all periods, ancient confedera- 
 tions were accustomed to choose for their headquarters 
 the temple of some deity. The respect lately shown 
 by the Persians for Delos had proved the sacred 
 character of the island, which made it an inviolable 
 refuge, and its central position exactly suited a league 
 of all the Greeks. Here therefore, were deposited the 
 funds of the confederation, and here assembled the 
 council of the Delian confederacy. This honour cost 
 Delos its liberty. Athens, who as president of the 
 league had the control of its funds, once established 
 in the island, was in no haste to leave it. Under the 
 pretext that the treasure of the league was deposited in 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. I 5 3 
 
 the sanctuary, she took upon herself the government 
 of the temple, and placed the management of its affairs 
 in the hands of Athenians. When, in 454 b.c, the federal 
 treasure was removed to Athens the pretext was at an 
 end, but not the usurpation. An appearance of political 
 freedom was left to the Delians, they had magistrates 
 called archontes, and some share in the management 
 of the temple, but Athenian commissioners, the 
 Amphictyons, were the real rulers. Delos, with its 
 central situation, and the riches and strength it already 
 possessed, might by its natural development, or in the 
 hands of a skilful enemy, become a formidable rival; 
 it was safer, therefore, to retain possession of it. Nor 
 was Athens a lenient ruler ; she treated the Delians with 
 very little consideration. In 420 B.C., under pretence of 
 rendering the sacred island truly worthy of Apollo, she 
 ordered a general purification of the territory ; in order 
 not to defile the sacred soil the ancient sepulchres were 
 removed, and restrictive regulations henceforth forbade 
 that either births or deaths should take place on the 
 island. No doubt there was some resistance, and this 
 was overcome in 422 e.g. by a more radical measure, 
 the total expulsion of all the Delians. Thus Athens 
 crushed a possible rival, and, as she believed, secured 
 permanent possession of the temple. The misfortunes 
 which marked the close of the fifth century destroyed 
 these hopes together with the power of Athens. After 
 the victory of Sparta, the confederation was dissolved, 
 and the separate states regained their liberty, Delos 
 among them. Its inhabitants returned to the island, 
 and were restored to their ancient rights. This did not 
 last long, however, Athens soon took possession of 
 
154 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Delos again. In vain did the revolt of 375 B.C. show 
 the ill-will of the subjects towards their masters, in 
 vain did the Dehans ask everywhere for help, their 
 complaints were ineffectual, their efforts useless, their 
 appeals unheard. 
 
 The fourth century was in every way a sad time for 
 Delos. This can be discerned in the inventories, in 
 which are set down the riches of the temple and the 
 gifts made to Apollo by his worshippers. In these 
 records, which give us an abstract of the history of 
 Delos, no period is so poor as the fourth century. 
 Athens, formerly so liberal towards the god, so ready to 
 celebrate magnificent festivals, to send solemn embassies 
 to Delos, now neglects Apollo. The great sovereigns 
 of the time are heedless of the shrine ; the names 
 of neither Philip nor Alexander appear in the lists,, 
 which seems to prove that Delos had fallen into utter 
 decay. Besides, if the place had been worth the trouble 
 of seizing' it, would Philip have left it to the Republic ? 
 The Athenians retained possession of it rather as a 
 matter of pride than of profit ; they remained in the 
 island, but without being able to do anything for it, 
 and Delos, without military or commercial importance, 
 could no longer possess much religious influence. 
 
 After the death of Alexander, in the last troubled 
 years of the fourth century, when the Macedonian 
 generals, in order to gain partisans and to secure a part 
 in the heritage of their master, vied with each other in 
 proclaiming liberty to the Greeks, Delos escaped from 
 the Athenians, and regained the control of the temple. 
 Mistress of herself, respected for the antiquity of her 
 worship, sought after for her moral influence, she 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 155 
 
 became at that moment a political power. Around her 
 was grouped a confederation of the neighbouring islands ; 
 and this league situated in the centre of the Archipelago, 
 became the necessary ally or protege of every power 
 which desired to rule the Aegean Sea. Thus Delos at 
 that moment became of importance in Eastern affairs. 
 She sent and received embassies, she had a foreign 
 policy. It is true that among the great powers which 
 contested the rule of the Eastern seas or in turn succeeded 
 to it, between the flourishing republic of Rhodes, and 
 the kings of Syria, Egypt and Macedonia, the league of 
 which Delos was the centre was not so much an ally as- 
 ?i protege; a town like Delos, which had neither army 
 nor navy, and which depended for food on external 
 supplies, needed safety above all things, and this could 
 only be found in the protection of a great power. But 
 if her position was sometimes delicate and difficult 
 among these conflicting influences, on the other hand 
 she also profited by them. The development of Hel- 
 lenism which was the consequence of Alexander's con- 
 quests, the new life which Greek genius infused into the 
 whole East, brought new worshippers from all quarters 
 to the gods of Hellas. Just at this point the inscriptions 
 allow of our determining with precision the sphere in 
 which the influence of Delos was exercised, and in which 
 its interests were concerned. Peruse the long series of 
 dedications inscribed on the bases of the statues. The 
 names, the nationality, the rank, of those who present 
 these offerings, the number and splendour of the 
 monuments dedicated, show the movement of population 
 kept up in the island by religion and commerce, and 
 inform us of the principal countries which had relations 
 
156 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 with Delos. Study, on the other hand, the decrees 
 voted by the senate or the people; the nationality of 
 the persons honoured in these inscriptions show in what 
 direction are the most active and cordial friendships of 
 the sacred island. Take in your hand the inventories, 
 where, together with the offerings, are inscribed the 
 name and country of the donors, and side by side with 
 the list of the countries towards which Delos felt 
 herself drawn, one may make a Hst of the nations and 
 kings who felt the attraction of the holy island. 
 
 First, at the end of the fourth century, comes the 
 powerful repubUc of Rhodes. At this time, and through- 
 out the third century, the Rhodians had a monopoly 
 of maritime commerce in the East. They served as 
 middlemen between the peoples of the eastern basin of 
 the Mediterranean, bringing goods from the country 
 where they were produced and selling them again to the 
 dwellers on the shores of the Aegean. All the external 
 trade of Egypt was in their hands ; they sailed to 
 the Black Sea to buy the wheat of the Crimea, and 
 supplied the whole Archipelago with it. The importance 
 of Delos to them may be imagined. It formed an 
 admirable market and emporium ; the festivals of Apollo, 
 the fame of these rites, attracted an extraordinary crowd 
 of pilgrims from all parts ; the sacredness of the island 
 assured its neutrality, and thus they were sure of 
 finding there at all times a large number of customers. 
 The Rhodians quickly saw all these advantages. The 
 troubles of Athens, the rivalry of Alexander's generals, 
 left them a free field ; and it was doubtless at their 
 instigation and under their protection that the league 
 of the islands around Delos was formed. Henceforth 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. I 57 
 
 Rhodes sent each year embassies and rich offerings to 
 Apollo and in return the people of Delos overwhelmed 
 the chiefs of the great maritime republic with com- 
 pliments and honours. 
 
 After Rhodes it was Egypt which, in the third century 
 became the patron of Delos. The Ptolemies early saw the 
 advantages to be derived from its geographical situation 
 and its religious influence, they also saw that the control 
 of the island was the necessary condition of the estab- 
 lishment of any great maritime power in the eastern 
 Mediterranean. Therefore they rendered all possible 
 honour to Apollo : throughout the first half of the third 
 century the lists of offerings are full of the names of 
 the Ptolemies ; every year solemn embassies brought 
 presents of great value to the temple ; every year fes- 
 tivals were held in the island, established expressly in 
 honour of the kings of Egypt, to which they had the 
 privilege of giving their names. Between Alexandria and 
 Delos there was constant interchange of courtesies ; 
 Egyptian fleets protected the sacred island and collected 
 for Apollo the arrears of tribute owed by the islanders, 
 while, in return for these good offices, Delos erected 
 statues to all the princes of Egypt, to their wives, to 
 their sons, to the chief personages of their court — one 
 statue to the king's physician, a second to the director 
 of the museum, a third to the architect of the Pharos. 
 There are endless decrees in honour of Egyptian 
 officers, admirals or governors of provinces, who ruled 
 the islands in the king's name, as well as decrees in 
 honour of the vassal kings of Egypt who, following 
 their master's example, came to do homage to Apollo. 
 Thus, during half a century Delos was under the 
 
158 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 protection of the Ptolemies, Alexandrian money was 
 current in the island, and an Egyptian admiral governed 
 the Cyclades. 
 
 It was not however without a struggle that Egypt 
 established and maintained this maritime empire. The 
 kings of Syria and Macedonia more than once disputed 
 her influence on the sea, and as the inscriptions of 
 Delos show, it was often with success. Amidst these 
 rivalries Apollo showed himself a consummate diploma- 
 tist. The constant policy of Delos was to make the 
 neutrality of her sacred soil respected as much as 
 possible ; even in times of war she received impartially 
 in her harbour the fleets of either belligerent, and 
 accepted without scruple offerings from any hand. At 
 the same time as the Ptolemies, the kings of Syria loaded 
 Apollo with gifts, and Delos rewarded their liberality 
 with statues. Beside the distinguished persons of the 
 Egyptian court, complimentary inscriptions name the 
 favourites, the ministers, the physicians, of the Syrian 
 kings ; beside the festivals in honour of Ptolemy, there 
 were also festivals in honour of Seleucus. The case was 
 the same with Macedonia ; Delos honoured Demetrius, 
 Antigonus or Philip with as much devotion as their 
 rivals, she accepted the gifts of the one with as much 
 gratitude as those of the other. Thus she assured to 
 herself the good-will of her future masters. At the end 
 of the third century, in fact, the protectorate of Delos 
 passed to Macedonia, and the portico of Philip is the 
 signal proof of the benefits which the Macedonian rule 
 conferred on the islands. 
 
 As Macedonia had succeeded Egypt, so Rhodes 
 succeeded Macedonia at the beginning of the second 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 59 
 
 •century. During the long conflicts of the third century, 
 the constant aim of the great maritime republic had 
 been to protect the islands of the Archipelago from 
 every conqueror who might have threatened her own 
 ■commerce. Before all things Rhodes had endeavoured 
 to preserve the freedom of the sea, and had held the 
 balance in turn between the states which aspired to 
 rule the Aegean ; and thus, when Egypt and Macedonia 
 had successively lost the supremacy, she remained the 
 only considerable power in the East. At the head of a 
 great commercial confederacy, not unlike the Hanseatic 
 League of the Middle Ages, Rhodes now ruled and 
 protected the Cyclades. Her fleets assured the safety 
 •of the seas and the neutrality of Delos, and in that un- 
 equalled market her merchants made full use of the 
 commercial monopoly which they had secured for them- 
 selves. It mattered little to the Delians who was their 
 master ; they were sure to profit by any rule. From all 
 parts of the Hellenic world offerings and worshippers 
 came to them — from Greece and Asia, from Egypt and 
 from the islands. From Cos, Rhodes, Alexandria, 
 solemn theoriai set out each year for Delos, and the great 
 powers of the East could not show too much respect and 
 ■devotion to Apollo. If Athens was wanting and seemed 
 to have a- grudge against the god, the Delians were 
 easily consoled for this by the crowd of pilgrims sent 
 to them each year by the East. In acknowledgment of 
 their liberality Delos decreed statues and festivals to 
 them all, and all in return covered the sacred island with 
 magnificent monuments. One king of Syria built the 
 Portico of the Horns ; another filled Delos with statues; 
 Philip of Macedon erected a portico ; and less important 
 
l60 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 rulers gave in proportion. Thus the island passed from 
 hand to hand, always honoured and renowned, she 
 grew rich and beautiful, and her inhabitants tranquilly 
 passed their lives in receiving and entertaining strangers^ 
 and in earning a good deal of money by fattening poultry, 
 and acting as innkeepers and slave-dealers in turn. 
 
 Trade prospered at the same time as religion. Placed 
 in the centre of the Cyclades, at the junction of the 
 great routes of the ancient world, possessing an excel- 
 lent port, Delos had all the advantages necessary for a 
 commercial centre. The Delians had business relations 
 on all sides — with Alexandria, with Byzantium, with 
 Rhodes, with Crete. A far-seeing and skilful diplomacy 
 regulated their friendships and their alliances ; together 
 with religious motives, more mundane reasons guided 
 their sympathies. The need of safety led them towards 
 Crete, a nest of robbers who must be conciliated as 
 they could not be resisted ; economic considerations 
 drew them to Rhodes and Byzantium, the two chief 
 seats of that eastern trade, all the traffic of which passed 
 through the mart of Delos. " The principal article of 
 this commerce was wheat. The question of provisions 
 was indeed of the utmost importance to Delos, whose 
 territory was insufficient for her support ; and therefore 
 the island had relations with all countries which pro- 
 duced corn, with Cyzicus and Lampsacus, with the 
 Chersonese and Panticapaeum, with all the states which 
 traded in wheat. But not content with importing 
 the quantity necessary for their own consumption, the 
 Delians were ambitious of becoming purveyors to the 
 whole of Greece, by storing this indispensable article 
 in a position accessible to all ; from the time of the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. l6l 
 
 Rhodian supremacy Delos dreamed .of becoming the 
 common market of Greece."* 
 
 However, in spite of these ambitions, " in spite of the 
 situation and the excellence of its harbour, in spite of 
 its privileged position as a sacred city, Delos at the 
 beginning of the second century was still only a town 
 of the third or fourth order." f Between Delos and the 
 powerful cities of Greece and Asia there was no equality, 
 she could expect nothing from them but competition and 
 rivalry. Rhodes aspired to the monopoly of the sea. 
 Corinth was also flourishing, and Delos, moreover, had 
 within herself none of the resources which make a great 
 maritime and commercial town. Her narrow territory 
 was not fertile ; it furnished neither wood for shipbuild- 
 ing, nor produce for export. Delos could therefore be 
 nothing more than an emporium, a mart dependent on 
 others. If she was rich and luxurious in the third 
 century, she owed it to religion more than to commerce ; 
 she owed it to that concourse of strangers whose piety 
 enriched the temple, and who in fact made the Delians 
 the parasites of Apollo. But circumstances were about 
 to change ; as soon as Rome appeared in the East, her 
 intervention in a few years raised Delos to the highest 
 rank ; her victories in Macedonia and Asia had the 
 most important consequences for the island. The holy 
 city of the third century became a commercial town ; and 
 it is to this economic revolution, so rapid and so extra- 
 ordinary, that the final splendour of Delos is due. 
 
 By the end of the third century, the Romans began 
 to appear in the East. From this moment we meet, at 
 
 * HomoUe, Rapport sur une mission a Delos, p. 36. 
 f Ibid., Les Remains a Delos. 
 
 ir 
 
1 62 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Delos, with the first nucleus of that colony of Roman 
 traders and capitalists, which soon became so pros- 
 perous ; from this moment the political instincts of the 
 Delians brought them into connection with the great 
 republic, whose power was constantly on the increase. 
 When, shortly after, a war brought the Roman squadrons 
 into the Archipelago, the generals of the Senate soon 
 became acquainted with the port of Delos — " a safe and 
 convenient harbour in these often dangerous waters, 
 an excellent post of observation in the centre of the 
 Cyclades, a refuge doubly protected by nature and by 
 religion.* " They found the place suitable ; and this 
 strategic position was quite naturally destined to 
 become, in time of peace, the chosen site of the great 
 maritime emporium of the eastern Mediterranean. In 
 fact, whilst the West remained outside the circle of 
 trade, Delos could only have a secondary importance, 
 but now that a new customer, Italy, had to be taken 
 into account, a new market was needed, where the 
 merchandise from different regions could, halfway from 
 their place of origin, be gathered together, and brought 
 within reach of this important purchaser. The Romans 
 perceived the suitability of Delos for this purpose, and 
 in the train of the Roman generals who came to do 
 homage to Apollo, and who exercised a political pro- 
 tectorate over the island, there soon arrived capitalists 
 who established banking and commercial houses at 
 Delos ; and in a few years this colony was prosperous 
 and influential enough to hold the first rank in the 
 island. It was at the request of these bold and selfish 
 traders, that the Senate took in 1 66 b.c. a measure which 
 
 * HomoUe, Les Romains a Delos. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 63 
 
 was decisive of the future of Delos. In order to crush 
 all outside competition, and especially that of Rhodes, 
 in order to concentrate in the island of Apollo all the 
 trade of the East, Rome constituted Delos a free port. 
 This was, for the Roman banking houses established 
 there, an essential condition of their prosperity. At 
 the same time, in order to secure more completely the 
 Roman preponderance at Delos, the Senate expelled 
 and proscribed the Delians en masse, afterwards restor- 
 ing the island to its former masters, the Athenians. 
 But, in fact, this restitution was only a diplomatic 
 fiction, which could deceive no one ; it was the Romans 
 who arranged it all and who were to profit by it. In 
 appearance the government was Athenian, but in reality 
 with Athens was always associated the Roman colony, 
 in whose hands was all the wealth, and who managed 
 all important affairs. 
 
 Rhodes, which up till then had had a monopoly of 
 trade, was at once ruined by these measures of the 
 Senate ; in three years the revenue from her customs 
 fell from a million to a hundred and fifty thousand 
 drachmae. One more piece of good fortune came to 
 complete the prosperity of Delos ; it was the destruction 
 of Corinth in 146 b.c. Henceforth Delos had no rival, 
 and her fortunes rose to a marvellous height. Having 
 become the trading centre for Greece, Asia and Italy, 
 she had a monopoly of the Eastern trade, and this 
 monopoly was extremely lucrative. All the articles of 
 luxury which the East produced found purchasers at 
 Rome, and sold at high prices there ; in order to supply 
 this demand, works of art, costly stuffs, spices — all the 
 products of Greek and Asiatic countries — were gathered 
 
I 64 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 together at the great festivals, or rather fairs, of Delos. 
 Slaves abounded in this celebrated market, where in a 
 single day more than ten thousand head of these 
 human cattle were sold. Under the powerful protection 
 of Rome, trade was carried on in safety, and when in 
 133 B.C., Asia became in her turn a Roman province, and 
 the inexhaustible riches of that country fell into the 
 hands of Roman capitalists, this was a new advantage 
 for the free port of Delos. 
 
 At this point, about thirty years before the end of the 
 second century b.c, we will stop for a moment, in order 
 to take a more extended survey of the commercial pros- 
 perity of Delos. Here again it is from the inscriptions 
 that we must ascertain the chief directions followed 
 by Delian trade and the vast field over which it 
 spread. A host of monuments erected to Eastern 
 princes, to the sovereigns and officials of Pontus and 
 Bithynia, of Syria and Cappadocia, of Parthia and 
 Egypt, attest the relations existing between these 
 kingdoms and the sacred island. " It is towards the 
 Levant, in fact, that the commerce of Delos turned 
 exclusively ; its principal seats were Syria and Egypt, 
 which held the first rank in the industry of the time, 
 and were in direct communication with the producing 
 countries of Asia, of the interior of Africa, and of the 
 extreme East. In Egypt all the trade was concentrated 
 in Alexandria ; in Syria, twelve towns, the Ladder of 
 the Coast, served as halting-places between the interior 
 and Delos." * From all these countries worshippers 
 crowded to the sacred islands ; not only did princes 
 and great men make offerings to the temple, and think 
 
 * Homolle, Lcs Romains a Delos, p. 1 10. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 16$ 
 
 it an honour to have their statues there, but private 
 persons came in large numbers. Men of every race 
 and country — Syrians and Egyptians, Romans and 
 Athenians — mingled at Delos, and soon v^rere numerous 
 enough to form rich and powerful corporations there. 
 As early as 150 a guild of Tyrian merchants was formed 
 under the protection of Hercules ; then the merchants 
 of Beyrout were associated under the auspices of 
 Poseidon ; later still the ApoUoniastai constituted 
 another religious and commercial association, also 
 placed under the patronage of a national deity. The 
 Jews, the Syrians of Hierapolis and Ascalon, were 
 organised in the same way ; the Egyptians, anxious 
 to preserve their national customs, formed themselves 
 into a synod, which seems to have had considerable 
 importance ; but of all these foreign colonies the richest 
 and most influential was the Italian and Roman colony, 
 which from the middle of the second century formed 
 itself into a corporation under the protection of Hermes^ 
 and bore rule in Delos. 
 
 With the different nationalities came their gods. 
 Although Apollo always nominally held the first place, 
 piety now turned more readily to younger divinities, and 
 most of all to those gods of the Eastern world whose 
 worship has always been so attractive. The Hellenised 
 East invaded Greece, and Greece made no resistance : 
 Isis and Serapis, Anubis and Harpocrates and the 
 Syrian Astarte, had their temples, their worshippers 
 and their mysteries, at Delos. The importance of these 
 rites was such that Athens thought it necessary that 
 they should be directed by Athenian priests, and in fact 
 numerous inscriptions attest the amount of offerings 
 
1 66 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 brought to these shrines. Tyrians and Sidonians, 
 the people of Laodicea and Miletus, of Bithynia and 
 Pontus, of Egypt and Syria, pressed to these new 
 altars, and even the Romans did not disdain to take 
 part in this worship. 
 
 Thus Delos assumed more and more the character of 
 a cosmopolitan town. This is shown by the continued 
 rise in the rent of houses, together with the continued 
 decline in the rent of farms. The more foreigners 
 crowded to the island, the more were lodgings sought 
 after, and the greater part of the houses were trans- 
 formed into stores and hostelries. At the same time 
 the city was beautified on all sides. The great trading 
 associations bought land, built temples, and erected 
 halls and porticoes where their members could meet to 
 discuss their common affairs, and to concert measures 
 for influencing the market. These beautiful and ex- 
 tensive buildings, mute witnesses to the importance of 
 the guilds which met in them, are situated around the 
 sacred lake. The most remarkable among them is that 
 which belonged to the Roman colony. It is the largest, 
 and must have been the most magnificent of the 
 buildings of Delos. A vast court, measuring 310 ft. 
 by 230 ft., is surrounded by a portico behind which 
 extends a large building divided into a multitude of 
 rooms, which opened on other porticoes and on the 
 neighbouring streets. The whole was built of marble ; 
 under the portico were placed seats and statues ; here 
 and there are other halls which served as places of 
 meeting and where stood the statues of the benefactors 
 of the guild, while the basement was used for storage ; 
 long rows of amphorae or large jars, still stand there. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 67 
 
 Nothing can give a better idea than this vast building, 
 of the importance of the Romans in the island and of 
 the riches of Delos. 
 
 At the same time the harbour was improved ; the 
 breakwaters, the quays, the warehouses, were rebuilt or 
 enlarged, and these works, whose ruins are still visible, 
 bear witness by their grandeur to the power and pros- 
 perity of Delos. 
 
 " On the whole length of the west coast, the line of 
 the quays can be traced ; sometimes on irregular blocks, 
 flung pell-mell into the sea, there are heaped enormous 
 masses of granite ; elsewhere the rock itself has been 
 hewn out. An immense mole, which still forms an 
 efficient protection for the roadstead of Delos, runs out 
 like an arm into the sea, at the northern extremity of 
 the island another breakwater once served to break the 
 violence of the current and farther south a line of quiet 
 harbours was formed by means of jetties, where goods 
 could be loaded and unloaded. The wharves gave 
 direct access to the warehouses which lined the coast 
 and which were separated into two divisions by the 
 temple of Apollo. To the north, over all the hill which 
 divides the sacred lake from the sea, extended vast 
 buildings which stretched along the quay, ran inland 
 parallel to the sacred enclosure, and finally turned from 
 south to north opposite the schola of the Italians. The 
 long succession of these halls can still be traced to-da}' ; 
 they were the docks of Delos."* To the south the 
 portico of Philip was used for the display of goods, and, 
 further on other storehouses lined the coast. Soon a 
 new building was added to these edifices ; to the east 
 
 * Homolle, Les Romains a Delos, pp. 124-125. 
 
1 68! EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 of the portico of Philip the Italian colony erected the 
 square portico, which was really a bazaar. In spite of 
 their ruinous condition, one cannot contemplate without 
 admiration this mass of buildings, which impress one 
 as much by their imposing strength as by their 
 ingenious arrangement. Delos was, in fact, the model 
 port of the Romans, the commercial town par excellence^ 
 and they thought they gave the highest praise possible 
 to Puteoli, when they called it a little Delos. 
 
 The Mithridatic War destroyed this prosperity. 
 One of the generals of the King of Pontus sacked 
 Delos, the temples were plundered, the statues broken, 
 the Roman colony massacred or dispersed. Delos 
 never recovered from this blow. It is true that when 
 the war was over the Romans returned to the island,, 
 the ruins were repaired, and business was carried on 
 again, but new troubles fell on Delos, the pirates did 
 not respect her neutrality, and cruelly plundered her 
 temples. This was the fatal blow. However, Delian 
 commerce struggled on for some time longer, but the 
 competition of Ostia and Puteoli completed its ruin. 
 After the catastrophe of the year 87 b.c. Eastern traders 
 ceased to come to Delos ; soon the Romans also quitted 
 it. At the end of the first century the island was 
 almost deserted, and if it still retained some traces of 
 its ancient religious glory, its commercial greatness 
 was entirely destroyed. 
 
 " The causes of this fate, apparently so extraordinary," 
 says M, Homolle, " of this lofty greatness, this pro- 
 found and irreparable fall, are easily understood. The 
 prosperity of the island was entirely artificial ; it pro- 
 duced nothing ; it was too small and barren to support 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 69 
 
 at all a numerous population ; even water was wanting 
 there. No kind of industry was carried on in the 
 island ; with the exception of its famous bronze, not 
 one really Delian article of commerce can be named : 
 thus, having nothing to export, and being obliged to 
 import everything, the town could serve only as an 
 emporium. Its very fortunate geographical position, 
 and its religious influence, permitted it to play this 
 part successfully, and made it a populous and wealthy 
 city, a great centre of the carrying trade, a general 
 resort of the pilgrims and merchants of the Greek world ; 
 but when misfortune struck this chance population, 
 when disaster came to disperse it, or even affected its 
 interests injuriously, it was sufficient to cause its trade 
 to be diverted to a more fortunate town, its worship 
 to be abandoned, and for the whole island to fall into 
 complete and hopeless destitution, for it had no resources 
 in itself. 
 
 " The same causes act at all times in the same 
 manner. The regeneration of Delos has narrowly 
 missed following on that of Greece ; when it was 
 necessary to find a stopping place in the Aegean for 
 the lines of steamers, Delos was the first place to be 
 thought of Syra was chosen ; it was as well situated 
 as Delos, but equally poor and still more barren. To- 
 day — and less than fifty years have passed — it counts 
 nearly thirty-five thousand inhabitants, but it would 
 fall like Delos if the Austrian Lloyd, the Messageries 
 Maritimes, and the other steamship companies, removed 
 their offices elsewhere. Already the competition of the 
 Piraeus is checking its development. Tinos has in- 
 herited the religious role played by Delos, and one of 
 
I70 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the most curious spectacles in Greece is offered by 
 the motley crowds, speaking all the languages and 
 wearing all the costumes of the East, which press to 
 the festivals of the Panaghia on March 27th, and 
 August 15 th. 
 
 " In all this we see the working of invariable laws 
 
 and the inevitable results of situation ; a favourable 
 
 ■geographical position, commercial interests, religious 
 
 beliefs, have made Syra and Tinos as they made 
 
 Delos." * 
 
 IV. 
 
 " Among the temples of antiquity there is none, not 
 even the Parthenon, the details of whose administra- 
 tion can be as minutely studied and as accurately ascer- 
 tained as that of the Delian Apollo." f A unique series 
 of records, such as exist in the case of no other Grecian 
 shrine, allow us to reconstruct with the most rigorous 
 exactitude, and in all its curious details, this side of 
 the religious life of antiquity. On this subject alone 
 we possess more than six hundred fragments, repre- 
 senting more than one hundred and fifty inscriptions, 
 among which those of three, four, or five hundred lines 
 in length, are not rare. These records are scattered 
 over the whole extent of Delian history, but they throw 
 special light on the period of one hundred and fifty 
 years, from 315 to 166 b.c, during which the island was 
 independent ; for this period alone there exist no fewer 
 than four hundred and fifty inscriptions or fragments of 
 inscriptions. 
 
 * Homolle, " Ulle de Delos." Conference faite a Nancy. 
 
 f Ibid., "Compte des Hieropes" (^Bull. de Corr. Helle'n. VI. i). 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 171 
 
 These records are of two kinds : the one consists of 
 the accounts referring to the sacred property, the other 
 gives us the inventory of the offerings and of the con- 
 tents of the temples. Let us clearly understand v^rhat 
 an ancient sanctuary really was. Before all things a 
 god was a great landowner. Not only did the state 
 assign to the temple an endowment in land, but the 
 piety of wealthy private persons continually increased 
 the extent of this domain. Besides this, the sacred 
 treasury received the tenth of the plunder taken in 
 war, it also received a share of all confiscated property, 
 lastly, presents of monej^ frequently accompanied the 
 gifts of land, and in proportion as the renown of the 
 god and the fame of his worship increased, so the 
 gifts became more numerous, and coin and bullion 
 accumulated more and more in his coffers. Thus 
 a fortune grew up, consisting of both real and per- 
 sonal property. Besides these sources of income, 
 there were also the votive offerings, which were un- 
 productive riches, no doubt, but were of considerable 
 value, and the importance of which increased from year 
 to year. Celebrated sanctuaries were almost always the 
 recipients of costly ornaments in gold, silver, or bronze. 
 The articles which the piet}^ of the faithful presented 
 to these sacred collections soon came to represent an 
 enormous sum. We can judge of this by the descrip- 
 tions of ancient authors, always eager to draw up the 
 catalogues of these offerings, by the lists of them 
 preserved at Olympia and at Delphi, by the large 
 number of monographs which the learned men of 
 antiquity devoted to these treasures, by the authentic 
 inventories of several famous temples, such as the 
 
172 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Parthenon and the shrine of Hera at Samos, and by 
 the numerous ex-votos found in the excavations of 
 Dodona and Olympia. Thus the temple was at once 
 a bank, a storehouse, and a museum, and it was of 
 course necessary to manage and watch over all this 
 wealth. It is the accounts of this management that 
 the excavations of Delos have restored to us. 
 
 There in fact, more than elsewhere, the management 
 of the temples held an important place. " Delos," says 
 M. Homolle, " only existed through Apollo ; she owed 
 him everything — safety, riches, poetic glory, and that 
 moral influence of which the greatest states felt the 
 power and sought for the support. The Delians there- 
 fore considered religion their chief, if not their only, 
 concern. The temples, that of Apollo above all, ^yere 
 the objects of their continual care ; they were carefully 
 kept up, as the seats of their worship, as a part of the 
 national patrimony, as the Source of their greatness and 
 prosperity. They carefully preserved the innumerable 
 offerings which formed the adornment of the sanctuary, 
 and which were titles of honour for their town, proofs of 
 the power of their gods, and an important part of their 
 riches. Another motive, more powerful still, induced 
 them to watch over the sacred treasure. Its annual 
 revenue, its surplus income, its legal reserve, constituted 
 a fund all the more important because the town was 
 small and its resources limited ; the State had recourse 
 to it in all emergencies." * For all these reasons, 
 spiritual and temporal, the management of the treasure 
 of Apollo was the great business of Delos. 
 
 Four magistrates appointed yearly, whose titles varied 
 
 * Homolle, Les Archives de tlntendance Sacree a Delos, pp. 1-2. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 73 
 
 at different periods, were charged with the care of the 
 sacred treasure. Two of them usually presided over 
 the sacrifices and religious rites ; the duties of the 
 other two were essentially administrative — they were 
 charged with the preservation of the temples, with the 
 administration of the landed and other property, with 
 the management of the treasure. It was they who lent 
 out at interest the surplus sums of money, who let the 
 farms, who leased the taxes, who gave out contracts 
 for work to be done. It was they who had the care of 
 the offerings, of the things needed for worship, and of 
 the public treasure. They were therefore surrounded 
 at once by the greatest respect and by the keenest 
 watchfulness. Every year, on giving up their office, 
 they had to render an account of their stewardship, to 
 show that no property was missing, to justify their em- 
 ployment of the sums which had been committed to them. 
 The handing over of the treasure by these officers, the 
 hieropoioi to their successors was a solemn ceremony 
 surrounded by great pomp ; and the explanation is 
 simple, for the public credit itself was at stake. In the 
 presence of the senate and the magistrates the hieropoioi 
 first rendered an account of the finances, and delivered 
 up the cash in hand ; they then proceeded to hand over 
 the treasures themselves. With this object a general 
 verification of the treasure was made ; the separate 
 articles were passed in review one by one, weighed, 
 and described minutely, after which they were delivered 
 by the departing trustees into the hands of their 
 successors. The making of this inventory served as 
 a release for the former, and as the- formal taking over 
 of their charge by the latter. Lastly, the lists of the 
 
174 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 offerings were published and preserved at great expense ; 
 the stelae or slabs on which they were inscribed were set 
 up along the streets and squares, in the most frequented 
 and most venerated spots of the sacred island, offering 
 to all beholders the proofs of the wealth of Apollo and 
 the piety of his worshippers. 
 
 Before the excavations of M. HomoUe were made, a 
 few fragments of inscriptions barely allowed us to catch 
 a glimpse of the curious machinery of this adminis- 
 tration of the sacred treasure. Now the records are 
 abundant, and their variety infinite. There are general 
 accounts and particular accounts, entries of expenses 
 and receipts, leases and agreements for lending money; 
 there are inscriptions which resemble the books of a 
 business firm, in which are put down the incomings 
 and the outgoings ; there are complete statements of 
 the position of the treasure, which form, as it were, 
 the balance-sheet of the sacred treasury. Together 
 with these documents which are really the books of a 
 great banking house, there are the inventories which 
 are not less curious ; they alone give us an exact idea 
 of what an ancient temple really was — that is, a sort of 
 museum in which were accumulated objects of every 
 kind for the cultus of the god and the adornment 
 of the sanctuary. They show us also the internal 
 arrangements of the temple, its sacred rites, and 
 the things necessary for their celebration. Thanks to 
 this mass of records, the administration of the sacred 
 treasure is perfectly plain to us, and the museum 
 which the temple once contained reveals to us all its 
 secrets. 
 
 The treasure of Apollo, which, according to ancient 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1/5 
 
 usage, was kept in earthen jars, was divided into two 
 parts, and classed under two distinct heads : first, the 
 sums dehvered to the hieropoioi by their predecessors, 
 or the funds in hand ; secondly, the sums received 
 during the year, or the annual income. The receipts 
 forming this annual income were numerous, and of 
 many different kinds. First came the landed property 
 — the houses which the god let, the arable land and 
 the pasturage which he farmed out ; the rents and dues 
 arising from these formed the first source of revenue. 
 In the second place, there were the tolls granted to 
 Apollo by the Delian State — a toll on the murex fishery 
 in the waters of the sacred island, a toll on fish taken 
 in the sea or in the sacred lake, a toll on the goods 
 imported into Delos, a toll on the vessels anchored in 
 the port. Lastly, as the income of the god more than 
 covered his expenses, there was every year a surplus, 
 which was put out at good interest in loans to towns or 
 private persons. The reader will perhaps ask whether 
 Apollo was an easy landlord and a complaisant money 
 lender ; the inscriptions allow us to satisfy ourselves 
 fully on that point. 
 
 Apollo had houses to let suited to all tastes and all 
 ranks: cellars and workshops, chemists' shops and baths, 
 dwelling-houses large and small ; he had also lands 
 suited to all purposes, arable land as well as pasturage. 
 But he was always anxious that the property, what- 
 ever it might be, should bring in a good profit. The 
 managers of the temple were expressly recommended 
 to see that all the property was always let, and on the 
 best terms possible ; and as the leases were drawn up 
 according to a uniform model, the plan of which has 
 
1/6 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 been found, we can to-day ascertain precisely what 
 those conditions were. 
 
 A lease was for ten years, and the tenant had to 
 furnish good security. The rent was paid at intervals 
 determined by the agreement, and any delay was 
 punished by a fine ; Apollo had no liking for un- 
 punctual debtors. If the fine failed of its effect, 
 severer measures were taken — the sale of the crops, 
 the seizure of the animals and slaves ; then, if the tenant 
 were still a defaulter, there was a general seizure 
 of his goods; lastly, his name was handed down 
 to posterity inscribed on the stela where the names 
 of those were placed who were debtors to the god. 
 Apollo did not jest in money matters : if any con- 
 dition of the agreement ceased to be fulfilled, the 
 lease was at once cancelled by law ; if the tenant left 
 the island, or if he died, this gave the right to enter 
 into a new agreement with another person ; if he fell 
 into poverty, the agreement was legally at an end. It 
 must be admitted, however, that Apollo was not in fact 
 very rich. His farms and rural domains bore pictur- 
 esque and sonorous names, such as the Lakes, the 
 Palm-trees, the Meadows ; but they were few in number 
 and not especially profitable. The rents of his houses 
 brought in sixty-eight pounds yearly, and his farms 
 two hundred and eighty pounds, which is but a poor 
 revenue for a god. It may be added that as foreigners 
 flocked to Delos and commerce increased, the farms 
 became daily more difficult to let ; farming, less 
 remunerative, was less sought after and rents fell 
 considerably. It is true that by way of compensation 
 the rents of dwelling-houses rose to about the same 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 77 
 
 extent ; in spite, however, of their increased value, 
 Apollo was not rich enough to allow his tenants to 
 fall into arrears. 
 
 Fortunately the trade of money-lending served to 
 swell the revenues of the god. The temple lent to 
 towns as well as to private persons, and Apollo had 
 a connection throughout the Cyclades among the 
 borrowers of small sums. An agreement which has 
 come down to us shows on what conditions the god 
 consented to the loans made from his purse. He lent 
 for five years, at 10 per cent. ; the interest was paid 
 annually, and repayment of the principal was demanded 
 and enforced at the end of that time. As in such 
 matters, and among Greeks, one cannot take too many 
 precautions, the god took a mortgage on the property 
 of the borrower, he demanded good security, and in 
 addition, reserved to himself the right of seizing and 
 selling any part of the debtor's property. The Delian 
 State itself, when it borrowed from the sacred treasury, 
 was also subject to Apollo's prudent caution. It was 
 obliged to find substantial sureties for the repayment 
 of the debt, and to give the temple a mortgage on the 
 public revenue, and all these stipulations were duly 
 recorded in an official document, which was deposited 
 in the hands of a third person, generally one of the 
 great bankers of Delos. Apollo, it will be seen, 
 managed his fortune wisely, and took care to lose 
 nothing which would bring him a profit. 
 
 In a well-managed house nothing is considered too 
 small to be turned to account ; and in the same way 
 the god sold all the offerings in kind which were 
 brought to his temple — geese, turtledoves, skins of 
 
 12 
 
1/8 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the animals offered in sacrifice, even the dung of birds. 
 Throughout the island, at the doors of the temples, 
 boxes were placed to appeal to the generosity of the 
 faithful ; this was another small source of income for 
 the god. Once a year these treasuries (as they were 
 called at Delos) were opened, but it would seem that 
 they did not bring in much. 
 
 Such were the annual revenues of the temple of the 
 Delian Apollo. Collectors were appointed to receive 
 them, and at the end of the financial year paid them 
 into the sacred treasury. To these must be added 
 the sum which the State paid to the temple towards 
 the cost of festivals, choruses and dramatic representa- 
 tions ; thus it will be seen that theatrical subventions 
 are of ancient date. 
 
 When the hieropoioi had any payment to make, 
 they took from the temple one of the earthen jars, 
 and in the presence of the magistrates drew out the 
 money needed. The expenses indeed were somewhat 
 numerous. In the first place, the sacred buildings had 
 to be kept up, and sometimes new buildings were 
 erected ; works of this kind formed the chief luxury of 
 Apollo. In this too, of course, economy was carefully 
 practised ; contracts for the work were let by public 
 tender. Several contracts relating to these buildings 
 have been preserved ; everything is minutely specified 
 — the materials to be employed, the time allowed for 
 the work, the guarantees to be given by the parties, 
 the time and mode of payment — in short, the smallest 
 details of the execution. To judge by these bargains, 
 the contractor gained very little advantage over the god. 
 
 By the side of these charges, much the heaviest which 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. I79 
 
 figured in the sacred budget, there appeared the cost of 
 the temple worship. These were a multitude of small 
 expenses which recurred from month to month. One day 
 the temple was to be purified — so much must be paid for 
 a pig. The altars must be crowned with flowers, and 
 the sacrificial fire lighted — so much for wreaths, resin, 
 faggots and charcoal. Festivals were to be celebrated 
 in which choruses were needed — so much for lamps 
 and other necessaries given to the performers. The 
 maintenance of the buildings brought other expenses : 
 sponges for washing, linen stuffs, nitre, wax, pitch for 
 cleaning ; then there were incense, salt, vinegar, and 
 especially oil, of which enormous quantities were used. 
 Lastly, there were the office expenses for the purchase 
 of paper and engraving of stelae. 
 
 This was not all ; the salaries of those employed in 
 the temple service must be paid. A flute-player, for 
 example, received 120 drachmae yearly for her food, 
 and 20 for her dress. Three musicians received 120 
 drachmae for food, and 16 for clothing. Each temple 
 had neocori or sacristans, receiving 120 drachmae 
 yearly ; the temple of Apollo alone had three neocori, 
 but they were not so well paid. Then there were the 
 architect, who received 120 drachmae, the secretary, 
 who had 80, and others besides, all of whom were paid 
 from the sacred treasury. 
 
 Nevertheless the budget of Apollo always showed a 
 surplus. The annual income amounted to 27,000 
 drachmae, the expenses to about 21,000. There was 
 therefore every year a surplus of 6000 drachmae, which 
 was put out at good interest. In a balance sheet of the 
 beginning of the second century the sum in hand is 
 
l80 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 more than 60,000, the total treasure nearly 92,000 
 drachmae. 
 
 The wealth of the temple did not consist in money 
 and land alone. There were also a multitude of offer- 
 ings, which represented a considerable sum. We have 
 already seen how popular the worship of Apollo was, 
 above all in Eastern countries, and with what pious 
 ardour kings and private persons brought their homage 
 and their offerings to the altars of Delos. These 
 were not generally casual gifts, given by chance and 
 due to a liberality which would not recur ; each year 
 the return of the same festivals brought the return 
 of the same embassies laden with splendid presents. 
 They were, so to speak, perpetual pious foundations 
 which the princes of the East had established at Delos, 
 and on the solemn feast-days celebrated in their honour 
 and called by their names, the Ptolemies, the Antigoni, 
 the Demetrii, would have appeared ungracious indeed, 
 if they had not regularly shown their gratitude by some 
 magnificent present. Private persons and rich merchants 
 who came to Delos emulated the kings, and lastly the 
 Delian community itself made rich presents to the god 
 to whom it owed everything. As long as the prosperity 
 of the sacred island lasted the stream of offerings never 
 slackened, and an epitome of the whole history of Delos 
 is presented in the catalogues which enumerate them. 
 To preserve these treasures and keep them in order was 
 no easy matter, and to the difficulty it presented we 
 owe the curious inventories which give us so much 
 information as to the Delians. 
 
 The magistrates, who had the charge of the finances, 
 were also entrusted with the care of the sacred offerings, 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. l8l 
 
 and with the duty of keeping them intact and in good pre- 
 servation. Hence arose a somewhat compHcated system 
 of book-keeping with regard to their reception. When 
 one of the faithful brought a gift, the priest accepted 
 it as the representative of the god, inscribed it in an 
 entrance register, and assigned it a place in the temple. 
 Generally all the offerings of the current year were 
 placed in a group together, and it was only at the end 
 of the year, at the time of making the general inventory, 
 that they were placed with the rest of the collection. 
 
 It is this general inventory that the inscriptions give 
 us. At the end of each year, all the temples of the 
 island were solemnly visited, for the offerings were not 
 always deposited in the sanctuary of Apollo. Some 
 were in the Artemisium, some in the Temple of the 
 Seven Statues, in the Porinos Oikos, and in other 
 places besides, and all these buildings and storehouses 
 were under the care of the hieropoioi. In each case 
 they called over the list of the offerings according to 
 the last inventory, and carefully verified it, lest any- 
 thing might be missing. In order to prevent any 
 error, each object was minutely described, and the 
 place where it stood carefully stated ; for example, if 
 it was near the door, or by the right or left wall, and 
 besides all this any peculiarities in it were noted, and 
 its weight given. The retiring hieropoioi were anxious 
 to show that they were handing over the treasure 
 exactly as they received it, the incoming officials wished 
 to prove clearly in what state they took charge of it. 
 
 The many-sided interest of these inventories may 
 easily be imagined. In the first place, they allow us to 
 represent to ourselves the interior of an ancient temple. 
 
1 82 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 The vestibule, like the shrine, was filled with offerings 
 exposed to view. Some were hung on the wall, 
 others stood on the ground or were placed on the 
 sacred tables, but- the greater part were ranged on 
 shelves or stands. Fragile or valuable objects were 
 kept in cases, small articles and coins in vases. Lastly, 
 articles of the same kind, or the same material were 
 usually arranged in one group ; thus the different 
 materials^gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, marble — of 
 which the offerings were made, formed separate classes. 
 
 It is easy to see that the constant increase in the 
 number of offerings was a source of difficulty ; some 
 things were lost sight of, others, too closely pressed 
 together, were injured. When this was the case a 
 general rearrangement was made. Sometimes, in 
 order to gain more space, a part of the offerings was 
 sent to another temple, sometimes a part was melted 
 down. In spite of all the precautions taken, the things, 
 many of which were used in the ceremonies of the 
 temple, wore out in the end, and they were not usually 
 repaired. Thus accumulated little by little a heap of 
 pious debris, and when these fragments became nu- 
 merous enough to be in the way, they were got rid of 
 by melting them down. In the same way, at the 
 present time, in wealthy Greek churches, the numerous 
 ex-votos are periodically melted down. 
 
 It is interesting to note the kinds of objects of which 
 this treasure consisted, and this study makes us under- 
 stand the manner in which an ancient temple was 
 arranged and decorated. The separate articles were not 
 grouped at random ; on the contrary, an artistic feeling 
 presided over their arrangement, for what was most 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 1 83 
 
 desired was that the general effect should be beautiful 
 and worthy of the god. With this end in view, the 
 crowns were hung on the walls ; similar in form and 
 arranged in regular lines, they formed as it were a 
 brilliant frieze all round the temple, and the costly 
 stuffs and jewels served to adorn the statue of the god, 
 while the vases were used to enhance the splendour 
 of the solemn festivals. 
 
 Apollo possessed, in fact, a complete establishment. 
 In the first place, he had his service of plate, composed 
 of vessels and dishes of all shapes, generally in gold 
 or silver, among which the most numerous were the 
 phialae, which were dishes or cups with very wide 
 mouths, and infinitely varied in decoration. The 
 temples of Delos possessed large quantities of them ; 
 the Temple of Apollo alone contained more than 
 sixteen hundred, plain or decorated, chased or em- 
 bossed, adorned with fruit or foliage, animals or 
 figures, gilded, damascened, or incrusted with precious 
 stones. Then there were vessels of every kind, 
 of every name, of every shape, of every size ; 
 drinking vessels and vessels for libations. There were 
 coffers, censers, lamps, candelabra, lustres, stands 
 for the offerings, couches on which to exhibit the 
 statues, tripods, and I know not what besides; in 
 short, a complete equipment. After the plate came the 
 wardrobe, a mass of stuffs and jewels, of head-dresses 
 and crowns, of gold-embroidered and purple tissues, 
 which served to deck the image of the god, or to clothe 
 his priests. The statue of Apollo wore a crown on its 
 head, and the treasury also contained a second diadem 
 for its use. A ring shone on his finger. The Graces 
 
1 84 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 were crowned in the same way, and another statue also 
 had a complete wardrobe and set of jewels. There were 
 also multitudes of crowns, rings, bracelets, necklaces, 
 chains, pins, earrings, enriched with precious stones or 
 adorned with engraved gems, brooches, scent boxes, 
 rouge boxes, fans, ivory flappers encrusted with gold. 
 All these things made their appearance at the solemn 
 festivals, and their effect must have been marvellous. 
 Besides all this there were instruments connected with 
 different trades, sounding-leads, heralds' staves, bows 
 and quivers, swords and helmets, anchors and rudders, 
 all ex-votos consecrated by the faithful in memory of 
 the dangers they had escaped. Lastly, there were 
 ingots of metal, coins, and, above all, works of art, 
 which formed one of the most interesting categories 
 among the offerings. 
 
 It is true that this part of the catalogues by no 
 means corresponds to the extraordinary riches found 
 at Olympia; there the small bronzes are counted by 
 thousands, and large statues are not rare. At Delos, 
 on the contrary, hardly any objects of this kind have 
 been discovered, and they are very rarely mentioned in 
 the inventories. Nevertheless, a few curious details 
 may be noticed : for example, the temple possessed 
 several painted works, such as articles of furniture with 
 painted panels and pictures, among which were some 
 portraits. The treasure also included statuettes of men 
 and animals, in gold, silver, or wood. Lastly, although 
 life-sized statues do not in general appear in the cata- 
 logues, yet we can gather some interesting information 
 with respect to them. In the temple of Isis was an 
 Egyptian statue with a child on its knees ; in the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. I 85 
 
 Heraeum there were stone images wrapped in linen 
 stuffs ; elsewhere there were representations of Artemis, 
 Aphrodite, and Serapis, and in the temple of Agathe 
 Tyche, a marble statue of the goddess, holding in her 
 left hand a gilded cornucopia, in her right a sceptre, 
 and wearing on her head a crown set with precious 
 stones. Lastly, the inventories mention a statue of 
 Apollo, and we can, thanks to them, reconstruct the 
 image of the god as it stood in his temple, as the old 
 masters, Teetaeus and Angelion, carved it, holding a 
 bow in the right hand and bearing the three Graces in 
 the left. In the inventories of the second century b.c. 
 allusion is made to this group, and to the golden crowns 
 with which Queen Stratonice adorned the four figures ; 
 it is therefore probable that at that moment the primi- 
 tive statue was still piously preserved in the temple, 
 and it will be seen that it was of gold, either used 
 in conjunction with ivory, or applied to a statue of 
 wood. 
 
 Nevertheless, these notices scattered throughout the 
 inventories would give us but a faint idea of the artistic 
 riches of Delos, if the excavations had not restored to 
 us a certain number of statues. Certainly this archaeo- 
 logical booty is very meagre in comparison with the 
 rich series of inscriptions discovered in the exploration 
 of the island, in comparison also with the multitude of 
 works of art which once covered the shores of Delos. 
 In ancient days the traveller landed in the midst of a 
 crowd of statues, and even in the fifteenth century 
 
1 86 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Bondelmonte counted thousands of marble fragments 
 scattered along the strand. To-day but very few 
 monuments have escaped destruction, but notwith- 
 standing their scanty numbers, they are interesting, 
 and of the greatest importance for the history of 
 archaic art. 
 
 The reader will remember the statues discovered on 
 the Acropolis of Athens, and the manner in which they 
 enable us to study the successive transformations of one 
 and the same artistic type. A series of very similar 
 works has been found at Delos, which is not less in- 
 teresting, and still more precious, for the statues are 
 of more ancient origin. In fact, by a singular good 
 fortune, if Delos is comparatively poor in archaic 
 inscriptions, she is rich in very ancient sculpture, 
 belonging to the oldest artistic schools of Greece, those 
 of Naxos and Chios. 
 
 As early as the middle of the seventh century B.C., 
 these primitive schools were in a flourishing state. Even 
 then they had carried the art of working in marble 
 sufficiently far to show that they were no longer 
 beginners ; even then they had created two artistic 
 types, which primitive Greek statuary adopted and 
 popularised. One is that of the man, nude and stand- 
 ing motionless, the left leg slightly advanced as though 
 on the point of stepping forward, his arms hanging, 
 touching his sides, which we meet with at Thera, at 
 Orchomenus, at Actium, and in other places besides, and 
 which we shall study more closely when describing the 
 excavations at the temple of Apollo Ptoios. The other 
 is the female type, specimens of which are found almost 
 everywhere, at Eleusis, at Paros, on the Acropolis of 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 
 
 187 
 
 Athens, and which we have already had occasion to 
 describe. Both are met with at Delos ; it was in 
 this guise, at the end of the seventh century, that the 
 old Naxian masters represented Apollo and Artemis. 
 The ancient statue of the god has not come down to 
 us, but on the pedestal which bore it we can at least 
 read the name of the sculptor who modelled it — 
 Iphicartides of Naxos ; this is the earliest 
 artist's signature that we possess. However, 
 to make up for this, the ancient image con- 
 secrated to the goddess, as the inscription /^^ 'y- 
 cut in the stone states, by Nicandra of 
 Naxos, has been preserved ; it is the oldest 
 work of Greek sculpture in marble which 
 is known at present. In this primitive 
 work, which dates from the seventh century, 
 great delicacy is naturally not to be expected. 
 It is impossible to im.agine anything more 
 naively uncouth. No shape is visible beneath 
 the stiff covering in which the figure is 
 swathed, the torso resembles a geometrical 
 outline, rather than a human shape.* The 
 face is quite flat, the different planes are Xoanon of 
 
 Nican'dra 
 scarcely distinguished from each other, (Cent'r'al 
 
 everything in this rude and unskilful- ^Ath""!' 
 attempt shows the imitation of a wooden 
 model, but for these very reasons it is interesting. 
 It brings before our eyes the old xoanon, rough- 
 hewn, or barely that, similar to the type of the 
 earliest idols made in the likeness of a man, and it 
 
 * Homolle, " Statues archaiques de Delos " {Bulletin de Corre- 
 spondance Hellenique, III., loi). 
 
i88 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 also shows us how the sculptor of Naxos, in those 
 
 distant ages, represented the powerful goddess Artemis. 
 
 In opposition to the Naxian school, Chios offers 
 
 another not less curious representation of the goddess. 
 
 Winged Victory of Delos (Central Museum, Athens). 
 
 It is the figure of a woman with a diadem on her head 
 and wings on her shoulders and heels. Her attitude is 
 strange ; it is difficult to say whether she is in repose 
 or walking, whether she is standing or kneeling ; it is 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. 189 
 
 by this undecided and conventional attitude that the 
 sculptors of the archaic school tried to express rapid 
 motion. Her drapery is heavy and massive ; the upper 
 part of her body is enclosed in a sort of wooden cuirass 
 or corset, but the head, already treated with more care, 
 shows, in spite of the sculptor's want of skill, many of 
 the distinctive qualities of Greek art. It is true that 
 the imperfections are many, and the sculptor's inex- 
 perience is evident, but real technical skill is already 
 shown — an attempt is already visible to give some 
 delicacy to the modelling, and some expression to the 
 face, on which there appears, as M. Homolle says, "the 
 singular charm of that somewhat uncouth grace which 
 distinguishes the early masters." On the base of the 
 statue are engraved the names of the sculptors of the 
 sixth century who modelled it — Micciades and Archer- 
 mus of Chios. 
 
 Under these influences, which were transmitted from 
 the East through the islands, sculpture developed at 
 Delos as it did on the Acropolis, and a series of ten 
 statues, which, by their attitudes and costume, exactly re- 
 call the Athenian marbles, enable us once more to follow 
 the successive modifications of the type of the goddess 
 Artemis, from its first appearance down to the latest 
 days of archaic art. It is true that the Delian goddesses 
 have not the incomparable brilliancy of the maidens of 
 the Acropolis, the bright colours which adorned them 
 have disappeared or faded, in most of them the head 
 is wanting, but they are none the less interesting for 
 the student of early Greek technique. It is unnecessary 
 to repeat here the observations which have already 
 been made with regard to the Attic marbles ; between 
 
1 90 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the statues of Delos and those of Athens the kinship is 
 close, and the development of the two series proceeded 
 on the same lines. At Delos also, the type was early 
 fixed in its essential features, but each master in his 
 turn improved it by modifications of detail, and thus 
 the form became more elegant, the attitude more grace- 
 ful, the draperies more flowing. Place side by side the 
 primitive xoanon and the latest of these archaic figures ; 
 compare the first and the last steps of this long pro- 
 gress, and the immense distance traversed between the 
 middle of the seventh and the beginning of the fifth 
 centuries will be seen at a glance. It is true that even 
 in these later statues archaism still reigns supreme, 
 but remarkable technical skill is already visible, and a 
 very delicate sense of form ; they are works of art, and 
 the art is sometimes almost noble. 
 
 The reader will, no doubt, ask whence came these 
 statues, most of which have been found at one spot, 
 in the enclosure sacred to Artemis. The inventories 
 often mention the " Temple of the Seven Statues," 
 which is considered to have been the primitive shrine 
 of the goddess, and seven is exactly the number of the 
 statues found in this part of the island ; it is therefore 
 probable that the excavations have restored to us the 
 very works which formerly adorned one of the most 
 ancient temples of Delos. 
 
 Apollo, as we have seen, had his statues at Delos as 
 well as Artemis, but, less fortunate than his divine 
 sister, he is not so well known to us as she. Of the 
 statue of Iphicartides only the pedestal remains ; of 
 the colossal Apollo consecrated in the sixth century 
 by the Naxians there only remains the base, with 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT DELOS. I9I 
 
 fragments of the body and thighs. Add to these an 
 archaic head after the style of the Apollo of Thera, 
 and two headless statues, which date from the fifth 
 century, and represent the god in the customary attitude 
 which is well known to us through the marbles of 
 Thera and Orchomenus ; with these exceptions nothing 
 more has come down to us of all the numerous images 
 erected to the Delian Apollo by his many worshippers. 
 
 It is not necessary to dwell long on the few other 
 marbles, portraits, statues, or images of deities, found 
 at Delos, or on the fairly numerous statues of the 
 third and second centuries b.c. All the famous artists 
 of the time were represented by some work in the 
 sacred island ; the schola of the Italians in particular 
 was full of these monuments. One of the most re- 
 markable is the statue of a warrior, the work of Agasias 
 of Ephesus, a kinsman of the author of the Borghese 
 " Gladiator," in the Louvre. Together with this master 
 the inscriptions also name for the third century and the 
 end of the second, Teletimus and Eutychides ; a little 
 later Polycles and Dionysius, Demostrates of Athens, 
 and Aristandrus of Paros. The greater part of these 
 artists were Athenians, and it is quite comprehensible 
 that when the island had once more become the property 
 of Athens, many Attic sculptors sought their fortune in 
 this rich and luxurious town, where commissions must 
 have been many and lucrative. 
 
 Without dwelling on these works of the second rank, 
 we must mention another work of decorative sculpture 
 found at Delos — the statues which adorned the pedi- 
 ments of the temple of Apollo. At the foot of the 
 sanctuary, in front of the eastern and western fa9ades, 
 
192 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 there have been discovered among other fragments six 
 statues of the same size which evidently formed part of 
 the decoration of one building ; they are in fact works 
 in the same style, if not by the same hand. These 
 marbles were evidently placed against a wall as a 
 background, for they are very carelessly worked 
 behind, and traces of the iron fastenings are still to 
 be seen which kept the figures in their places ; they 
 certainly served, therefore, to fill the tympanum of a 
 pediment. It is not easy to determine what was the 
 subject represented. On both facades of the temple 
 was a scene of abduction : on the west front the 
 principal group, which occupied the centre of the 
 pediment, represented a woman carrying off a boy ; 
 on the east front the chief group consisted of a man 
 carrying off a maiden in his arms. Around were 
 placed statues of young girls calling for help, or flying 
 before the ravisher. But if it is possible to reconstruct 
 the scene almost in its entirety, we cannot explain it, 
 and the legend of Apollo is silent with regard to the 
 episodes which adorned the pediments of his temple. 
 
 We must therefore confine ourselves to pointing out 
 the artistic value and the style of these marbles. They 
 are of remarkable merit. The group of the man 
 carrying away the girl is specially noticeable ; the torso 
 of the woman and her head, which is bent, are excellent. 
 The group is full of motion and life : " In addition to 
 exquisite beauty it possesses energy and power, and 
 above all a certain boldness in its composition and in the 
 attitude of the figures."* Two statues of young girls 
 are not less worthy of attention. Injuries to the marble 
 
 * Homolle, Bull, de Con: Hell., Til. 525, 526. 
 
The excavations at delos. 193 
 
 sometimes cause the figures to be depreciated, as it 
 gives the appearance of defects in the workmanship ; 
 but as a matter of fact they are of great beauty, the 
 modeUing is very deUcate, the bodies, full of life, unite 
 strength and beauty, the drapery is treated with a 
 light and skilful hand. It is no doubt true that they 
 are not works of the first rank, nor of the best days of 
 the Attic school ; doubtless they possess " neither the 
 serene majesty of the pediments of the Parthenon, nor 
 the refined beauty of the balustrade of the temple of 
 Wingless Victory " ; such as they are, however, they 
 cannot be placed later than the first half of the fourth 
 century b.c, and they merit an altogether honourable 
 rank among the works of sculpture which Athens pro- 
 duced at that epoch. 
 
 Such are the chief results of the excavations at 
 Delos. In the history of the conquests of archaeology 
 its name should hold a place as considerable as 
 Olympia and Pergamum ; for these excavations do 
 honour to the school at Athens which has directed 
 them, and to France who has carried them out. 
 
 13 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO 
 PTO'IOS (1884-88). 
 
 Hollcaux, " Fouilles au Temple d'Apollon PtoYos " {Bull. Corr. Hell, 
 
 1885, '86, '87, '88, '89 and '90). 
 Collignon, " L'Apollon d'Orchomene " {Bull. Corr. Hell., 1881). 
 „ " Torses Archaiques en Marbre provenant d'Actiuni " 
 
 {Gas. Arche'ol., 1886). 
 Rayet et Thomas, Milct et le Golfe Latntique, Paris, 1878. 
 Brunn, Arch. Zeitmig, 1876. 
 Frankel, Arch. Zeitung, 1879. 
 Furtwaengler, Arch. Zeitung, 1882. 
 
 To the east of the wide low plain which a few years 
 ago was still covered by the marshy waters of Lake 
 Copais, and at a short distance from the village of 
 Karditza, the ancient Acraephiae, lie the recentl}'- 
 discovered ruins of the temple of Apollo Ptoios. There, 
 on the side of Mount Ptoion, on a lofty terrace support- 
 ing the building, rose the Doric temple consecrated to 
 the god, whither an oracle famous throughout all Boeotia 
 continually attracted* a crowd of worshippers. The 
 foundation of the temple was attributed by legend to 
 Apollo himself, who, according to Pindar,* as he was 
 wandering over the earth chanced to stop one day 
 on the summit of Mount Ptoion. " Then, gazing over 
 all the plain that lay beneath him, he cast down the 
 
 * Pindar, Fragments, No. 70 (Bergk., 3rd ed., pp. 78, 79; 4th, lOl 
 and 102). 
 
EXCAVATIONS AT TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTOIOS. I 95 
 
 mountain mighty stones to form the foundations of his 
 temple." 
 
 The reputation of the oracle seems to have stood 
 very high in the early days of Greece, for numerous 
 fragments of ex-votos in bronze, tripods, vases, vessels 
 of every kind, and especially precious statuettes in the 
 archaic style, pious offerings consecrated by votive 
 inscriptions to Apollo, have been found in the course 
 of the excavations. The fame of the sanctuary spread 
 so widely that pilgrims came from distant Asia to 
 consult the oracle, and the connection between its 
 priests and the countries on the other side of the 
 Aegean was so close that they sometimes gave their 
 responses in Carian. Consequently, when the Persian 
 invaders descended upon Greece, Apollo, for whom 
 moreover the Achaemenid princes seem to have felt 
 an especial regard, weathered the storm ; nay, more, 
 Mardonius did not disdain piously to seek for guidance 
 from the Ptoian god. In later times, after the cruel 
 punishment inflicted by Alexander upon Thebes, the 
 temple was less fortunate; popular favour seems to 
 have deserted it, and it was not until the second century 
 that it regained a lasting splendour. Then the sacred 
 games, held every four years, once more brought wor- 
 shippers in crowds to the sanctuary, and the neighbouring 
 deities warmly commended the new institution, another 
 instance of that mutual support of which we have 
 already had examples. The Amphictyonic council 
 proclaimed a sacred truce similar to that which had 
 formerly made the greatness of Olympia, declared the 
 inviolability of all who should come to take part in these 
 games, and allowed the right of asylum to the sanctuary 
 
196 ■ EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 of Apollo. The celebrated oracle of Trophonius at 
 Lebadaea was not less courteous towards the god of 
 Mount Ptoion, and decreed in an oracular response, as 
 solemn as it was obscure, that the new festival should 
 be recognised among the sacred games. Accordingly 
 the shrine appears to have enjoyed uninterrupted 
 prosperity for some centuries. Most of the Boeotian 
 towns esteemed it an honour to take part in the celebra- 
 tion of its games and to set up votive offerings in its 
 temenos ; and when, every fourth year, the town of 
 Acraephiae sent ambassadors at the command of the 
 prophet of Apollo to invite its neighbours to the festival, 
 they came from all parts to witness the contests in 
 music, singing and poetry which took place in the 
 theatre, to join in the solemn dances and processions, 
 and to share the magnificent banquets offered to the 
 assembled throng in the course of the games. Nor did 
 the Athenians themselves, or the dwellers in the towns 
 of the Peloponnesus, such as Argos and Mantinea, or 
 even the distant cities of Asia, disdain sometimes to 
 take part in the festival. Wealthy private individuals 
 enhanced the splendour of the games by their gifts. 
 The Boeotian league, which in conjunction with the 
 town of Acraephiae exercised authority and control over 
 the temple, paid solemn homage to the god, and the 
 faithful crowded to consult the prophet of Apollo. 
 
 In the Roman period the festival seems still to have 
 been celebrated with especial splendour, and among 
 the agonothetae who at this time presided over the 
 games, we find the wealthy Epaminondas of Acraephiae, 
 one of the benefactors of the town and temple. It 
 was he who caused to be engraved and set up in the 
 
EXCAVATIONS AT TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTOIOS. I 9/ 
 
 temenos of the Ptoian temple the strange speech made 
 by Nero at Corinth when he restored their liberty to 
 the Greeks, a remarkable relic of imperial eloquence 
 which we have recently had the good fortune to 
 recover. 
 
 It was towards the close of the year 1884 that 
 M. Maurice Holleaux, a member of the French school 
 at Athens, began to excavate the temple of Apollo 
 Pto'ios at Perdicovrysi, above Karditza, and his success- 
 ful explorations, carried on through several successive 
 seasons, soon yielded the most brilliant results. Not 
 only do we owe to these investigations numerous 
 inscriptions which have thrown a flood of light on the 
 worship of Apollo, the administration of his temple, and 
 the games celebrated in his honour; but M. Holleaux 
 has discovered among the ruins of the sanctuary, which 
 have been so far identified as to allow of an accurate 
 restoration of the building, a rich and important series 
 of statues in bronze and marble which throw new 
 light on the history of the early development of archaic 
 art in Greece. 
 
 The importance in connection with the history of art 
 possessed by those remains which enable us to follow 
 the successive transformations of the same type, is well 
 known, and the excavations at Delos and at Eleusis, 
 as well as the discoveries on the Acropolis of Athens, 
 have shown by what prolonged and ingenious efforts, 
 by what delicate and instructive variations, the early 
 Greek sculptors gradually perfected that uniform type 
 which for many years served to represent the female 
 form. 
 
 By the side of these female figures, whether they 
 
198 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 represent divinities or simple mortals, the old Hellenic 
 sculptors created a male type also, which in the work- 
 shops of the archaic period long served for those beings 
 of the male sex, whether gods or men, whose forms 
 the artist wished to represent. Numerous examples of 
 this type found of late years at Orcho- 
 menus and at Thera, at Delos and at 
 Naxos, at Actium and at Tenea, and 
 at other places also, had shown us 
 before M. Holleaux undertook his 
 excavations, that it was common in 
 the archaic period to the greater 
 number of schools, and had enabled us 
 to ascertain its characteristic features. 
 A beardless man, entirely nude, stands 
 motionless and stiff, his arms hang 
 down, one leg is slightly advanced, 
 his head is rigid, and his long hair, 
 thrown back, falls on his shoulders, 
 and is there spread out in the shape 
 of a fan. Nevertheless, in spite of 
 the importance of the examples which 
 had been preserved, this series of 
 archaic statues, in which it was usual 
 to recognise representations of Apollo, 
 was still too incomplete to allow of 
 a thorough investigation of the type. The excavations 
 at Perdicovrysi, by enriching this interesting collection 
 with some valuable figures, gave new data for the 
 discussion of the question, and introduced into this 
 difficult investigation a precision for which we had not 
 dared to hope. 
 
 Apollo Ptoios (Central 
 Museum, Athens). 
 
EXCAVATIONS AT TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTOIOS. 1 99 
 
 They have presented us, in fact, with at least eleven 
 copies of the same model, mutilated, it is true, but 
 none the less singularly instructive ; and these figures, 
 which extend from the end of the seventh century 
 to possibly the third quarter of the sixth in almost 
 unbroken succession, show the steady but constant 
 progress by which the early masters perfected the 
 representation of the male type. The invention of this 
 type in plastic art is generally attributed to the Cretan 
 sculptors who were at work in the Peloponnesus 
 towards the end of the seventh century. It was 
 indeed to be expected that the first efforts to represent 
 Apollo should be made among the Dorians, who 
 honoured him as their national divinity. Under the 
 influence of these old masters, Dipoenus and Skyllis, 
 the primitive type, which was doubtless carved in wood, 
 spread throughout central and northern Greece, and all 
 the archaic statues which have come down to us are 
 reproductions of it. Nevertheless for a long time two 
 principal groups have been distinguished among these 
 very early sculptures : the Apollo of Thera and that of 
 Tenea, by the general structure of the body, the bold 
 relief of the face, and the pinched, affected smile which 
 twists their lips into a grimace, differ unmistakably 
 from the statues of Orchomenus and Actium. Both 
 groups may undoubtedly be referred to the same 
 primitive type, but in the different countries into which 
 it was introduced it was freely modified in accordance 
 with local taste, and became the starting-point of 
 independent artistic development. The statues from 
 Perdicovrysi prove this in a remarkable way ; the 
 analogies they offer with the type of Orchomenus are 
 
200 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 SO many and so characteristic that it is impossible not to 
 recognise in them the unmistakable stamp of an in- 
 digenous art ; and thus these valuable marbles, which 
 
 have already shown us 
 with remarkable clear- 
 ness the method by 
 which Greek sculptors 
 slowl)^ perfected one of 
 the favourite types of 
 primitive studios, render 
 us a further service by 
 making us acquainted 
 with a unique series of 
 relics of that early 
 Boeotian art to which 
 we had hitherto been 
 strangers. This plastic 
 type was no doubt 
 remotely derived from 
 wooden models. These 
 rude attempts inspired 
 the sculptor of that 
 fragment in calcareous 
 tufa which is one of 
 the oldest figures found 
 at Perdicovrysi, and is 
 a work of the most rudi- 
 mentary kind, recalling 
 the shapeless idols, roughly hewn into the form of a 
 pillar or a column, which were objects of adoration 
 to the simple piety of early Greece. The technique 
 pf wood-carving is still evident in the Apollo of Orcho- 
 
 Apollo of Thera, front view. 
 
EXCAVATIONS AT TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTOIOS. 201 
 
 menus, and even though marble begins to replace the 
 original material, though the shapeless and sexless 
 piece of wood begins to assume a vague likeness to the 
 human form, we still trace, in this very early statue, the 
 remembrance, not yet effaced, 
 of the idol carved from a 
 narrow plank. The old master 
 indicates the modelling of the 
 torso by an almost geometrical 
 precision in marking off his 
 planes and by broad, smooth 
 surfaces cutting one another 
 sharply, and thus uncon- 
 sciously applies to marble the 
 rudimentary technique of 
 wood-carving. The same in- 
 experience is shown in the 
 flat and heavy profile, while 
 the disregard of anatomy 
 proves that the sculptor was 
 guided by the tradition of a 
 school rather than by direct 
 study of the human frame ; 
 nevertheless, in spite of the 
 clumsy execution, a naive effort 
 was made to transform the "Apollo" 
 primitive xoanon into a living 
 figure, and in the framework of the body we can 
 already mark the relative correctness of the proportions. 
 The Boeotian sculptors must for a long time have made 
 use of the type thus perfected, and several fragments 
 found in the temple of Apollo Ptoios are evidently 
 
 of Orchomenus 
 (Central Museum, Athens). 
 
202 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 contemporary with the Apollo of Orchomenus. Still 
 this early art was not stationary. Every master en- 
 deavoured by some ingenious variation to give more 
 pliancy and animation to the old type, and the Boeotian 
 sculptors went from one improvement to another by 
 insensible gradations, but with a rapid step. Take, 
 for example, the curious stone head found at Perdico- 
 vrysi in 1885, which shows by its bold execution 
 its sharp ridges and its hard modelling, that it is 
 closely related to the Apollo of Orchomenus, and that 
 the memory of the technique of wood-carving was still 
 fresh. It is full of faults, it is true, but it is also full of 
 effort and of promise ; in spite of the artist's inexperi- 
 ence we feel his ardent desire to observe and imitate 
 nature, and a certain conscientious sincerity to which 
 the sculptor of Orchomenus was an utter stranger. 
 Thus, by a succession of imperceptible improvements, 
 which the discoveries of M. Holleaux enable us to 
 follow in, the most minute detail, the primitive type 
 was softened and transformed. Look at the long series 
 of ancient statues which decorated the temple of Mt. 
 Ptoion. All, with a few variations, reproduce the same 
 type, and yet each of them marks a stage in the slow 
 transformation. Here is one of the best preserved among 
 them, which closely recalls the statue of Orchomenus. 
 The attitude is the same, the structure and the face 
 are similar, as also the technique ; and yet it makes a 
 real advance. It is true that the figure is still cold and 
 rigid, the anatomy is very superficial, and the design con- 
 ventional ; but the artist already feels a wish to please, 
 he has taken some thought for grace and elegance, and 
 has felt some aspirations which his unpoHshed pre- 
 
EXCAVATIONS AT TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTOIOS. 20$ 
 
 decessor never kne^; and if his work is wanting in life, 
 at least it is not without charm in its uncouth simplicity. 
 
 Let us wait a few years, and we shall find that this 
 persevering effort to attain plastic 
 truth is almost crowned with success. 
 In a fine marble torso, which evidently 
 belongs to the second half of the 
 sixth century, the contours are already 
 fuller and more pliant, the flesh has 
 more substance; but above all — and 
 this is the great innovation — the figure 
 has thrown off its traditional im- 
 mobility, and the arms, which have 
 hitherto adhered closely to the sides, 
 are now detached from them and 
 extended in front. There is still much 
 inexperience visible in the figure, and 
 the anatomy remains very superficial > 
 but in this statue, as well as in the 
 Apollo of Tenea, which dates from the 
 same period, we feel that worn-out 
 traditions are giving place to a better 
 comprehension of the truth. 
 
 " The works of this period," says 
 M. HoUeaux, "please us more by 
 what they allow us to divine than 
 by what they actually show us ; they 
 derive a remarkable attraction from the promise they 
 contain, already visible under the imperfection of 
 the present, from the future they foretell, and from the 
 speedy and confident expectation they excite of the 
 finished works which are to follow." 
 
 Apollo of Tenea 
 (Glypto thek, 
 Munich). 
 
204 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 The most striking quality in these works of the 
 Boeotian school is the honesty of their workmanship, 
 which without conscious preference, without systematic 
 design, without any trace of the mannerism so plainly 
 marked in the Apollo of Tenea, pursues the search 
 after plastic truth rather by imitation of nature than by 
 systematic study of anatomy. Very marked also is the 
 desire to vary the attitudes of the figures and to render 
 their movements more supple, and the. tendency to break 
 the tedious monotony of traditional types by innovations 
 which, it must be granted, were sometimes uncouth. 
 
 No doubt the master's hand often fails to express 
 his thought — his skill is not equal to carrying out the 
 ingenious boldness of his conception ; and yet these 
 works are charming in their naturalness, in their frank 
 spontaneity, and in the effort, sometimes successful, of 
 which they show the trace. It is these qualities which 
 constitute the interest of a remarkable marble head, a 
 work of the second half of the sixth century, which in 
 its ripened archaism has a penetrating charm. 
 
 We can distinguish in it all the qualities peculiar to 
 the Boeotian school ; the oval shape of the face, the 
 somewhat prominent, strongly-marked profile, the very 
 prominent eyes, and especially the discreet smile upon 
 the lips, all show the artist's sedulous desire to depart 
 from the conventional type. In addition to this, the 
 workmanship is often excellent, the modelling soft as 
 well as exact, and the effort made to give expression to 
 the face has not been unsuccessful. The whole face 
 gives an impression of gentle serenity, and almost of 
 majesty; it deserves a distinguished place among the 
 archaic sculptures of Boeotia. 
 
EXCAVATIONS AT TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTOIOS. 20$ 
 
 By the side of the motionless figure of Apollo, which 
 is represented in the long series of statues from Perdi- 
 covrysi, the old Greek sculptors, in the eagerness of 
 their desire to break the monotony of sacred tradition, 
 conceived another type of the same deity, beardless 
 and nude like the preceding, but freer and more life- 
 like in its attitude. In this new representation both 
 arms below the elbow are detached from the body and 
 extended, and each hand holds an attribute, generally 
 a bow and arrows. Long before the day when a 
 famous statue, the Apollo sculptured by Canachus for 
 the temple of Miletus, gave unheard-of popularity to 
 this design, the masters of the archaic school took 
 delight in reproducing it, and a very ancient bronze 
 discovered in the Ptoian temple, rude in workmanship 
 and almost childish in its clumsiness, with heavy, flat- 
 tened contours and a grotesque and almost shapeless 
 face, affords one of the oldest examples of this second 
 class. Several other bronze statuettes belong to the 
 same series ; but while the large marble statues set up 
 in the temple precincts are almost all the work of native 
 sculptors, the small bronze figures, much more easily 
 transported, were brought from many different places 
 to adorn the temple of the god. They belong to 
 different artistic schools, according to the dedicator's 
 nationality, and in this way they are singularly in- 
 structive for us. One, which is still very archaic in 
 appearance, but strong and skilful in its modelling, 
 exact to minuteness in its workmanship, delicate and 
 refined, but somewhat frigid and lacking in freedom 
 and naturalness, recalls by striking analogies in attitude, 
 type and coiffure, a statuette of Apollo discovered at 
 
206 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Naxos and now in the Berlin museum ; both works 
 belong to the latter part of the sixth century, and the 
 dryness of their manner, their somewhat measured 
 exactness, would seem to show that they came from 
 the Peloponnesus and are the work of Dorian hands. 
 Another, on the contrary, although it reproduces the 
 same design and dates from almost the same period, is 
 distinguished from its neighbour by radical differences 
 of workmanship. Its contours are square and massive; 
 the very strongly-marked type of face recalls in a 
 remarkable way the marble faces of the Boeotian 
 school ; and, in spite of a naivete which provokes a 
 smile, in spite of evident lack of power and skill, the 
 work charms by its naturalness and freedom from 
 mannerism. We find in it all the characteristics of 
 primitive Boeotian sculpture : the striving after origin- 
 ality, the freedom from convention, the remarkable 
 sincerity of the work ; and in these respects the statue 
 forms a striking contrast to Peloponnesian works. The 
 latter undoubtedly display more science, and we some- 
 times find in them, as for example in the small female 
 figure found in the temple of Apollo Ptoios, which 
 belongs to the same school, a curious mixture of inten- 
 tional archaism and of almost finished elegance ; but 
 they are wanting in ease, their elegance savours of 
 painstaking and attentive study, together with a timid 
 respect for the conventions of their school. The 
 Boeotian figure knows nothing of these delicacies ; 
 but, on the other hand, it possesses a native vigour and 
 energy ; it is a hasty and spontaneous work, crude, no 
 doubt, but at least full of character and freshness. By 
 these qualities it completes the conception which the 
 
EXCAVATIONS AT TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTOIOS. 20/ 
 
 marbles from the shrine of Apollo Ptoios had already 
 given us of the early sculptors of Boeotia. "They 
 have," says M. Holleaux, " much less 
 talent than feeling, little skill, but a 
 great deal of sincerity. If their works 
 are very far removed from plastic 
 perfection, they have kept close to 
 nature ; they have little of the know- 
 ledge which is to be gained by study, 
 but they are endowed by instinct with 
 some of those qualities which cannot 
 be acquired." * 
 
 Many of these statuettes 
 are rendered still more inter- 
 esting by the fact that they 
 undoubtedly reproduce some work of 
 a great master, possibly the Philesian 
 Apollo, sculptured by Canachus of 
 Sicyon towards the end of the sixth 
 century for the Didymaeum of Miletus. 
 Many ancient copies on a reduced scale 
 of this celebrated statue, such as the 
 Payne-Knight bronze and the Strang- 
 ford Apollo in the British Museum, and 
 especially the precious bronze 
 Apollo of Piombino in the 
 Louvre, give us a fairly exact 
 idea of the work of the Pelo- 
 ponnesian sculptors. The 
 god stood erect, beardless, 
 and entirely nude,'- the left foot slightly advanced, the 
 
 * Holleaux, Bull. Corr. Hell., xi. 360. 
 
 The Piombino Apollo (Louvre 
 Museum). 
 
2o8 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 arms raised from the elbow, the hands holding a bow 
 and a fawn in the characteristic attitude created by the 
 archaic sculptors ; the hair short and curling over the 
 forehead, fell over the back in a thick mass, and hung 
 in symmetrical locks upon the breast, the eyes were of 
 silver, or of some precious stone inserted in the bronze. 
 The sculptor of Sicyon was still hampered by the con- 
 ventions of primitive art, and many traces of earlier 
 harshness or stiffness are still visible in his work, yet 
 in his Apollo he has refined the features characteristic 
 of the class ; the sturdy figure displays a more careful 
 study of nature, and if the expression is still somewhat 
 commonplace and empty, as we also find it in the fine 
 archaic head of Apollo discovered at Herculaneum, yet 
 the progress is undeniably immense which in a few 
 years has enabled these early masters to traverse the 
 interval which separates the rude and coarse figure of 
 the Apollo of Orchomenus from the work of Canachus. 
 
 The excavations on Mount Ptoion have restored to us 
 a statue in Parian marble, in which we cannot fail to 
 recognise a copy of the bronze of Canachus. It is 
 closely akin to the Apollo of Piombino and to the 
 Strangford marble, but it is earlier in date than these 
 two replicas of the Didymaean Apollo, and belongs to 
 the period of transition which lies between the early 
 archaic sculpture and that of the Aeginetan school ; its 
 date may be fixed with certainty towards the end of 
 the sixth century, somewhat earlier than that of the 
 figures on the western pediment of Aegina, which it 
 resembles in more than one point. We do not find in 
 this statue either the freedom and breadth of style which 
 mark the Boeotian school, or the grace and delicacy and 
 
EXCAVATIONS AT TEMPLE OF APOLLO PTOIOS. 209 
 
 intensity of life which distinguish Attic works. The 
 value of the figure consists in its anatomical precision, 
 in the careful and minute study of details, in the 
 modelling of the muscles, in the sobriety of the work- 
 manship and in the harmonious and simple construction 
 of the whole ; and in these points it recalls the style of 
 the Aeginetan school. As in the Aeginetan marbles, 
 the head is much inferior to the body ; the work is 
 less finished, the expression almost meaningless, and 
 this also shows the manifest influence exerted by 
 the old Peloponnesian schools. In this Dorian work, 
 visibly inspired by the bronze of Canachus, it is inter- 
 esting to find, not only a replica of a celebrated statue, 
 but also one of the latest transformations which the 
 type of Apollo underwent during the development of 
 archaic Greek art. 
 
 In the complete work which M. Holleaux is about to 
 issue on the subject of the excavations undertaken at the 
 temple of Apollo Ptoios, he will describe many other 
 remains, which we cannot even name in the course of 
 this study. All that we have tried to do has been to 
 point out the great interest of these recent excavations, 
 which throw such vivid light on the methods of archaic 
 Greek art, and which reveal in an important series cf 
 remains, the slow transformation through which one 
 of the types dear to the early sculptors has passed, as 
 well as the patient efforts of one of those ancient schools 
 of the Peloponnesus and Boeotia, whose diligent study 
 and original qualities paved the way for the full develop- 
 ment of Hellenic art. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA (1875—1881). 
 
 Books of Reference: 
 
 Curtius, Adler, Treu, Doerpfeld, " Ausgrabungen zu Olympia." 
 
 " Funde von Olympia," 
 
 "Inschriften aus Olympia" {Arch. Zeit., 1876— 1881.) 
 
 Boetticher, "Olympia," Berlin, 1886. 
 
 Flasch, Article "Olympia," in Baumeister's Denkmaeler, Munich, 
 
 1888. 
 Laloux et Monceaux, "La Restauration d' Olympic," Paris, 1889. 
 Prof. Gardner, " Olympia " (New Chapters in Greek History). . 
 Brunn, "Die Sculpturen von Olympia," Munich, 1877; "Paionios 
 
 und die Nordgriechische Kunst.," Munich, 1876. 
 Furtwraengler, "Bronzefunde aus Olympia." 
 Curtius, "Altare von Olympia." 
 
 Reinach, "L'Hermes de Praxitele {Rev. Arch., 1888, t. l). 
 For pediments. Six, in Journ. Hell. Studies, and literature quoted 
 there. 
 
 I. 
 
 In the district which the ancients knew by the name of 
 Elis, on the western side of the Peloponnesus, there 
 lies on the banks of the Alpheus a plain nearly 11 00 
 yards in width, and surrounded on all sides by a line 
 of low hills. The river, which has just descended 
 through a narrow gorge from the lofty mountains of 
 Arcadia, here slackens its swift, impetuous course, 
 and disports itself in fantastic curves and windings, 
 forming a number of small islands, and gathering 
 volume from the tributaries it receives from the north- 
 ern side of the valley, of which the most important 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 2 I 1 
 
 is the Cladeus. It was at the confluence of these two 
 rivers, at the foot of the wooded slopes of Mount 
 Cronion, or Olympus of Elis, that there rose in ancient 
 times the famous temple of Olympia ; and it was in this 
 little plain, round the sanctuary of Zeus, that the most 
 famous games of ancient Greece took place. If we are 
 to believe the naive traditions handed down by the 
 priests, the origin of these games was to be found in 
 the distant days of the Golden Age, when Zeus was 
 still an infant, and his father Saturn the monarch of the 
 world. The gods themselves had, not disdained to be 
 the first to take part in them ; Zeus had there disputed 
 the sceptre with Saturn, and Apollo had vanquished 
 Hermes in running and Ares in boxing. In later 
 years, so ran the legend, Pelops, son of Tantalus, 
 had given the Olympian games new splendour, after the 
 famous adventure in which, favoured by Zeus, he had 
 overcome King Oenomaus and wedded the fair Hippo- 
 damia. The story is well known ; it was one of the most 
 celebrated traditions of Olympia, and was immortalised 
 by art on one of the pediments of the temple. Oeno- 
 maus, king of Elis, had a daughter Hippodamia, and 
 the Delphic oracle had foretold that he would die on 
 the very day of her marriage. Consequently the king 
 was firmly resolved to reject all suitors for her hand, 
 and devised an easy way of disposing of them : he 
 challenged them to a chariot race from the altar of 
 Zeus at Olympia to that of Neptune at Corinth. The 
 race was long, many accidents might happen by the 
 way, and as a rule the king's good spear rid him of 
 his adversary in the course of it. When Pelops, son 
 of Tantalus, presented himself in his turn, he was more 
 
2 12 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 fortunate, or rather, more cunning. His riches enabled 
 him to win over Oenoraaus' charioteer, who overturned 
 his master, upon which the king killed himself in des- 
 pair. Pelops then married Hippodamia and succeeded 
 to the vacant throne, and in order to testify his grati- 
 tude to the gods, celebrated the Olympic games afresh 
 with unaccustomed splendour. According to another 
 legend, Hercules, after he had overcome Augeas, king 
 of Elis, offered solemn sacrifices on the plains of the 
 Alpheus in honour of his father Zeus ; then with the 
 ashes of the victims he raised an altar to the god, 
 and celebrated the Olympic games for the first time 
 within the sacred precincts, which he surrounded with 
 a wall. Finally, in the ninth century, Iphitus, a king 
 of the country, instituted the sacred truce, in order that 
 the festival might take place in peace. Henceforward, 
 by a solemn convention accepted by all the Pelopon- 
 nesian states, the territory of Olympia became neutral 
 ground, access to which was forbidden to any force of 
 armed men during the festival, and the inviolability of 
 which was placed under the joint guarantee of all the 
 Hellenes. From this time the territory of Olympia was 
 sacred, and its greatness assured ; the obscure local 
 festival of a district in the Peloponnesus became a 
 national institution of Hellas, and the Eleans showed 
 both gratitude and good sense when, in the entrance 
 to the Temple of Zeus, the most conspicuous place 
 in the sanctuary, they set up a statue of King Iphitus 
 crowned by Ekecheiria, the goddess personifying the 
 sacred truce to which Olympia owed its prosperity. 
 
 " Every one knows how the Olympic games became 
 the national festival of Greece, and how their return at 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 21 3 
 
 regular intervals of four years served as a basis for the 
 only system of chronology common to all Hellas, that 
 of the Olympiads. To a greater extent, indeed, than 
 any of the other Greek games — more than the Isthmian 
 or the Nemean, more even than the festival of Apollo 
 at Delphi — the solemnities of the Olympian Zeus served 
 as a national centre to the Greek world. Pilgrims 
 flocked to it from every part : Dorians and lonians, 
 men of Athens, Sparta, and Thebes, all, in spite of 
 their mutual rivalries and hatred, and in the midst of 
 their most embittered struggles, forgot for a moment their 
 ancient feuds when the festival came round, and lived 
 together in harmony for a few days at this peaceful 
 rendezvous where all could meet. The prizes won at 
 the Olympic games surpassed in glory all other honours ; 
 and the mightiest men of their time, the kings of distant 
 Cyrene, the tyrants of Sicily, the heads of the power- 
 ful aristocracies of Corinth, Argos, and Thessaly, the 
 richest citizens of democratic states, had no higher 
 ambition than to carry off the prize in the chariot-race 
 at Olympia." * 
 
 Neither the difficulties nor the length of the journey, 
 nor the imminent danger of foreign invasion, diminished 
 the keenness of the desire to hold these "great as- 
 sizes " of Greece ; and at the very time when Leonidas 
 was meeting a glorious death on the field of Thermopylae, 
 his countrymen assembled at Olympia were holding 
 undisturbed the solemn games in honour of their gods. 
 The reason for this was that these games in the 
 stadium, these victories in the arena, were of far 
 different import among the Greeks of classical times 
 
 * Rayet, Etudes d" Archeologie et d'Art, pp. 43-4. 
 
2 14 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 than among ourselves. The long training of the body 
 which the Olympian victors underwent, the ardent 
 devotion to gymnastics which fashioned these athletes 
 and runners, were more than a mere amusement ; they 
 were an essential part of any thorough education, and 
 almost a patriotic duty, since these exercises trained 
 for their country a picked body of good soldiers and 
 brave citizens. " With such men," it was said of the 
 Olympic victors, " there is no need of walls " ; and 
 indeed the athletes who won the crown of wild olive 
 were given equal honours with the most famous 
 generals ; they made triumphal entries into their 
 native towns, and their victories seemed, as much as 
 the greatest military successes, to be a visible sign of 
 the protection of the gods. i 
 
 We can therefore imagine the rapid development the 
 Olympic festival underwent, and it must be added that 
 to these great assemblies of Greece, to this international 
 meeting-place of Hellenic piety, none came with empty 
 hands. All were eager to lay their pious offerings at 
 the foot of the altars of the Olympian Zeus ; each city 
 set up statues in honour of its successful athletes around 
 the temple of the god, and consecrated to him, after a 
 victory, as a tithe of the spoil, some monument whose 
 pompous inscription might recall to future generations 
 the glory and the piety of its founders. All the great 
 political events which stirred the Hellenic world, every 
 caprice of fortune, enriched the temple of Olympia with 
 new offerings ; kings, tyrants, towns, vied with one 
 another in offering splendid gifts ; the greatest artists 
 of Greece spent their skill on these works, thousands of 
 which covered the central space and the terraces of the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 21$ 
 
 sacred enclosure. This collection of votive oflferings, 
 this multitude of figures in bronze and marble, gathered 
 together under the great trees which surrounded the 
 sanctuary, formed an unrivalled museum, the finest 
 and most famous in Greece. Even in the Roman 
 period, although the festival had by that time lost much 
 of its ancient splendour, pilgrims returned from Olympia 
 dazzled by so many marvels, and by the multitude of 
 statues — more than three thousand in number — which 
 formed the silent and magnificent train of the Olympian 
 Zeus. Pausanias, who in his ten books has described 
 the whole of Greece and has devoted but one to the 
 monuments of Attica, pauses in surprise and admira- 
 tion before the treasures of Olympia, and devotes 
 two whole books, perhaps the most interesting of all, 
 to the enumeration of the works of art, the statues 
 of divinities, heroes and athletes, the pious offerings, 
 the altars, monuments and temples, crowded into its 
 sacred precincts. 
 
 The renown of the Olympian games was so great 
 that it even survived the triumph of Christianity. They 
 existed, although shorn of much of their ancient glory, 
 until the end of the fourth century — till the day on 
 which the Spaniard Theodosius ascended the throne of 
 the Caesars. This ardent adherent of Christianity waged 
 merciless war against the fallen divinities of paganism, 
 and in the year 393 a.d. the games were held for the 
 last time. In the following year an imperial edict 
 prohibited them for ever, and silence fell upon the fair 
 and peaceful valley of Olympia, and around the temple 
 of Zeus. The buildings were stripped of their more 
 precious treasures, which were removed to Constanti- 
 
2l6 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 nople ; among others the Zeus of Phidias, which nad 
 once tempted the dilettantism of CaHgula, became the 
 prey of the imperial rapacity, and was carried off to 
 Byzantium, whence some years later it disappeared 
 for ever in a great fire. Still the temples remained 
 standing, as well as many of the monuments ; it is 
 even possible that the heathen priests were still 
 rendering their accustomed homage to their gods in 
 the deserted Altis when the Goths, under Alaric, in- 
 vaded the Peloponnesus. Hemmed in by the imperial 
 armies in the immediate neighbourhood of Olympia, 
 in all probability the barbarians did not spare the 
 treasure of the sanctuary. Notwithstanding this, how- 
 ever, in 426 A.D. the temples were still standing and 
 intact, for in this year the Emperor Theodosius II. 
 ordered the buildings of Olympia to be given to the 
 flames. 
 
 The gods were now for ever fallen, but human efforts 
 would have been unavailing to cast the gigantic blocks 
 and enormous columns of the pagan buildings to the 
 ground. Nature undertook to complete the task imposed 
 by the imperial edicts, and the earthquakes, so frequent in 
 the Peloponnesus, overthrew the buildings on which man 
 had made no impression. In the year 522, and again on 
 July 9th, 551, a terrible catastrophe spread destruction 
 throughout the East : Patras, Naupactus and Corinth 
 became mere heaps of ruins, and Olympia perished in 
 the same disaster. During several years a wretched 
 village continued to exist in the midst of the ruins, 
 under the shelter of the Byzantine citadel which was 
 built round the temple of Zeus after the invasion of the 
 Goths ; a church, a few poor houses, a few tombs recall 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 2 1/ 
 
 the memory of these obscure inhabitants of the fallen 
 Olympia, whose coins show that they remained there 
 until the seventh century. Then follow silence and 
 oblivion. The Slavonic invaders who took possession 
 of the Peloponnesus, the French barons established in 
 the peninsula, the Turks and the Venetians, passed by 
 the tomb in which the sacred city of Olympia lay buried 
 without a glance, and Nature, which knows so well 
 how to heal the wounds made by time and violence, 
 slowly cast its covering of sand and verdure over the 
 ruins ; they had to be disinterred from a depth of fifteen 
 or twenty feet beneath the soil. 
 
 The entire disappearance of the ruins of Olympia 
 was long attributed to a great flood caused by the over- 
 flowing of the Alpheus. This froward stream has had 
 a very bad reputation from ancient times, and the Greek 
 legend, dehghting to transform the great phenomena 
 of nature into mythological tradition, told with what 
 passionate impetuosity the river-god, enamoured of 
 the nymph Arethusa, pursued her without pausing over 
 the waters of the Ionian Sea to the distant shores 
 of Sicily. The disappearance of Olympia was readily 
 ascribed to the violence of this stream, and it was long 
 hoped that as Pompeii was given back to us entire from 
 beneath the ashes of Vesuvius, so we should find 
 "^Olympia as it was in the days of its splendour preserved 
 uninjured beneath the river-ooze. Alas ! our expecta- 
 tions have not been fulfilled. The Alpheus had but a 
 small share in the destruction of these monuments ; it 
 was the inhabitants of the Christian village established 
 among the ruins who ruthlessly carried confusion into 
 the buildings within the sacred precincts, while the 
 
2l8 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 land-slips, common in this part of Greece, have gradually 
 completed the work of destruction. From the slopes of 
 Mount Cronion, which overhangs Olympia on the north, 
 enormous masses of earth have fallen on the buildings 
 near it, the Cladeus has broken through the dykes by 
 which the ancients regulated its stream, and has made 
 its way across the Altis, lastly, the Alpheus has carried 
 away the low-lying ground next the river ; and thus, 
 until the excavations, of the present century, were 
 undertaken nothing was left of Olympia but a desolate 
 and monotonous plain which presented no trace of its 
 former splendour. 
 
 It was in the year 1723 that the name and memory of 
 Olympia emerged for the first time from the darkness, 
 and it was a Frenchman who first commended to public 
 attention the field on which German science has since 
 made such splendid discoveries. 
 
 In a letter dated June 14th, 1723, the learned 
 Benedictine Montfaucon congratulates Cardinal Quirini, 
 who had just been appointed Bishop of Corfu, and 
 enlarges upon the interesting archaeological discoveries 
 which his appointment will enable him to make in 
 Corfu, Cephalonia and Zante, adding : 
 
 "But what is all this in comparison with the discove- 
 ries which might be made on the opposite coasts of the 
 Peloponnesus ? There is the Elis of antiquity, where 
 the Olympic games were celebrated, where numberless 
 monuments were set up to do honour to the victors — 
 statues, reliefs, inscriptions. The earth must be full 
 of them ; and what is peculiar to this spot is that, as 
 far as I know, no one has yet made any explorations 
 there." 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 219 
 
 Winckelmann afterwards expressed the same wish : 
 
 " I feel assured," he said, " that there is a harvest to 
 be reaped in EUs which will surpass every hope, and 
 that a thorough exploration of that district will throw 
 a flood of light upon the history of art." 
 
 Not satisfied with uttering these prophetic words, 
 the indefatigable archaeologist, who as one of his con- 
 temporaries wittily said became a Catholic in order the 
 better to study Rome, and would gladly have turned 
 Mussulman in order to explore Olympia, preached a 
 veritable crusade in favour of his belief, interested the 
 princes of the Roman Church in the enterprise, and 
 until his death in 1768 never ceased to converse with 
 his numerous friends on his favourite plan. " What 
 one earnestly desires," he said, " always becomes 
 possible, and I have this matter as much at heart as 
 my history of art." 
 
 Winckelmann's project died with him. But just then, 
 for the first time, an Oxford theologian, Richard 
 Chandler, visited the ruins of Olympia, and acquainted 
 the scientific world with the fact that the remains of a 
 large Doric temple existed in this remote corner of the 
 Peloponnesus. After him the French traveller Fauvel, 
 entrusted with an archaeological mission by the Marquis 
 de Choiseul Gouffier, identified these ruins for the first 
 time with the temple of the Olympian Zeus. At this 
 time, moreover, the sanctuary had become a quarry for 
 the neighbouring village, whence, according to a de- 
 plorable custom which has been the destruction of 
 many ancient buildings, they sought for building-stones, 
 well-hewn and ready to hand. The signal had now 
 been given ; other travellers, who had wandered over 
 
2 20 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the Peloponnesus between the years 1801 and 1808, 
 proclaimed in their turn that the most splendid discove- 
 ries might be made there, while about the same time 
 Quatremere de Quincy was at work on his book on the 
 Olympian Zeus of Phidias, and by his advice, with the 
 support of the Institute of France, Lord John Spencer 
 Stanhope published in 1824 the first complete map of 
 the district of Olympia. 
 
 Up to this time no excavations had been undertaken. 
 It is again France to whom the honour belongs of 
 undertaking the first systematic exploration of these 
 ruins. It is well known that in 1829, during the Greek 
 War of Independence, and immediately after the battle 
 of Navarino, the government of Charles X. landed a 
 body of troops in the Peloponnesus commanded by 
 Marshal Maison. " The expedition to the Morea was 
 accompanied by a scientific mission, as that of Bonaparte 
 to Egypt had formerly been ; and while the officers of 
 engineers made a survey of the peninsula, and the 
 naturalists studied its flora and fauna, a' commission 
 composed of archaeologists and artists, at the head of 
 which was the architect Abel Blouet, explored the 
 ancient ruins."* 
 
 Among the points to which the Institute had drawn 
 the attention of the mission, the temple of Olympia 
 held an important place, and in fact the excavations 
 undertaken there enabled its members, in less than six 
 weeks, to bring to light all the elements needed for the 
 fine restoration of the building published by Blouet in 
 his magnificent work on the expedition in the Morea. 
 In addition to this, and in spite of the want of skill 
 
 * Laloux and Monceaux, Olyntpie, p. 43. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 
 
 221 
 
 shown by Dubois in the management of the excavations, 
 important pieces of sculpture were found and added to 
 the collection in the Louvre, especially the fine metope 
 of Hercules and the Cretan Bull, which is one of the 
 
 .■Hercules and the Cretan Bull (Louvre). 'i 
 
 most admirable works of ancient sculpture. In spite 
 of this successful beginning the work was soon brought 
 to a close ; it has been said that the 'jealousy of the 
 Greeks had something to do with this interruption, and 
 that Capo d'Istria, then at the head of the Provisional 
 
222 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Government, prohibited explorations which were rob- 
 bing Greece of a part of its national glory. The 
 explanation is perhaps simpler and more prosaic ; the 
 summer's heat no doubt compelled the expedition to 
 suspend its operations, and its return to France pre- 
 vented their being resumed in the autumn. 
 
 However, this may be, these excavations at least 
 proved that the sculptural decoration of the temple of 
 Zeus had not entirely perished, and that some works of 
 the masters who had contributed to its splendour might 
 be found among the ruins. Accordingly, all who visited 
 Olympia strongly urged the resumption of excavations 
 which could not fail to yield important results. Beule 
 on more than one occasion expressed a hope that the 
 French Government would organise a new expedition, 
 but the wish remained unheard. The distinguished 
 professor of the University of Berlin, Ernst Curtius, was 
 destined to be more fortunate. Entrusted in 1844, as it 
 fortunately happened, with the office of tutor to the 
 Prince of Prussia, he was able as early as 1852, in a 
 speech which is still famous, to recommend the under- 
 taking to the favourable notice of his royal pupil; 
 and the young prince, who already showed signs of 
 the liberal and cultivated mind which in later years 
 distinguished the noble and unfortunate Frederick III., 
 promised that when the time should come he would 
 favour the enterprise. The time came after the war 
 of 1870, when the newly-established German Empire 
 sought to add the honours of peace to those of war, and 
 the Imperial Treasury being well filled, Curtius at last 
 obtained the necessary funds for the exploration of 
 Olympia ; and a convention concluded with the Greek 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 223 
 
 government on April 25th, 1874, authorised Germany 
 to begin the excavations. The Imperial government 
 promised to defray the cost of the undertaking, while 
 Greece was to retain whatever was found in the course 
 of the work. 
 
 The German Reichstag voted an initial grant of 
 ;^8ooo without hesitation, but the Greeks were not so 
 eager to ratify the treaty. The Archaeological Society 
 of Athens protested ; the Chamber and public opinion 
 were distrustful. No one could believe that the enter- 
 prise, undertaken solely in the interests of science, 
 would not add one marble fragment to the Berlin 
 museums, and even in 1876, a year after the beginning 
 of the excavations, a Greek of high standing cautiously 
 congratulated a German savant on the rare skill with 
 which his countrymen exported the marbles of Olympia 
 from Greece. The suspicion was excusable ; the 
 memory of Lord Elgin carrying off the sculptures of 
 the Parthenon is one of those things which a nation 
 does not forget. Consequently a long struggle had to 
 be carried on with the stubborn patriots, who thought 
 it a disgrace to leave to strangers the task of bringing 
 to light the masterpieces of ancient Greece, but in 
 spite of this opposition the convention was finally 
 ratified on November nth, 1875; the excavations had 
 commenced a month before. 
 
 They were carried on without interruption during six 
 seasons, until May 20th, 1881, thanks to the liberality of 
 the German government and the generosity of the Crown 
 Prince, who more than once drew upon his private 
 purse, thanks, in short, to the thirty or forty thousand 
 pounds which Germany was thus willing to spend upon 
 
224 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 a purely scientific enterprise, from which she did not 
 acquire a single marble for her museums. During six 
 successive years, from October to May, three hundred 
 workmen were employed in this colossal task, which 
 consisted in clearing, to a depth of from sixteen to 
 twenty-three feet, not only the sacred precincts sur- 
 rounding the temple — the Altis, strictly speaking, a vast 
 rectangle more than six hundred and fifty feet long and 
 about five hundred and seventy-five feet broad, — but also 
 the numerous buildings which surrounded the sanctuary 
 and were devoted to the administration of the temple, 
 to the games which formed the glory of Olympia, and 
 to the accommodation of the strangers attracted by 
 the renown of its festival. " One hundred and thirty 
 marble statues or reliefs, thirteen thousand objects in 
 bronze, six thousand coins, four hundred inscriptions, 
 a thousand objects in terra-cotta, forty buildings : such 
 was the marvellous spoil won by the explorers." * It 
 is hardly necessary to explain the importance and the 
 absorbing interest for the history of Greek architecture 
 and sculpture possessed by these memorable excavations. 
 At the present time all these artistic treasures are 
 collected in the galleries of a museum built at Olympia 
 by the liberality of a generous Greek gentleman, M. 
 Zingros, and thanks to this museum we can to-day, 
 like the pious pilgrims of old time flocking to the temple 
 of Zeus, survey the collection of remains, perhaps with- 
 out a parallel in the world, which once formed part of 
 the ancient Olympia. 
 
 Thanks to these recent excavations, the great sacred 
 city springs up again beneath our eyes as Pausanias 
 
 * Laloux and Monceaux, La Restauration d'Olympie, p. 47. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 22$ 
 
 saw and described it, and we can not only discover the 
 exact plan of its buildings, but can restore these ruined 
 temples, and recover Olympia as it was in the bright 
 days of its splendour and in the freshness and youth 
 of its monuments. 
 
 II. 
 
 Nature wonderfully adapted Olympia to its future 
 destiny, by giving to the plain of Elis an incomparable 
 charm. On the northern side, the mountains of Achaia 
 and the lofty table-lands of Arcadia protected it against 
 the cold north winds ; on the south the solid mass of 
 Messenia tempered the heat of the burning southern 
 breezes ; it was only the soft, damp western wind which 
 could penetrate through the opening towards the sea 
 into the river valley where Olympia lay. Thus the 
 summits of the hills which encircle the plain, and the 
 well-watered valley lying in its depths, were clothed 
 with a rich vegetation, especially at the spot where, at 
 the foot of Mount Cronion, the Cladeus united its waters 
 with those of the Alpheus. On the heights the pine- 
 woods added their note of dark green, while in the 
 plain below a dense grove enveloped the shrine in its 
 shadow, and gave to the precincts of Olympia the name of 
 Altis, which means a sacred wood. Beneath the shelter 
 of the avenues of plane trees there rose a crowd of 
 temples and monuments, while clumps of silvery 
 poplars overshadowed the tomb of Pelops, branching 
 olives grew round the stadium and the hippodrome ; 
 and all around, on the sides of the hills, the vine, the 
 olive, and the myrtle mingled their foliage, and the 
 
 15 
 
226 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 meadows in the valley, carpeted in the springtime with 
 bright-coloured anemones, made the Olympian shrine 
 a fresh and verdant retreat. An Athenian orator says 
 that Olympia lies in the most beautiful district of all 
 Greece, and certainly an inhabitant of the dry and 
 barren Attica could not fail to be transported with 
 admiration when he saw the charming and verdant 
 valley of the Alpheus. We naturally find more 
 originality and more fascination in the severe beauty 
 of the Attic landscape, in the clear, harmonious lines 
 of Parnes and Pentelicus, standing out against the 
 luminous evening sky, in those bare and lofty mountains 
 where the oUve alone breaks the monotony with the 
 pale foliage which can assume such rich and wonderful 
 colours in the sunlight ; and the pleasant valley of 
 Olympia, with its chastened and simple beauty, its 
 peaceful, smiling charms, has less power to move us 
 with pleasure or surprise. To the ancient Greeks 
 however, who like the Mussulmans of our own day 
 were lovers of flowers and greenery and shade, its 
 groves and running waters formed a fitting background 
 for the temples and statues erected within its precincts, 
 and for the festival which was celebrated there. 
 
 Let us now imagine that on one of these days of 
 solemn rejoicing we are arriving at Olympia, like the 
 pilgrims of olden time, by some one of the seven great 
 roads which connected the shrine with the rest of 
 Greece — by the most famous of them for example, the 
 Sacred Way which ran from Elis to Olympia over the 
 plain and met the road from the sea and the port on 
 the banks of the Alpheus. " It was a charming avenue, 
 lined with shrines, statues, and tombs, and with groves 
 
The Excavations at olVmpIa. 227 
 
 sweet with flowers, which led like a roadway through 
 a park to the right bank of the Cladeus." Let us cross 
 the torrent; in the angle which it forms with the Alpheus 
 at the foot of Mount Cronion, which overhangs it on the 
 north, and on whose slopes some of its buildings rise 
 one above the other, we shall find the sacred city of 
 Olympia. It consists of two divisions ; thie one is the 
 consecrated enclosure of the Altis, encompassed on 
 three sides by white walls ; the other consists of the 
 numerous buildings erected around it. The former is 
 the domain of the gods — the latter, the accommodation 
 provided for the amusement or the convenience of their 
 worshippers. 
 
 Several gateways gave access to the Altis. We will 
 enter by one of the three constructed in the western 
 wall, of which the middle was a postern, while those 
 at the extremities were more imposing in appearance. 
 That on the south-west was the triumphal gateway 
 through which sacred processions entered the sanctuary. 
 It leads us to the terraces surrounding the principal 
 building within the temenos, the most famous of the 
 wonders of Olympia, the great temple of Zeus.* It was 
 a fine building of the Doric order, nearly contemporary 
 with the Parthenon, 210 feet long and 65 feet high, 
 with six columns at the front and back ; its pediments 
 were decorated with sculptures ascribed by tradition to 
 Paeonius and Alcamenes, and in the cella the famous 
 gold and ivory statue from the hand of Phidias repre- 
 sented the Olympian Zeus in his serene and sovereign 
 majesty. 
 
 In our rapid passage through the Altis we will not 
 
 * See Laloux and Monceaux, Restauration d'Olympie, 
 
228 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 pause before the multitude of statues and monuments 
 covering the open space in front of the temple, and 
 multiplying at every step the image of the king of 
 heaven, but will make our way at once to the great 
 altar in the shape of an ellipse which occupied the 
 centre of the Altis, and on which, according to tradition, 
 was offered the first sacrifice in honour of Zeus. It 
 consisted of two parts, one above the other : first a large 
 circular platform on which the victims were slain, and 
 then a second terrace, entirely composed of the ashes 
 of the victims, on which rose the altar where the flesh 
 was burned. Here the prophets of Zeus, transported 
 by a sacred frenzy, foretold the future ; here was the 
 true centre of the cultus of Olympia, Its height of 
 more than twenty feet, which continued to increase 
 every year, bore witness at once to the antiquity and 
 to the fervency of the worship paid to the supreme 
 deity of the Altis. 
 
 If from this central spot the pilgrim cast his glance 
 over the different buildings within the temenos, he 
 would first find, to the north of the temple of Zeus, the 
 Pelopium or tomb of Pelops, a lofty mound heaped up 
 over the ashes of the hero, before the enclosure of 
 which stood a portico open towards the west. Then 
 came the ancient sanctuary of Hera, a very early 
 temple of the Doric order, full of offerings, statues, and 
 curiosities of every kind, among which were a toy once 
 belonging to Hippodamia, and the celebrated cedar 
 chest, richly inlaid with gold and ivory, in which 
 Cypselus tyrant of Corinth had been hidden by his 
 mother. Here, too, were the magnificent table on which 
 the victors' crowns were placed, a masterpiece of the 
 

 OH 
 o\ d 
 
2 30 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 industrial art of the Greeks, and that precious statue by 
 Praxiteles, Hermes carrying the infant Dionysus, which 
 we have had the good fortune to recover. Farther on 
 was a third temple, also of the Doric order, dedicated to 
 the mother of the gods and called the Metroum. Lastly, 
 to the west of the Heraeum stood two other buildings ; 
 the circular edifice built by Philip of Macedon after the 
 battle of Chaeronaea, a graceful Ionic building orna- 
 mented with gold and ivory statues of the founder and 
 his son Alexander, and the Prytaneum, where solemn 
 banquets were held. 
 
 Above these buildings a terrace raised to a height of 
 from ten to thirteen feet, and ascended by broad flights 
 of steps, supported a series of buildings ranged on 
 the slope of Mount Cronion ; these were the thirteen 
 treasuries, erected by a certain number of towns in order 
 to receive the valuable offerings they had dedicated to 
 Zeus. Here, too, visitors found numberless curiosities 
 to admire ; in the treasury of Sicyon they were shown 
 the sword of Pelops and the two great bronze coffers 
 given by the tyrant Myron ; in that of Syracuse were 
 the presents sent by Gelo in memory of his victory 
 over the Carthaginians. Then came the treasuries of 
 other towns of Magna Graecia and Sicily, of Meta- 
 pontum and Sybaris, of Selinus and Gela, and that of 
 Megara, from which important fragments of decorative 
 sculptures have survived. Lastly, to the west of this 
 series of buildings was a remarkable construction of 
 the Roman period, a semicircular edifice or exedra, in 
 front of which a large basin received the waters of an 
 aqueduct, a very valuable present made to Olympia by 
 the rhetorician Herodes Atticus. There was no spring 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 23 I 
 
 in the neighbourhood of the Altis, and in summer the 
 trees within the sacred precincts as well as the pilgrims 
 who flocked to the festival, ran great risk of dying 
 for want of water, and consequently the Elean engineers 
 had been early compelled to build cisterns and lay 
 down pipes, in order to supply Olympia during the 
 dry season and keep it cool and fresh. Herodes 
 Atticus resolved to do more ; he turned from its 
 course an affluent of the Alpheus, and led it by a 
 great aqueduct to the side of Mount Cronion, whence 
 its waters were distributed over all the Altis. Twenty- 
 one marble statues were set up round the exedra, 
 and on the building itself was inscribed the name 
 of Regilla, the wife of Herodes, in whose name it was 
 dedicated. 
 
 On the east a long portico adjoined the Altis wall, 
 which was called the Poecile or Echo portico, on account 
 of a celebrated echo which repeated seven times any 
 Word uttered there. From this vast gallery, which 
 afforded shelter from the rays of the sun and the in- 
 clemency of the weather, there was an admirable view 
 over the whole of the sacred place, and pilgrims crowded 
 there during the festival. Before the Echo portico 
 stretched the agora, covered with statues, altars and 
 ex-votos. Here a long tribune, parallel to the portico, 
 was probably reserved for the magistrates, and possibly 
 was also used for those public readings at which the 
 most illustrious writers of Greece, orators, philosophers 
 and historians, recited their works to their assembled 
 countrymen. To the south of the Echo portico another 
 gallery, the South-East portico, extended in front of 
 the house of the Hellanodicae, in which distinguished 
 
2 32 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 guests were sometimes lodged, and where Nero took 
 up his abode when he visited Olympia. 
 
 To these buildings must be added the multitude of 
 altars contained within the sacred enclosure, and visited 
 every month by the train of priests. Pausanias reckons 
 sixty or eighty of them, each of which required a sacri- 
 fice at least once a month. There were also the relics 
 piously preserved in the sanctuary, such as the olive- 
 tree planted by Hercules, and the old wooden pillar from 
 the house of Oenomaus. There were also a multitude of 
 statues erected to the gods, and especially to Zeus, by the 
 different states of Greece, among which were the statue 
 dedicated by the victors of Plataea, bearing on its base 
 the name of the towns which had taken part in the battle, 
 and the colossal figure, nearly thirty feet high, dedicated 
 by the Eleans in memory of their victory over Arcadia. 
 Other monuments recalled instances of perjury com- 
 mitted by the athletes during the games ; thus, at the 
 foot of the terrace on which the treasuries were built, a 
 line of statues of Zeus, called Zanes, had been erected 
 with the proceeds of the fines inflicted upon the guilty. 
 Beside all these we must picture to ourselves the multi- 
 tude of offerings, of groups and ex-votos, which in some 
 places, as for example in the space before the temple 
 of Zeus, covered the Altis with a crowd of statues. On 
 one side, above the western terraces, were to be seen a 
 band of thirty-five children in bronze, consecrated by 
 the town of Messina, and farther away other children, 
 executed in stone, by Calamis, an offering to Zeus from 
 the people of Agrigentum. Further on were the group 
 of Onatas, representing the Greek heroes drawing lots 
 for the honour of meeting Hector in single combat, 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 233 
 
 the colossal statue of Hercules, sixteen feet high, the 
 splendid offerings of the Sicilian Micythus, guardian 
 to the children of Anaxilaus of Rhegium, the bronze 
 bull of the Eretrians, and above all the Victory of 
 Paeonius, dedicated by the Messenians of Naupactus, 
 which has come down to us. To all these we must add 
 the innumerable statues of athletes, and representations 
 of the victorious chariots and horses ; we must also 
 remember, if we would appreciate this incomparable 
 museum as it deserves, that these bronzes and marbles 
 bore the signatures of the most famous artists of 
 Greece. 
 
 Outside the Altis, numerous buildings were set apart 
 for the celebration of the games and for the accommoda- 
 tion of the guests and the various officers in the temple 
 service. On the east was the stadium, which extended 
 for a distance of nearly two hundred and twenty yards 
 at the foot of Mount Cronion, and was connected with 
 the sacred precincts by a covered way, through which the 
 procession of judges and athletes entered the course. 
 In the same direction, between the stadium and the 
 banks of the Alpheus, lay the hippodrome, which was 
 rather more than eight hundred and forty yards in 
 length ; it has, however, been almost entirely washed 
 away by the inundations of the river. To the south 
 of the sanctuary was built the Bouleuterium, where the 
 Olympian senate sat during the games — a curious 
 building consisting of a square court flanked by two 
 wings, each ending in an apse ; to the south of this 
 again there stretched a vast promenade, the view from 
 which extended to the banks of the Alpheus, over 
 a meadow covered at the time of the games by an 
 
2 34 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 immense multitude, and filled with the noise of the 
 secular pastimes inseparable from the religious festival. 
 Close to the Bouleuterium was a great triumphal arch 
 with three gateways, constructed in the south wall of 
 the Altis during the Roman period. The palace of the 
 Senate had, however, always from the beginning been in 
 direct communication with the sacred precincts. 
 
 Lastly, to the west along the course of the Cladeus, 
 whose stream was curbed and guided by strong embank- 
 ments, stood the great gymnasium, surrounded by 
 porticoes one of which measured two hundred and 
 thirty yards in length ; and farther on the palaestra, 
 where competitors in the games completed their course 
 of training. To the south of this building lay the 
 dwellings of the priests or Theokoleon, a kind of 
 monastery, in which a number of cells opened into a 
 rectangular courtyard, and by the side of which was 
 a chapel or Heroum, consecrated to the legendary an- 
 cestors of the priestly family of Olympia. Then came 
 the workshop of Phidias, a rectangular building of the 
 same shape and nearly the same size as the cella of 
 the temple of Zeus ; lastly, to the south-west of the 
 Altis lay the Leonidaeum, a vast building surrounded 
 by porticoes, where distinguished guests, such as the 
 Roman governor of Achaia, were entertained with 
 sumptuous hospitality at the time of the games. It 
 was in fact necessary at these solemn assemblies to take 
 thought for the accommodation, if not of the throng of 
 pilgrims who encamped in the plain, at least for that of 
 the important personages, the princes and statesmen, 
 and the heads of the splendid theoriai which honoured 
 the Olympic games by their presence, These guests were 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 235 
 
 lodged in the Leonidaeum, close by the state entrance 
 to the Altis, in the finest part of Olympia, where they 
 might enjoy an admirable view of the marvellous scene 
 which the sacred city presented. 
 
 III. 
 
 Here, every four years, at the time of the great 
 festival, the Greeks assembled to celebrate the solemn 
 games which for some days made Olympia the true 
 capital of the Hellenic world. We know how keen was 
 the interest which these competitions excited, how great 
 an importance was ascribed by the ancients to physical 
 exercises, and how supreme was the glory which 
 victories in the arena conferred upon the conqueror. 
 
 " As water," says Pindar, " is the best of the ele- 
 ments, as gold is the most precious among the treasures 
 of mortals, as the light of the sun surpasses everything 
 in brightness and warmth, so there is no victory greater 
 than that of Olympia." We must admit that among 
 these contests in the Stadium of Olympia, over which 
 all the most distinguished men of Greece were trans- 
 ported with enthusiasm, more than one seems to us 
 remarkably brutal, and some of the most illustrious 
 athletic feats very closely recall the exploits of prize- 
 fighters. Yet at the present time, when physical exer- 
 cises are regaining a recognised place in our schools, 
 when schoolboy games interest the public and absorb 
 their attention, and physical regeneration seems to be 
 the means and complement of moral regeneration, it 
 may not be without interest to study the means by 
 which the ancients maintained the vigour and developed 
 
236 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the grace and activity of the body, and to notice how, 
 together with a few professional wrestlers, little better 
 than prize-fighters, the ancient system of gymnastics 
 also developed and produced, in the plains of Olympia, 
 a far greater number of good soldiers and brave citizens. 
 The Olympian games had a very modest beginning. 
 At first, according to the tradition of its founders, a 
 single prize was offered and a single contest arranged, 
 the foot-race, which consisted in running once the 
 length of the stadium. Gradually other contests were 
 added in order to increase the attraction of the festival 
 and to draw a greater number of spectators by varying 
 the games and rendering them more complicated. To 
 the different kinds of races successively introduced the 
 pentathlum was added, which was a combination of 
 five different trials of strength and skill, running, 
 hurling the discus, throwing the spear, leaping and 
 wrestling ; then came fighting with the cestus, or box- 
 ing, and a little later, in 680 b.c, contests in the 
 hippodrome, chariot-races, and shortly after horse-races ; 
 finally a combination of wrestling and boxing was 
 devised, called the pancratium. Henceforth the number 
 of contests was complete. It is true that some novelties 
 were introduced in details : races of mules and of colts 
 were added to the horse-racing, two-horse as well as 
 four-horse chariots were admitted to the hippodrome, 
 contests of boys were added similar to those of men ; still 
 nothing distinctive was added to the Olympian pro- 
 gramme. These additions to the contests remarkably 
 increased the splendour of the festival. At first it lasted 
 only a single day ; but as the list of contests length- 
 ened and competitors grew more numerous, this one 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 237 
 
 day was no longer sufficient, and on one occasion, in 
 472 B.C., the foot-races and the pentathlum lasted so 
 long that evening was falling before it came to the turn 
 of the pancratium, and the wrestling went on far into 
 into the night. The duration of the festival had to be 
 prolonged, and from this time forward the Olympic 
 games lasted five whole days. They must be studied 
 in their final shape, in the full brilliancy of their 
 splendour, in order to understand the irresistible 
 attraction which the approach of the quadrennial 
 Olympic festival exercised over all Greece. 
 
 The supreme control over the games belonged to 
 the city of Elis, which delegated the superintendence 
 to ten magistrates, called Hellanodicae, or judges of 
 the Hellenes. These officers, appointed afresh each 
 Olympiad, were entrusted with the organisation of the 
 festival, the direction of the games, and the award of 
 the prizes. 
 
 In order to fit themselves for their difficult task, they 
 found it necessary to prepare themselves for it some time 
 before the festival, and in fact they entered upon 
 office ten months before the games began, while in 
 order to render themselves fully equal to their delicate 
 and difficult functions, they presided over the games 
 in the gymnasium of Elis, and watched the long training 
 which horses and men underwent, in order thus to 
 complete by long and constant practice the theoretical 
 knowledge they possessed in these obscure matters. 
 At the same time they received the entries of candidates 
 desirous of competing, and decided by the light of the 
 traditional regulations of Olympia whether the com- 
 petitors fulfilled the required conditions. 
 
238 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 It was not permitted to every one to contend in the 
 Olympic games. For a long time it was necessary for 
 competitors to prove that they were of pure Hellenic 
 blood, and the story is well known of the king of 
 Macedonia who had to bring forward satisfactory 
 evidence to show that he was not a barbarian. Still 
 this condition was liberally interpreted, for even the 
 Romans were allowed to compete, as being near kindred 
 of the Greeks. It was also necessary to be of free 
 birth, to possess a clear conscience, and to be at peace 
 with gods and men. Any man who had committed a 
 crime, or was guilty of impiety or sacrilege, was 
 mercilessly rejected. The Spartans were for a long 
 time excluded, on account of having violated the sacred 
 truce, and the Athenians met with equally stern 
 treatment for refusing to pay a fine to Zeus. As the 
 oracles moreover were always inclined to side with 
 one another and to render each other mutual support, 
 Delphi refused its services and the Pythia was dumb 
 until Olympia received satisfaction. 
 
 It was naturally an advantage to be rich if one 
 wished to take part in the games; the training the 
 competitors had to undergo, the cost of the journey, 
 and the numberless expenses incurred in the course of 
 the festival, amounted to a considerable sum. In this 
 way certain contests, such as the horse and chariot- 
 races, seemed naturally more aristocratic ; and men of 
 wealth and standing were inclined to disdain the simple 
 gymnastic exercises which were less costly, and con- 
 sequently more accessible to the middle classes. They 
 feared they might find themselves in somewhat mixed 
 company. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 239 
 
 Should the competitor succeed in satisfying all these 
 conditions, he was still only at the beginning of his 
 task. When his name had been entered, he had to 
 undergo a special course of training lasting ten months, 
 and to submit during this time to a particular regime. 
 Finally, he had to go to Elis to spend thirty days there, 
 in accordance with the regulations, and to practise 
 every morning in the gymnasium in the presence of 
 the judges, who caused the competitors to pass certain 
 preliminary examinations, and divided them into dif- 
 ferent classes according to age and strength. Then, 
 some time before the festival, judges and athletes, 
 chariots and horses, repaired to Olympia by the Sacred 
 Way, and the competitors continued their exercises in 
 the great buildings constructed expressly for their use, 
 the gymnasium and the palaestra, the ruins of which 
 may still be seen along the western wall of the Altis, 
 affording one of the earliest examples of this kind of 
 building. Meanwhile the magistrates entrusted with 
 the organisation and oversight of the festival made 
 their final preparations for the necessary clearing of 
 the course, for the accommodation of visitors, and the 
 good order of the whole ceremony. 
 
 At last the great day arrived. The festival recurred 
 every four years, at a fixed date — the time of the full 
 moon following the summer solstice. It was generally 
 at the end of June or beginning of July, and we may well 
 believe that at this time of the year the heat was often 
 overpowering in the deep valley of the Alpheus, and 
 that some courage was needed to sit throughout the 
 day in the stadium or the hippodrome under a burning 
 sun. It was no matter. From the day on which the 
 
240 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 sacred heralds carried the official message announcing 
 the date of the festival throughout the Greek world, 
 and proclaimed everywhere the sacred truce, from all 
 sides men set out to take part in the games. Generals 
 and statesmen, who sometimes, like Themistocles and 
 Philopoemen, met with an enthusiastic reception, 
 philosophers and literary men like Anaxagoras and 
 Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato, Gorgias and Demos- 
 thenes, poets like Pindar and Simonides, seers like 
 Apollonius of Tyana — in short, all who were distin- 
 guished among their countrymen by wealth or talent 
 — made the Olympian games their place of meeting. 
 The cities of Greece sent solemn embassies or theoriai, 
 resplendent in purple and gold, who vied with one 
 another in splendour, and proudly displayed in their 
 magnificent chariots the costly offerings they had brought 
 for the god. The kings who took part in the horse and 
 chariot-races, and the men of rank and wealth who 
 came to be present at the festival, made an equally 
 pompous display of their riches. One went to Olympia 
 at least as much to see as to be seen. Then there was 
 the crowd of pilgrims whom an ardent curiosity attracted 
 to this festival, and a multitude of artists in search of 
 lucrative orders, and of merchants and manufacturers of 
 all kinds on the watch for bargains. A great fair was 
 held at the same time as the rehgious festival ; the tents 
 stood in rows upon the plain ; the river was crowded 
 with boats bringing provisions for the multitudes 
 encamped at the foot of the Altis, while the roads were 
 full of innumerable flocks and herds for sacrifice, and 
 in the meadows there stretched interminable lines of 
 many-coloured tents and joyous canteens, and from 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 24 1 
 
 the whole crowd assembled in the plain of Olympia 
 there rose the sounds of gaiety and pleasure. Women 
 alone were excluded from the festival. They might 
 run their horses in the hippodrome, and thus win a 
 crown, as did Cynisca, the sister of Agesilaus, whose 
 bronze horses stood under the trees of the Altis, but 
 they might not enter the sacred enclosure. While 
 their husbands, their sons and their brothers were 
 contending in the stadium, they were banished to the 
 southern bank of the Alpheus, and heard the sound 
 of the cheering from afar. Once only was this rule 
 broken. Pherenice, the daughter of a celebrated 
 Rhodian wrestler, whose family boasted that they were 
 descended from Hercules, could not bear to leave her 
 son while the contest was going on, and disguising herself 
 as a man and pretending to be a teacher of gymnastics, 
 she mingled with the groups of gymnasts. When her 
 son was proclaimed victor, however, her feelings carried 
 her away, and forgetful of prudence she rushed to 
 embrace her child. In her haste her robes became 
 disordered, and her sex was revealed. The law was 
 explicit : every woman found within the precincts 
 was condemned to death. Nevertheless the judges 
 acquitted her, in recognition of the fame her family 
 had won, but to prevent any repetition of the occur- 
 rence the masters had thenceforth to present themselves 
 naked as well as their pupils. 
 
 On the first day of the festival, in the early morning, 
 the games were inaugurated by solemn homage paid to 
 the gods. An imposing sacrifice was offered to Zeus in 
 the name of the Elean state, and throughout the day 
 sacred embassies were crossing the Altis and offering 
 
 16 
 
242 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE, 
 
 their gifts at the shrines. Meanwhile without the en- 
 closure, and in the Bouleuterium, the final preparations 
 were being made for the games. All those who were 
 to take any part in the contests — athletes, charioteers, 
 trainers, judges — swore solemnly that they had obeyed 
 all the regulations and had been guilty neither of 
 impiety nor of sacrilege, and with their hands on the 
 altar they promised to act uprightly in all the coming 
 contests. Then the Hellanodicae divided the competitors 
 into classes, the wrestlers were paired by lot, and 
 starting-places were assigned to the foot-racers and 
 chariots. The evening was spent in conversation 
 and in various pastimes ; statesmen withdrew together 
 to settle their negotiations, friends who had met again 
 after long parting forgot themselves in endless dis- 
 course, athletes took counsel with themselves and 
 waited quietly, gathering strength for the morrow, 
 while under the starlit sky the crowd of pilgrims slept 
 in the hope of the coming festivities. 
 
 With the first rays of the rising sun the festival 
 began. Long before this time, while Olympia was still 
 wrapped in shadow, a confused noise told that the 
 multitude was waking; bands of pilgrims hurried to 
 the stadium to secure good places, and long before 
 sunrise the high banks of earth surrounding the arena, 
 on which forty thousand people could find seats, were 
 covered by a crowd of spectators. At the moment 
 when the first rays of the sun fell upon the plain from 
 the lofty summits of the Arcadian mountains, the sound 
 of music was heard, and the official procession entered 
 the stadium through the covered passage connecting it 
 MJth the Altis. The Hellanodicae, in long purple robes, 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 243 
 
 seated themselves on the platform erected near the 
 goal, the trainers accompanied their pupils and gave 
 them parting words of counsel, the deputies from the 
 cities and the strangers of distinction took possession 
 of the seats of honour reserved for them, while the 
 competitors answered to their names and took up their 
 appointed places. 
 
 The stadium at Olympia formed a long rectangle, 692 
 feet long by 105 feet wide ; the track was 465 feet in 
 length, — Hercules himself was said to have measured 
 it with his mighty foot. Around it a sloping bank took 
 the place of seats, and round the stadium, by the side 
 of a narrow stone boundary which the spectator might 
 not pass, was carried a water-channel, through which 
 the water for the use of athletes and attendants ran 
 into basins. The competitors disrobed under a tent 
 at the western end, and the games began. They lasted 
 three days, the first of which was reserved for the 
 contests of children, and the two last for the contests 
 of men ; the games, however, were the same for both 
 classes of competitors. 
 
 First came the foot-races, the most ancient of the 
 contests of Olympia. The earliest of these was the single 
 course — stadion or dromos — a test of speed which con- 
 sisted in running once the length of the stadium, and was 
 one of the favourite sights with the spectators, because 
 by its rapid motion it displayed to more advantage than 
 any other, beauty of contour and shapeliness of limb. 
 Then came the double course — diaulos — in which the 
 competitors had to run twice the length of the stadium, 
 and the long race or dolichos. In this last, in which 
 the competitors ran twelve times round the arena, or 
 
244 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 14^ kilometers, it was less a question of speed than of 
 endurance, and consequently the race resembled walking 
 rather than running. These contests were rendered 
 more difficult by the fact that the track, instead of being 
 on firm and solid ground, was covered with a thick 
 layer of fine sand into which the runner's foot sank, 
 thus doubling the exertion. 
 
 Naturally the competition began with the long race, 
 then came the double course, and finally the single 
 course, in which each competitor, excited by the shouts 
 of the crowd and the cries of his adversaries, put out 
 his utmost strength. The pitch of excitement reached 
 by these runners was sometimes marvellous ; their 
 speed was such that one could hardly see them pass, 
 and they attained such a height of endurance that one 
 victor in the long race, after arriving first at the goal, 
 ran straight on to announce his victory at Argos, his 
 native town, arriving there the same evening. The 
 distance in a straight line is ninety kilometers, and there 
 are two mountains to cross on the way. The victors 
 were usually represented in the posture of the short 
 race ; this is the attitude of the runner Ladas, by the 
 sculptor Myron, a statue famous in antiquity. 
 
 After this the wrestlers were called into the arena. 
 More skill was needed for this kind of contest, as well 
 as a special training. Brute force was in fact of less 
 value than skill and science, a quick sure eye to 
 follow and foresee every movement of the adversary, 
 skill in parrying, ingenuity in thrusting, and variety of 
 feint. Like fencing, wrestling was an art in which it 
 was not merely a question of conquering, but of con- 
 quering with grace. As a rule the victor must have 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 245 
 
 thrown his opponent three times in such a way as to 
 make his shoulders touch the ground ; but it was not 
 easy to grapple with these wrestlers, whose bodies were 
 rubbed with oil, and the rule of the Olympian games 
 allowed all sorts of wiles, such as stretching out the 
 leg, pulling the foot of an adversary, or leaping with 
 one bound on his shoulders from behind. Sometimes 
 wrestlers even grappled their rivals with their whole 
 strength, and pulled them to the ground by their own 
 weight, — this was the favourite stroke of the celebrated 
 Milo of Croton. Another kind of wrestling consisted 
 in continuing the struggle even when one of the com- 
 batants had fallen to the ground, which then became 
 an actual hand-to-hand fight, which might be carried on 
 in any way. Sometimes they clutched each other's 
 throats, or bit each other till the blood flowed. " And 
 their backs creaked, gripped firmly under the vigorous 
 hands, and sweat ran down in streams, and frequent 
 weals along their ribs and shoulders sprang up red 
 with blood, while ever they strove amain for victory " 
 (Iliad xxiii., 1. 714). This is the moment represented 
 by the celebrated group of wrestlers in Florence. The 
 contest was not at an end until one of the combatants 
 acknowledged himself defeated. 
 
 Fighting with the cestus was an extremely cruel and 
 barbarous kind of wrestling of which boxing may offer 
 a very much softened resemblance. In this kind of 
 pugilism the athletes wound round their hands strips 
 of leather studded with nails or small plates of lead — 
 an equipment shown in the Wrestler of the Dresden 
 Museum. Thus armed, the combatants fell upon each 
 other, and struck the most terrible blows, coming out 
 
246 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 of the struggle in a very much battered condition in 
 consequence. When the Homeric heroes are making 
 ready for this terrible contest they speak of nothing less 
 than tearing the flesh and breaking the bones of their 
 antagonist, and as a fact the defeated combatant goes 
 away, trailing his limbs and spitting blood, with head 
 hanging down, and ready to faint. Sometimes the 
 
 combatants were left 
 upon the field, or at 
 least they went away 
 with nose, ears, and 
 teeth much damaged : 
 indeed, this was so 
 commonly the case 
 that the monuments 
 generally represent 
 the victorious boxers 
 with their ears much 
 swollen — as, for ex- 
 ample, the fine bronze 
 discovered in the gym- 
 nasium at Olympia. 
 Sometimes the unfor- 
 tunate men returned 
 from the fight quite unrecognisable. "After twenty 
 years," says one epigram,* " Ulysses was recognised 
 by his dog Argos ; but as for you, Stratophon, after 
 four hours' boxing you are unrecognisable not only 
 by a dog, but even by your fellow-citizens. What do 
 I say ? Were you to look at yourself in a glass, you 
 would exclaim with an oath, I am not Stratophon." 
 
 * Lang, Leaf, and Myers, Iliad, p. 471. 
 
 Bronze head of athlete (Olympia 
 Museum). 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 247 
 
 An ancient physician declared, indeed, that boxing was 
 an excellent remedy for dizziness and headache, but we 
 must confess that the treatment was somewhat drastic. 
 The fight lasted until one of the boxers confessed his 
 defeat, and the highest skill consisted in dexterously 
 avoiding a blow rather than in parrying it ; the greatest 
 feat was to win without having received a single blow, 
 and, better still, without having given one, but having 
 tired out one's opponent so completely that he was 
 compelled by exhaustion to give up the struggle. 
 
 The pancratium was the last contest on this day. 
 This was a combination of wrestling and boxing, and 
 on this account was one of the most highly considered 
 among the contests, as it required both strength and 
 skill ; none was watched with so much interest by the 
 spectators, and no victory was more eagerly sought 
 after by famous athletes. The feats of the celebrated 
 wrestlers of antiquity are well known. Their muscles, 
 as fully developed as those of the Farnese Hercules, found 
 no task too difficult for them. One seized a bull by the 
 hind leg and grasped it so firmly that the animal left its 
 hoof in his hand ; another stopped, with one hand, a 
 chariot running at full speed ; Milo of Croton fastened a 
 cord round his head and broke it by swelling the veins ; 
 Polydamas, like Hercules, met a lion and felled it to the 
 earth. There was an inexhaustible supply of stories 
 of this kind at Olympia, and these heroes of the sta- 
 dium lost no opportunity of displaying their prowess. 
 Most of them came to an evil end in consequence. 
 The hands of Milo of Croton stuck fast in the cleft of 
 a tree, and he died there, devoured by wolves ; while 
 Polydamas was crushed by the fall of a grotto which 
 
248 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 he had vainly endeavoured to hold up with his mighty 
 hands. 
 
 The next day the games took place in the hippodrome. 
 Unfortunately the excavations have afforded us no 
 information about this structure, and we only know it 
 from the description of Pausanias. It was no doubt 
 parallel to the stadium, and was four stadia in length, 
 while the track, properly so called, only measured 
 two stadia — that is to say, 770 meters. It was long 
 and narrow in shape, and was terminated on the east 
 by a semicircular slope, on the west by the starting- 
 place or aphesis, which was furnished with parallel 
 stalls facing the course where the chariots or horses 
 were stationed after the lots had been drawn. In the 
 centre of the starting-place was an altar, surmounted 
 by an eagle constructed in such a way as to rise 
 mechanically and give the signal for the start. At the 
 same moment the ropes fell which closed in the stalls, 
 and when all the competitors were in line at the second 
 starting-place a flourish of trumpets gave the signal 
 again. 
 
 First came the race of four-horse chariots. The 
 body of the chariot was mounted on two low wheels, 
 two horses were harnessed to the pole, and there were 
 two trace-horses or outriggers as well. The charioteers 
 drove standing, and holding reins and whip. This was 
 the most fashionable contest, the one which attracted 
 the richest and most powerful of the Hellenes, and in 
 which success was most eagerly desired. Among the 
 victors may be found Cimon, Alcibiades, Gelo of Syra- 
 cuse, Hiero and many other famous men. No sight 
 was more exciting for the spectators than that of 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 249 
 
 the chariots dashing forward and striking against one 
 another on the course, or than the horses rearing madly 
 as they passed the mysterious turning-point where 
 lurked the demon Taraxippos — the terror of horses. 
 The thriUing description of these eager contests, in 
 which more than one of the competitors was often thrown 
 to the ground, should be sought in the Iliad or in the 
 famous lines of the Electra of Sophocles* The chariot 
 races were succeeded by the horse-races, also of great 
 importance, in which the course was twelve times round 
 the hippodrome. The victorious horses were over- 
 whelmed with honours, statues were erected, and 
 splendid tombs built for them. Sometimes even, like 
 Cimon's steeds, they were buried with their master in 
 the family grave. 
 
 As in the races of our own day, it was not the 
 charioteer or the rider who carried off the prize, but the 
 owner of the horses which ran. It did not even matter 
 if the jockey were unhorsed in the race, provided the 
 horse completed its course. For example the mare of 
 Pheidolas, after having thrown its rider, ran straight 
 on, and slackening its pace at the sound of the trumpet, 
 stopped of its own accord, a good first, before the 
 judges' stand. Pheidolas received the prize, and a 
 statue was set up in the Altis to the horse which had 
 won such a splendid victory. 
 
 When the races were over all returned to the stadium, 
 and the pentathlum followed. This was the most com- 
 plicated of all the contests, and the most distinguished, 
 the one which displayed to the greatest advantage the 
 complete harmony of the human frame ; and victors in 
 
 * Electra, 680 ; Iliad xxiii., 262. 
 
250 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the pentathlum were considered the most beautiful 
 men in Greece, "for their bodies,"* says Aristotle, "are 
 naturally capable of both strength and speed " {Rhetoric, 
 A 5, § II ). Victory, however, was hard to gain, for 
 five successive contests had to be undertaken — leaping, 
 hurling the discus, throwing the spear, running and 
 wrestling — the two last of which we have already 
 discussed. In leaping an enormous distance had to be 
 covered, and the competitors mounted a spring-board 
 and sprang off, holding in their hands heavy weights 
 called halteres, which afterwards helped them to stop 
 short at the point they reached.* In the next contest 
 stones were at first used, and afterwards circular discs, 
 often ornamented with carving, which were thrown as far 
 as possible. Many famous statues, of which the most 
 celebrated, preserved in the Massimi palace at Rome, 
 is a copy of the Discobolus of Myron, show the different 
 attitudes which the athletes assumed in aiming and 
 hurling the discus. A specimen of these quoits is 
 preserved in the Berlin Museum. Its diameter is about 
 eight inches, and the weight about four pounds. 
 
 Last of all came the armed race, which ended the 
 games. In this the competitors ran twice round the 
 stadium, bearing, it appears, in early times, helmet, 
 shield and greaves, but in later days only a shield. 
 This is the equipment of the statue in the Louvre 
 known as the Borghese Gladiator, which undoubtedly 
 represents a victorious hoplitodromos. 
 
 The last day of the games was devoted to the 
 
 * See Professor Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History, p. 295. 
 ■j- For spring-board and halteres see " Pentathlon," Sm\\h's Dictionary 
 of Antiquities, and for weight of discus, Prof. Gardner, loc. cit. — E.R.P. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 25 I 
 
 Vatican copy of Discobolus after Myron (Rome). 
 
2 52 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 distribution of the prizes. These were antique in their 
 simphcity ; merely a crown of wild olive from the sacred 
 tree planted by Hercules and a palm-branch, the 
 symbols of strength and immortality, but they were 
 bestowed with great solemnity. The wreaths were 
 laid upon the gold and ivory table carved by Colotes 
 before the temple of Zeus, and the Hellanodicae placed 
 the crown on the head of the victor, while a herald pro- 
 claimed his name and country amidst the acclamations 
 of the crowd. 
 
 Many material advantages, however, accompanied 
 the victories in the stadium : the successful athletes 
 were granted for life the right of dining in the Prytaneum 
 of their native town, they were exempted from all 
 taxation, and received many other tokens of the grati- 
 tude of their fellow-citizens, such as a seat of honour 
 in the theatre and often an annuity which relieved 
 them of all anxiety for their future. Still all this 
 was nothing compared to the immortal glory which 
 these simple Olympic wreaths conferred on the 
 victors' names. 
 
 At length the festival was over, and nothing remained 
 to be done but to give thanks to the gods. The victors 
 sought the altars of the Altis, there to offer their 
 sacrifices and thanksgivings, and in order to enhance 
 the splendour of this solemn procession their parents 
 and fellow-citizens often placed their purses at their 
 disposal, so that it was to the music of the flute and 
 amidst the hymns of a choir that the splendid pro- 
 cession wound its way through the Altis. Then there 
 were the processions of theoriai offering their homage 
 for the last time to the gods of Olympia, the solemn 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 253 
 
 banquet in the Prytaneum, to which all the victors and 
 the most distinguished strangers who had attended 
 the festival were invited, and the feasts given by the 
 generosity of the victors to their relatives, friends and 
 countrymen — sometimes, indeed,, to the whole multitude 
 assembled at Olympia. Alcibiades gave such an enter- 
 tainment, but he needed the co-operation of several of 
 the allied towns, which were glad in this way to flatter 
 the hero of the day, who was celebrating his good 
 fortune with such royal generosity. 
 
 To complete the picture of this wonderful festival, we 
 must not forget to add the occupations and amusements 
 of every kind here offered to the pilgrims. At Olympia 
 statesmen undertook the most important diplomatic 
 negotiations, and they made a point of depositing copies 
 of celebrated treaties in the Altis ; here, too, famous 
 sophists like Hippias and Gorgias lectured to the 
 assembled multitude, and writers like Herodotus read 
 their works aloud. Sometimes, indeed, as with Lysias 
 and Isocrates, politics stole into these Olympic speeches. 
 Princes who were proud of their literary skill had their 
 verses recited here, and were more than once ruthlessly 
 hissed. Men of science expounded their discoveries, 
 and painters displayed their pictures. It was at Olympia 
 that Aetion showed the painting in which he had 
 depicted the marriage of Alexander, and that Zeuxis 
 ostentatiously displayed the money he had earned with 
 his brush. No honours were complete until the great 
 festival of Zeus had set its seal upon them, and even 
 at this spot, where physical prowess was most highly 
 honoured, Greece kept a place for intellectual achieve- 
 ment. 
 
254 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Finally, before leaving Olympia, the victors caused 
 their statues to be set up within the sacred enclosure. 
 The figure represented was usually an ideal, for it was 
 only after three victories that an athlete might have 
 a portrait statue of himself erected. We know how 
 greatly this custom contributed to the splendour of 
 Olympia. A multitude of statues by the first artists 
 of their time were gradually gathered together under 
 the great trees in the Altis. The conquerors preferred 
 to be represented in the moment of victory, and victors 
 in the horse-races in especial vied with one another 
 in luxury and splendour, and often had the statues 
 of their charioteer and horses placed beside their 
 own. 
 
 At the present time, out of this priceless collection 
 only a few bases of statues and heads without bodies 
 still survive. All the rest has perished in the overthrow 
 of Olympia. 
 
 At length the festival was over, and the sacred city 
 was once more left in silence. It was not, however, 
 completely deserted. In the lonely Altis the priests 
 continued to offer sacrifices at the altars, and in the 
 intervals between the games a great religious ceremony 
 more than once attracted numerous pilgrims to the 
 sanctuary. Every five years the festival of Hera 
 assembled the women of EHs and the neighbouring 
 districts, and the oracle of Zeus daily attracted wor- 
 shippers desirous of penetrating the future. Still the 
 interest of the great games surpassed all others, for 
 it was to them that Olympia owed its fame, its 
 fortune, its splendour, and the incomparable lustre of 
 its monuments. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 255 
 
 IV. 
 
 None amongst these monuments was more famous 
 than the great temple built by the people of Elis in 
 honour of Zeus, the decoration of which had been 
 entrusted to the most eminent artists of the fifth cen- 
 tury. By a remarkable piece of good fortune we can 
 reconstruct this famous building to-day as it once stood 
 on the plain of Olympia, and that not only in the main 
 lines of its architecture, but in all the splendour of its 
 rich sculptural decoration. The excavations have, as 
 it chanced, recovered for us the greater part of the 
 marbles which once adorned the temple, and they reveal 
 to us a school of sculpture hitherto unknown. Thanks 
 to them, some of the great masters, on whom the critics 
 of ancient times bestowed the warmest praise, have 
 emerged from the darkness which surrounded them, 
 and revealed themselves to us by works which justify 
 their renown ; thanks to them, a new light has been 
 thrown on that period of art, still so obscure, which 
 gave birth to the predecessors of Phidias ; and we must 
 pause for a moment before these works, and before 
 the sanctuary itself, which surpassed in fame all the 
 buildings of Olympia. 
 
 Pausanias tells us that towards the middle of the fifth 
 century the Eleans defeated in battle their neighbours, 
 the men of Pisa, who disputed their supremacy, and 
 resolved to devote the spoil won in this campaign to 
 the erection of a temple of Zeus which should be 
 worthy of him. The building was no doubt begun in 
 470 B.C., and was well advanced in 457; in 445, as 
 we know by certain evidence, it was entirely finished ; 
 
256 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 and the rapidity with which it was built, as well as the 
 elegance of the design, do great honour to the architect, 
 Libon, an Elean. The temple was not built of marble, 
 but of limestone from neighbouring quarries, covered 
 with stucco ; it was of the Doric order, with six columns 
 at the front and back and thirteen at the side ; it was 
 210 feet long, and not quite 89 feet broad, and the 
 upper angle of the pediment was 68 feet above the level of 
 the ground. In the interior two rows of Doric columns, 
 one above the other, supported the roof; and beneath 
 the colonnade above the doorways of the pronaos and 
 opisthodomos two series of sculptured metopes repre- 
 sented the labours of Hercules. On the exterior of the 
 temple the metopes, on the contrary, were not carved, 
 and painted decorations, lines of palmettos and ara- 
 besques, together with gilded shields, set off the whiteness 
 of the architrave. The main part of the sculptural 
 decoration was reserved for the pediments ; on the east 
 front was represented the history of the famous chariot 
 race in which Oenomaus lost his life, on the west 
 front the battle between Centaurs and Lapiths, while 
 above the eastern pediment there were placed, on the 
 apex and at the angles, a Victory of gilded bronze and 
 two vases of the same metal, the work of the sculptor 
 Paeonius of Mende. Tradition asserted that while 
 local artists had built the temple and carved the metopes, 
 the pediments were the work of foreign sculptors ; and 
 that, just as in later days Phidias and his pupils were 
 summoned to Olympia to erect a statue of Zeus worthy 
 of the god, so the decoration of the pediments was 
 entrusted to two of the most renowned masters of their 
 time — Alcamenes the Athenian, who carved the figures 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 
 
 257 
 
 of the western facade, and Paeonius of Mende, who 
 executed the groups of the eastern pediment. It is 
 these very marbles which the excavations have in part 
 restored to us. 
 
 Pausanias has informed us which episode in the story 
 of Oenomaus was chosen by the sculptor of the eastern 
 pediment — the preparations for the race which was 
 to take place between Pelops and the King. In the 
 middle of the pediment,* says this writer, is the statue 
 of Zeus; near him, on 
 the right, is Oenomaus, 
 a helmet on his head ; 
 and at his side his wife 
 Sterope, one of the 
 daughters of Atlas. The 
 charioteer of Oenomaus, 
 Myrtilus, is seated before 
 the horses, which are 
 four in number. Then 
 come two men who are 
 not named, but who, it 
 is clear, are also en- 
 trusted by Oenomaus 
 with the care of the horses. At this end of the pedi- 
 ment is the recumbent figure of the Cladeus. On the 
 left, next Zeus, come Pelops and Hippodamia, then 
 Pelops' charioteer and horses, and two men, no doubt 
 his grooms. The tympanum contracts, and in the 
 corner is the figure of the Alpheus. 
 
 In spite of the simplicity of this composition, which 
 places two symmetrical groups consisting of five figures 
 * Pausanias, v. 10. 6. 
 
 17 
 
 Cladeus (Olympia;. 
 
25 8 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 on each side of Zeus, and fills the angle of the 
 pediment with the two recumbent figures, it is not easy 
 to replace the fragments of sculpture found in the 
 excavations in the position they formerly held in the 
 faQade of the temple. The figures were all broken by 
 falUng from the height at which they stood, and those 
 of the eastern front especially have come down to us 
 in a very mutilated condition. The scattered fragments 
 have had to be pieced together, and the whole com- 
 position reconstructed ; and although the condition 
 of the marble, generally left unworked at the back, 
 furnishes some useful indications, and the height of the 
 different figures, proportioned to the necessities of the 
 triangular area of the pediment, helps us to fix their 
 position very nearly, the investigations of archaeologists 
 have led them to very different conclusions, and the 
 arrangement of the various reconstructions which have 
 been suggested is very dissimilar. 
 
 The fragments of the eastern pediment, some of 
 which are very noteworthy, should be studied in the 
 museum at Olympia, or at least in the fine plates which 
 accompany the recent work of Messrs. Laloux and 
 Monceaux. In the centre is the nude torso, broad 
 and grand in style, representing Zeus standing motion- 
 less and proud between two parallel groups, each 
 of which takes up one side of the pediment. To 
 the right of Zeus stands Oenomaus, in his right hand 
 a spear, while the clenched left rests on his hip; of 
 this figure we possess the finely developed bust and 
 the mutilated head ; to the left is Pelops, still young 
 and beardless, his fair and youthful form full of grace 
 and pliancy; and by the side of the two opponents 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 
 
 259 
 
 two figures, also contrasted with rigorous symmetry, 
 — Sterope in a long robe, her head slightly turned 
 aside, and Hippodamia in a thoughtful attitude, clad 
 in the heavy Doric chiton, which falls in straight, 
 heavy folds, — complete the central motive of the com- 
 position. Then on each side come the horses, which 
 effect a skilful transition between the standing figures 
 in the centre and 
 those kneeling or 
 lying under the 
 slope of the cor- 
 nice. Near these 
 must be placed the 
 seated youthful 
 figures, whether 
 squires or chariot- 
 eers; the position 
 of these statues 
 cannot be assigned 
 with perfect cer- 
 tainty, but the 
 natural and real- 
 istic grace of their 
 style is often ad- 
 mirable. Lastly, 
 in the left corner of the pediment is the river Alpheus, 
 with powerful torso and full vigorous contours raising 
 himself on his elbow to survey the struggle ; and at the 
 other end, on the extreme right, two of the best preserved 
 and finest figures in this pediment, the Cladeus, with 
 slender, sinewy frame and graceful, delicate head, 
 raising himself on both arms, and looking before him 
 
 Head of old.man^(Olympia). 
 
2 6o EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 with intense interest, and an old man, seated between 
 the horses and the river-god, with one elbow resting 
 on the right leg, the left leg extended, and the lower 
 part of the body concealed by drapery which leaves 
 the torso bare. The head is uninjured, and remarkable 
 for power and expression : it is bald on the crown, 
 but on the temples and the nape of the neck it is 
 surrounded by long curling hair; the broad forehead 
 is deeply furrowed, the eyes look straight forward, and 
 the lips seem to speak. In its rather coarse truthfulness 
 the whole figure deserves particular attention ; rarely in 
 antiquity has such intense life been rendered with so 
 much realism. 
 
 The composition of the western pediment is more 
 comphcated, and Pausanias, even in his time, found 
 some difficulty in explaining it. In the middle of the 
 pediment, he says,* stands Pirithous, and next him on 
 one side Eurytion carrying off the wife of Pirithous, and 
 Caineus bringing him aid, while on the other Theseus 
 is defending himself against a Centaur with an axe. 
 One of the Centaurs is carrying off a maiden, the other 
 a beautiful boy. We see what was the subject repre- 
 sented here — the battle between Lapiths and Centaurs, 
 one of the favourite motives of Attic sculptors, who 
 reproduced it on the frieze of the Theseum, in the 
 metopes of the Parthenon, and at the temple of Apollo 
 at Phigalia. At Olympia, however, the scene was not 
 so simple as Pausanias describes it; instead of the 
 nine figures he mentions, the excavations have given 
 us twenty or twenty-one, and it has not been easy to 
 reconstruct the whole composition with certainty from 
 
 * Pausanias, v. jo, 8, 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 26 1 
 
 these fragments, which have been put together again 
 with much trouble. Still it is evident that here, as 
 in the eastern pediment, the groups balance one 
 another with the most rigorous symmetry. In the 
 centre Apollo, standing between the combatants with 
 his right arm extended, commands the whole scene, 
 and the broad muscular figure of the god, his youthful 
 head with hair- arranged in the archaic style, and 
 his calm serene attitude, which 
 is in strong contrast with the 
 fury of the combat, give a remark- 
 able character to his 
 figure. On each side 
 of the god groups of 
 three are interlaced in a fierce 
 struggle : on the left the king of 
 the Centaurs has seized Deidamia, 
 who repulses the monster with all 
 the might of her outstretched 
 arms, while Pirithous is hasten- 
 ing to her aid, and on the right a 
 young girl is struggling to free her- 
 self from the embrace of another Apollo (Olympia). 
 Centaur, whom Theseus has al- 
 ready wounded in the head with his hatchet. On each 
 side of this central composition come other groups sym- 
 metrically opposed, their height diminishing with the 
 slope of the pediment ; the bodies of the young warriors 
 are intertwined with the heavy cruppers of the Centaurs, 
 the pliant forms of the maidens are struggling in the 
 embraces of their ravishers, and all these figures are 
 mingled in the most boldly varied attitudes. Finally, 
 
262 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 in the angles of the pediment women are crouching 
 and looking with horror on the varying fortunes of the 
 fight ; and, quite at the end, a nymph is gazing, careless 
 and unmoved, at the drama which is being acted before 
 her eyes.* 
 
 The guides who conducted pilgrims through the 
 Altis said that the eastern pediment was by the hand 
 of Paeonius, and that Alcamenes was the sculptor of 
 the western front. This tradition has been attacked 
 and defended with much warmth since the excavation 
 of Olympia, and in spite of this prolonged controversy 
 it is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the truth 
 in this matter ; but in order to find a solution of the 
 difficulty we must try in the first place to estimate 
 the pediments of Olympia at their true value, and to 
 characterise their style. 
 
 If we examine the drapery we shall find that it has 
 been treated in an extremely superficial way. Whilst 
 the archaic sculptors arrange their materials in heavy 
 folds, and in the Parthenon marbles they are moulded 
 to the form in the most marvellously pliant and har- 
 monious way, here on the contrary the drapery is 
 carelessly arranged, almost as if thrown on by chance, 
 and sometimes in so strange a manner that it is almost 
 impossible to discover a living form beneath the folds. 
 If we study the figures themselves we shall meet with fine 
 pieces, it is true, but by the side of these the execution 
 in general is very shallow, the work hasty, the sculptor's 
 hand extremely lax and feeble ; we no longer find 
 the severity and stiffness of archaic art, and we do 
 not yet discover the graceful precision of the Attic 
 
 * See the plate in the Restaurad'on d'Ofympie, pp. 81-5. 
 
■ 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 263 
 
 school. The anatomy of these figures has not been 
 sufficiently studied, and is sometimes incomprehen- 
 sible : the muscles have no elasticity, the contours 
 are undefined, the flesh soft and flabby ; they are 
 imperfect both in design and execution, and the artist, 
 chiefly desirous of effect, seems to have intentionally 
 neglected care and accuracy of modelling. As to the 
 attitudes, they sometimes display a boldness and always 
 a realism which is remarkable, but it would be vain to 
 seek here for the scientific moderation found in the 
 pose of the Aeginetan warriors, or for the incomparable 
 nobility of the Parthenon figures. There is nothing of 
 the ideal in the marbles of Olympia : the Cladeus is 
 dragging himself along on his stomach, and the grooms 
 of the eastern pediment are sitting in an easy attitude 
 about which there is nothing academic ; if the pose of 
 the standing figures is a little more dignified, their 
 chief value consists nevertheless in the intensity of life 
 which sometimes animates them. Lastly, let us consider 
 the heads, for by a good fortune which is very rare, 
 the greater number of these marbles offer us more than 
 a headless trunk, and whereas one only of the Parthenon 
 figures has kept its head, at Olympia three heads from 
 the east pediment and eleven from the western have come 
 down to us, several among which are quite uninjured. 
 Here again, as in the drapery and the whole figure, there 
 are strange inequalities. Some of the faces are very 
 archaic in appearance, the forehead is low, the skull 
 amply developed, the hair arranged symmetrically and 
 curled with fastidious care, sometimes even it is covered 
 by a cap, and according to the custom of these early 
 sculptors the brush is called in to aid the chisel. Still, by 
 
264 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the side of this negligent work we find exquisite heads, 
 
 faces shown in profile with 
 a keen eye and an expressive 
 mouth. Many of the female 
 heads from the western 
 pediment are charming in 
 their youth and grace, and 
 in spite of a certain coldness 
 of expression have an in- 
 describable air of distinction. 
 There is, in short, a strange 
 and unusual mingling of 
 beauties and of defects in 
 these pediment sculptures : 
 archaic tradition goes hand 
 in hand with audacious 
 novelties; together with some 
 figures of astonishing beauty and skill there are 
 abundant marks of 
 carelessness, inaccu- 
 racy, clumsiness and 
 ignorance ; and, what 
 is still more remark- 
 able, the same cha- 
 racteristics are to be 
 found in both pedi- 
 ments — hasty and 
 unfinished work (for 
 pains have scarcely 
 been taken to block 
 out the backs of the statues) together with shallowness 
 and feebleness of execution — and at the first glance it 
 
 Head of a Lapith (Olympia). 
 
 Head of a maiden (Olympia). 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 26$ 
 
 would seem that all these marbles have sprung from 
 the same school and are the work of the same hands. 
 
 Still, if we consider the composition, which is so 
 superior to the workmanship in both pediments, we 
 shall find a marked difference between them, in spite 
 of the fact that the groups are arranged in both with 
 rigorous and exaggerated symmetry. In the eastern 
 pediment the figures are almost, as it were, thrown 
 down by chance, without any link connecting them 
 in a common action, and stand in a row, as has been 
 well said, like a set of skittles. The thoroughly 
 dramatic composition of the western pediment, the 
 bold variety, the life and passion of which it is full, 
 are in strong contrast with the stiffness and dryness 
 of the other ; we feel that the artist was ambitious of 
 reproducing action in marble, and desired to arrange 
 his figures in skilful combinations ; and in spite of 
 some defects the work has not fallen very far short 
 of his conception. Consequently our analysis leads us 
 at last to this strange conclusion : the two pediments 
 cannot have been designed by the same master, and 
 yet from their style they seem to be by the same hand. 
 
 Are we to believe, as an explanation of this identity 
 in the workmanship, this inequahty between design 
 and execution, these defects which could scarcely be 
 found in the work of a great artist, that the Athenian 
 sculptors only furnished the designs, and that local 
 workmen executed the sculptures from their drawings ? 
 Such a division of the work was not unusual, and 
 Phidias himself was satisfied with designing the Par- 
 thenon frieze. 
 
 Or are we, on the contrary, to endeavour to discover 
 
266 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 some striking resemblances between the figures of the 
 east pediment and the Victory signed with Paeonius* 
 name, and to find some traces in the western one of 
 the refined and aristocratic tastes which characterised 
 the style of Alcamenes ? Must we contrast the more 
 graceful and delicate proportions of the figures on the 
 western front, their more precise and delicate modelling, 
 with the vigour and power, the truth and realism of 
 the eastern facade, and in order to save the traditional 
 account at any price, and to preserve the paternity and 
 the credit of these statues for Paeonius and Alcamenes, 
 must we account for the defects in their execution by 
 supposing that these decorative works, placed at a 
 height of sixty feet or more above the ground, were 
 made to be seen from afar, to strike the eye boldly, and 
 that at this distance precision of detail and finished 
 execution were of little importance ? 
 
 It is certainly tempting to believe we have recovered 
 the authentic work of two great masters hitherto 
 unknown to us, to show these artists, contemporaries 
 and rivals of Phidias but independent of his influence, 
 working at Olympia before the arrival of the great 
 Athenian sculptor, and paving the way for him by their 
 works, which are earlier in date than the Parthenon 
 marbles. It is tempting to be able to interpose between 
 the Aeginetan sculptor and the famous Attic master 
 these two predecessors so different in their style : the 
 one, Paeonius, full of spirit and fire, making decorative 
 effect his first thought, striking hard, even roughly, in 
 order to be understood by the multitude, a kind ot 
 Michael Angelo of antiquity, as has been said, with the 
 energy and animation, the truth and realism^ which dq 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 267 
 
 not shrink from a certain amount of coarseness ; while 
 the other, Alcamenes, whose masterpiece, the Aphrodite 
 of the Gardens, was famous throughout antiquity * for 
 the graceful proportions of the hands and wrists and 
 the delicate contour of the face, was more refined and 
 aristocratic, more scientific than Paeonius, but less 
 powerful, more graceful and delicate but less vigorous 
 and striking ; the charm of his works, however, was 
 perhaps more penetrating and more original. Both 
 were the heralds and forerunners of Phidias, who was 
 to unite the Attic grace of the one with the commanding 
 simplicity and majestic power which the other derived 
 from the robust school of the Peloponnesian masters. 
 
 Unfortunately, direct proof is wanting for the support 
 of these attractive hypotheses ; our acquaintance with 
 ancient times is so fragmentary and incomplete that 
 whenever we try to fix their date, the most illustrious 
 names fluctuate between limits of the utmost uncertainty; 
 while on the other hand the works themselves, even to 
 competent judges, are to so great an extent tinged by 
 the observer's personality that each sees them with a 
 different eye. If to these difficulties we add the fact 
 that the marbles of Olympia have at the outset entirely 
 disconcerted all who have studied them by the un- 
 expected qualities they reveal, we shall understand that 
 this surprise led to the greatest diversity of opinion. 
 
 " If," as Rayet well says,t " we picture to ourselves 
 a huntsman on the track of a deer, who unexpectedly 
 starts a wild boar, we shall understand the confusion 
 to which these discoveries have given rise." 
 
 * Lucian, Imagines, p. 6. 
 
 •j" Etudes d Archeohgie et d Art, ^. 59, 
 
268 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 While some see in these marbles the works of a 
 particular school originating in northern Greece (this 
 is the opinion of one of the most competent judges *), 
 others trace in them with equal certainty the purest 
 traditions of Attic art ; and while some detect, at least 
 in the western pediment, striking analogies with the 
 metopes of the Parthenon, others declare, on the 
 contrary, that these sculptures are much earlier than 
 the Athenian marbles, and entirely independent of the 
 influence of Phidias. Some see in these pediment 
 sculptures original works of Paeonius and Alcamenes, 
 others would only leave these artists the credit of 
 having designed them, and transfer to the members of a 
 local school the responsibility of having carried out the 
 work from their rough models ; some are struck by the 
 traces of archaism which these marbles still preserve, 
 while others notice especially the characteristic signs of 
 a new movement in art. Amidst this conflict of opinion 
 it is singularly presumptuous to assert any conclusion ; 
 but at least we must not allow the works themselves 
 to be lost sight of beneath the flood of criticism. They 
 deserve an important place in the history of Greek 
 sculpture, and to whatever school the nameless artists 
 who created them may belong, they ought to take high 
 rank among the immediate predecessors of Phidias. 
 
 The excavations of Olympia have given us an 
 authentic work by the sculptor to whom tradition attri- 
 buted the eastern pediment. In 424 B.C. the Messenians 
 of Naupactus set up a statue of Victory on a lofty 
 pedestal before the temple, in memory of the glorious 
 
 * Brunn, Sits. Ber, d. Kon. Bayr. Akad. d. Wiss. : "Die Sculpturen 
 von Olympia," 1877. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 269 
 
 success they had gained at Sphacteria over their 
 
 Victory ofPaeonius (Olympia). 
 
 hereditary enemies the Spartans ; and on the base of 
 this monument, which has fortunately been preserved, 
 
2 70 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE, 
 
 we read at the end of the dedicatory inscription, 
 " Paeonius made this statue, and carried off the prize 
 for the acroteria placed upon the temple." * Here 
 there is no room for doubt, and this signed and original 
 work reveals to us better than the pediments the great 
 and almost unknown master who worked at Olympia. 
 The goddess is represented flying in mid-air, an 
 eagle hovers beneath her feet, and her whole body is 
 thrown forward in glorious motion ; the left foot scarcely 
 touches the pedestal, while the right still presses the 
 marble, which was formerly painted blue, and repre- 
 sents the space through which the Victory is taking her 
 flight. All the outlines of the body are visible under 
 the fine clinging material of her robes blown by the 
 wind, and the long Doric chiton, leaving the left leg 
 and shoulder uncovered, swells out behind in harmonious 
 folds. Originally her ample outspread wings, and a wide 
 mantle floating on the breeze, supported the statue and 
 restored its balance ; originally, too, the left arm was 
 raised, and gave the goddess a still prouder attitude, 
 and the head, of which unfortunately only the back 
 remains, completed the effect of this wonderful figure. 
 Still, mutilated as it is, it is a splendid work, and we 
 cannot sufficiently praise the life and picturesqueness 
 of the design, its boldness of imagination and un- 
 equalled spirit, its grace and elegance, and its deep 
 feeling for nature. When we compare this Victory 
 with the figures of the eastern pediment, it seems 
 almost impossible to attribute such dissimilar works to 
 the same master. It is true that, if we wish at all costs 
 to cling to tradition, we may notice in both the same 
 
 * Loewy, Inschriften Griechische Bildhaue, No. 59. 
 
tme excavations at olympia. ^yi 
 
 realistic tendency sometimes running to excess, and we 
 may remark that an isolated statue, intended to be 
 looked at close at hand, required more finished execu- 
 tion than the decorative pediment sculptures ; lastly, 
 we might recall the fact that twenty years or more had 
 passed since the time when Paeonius was at work upon 
 the latter, and that during so lengthened an interval a 
 great artist could not stand still. Certainly, if we could 
 accept this hypothesis, it would be interesting to study 
 in these marbles the gradual progress and artistic 
 development of a famous master, and to show this 
 proud and independent sculptor yielding, in spite of 
 himself, to the influence of the great movement which 
 was spreading all over Greece, and adding greater 
 nicety of detail, more finished execution, and more 
 graceful pliancy, to his natural boldness and strength 
 and to the traditional qualities of his school. The 
 work itself, however, apart from these conjectures, is 
 sufficient to render its maker famous ; it cannot, of 
 course, be compared with the Parthenon marbles, but 
 the artist who has made it deserves to be remembered. 
 It seems, too, to have exercised a lasting influence on 
 after ages. There is more than one feature in the 
 marble of Olympia which recalls the fine Victory of 
 Samothrace in the Louvre, and makes us think of the 
 sculptures of Hahcarnassus and Xanthus ; there is 
 the same love of violent motion, of draperies flying 
 in the wind, and of expressive and dramatic attitudes ; 
 there is the same elan, the same intensity of life ; and 
 if it is true that all these works are connected with the 
 school of Scopas, it is from Paeonius, more than from any 
 other man, that the Parian sculptor traces his descent. 
 
2/2 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Besides the pediment sculptures, twelve metopes, 
 placed under the colonnade of the temple, decorated 
 the frieze of the cella. These bas-reliefs represented 
 the labours of Hercules ; important fragments of two 
 among them were discovered in 1829 by the French 
 expedition to the Morea ; and the Germans, in the 
 course of their excavations, have brought to light 
 numerous remains of the other metopes, so that it is 
 now possible to gain an exact idea of almost all. With- 
 out entering here into a useless enumeration, it will 
 be sufficient to mention those which are sufficiently 
 well preserved to be of interest for the history of Greek 
 art. In the first rank come the two metopes of the 
 Louvre : Hercules taming the Cretan Bull, undoubtedly 
 the finest of the whole series ; and Hercules victorious 
 over the Birds of Lake Stymphalus, which has been 
 very happily completed by the German discoveries. 
 Then come the fight between Hercules and the triple- 
 bodied monster Geryon, and the cleansing of the 
 Augean stables, in which Athena, her helmet on her 
 head, is standing behind the hero, who, in a very realistic 
 attitude, seems to be sweeping away the accumulated 
 filth before him with great strokes of the broom. 
 Lastly, there is the metope showing Hercules demand- 
 ing from Atlas the golden apples of the Hesperides. 
 The legend is well known. In order to gain his end 
 and obtain the wondrous fruit, Hercules asked Atlas 
 to gather them for him in the famous garden, while 
 in exchange he offered the giant to relieve him for a 
 moment in the arduous task of supporting the world 
 upon his shoulders. The Olympian metope represents 
 the moment when Atlas, who has accepted the offer, is 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 273 
 
 bringing back the golden apples to the hero. In the 
 centre is the nude figure of Hercules, supporting with 
 both uplifted arms the heavens, which rest upon his 
 head ; in front of him is Atlas, holding in each hand 
 three apples, and to the left one of the Atlantides, 
 wearing the heavy Doric chiton. The sculptor of 
 Olympia did not tell the end of the story. When Atlas 
 had once laid down his burden, he found the liberty 
 he had regained so sweet that he proposed to leave 
 the world on the shoulders of Hercules and to take the 
 golden apples himself to Eurystheus. This, however, 
 was not to the liking of our hero, who was beginning 
 to find the weight oppressive, and, fortunately for 
 himself, on this occasion he was as crafty as he was 
 strong. Consequently he made a pretence of accepting 
 the proposal, and only asked as a favour that he might 
 make a comfortable cushion to support the burden, and 
 that meanwhile the giant would take up his accustomed 
 post for a moment. Atlas imprudently consented, and 
 we may imagine that the hero, once the heavens were 
 replaced upon his shoulders, took up his apples and 
 made all haste to depart. 
 
 Tradition has not handed down to us the names of 
 the sculptors of these metopes, but their date at least 
 can be determined almost exactly. These great slabs 
 of stone, five feet three inches by almost five feet, could 
 not have been added after the building was completed, 
 like the pediment sculptures ; they are so well fitted in 
 between the triglyphs of the frieze that they must 
 evidently have been placed there when the temple was 
 built, that is to say between the years 460 and 450 b.c. 
 Moreover we need only look at them to see that they 
 
 18 
 
274 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 are not yet entirely free from the influence of archaic 
 traditions. In the parallelism of its straight, heavy 
 folds the drapery preserves some of the stiffness of 
 early works ; on the square, bony heads, the beards and 
 hair are simply blocked out, and painting, according to 
 ancient custom, has been called to the aid of sculpture ; 
 the attitudes, too, preserve an immobility which is 
 almost hieratic. In short, if we compare these metopes 
 with those of the Theseum at Athens which represent 
 the same subject, we find the bas-reliefs of Olympia far 
 more archaic in style ; although they are scarcely ten 
 years earlier in date than the Athenian marbles, they 
 are inspired by very different traditions and are quite 
 unaffected by the influence of the Attic school. We 
 lose ourselves in useless subtleties if we endeavour to 
 distinguish two different series among these metopes, 
 one belonging to a purely Peloponnesian school and the 
 other inspired by the teaching of Paeonius, and we 
 shall waste our time in unprofitable investigations if 
 we try to decide how far the style of these metopes 
 resembles that of the pediments. These reliefs are in 
 fact undoubtedly the work of local artists whom the 
 architect of the temple employed for the first part of 
 the decorative work, and certainly these Pelopon- 
 nesian sculptors were no despicable artists. They 
 were already able to shake off archaic conventions 
 sufficiently to render, by sober and correct modelling, 
 the precise anatomy and powerful muscular system of 
 the body. If the designs still betray a certain clumsi- 
 ness and naivete, still they sometimes rise to higher 
 conceptions, and the metope in the Louvre, by the 
 striking simplicity of the composition, the strength and 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 2/5 
 
 sobriety of the execution, the remarkable technical 
 skill displayed, together with the boldness and audacity 
 of the design, is unquestionably a masterpiece. Con- 
 trasted even with the metopes of the Parthenon, which 
 are later in date, the relief from Olympia can hold its 
 own. These Peloponnesian masters have, it is true, 
 something dry and archaic in their style, but, together 
 with remarkably careful work, an unusual comprehen- 
 sion of the requirements of decorative art, and an as- 
 tonishing devotion to the study of nature and life, they 
 have a power and breadth which the Attic sculptors do 
 not possess. It is in the pediment of the Parthenon 
 that we again meet with some of the robustness which 
 distinguishes the metope in the Louvre ; and it con- 
 tributes in no slight degree to the interest these marbles 
 excite that they enable us in some measure to under- 
 stand how the work of Phidias arose. 
 
 And now, since on the sacred soil of Olympia we 
 find, as it were, an epitome of the history of Greek 
 sculpture, we must come to the wonder of the Altis, 
 the famous statue of the Olympian Zeus, which in the 
 judgment of antiquity passed for the masterpiece of 
 Phidias and the most sublime effort of Hellenic art. 
 When the Eleans had finished building the temple of 
 Zeus, they felt a natural desire to erect a statue to the 
 god which should be worthy of him ; and to whom 
 should they turn for this purpose but to the famous 
 master who at that very time was setting up an 
 incomparable monument to Athena on the Acropolis 
 of Athens ? The sanctuary of Olympia could not be 
 suffered to fall short of the Parthenon in any respect, 
 so Phidias was summoned to the Peloponnesus. When 
 
2/6 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the buildings and statues on the AcropoHs were finished, 
 or possibly even some years later, after the famous 
 trial which drove the friend of Pericles from Athens 
 (in any case later than 438 b.c), the great sculptor came 
 to Olympia bringing with him a group of artists who 
 were to take part in the work, among them the painter 
 Panaenus, a relative of Phidias, who decorated the 
 interior of the temple of Zeus with a series of frescoes. 
 The Athenian artists were received with much distinc- 
 tion, and a splendid workshop was placed at the disposal 
 of Phidias, exactly similar in size and arrangement to 
 the cella of the temple where the statue was to be 
 erected, so that the master could judge beforehand 
 what effect his statue would produce when put in its 
 destined place. - , 
 
 The masterpiece of Phidias stood in an open space 
 cut off by a partition at one end of the cella, in the 
 full light of day, which poured down upon it through 
 the hypaethral opening. Pausanias,* who saw the 
 statue, has left us a detailed description of it. The god 
 was represented seated on his throne, bearing in one 
 hand his sceptre and in the other, like the Athena of 
 the Parthenon, a winged Victory. He was robed in a 
 mantle, leaving the shoulder and the upper part of the 
 chest free and enfolding the lower part of the body in 
 its drapery. The nude portions of the figure were 
 executed in ivory, and the drapery in gold of differ- 
 ent tints, while the mantle was inlaid with lilies and 
 figures in enamel. The head was wreathed with sprays 
 of olive, recalling the prize given to the Olympian 
 victors, and the god was seated in a calm and majestic 
 * Pausanias, v. ii. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 2/7 
 
 attitude — " mild and peaceful," says Dion Chrysostom, 
 " watching over a peaceful and united Greece." For 
 the countenance, according to a well-known story, 
 Phidias is said to have drawn his inspiration from some 
 lines of Homer : * 
 
 " He said, and nodded with his shadowy brows, 
 Waved on th' immortal head th' ambrosial locks, 
 And all Olympus trembled at his nod." 
 
 The majestic character of this colossal work (the 
 statue was more than forty feet high) was completed 
 by the throne of ivory and gold, ebony and marble, on 
 which the god was seated. It was a marvel both of 
 artistic beauty and of mechanical skill, in which the 
 perfection of the chasing and the sculpture vied with 
 the richness of the materials employed. Figures in the 
 round supported the seat, and reliefs representing, 
 among other things, the eight kinds of games practised 
 at Olympia, ran round the lower part ; surmounting 
 the back, and reaching higher than the head of the 
 god, were two groups representing the Seasons and the 
 Graces, while on the base were the divinities which 
 formed the train of the king of the gods, and on his golden 
 footstool, resting on lions, was sculptured the battle 
 between Theseus and the Amazons. The whole of 
 Greek mythology seems to have been concentrated on 
 this gigantic statue, in which gold and ivory, painting, 
 sculpture and chasing, combined their colours and effects 
 so as to produce an impression of the utmost brilliancy 
 and most harmonious richness. 
 
 Unfortunately we know but very little of the ideal 
 type created by Phidias. The statue disappeared, 
 
 * Iliad \. 622-5 (Lord Derby). 
 
278 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 either in the burning of the temple or at Con- 
 stantinople, if it be true that Theodosius I. had it 
 transported to his capital, and amongst the numerous 
 busts of Zeus with which our museums are filled, none 
 can claim to be an exact reproduction of the work of 
 
 Asclepius Blaces (British Museum). 
 
 Phidias. The ideal he created underwent many trans- 
 formations in later times, and the recognised type of the 
 god was changed in the hands of his successors, — so 
 much so that we cannot tell how far these copies are 
 removed from the original. While some faithful re- 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 2/9 
 
 plicas give us a fairly accurate idea of the Athena of 
 the Parthenon, the Otricoli head and the Verospi Zeus 
 in the Vatican, which were long thought to be good 
 copies of the Olympian statue, are only poor and un- 
 trustworthy imitations.* 
 
 Authentic reproductions of the masterpiece of Phi- 
 dias must be sought on the coins of Ells of the age 
 of Hadrian. In these the hair, confined by the olive- 
 wreath, falls quite simply in separate locks on the 
 nape of the neck, leaving the ear free. The forehead is 
 broad' and high, the strongly marked eyebrows recall 
 the sovereign lord of gods and men, whilst the mouth 
 and the lower part of the face show the mild and peaceful 
 deity of whom Dion Chrysostom spoke. 
 
 It was no angry god launching his thunderbolts 
 whom Phidias made manifest, but the father of gods and 
 men, in whom sovereign majesty reposes in unchange- 
 able calm and is tempered with infinite gentleness. 
 The ancients exhausted all their words of praise in 
 speaking of this masterpiece of the Athenian sculptor. 
 " Go to Olympia," said Epictetus, " to see the work of 
 Phidias ; and deem it a calamity to die without having 
 seen it." f Whoever had the happiness of beholding it, 
 stood transfixed, as in the presence of a manifestation 
 of the deity. " O Phidias," says a poet in the Antho- 
 logy, " either the god came down from heaven to earth 
 to show thee his image, or thou didst ascend to Olympus 
 to contemplate him there." | " Should any man have his 
 mind so overburdened with care and sorrows that even 
 
 * For the marble head of Zeus or Asclepius from Milo, in the 
 British Museum, see Murray's Greek Sculpture. — E. R. P. 
 
 t Arrian, Eptct. i. 6, 23. j; Anthol. Gr., ii. 208. 48. 
 
2 80 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 sweet sleep forsakes him, standing before thy statue 
 he would, methinks, forget all that there is bitter and 
 grievous in life, such a wondrous work hast thou con- 
 ceived and brought to pass, and such heavenly light and 
 grace hath thine art bestowed upon it." * It is said that 
 the grave and pious Paulus ^milius, f the conqueror of 
 Perseus, was so struck with admiration when brought 
 face to face with this sovereign majesty, that he sacri- 
 ficed to the Greek god with the same ceremony as to 
 the Capitoline Jupiter. 
 
 The most touching, however, of all these testimonies 
 is to my mind the beautiful and artless legend related at 
 Olympia itself. When Phidias had completed his work, 
 and the statue was set up on its pedestal at the farther 
 end of the cella, he addressed a fervent prayer to the 
 god, beseeching him that the work might find favour in 
 his eyes, and that he would show by some clear token 
 if in this creation of a mortal hand he recognised a 
 representation worthy of his sovereign majesty. Then 
 suddenly the heavens opened, the thunder pealed, and 
 through the opening in the roof of the sanctuary there 
 flashed a thunderbolt which pierced the temple floor. 
 According to Pausanias, an urn in his time marked 
 the spot where this miraculous sign had consecrated 
 the masterpiece of Phidias. 
 
 V. 
 
 During the long centuries through which the sanctuary 
 of Olympia existed, many other buildings arose by the 
 side of the temple of Zeus, many famous examples of 
 Hellenic art were set up under the great trees of the 
 
 * Dion Chrys. Orat, I2, 51, f Livy, xlv. 28. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 28 1 
 
 Altis, and if the excavations, as must be admitted, have 
 restored to us but a small part of these wonders, they 
 have nevertheless taught us many lessons hitherto un- 
 known. In particular they have thrown quite a new light 
 on the obscure and remote origin of Greek civilisation 
 and art, and even if this were all, they would deserve 
 the attention of archaeologists. Mycenae and Hissarlik, 
 Delos and the Acropolis, have rendered us familiar with 
 the long period through which ancient art was gradually 
 developing, and have taught us to know the somewhat 
 uncouth but powerful charm of early sculpture. The 
 services which Olympia has rendered us are no less 
 valuable, for these excavations have shed an unexpected 
 light upon the architecture and sculpture of the archaic 
 period. To the north of the temple of Zeus stood 
 the Heraeum, one of the oldest buildings in the Altis, 
 dating at the latest from the eighth century before our 
 era, and we can well imagine what importance this 
 temple, the oldest on the mainland of Greece, must have 
 for the history of early architecture. We know to how 
 much controversy the history of the origin and forma- 
 tion of the Greek orders of architecture has given rise ; 
 for while some have asserted that Hellenic temples were 
 from the beginning built in hewn stone, others affirm 
 that the earliest monuments of Greek architecture were 
 constructed in wood, and that the essential features 
 of the classical temple were derived from this primitive 
 building. The Heraeum of Olympia has furnished 
 striking confirmation of this latter theory. Pausanias,* 
 when he visited this temple, noticed with interest in the 
 opisthodomos the column of oak, the remains, it was 
 
 * Pausanias, v. 1 6. 
 
282 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 said, of the original edifice ; and the results of the 
 excavations have fully confirmed his statement, for 
 while, as a fact, in the case of all the other buildings in 
 the Altis, portions of all the principal parts of the build- 
 ing have been found buried in the earth, here nothing 
 remains either of 'the architrave or the frieze, and the 
 reason plainly is that they were of wood. A still more 
 significant indication, however, is given by the infinite 
 variety of the stone columns forming the peristyle, no 
 two of which are alike, and whose capitals exhibit all 
 the successive types, from the heavy primitive capital 
 of the seventh or sixth century to the pure and elegant 
 style of the fifth century, or the stiff, cold examples of 
 the Roman period. It is easy to explain this dissimi- 
 larity if we admit that in the beginning all the pillars 
 were of wood, and that in the course of centuries they 
 were successively replaced by columns of stone. 
 
 Such was the original Heraeum ; with the exception 
 of the foundation, constructed of solid hewn stone,* its 
 walls were built of brick, its columns and entablature 
 were of wood, a tiled roof, the oldest with which we are 
 acquainted, covered in the building, and in the interior 
 engaged columns along the side walls of the cella 
 formed a series of recesses and took the place of the 
 rows of pillars. The terra-cotta decorations, however, 
 together with the rich polychrome ornamentation of the 
 upper part, formed the most original part of the building. 
 
 It was, in fact, exceedingly necessary to protect the 
 loftiest and most prominent parts of a wooden temple, 
 such as the cornice and pediments, against the inclemency 
 
 * This stone plinth reached a certain height above the ground. See 
 Denkmaeler, Olympia, vol. ii., p. 1 103. — E. R. P. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 283 
 
 of the weather ; and for this purpose it was customary 
 to employ terra-cotta casings, which also furnished the 
 building with a rich and brilliant decoration.* They 
 were frequently used in all the early buildings at 
 Olympia. The pediment of the Heraeum was sur- 
 mounted by a remarkable acroterium of painted terra- 
 cotta, a colossal and unique ornament, almost circular 
 in shape, set off with designs in various colours. The 
 Treasury of Gela was decorated in the same way. 
 It was built by the inhabitants of the Sicilian town 
 about 582 B.C., and although constructed of limestone 
 still preserved the primitive style of ornamentation. All 
 the upper part of the edifice was coated with coloured 
 mouldings of terra-cotta fastened by large bronze pins 
 to the cornice and the frame of the pediment, and 
 finished by a cymatium of the same material with shoots 
 to carry off the water. "It is difficult to realise 
 the original and attractive appearance this rich and 
 harmonious decoration gave to the building, and what 
 a wonderful resource for the ornamentation of wooden 
 temples Greek architecture of the sixth century found 
 in the use of coloured terra-cotta." t 
 
 During the whole of the archaic period the entire 
 Greek world decorated its buildings in this way ; as far 
 as the remotest districts of Magna Graecia and Sicily, 
 at Gela and at Selinus, at Syracuse, Metapontum and 
 Croton, their temples were covered with coloured terra- 
 cotta mouldings, and even when stone took the place 
 
 * Rayet and Collignon, Histoire de la Ce'raniique Grecque, p. 380. (See 
 also Prof. Middleton, art " Templum," in Smith's Diet, of Greek and 
 Roman Antiquities. — E. R. P.) 
 
 •j- Rayet and Collignon, pp. 382, 383. 
 
284 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 of wood in their construction the same methods of 
 ornamentation continued to exist, at all events, wherever 
 the materials were of inferior quality. When, in the 
 fifth century b.c, marble almost everywhere took the 
 place of limestone, the reign of terra-cotta was at an 
 end, but Greek architects still left it a certain share in 
 decorative work. At the present time it seems to be 
 coming into favour again, and it may not be unprofitable 
 to notice casually the antiquity of the skilful combina- 
 tions which have recently blended iron and terra-cotta 
 so as to produce marvels of lightness and colour. 
 
 The history of ancient sculpture is equally indebted 
 to the excavations at Olympia, which have brought to 
 light an enormous number of rehcs giving, as it were, 
 an epitomised history of plastic art in Greece from its 
 earliest days. In the lowest layers were found thou- 
 sands of small objects in clay and bronze, ex-votos 
 accumulated at the foot of the primitive altars in the 
 Altis by generations of worshippers, the rude technique 
 of which is a sufficient proof of their great antiquity. 
 There are tripods, little figures of animals, horses, 
 stags, cows and birds, likenesses of men of the most 
 primitive kind, — all hammered out or made of differ- 
 ent plates of metal riveted together, and all plainly 
 bearing the impress of Oriental art. On this western 
 side of Hellas, as well as on the coasts of the Archi- 
 pelago, we find traces of that ancient connection with 
 Asia which lies at the root of all Hellenic civilisation. 
 It was from Egypt and Phoenicia that the custom was 
 derived which was so dear to the early pilgrims to 
 Olympia, — that of consecrating their own likenesses 
 and those of their animals at the foot of the altar, so as 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 
 
 285 
 
 ever to keep before the god the memory of his devoted 
 worshippers. It was from Asia, too, that the style 
 of ornamentation was derived which is found on these 
 archaic bronzes — geometrical designs, lotus-flowers 
 and palms, strange animals, 
 griffins and sphinxes, all 
 borrowed from Oriental art. 
 Yet, if the designs were 
 derived from Asia, the greater 
 part of the articles them- 
 selves were made in Greece, 
 and some already display 
 remarkable energy and life. 
 Several were manufactured 
 at Argos, which seems from 
 the earliest times to have 
 carried on continuous inter- 
 course with the East. 
 
 Among these ex-votos, the 
 earliest of which may be 
 dated as far back as the 
 eighth century, a very high 
 place must be given to a fine 
 bronze griffin and to several 
 metal plates in repousse work, 
 one of which is thoroughly 
 Oriental in style and repre- 
 sents the Persian Artemis 
 standing between two lions, 
 belongs to the seventh century. 
 
 Leaving these remote times and coming down to the 
 period of archaic art, we find figurines of bronze and 
 
 Plate in Oriental style (Olympia 
 Museum). 
 
 This work undoubtedly 
 
286 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 clay representing the Olympian Zeus according to the 
 type which prevailed before the time of Phidias. There 
 is one very fine bronze head, in particular, careful in 
 its anatomy and somewhat dry in execution, which 
 recalls the technique of the Aeginetan masters ; the 
 work is careful almost to fastidiousness, the style 
 archaic still, and somewhat realistic, but already full 
 of expression. There is also a colossal head of Hera 
 
 Archaic Zeus, Olympian Bronze. 
 
 in Stone, very much injured unfortunately, which is 
 one of the earliest works of archaic art in Greece, 
 dating from the beginning of the sixth century. In 
 spite of the fact that it is indescribably unfinished 
 and imperfect, we are yet conscious of a childlike 
 effort to give it an expression of benevolence and 
 serene majesty. We should also [mention the head of 
 a warrior, almost certainly a portrait, and the oldest 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 2 8/ 
 
 piece of sculpture in marble which has been discovered 
 at Olympia, in which many archaic details are still 
 traceable, although the fairly delicate modelling marks 
 the beginning of the fifth century. The most remark- 
 able, however, among the early works are unquestion- 
 ably the limestone figures which decorate the pediment 
 of the Treasury of Megara. In this narrow space, about 
 nineteen feet long and only two and a half feet high, 
 the same subject afterwards so brilliantly treated by the 
 sculptors of Pergamum — the battle between the gods 
 and the giants — was represented by twelve figures, 
 half the natural size ; and since the limited space did 
 not admit of sculpture in the round, the five pairs 
 of combatants are represented in relief. Only the 
 central pair, Zeus throwing a giant to the ground, are 
 tolerably well preserved. The style is very archaic, 
 the anatomy particularly undefined and conventional, 
 and the numerous traces of red which have been found 
 on the blue background of the tympanum show that 
 the brush was called in to supply the deficiencies of 
 the chisel. Still this work from the second half of the 
 sixth century is by no means to be despised ; together 
 with the tufa figures discovered on the Acropolis of 
 Athens it affords us the earliest example of pediment 
 sculptures with which we are acquainted. 
 
 Before we come to the chief work of all — the most 
 splendid discovery, perhaps, which was made in the 
 course of the excavations at Olympia — some fine 
 sculptures of the fourth century should be mentioned 
 here : a charming head of Aphrodite in Parian marble, 
 an evident replica of the Venus of Cnidus by Praxiteles, 
 whose rounded chin, and the delicate oval of whose 
 
288 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 face, together with the sHghtly waving hair and 
 sweet expression, recall the refined style of the great 
 Athenian master ; and an ideal head of an athlete 
 found in the large gymnasium, in which the exquisite 
 grace and perfection of finish equally point to the 
 school of Praxiteles. Especial attention, too, should 
 be directed to the wonderful bronze head, strikingly 
 natural and of the boldest realism — a likeness un- 
 doubtedly of some Olympic victor, in which the artist 
 has rendered with unusual audacity the resolute, 
 almost insolent and brutal expression of the coarse 
 athlete. The technique is unrivalled, and the bronze 
 worked with the most minute care. The gymnasium 
 which contained such masterpieces must indeed have 
 been a marvellous museum. , 
 
 The most splendid discovery at Olympia was, how- 
 ever, made in the ruins of the Heraeum. Pausanias, 
 when describing the temple and enumerating the works 
 of art which it contains, says : " There is also a Hermes 
 in marble, carrying the infant Dionysus. The work 
 is by Praxiteles." * It was this statue which on May 
 8th, 1877, was discovered among the debris, and by 
 astonishing good fortune it was in an excellent state 
 of preservation. The god, a youthful figure of the 
 utmost grace, stands carelessly leaning against the 
 trunk of a tree ; the weight of the body falls on 
 the right leg, and it is slightly curved so as to give a 
 graceful, pliant undulation to the lines, and to turn to 
 account the curve of the hip and attachment of the 
 thigh. On his left arm sits the infant Dionysus, one 
 of his little hands pressed against the shoulder of the 
 
 * Pausanias, v. 17. 3. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 
 
 289 
 
 god, while the other is raised with a gesture of eager 
 
 desire, and all his little body trembles with impatience. 
 
 With the right hand and arm, now unfortunately lost, 
 
 Hermes held up to the child some object which 
 
 excited his desire — most 
 
 likely a bunch of grapes ; 
 
 at least, such seems to 
 
 be the conclusion we 
 
 should draw from certain 
 
 copies of this group, so 
 
 famous even in antiquity, 
 
 which are works of little 
 
 value in themselves, but 
 
 are apparently inspired 
 
 by some faint memory 
 
 of Praxiteles. 
 
 It is almost needless 
 to praise this exquisite 
 figure, so perfect in its 
 execution, and so in- 
 comparable in its grace ; 
 nothing is more piquant 
 than the contrast be- 
 tween the almost feverish 
 excitement of the child 
 and the quiet attitude of 
 the god, slightly bending 
 his half-smiling face. It 
 
 is impossible, however, to dwell too strongly on the 
 importance which the possession of an original work 
 by one of the great Greek sculptors has for the history 
 of art — a work, too, by one whom the unanimous verdict 
 
 19 
 
 The Hermes of 
 Praxiteles 
 (Olympia). 
 
290 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 of the ancients placed by the side of Phidias. Before 
 this discovery was made we only caught a glimpse of 
 the art of Praxiteles through inadequate copies of 
 his works, and although we might gain from these 
 copies some notion of the Venus of Cnidus or of 
 the Apollo Sauroctonus, and although the Satyr of the 
 Louvre, dug up on the Palatine, seemed to some a 
 fragment of the master's own work, yet these were 
 but poor relics of one of the most famous sculptors 
 of antiquity. Now we possess a revelation of his 
 genius in an authentic work, and if we remember with 
 how few artists this is the case (Lysippus, Polycleitus, 
 and others are not known to us by any undoubtedly 
 original work), we shall realise the importance of this 
 Olympian statue. It is true that the Hermes is not 
 one of the most famous works of Praxiteles, it did not 
 enjoy in ancient times the renown of his Aphrodite, his 
 Eros, or his Satyr ; what then must those masterpieces 
 have been, if this second-rate statue seems to us so 
 exquisite ? 
 
 We cannot here undertake an analysis of the char- 
 acteristic features of the genius of Praxiteles, but 
 nevertheless we must briefly state the new elements 
 which he introduced into the conception of Hellenic 
 art. The ancients, whose artistic criticisms are always 
 couched in rather vague terms, say that he excelled in 
 fidelity to nature without, however, falling into realism, 
 and that he permeated his works in marble with the 
 moods of the soul.* The deities he represents have, 
 in fact, nothing in common with the gods of Phidias, 
 whose sovereign majesty rises to such a height above 
 
 * Diod. Siculus, Frag., Ixxvi. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 20 1 
 
 all mortal woes ; the fourth century, in which Praxiteles 
 lived, no longer possessed the reverence and the faith 
 which could inspire such lofty conceptions. The increase 
 of luxury, the ease and comfort of life, the refinements 
 of intellectual culture, had deadened the passions and 
 quenched the enthusiasm of the century before. To 
 this new world the gods of Olympus were no longer 
 superhuman beings, only to be approached with religious 
 awe ; the chisel of Praxiteles is quite at home among 
 them — he brings them down to the proportions of 
 mortal men, and animates them with all the passions 
 and the feelings of human beings. Apollo becomes 
 a youth playing with a lizard, and Venus a beautiful 
 woman who is letting her drapery fall as she enters 
 her bath. What the sculptor demands of them is not so 
 much that they should express the noblest conceptions 
 as that they should reveal the most perfect grace. 
 All these figures possess a harmonious grace and a 
 youthful pliancy which is almost effeminate. " In 
 order to draw attention to the undulating and flexible 
 lines of the body, the figure is thrown out of the per- 
 pendicular, its weight is cast on one foot, and it leans 
 effeminately against the trunk of a tree. In this way 
 the master breaks the vertical lines of the body and legs, 
 and diversifies the symmetrical aspect of the limbs, 
 while he calls attention to the hips and to the elegance 
 of the modelling in general."* The Hermes, the Apollo 
 and the Satyr are all represented in this quiet and 
 careless attitude ; it is characteristic of the works of 
 Praxiteles. 
 
 It is not less interesting to note the attention paid to 
 
 * Rayet, Mon, de VArt Antique, notice de la pi. 45. 
 
292 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 detail. As a rule the subjects the master chooses for 
 his chisel are in early youth, but none of the athletes 
 whom the sculptor might take as his model could offer 
 the harmonious and pleasing contours in which he 
 delighted — the Apoxyomenos of Lysippus, so well 
 
 Head of the Hermes of Praxiteles. 
 
 built, SO graceful in his strength, looks a rustic beside 
 the Ephebi of Praxiteles. There is more softness and 
 bloom about the flesh of the great Athenian sculp- 
 tor, the play of the muscles can scarcely be detected 
 under the delicate skin. It was from his female models 
 that Praxiteles drew these rounded limbs, this delicacy 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT OLYMPIA. 293 
 
 and grace, and he has blended the results of these 
 various studies so as to create an indefinable charm. 
 
 The part of Praxiteles' work which was most 
 admired was the head. It was there that he displayed 
 that power of expressing feeling which no sculptor of 
 antiquity possessed to the same extent. The head of 
 the Hermes certainly does not belie this reputation, 
 while at the same time it shows plainly that the group 
 is a work of the master's youth, and bears marks of the 
 influence of Myron. Still, in spite of some defects and 
 of a certain dryness in the execution, the workmanship 
 here is wonderful, the artist's skill is so perfect that all 
 trace of effort has disappeared, and the means employed 
 are so simple that the fruit of prolonged thought and 
 of patient study seems to have been thrown off care- 
 lessly and to have cost no pains. 
 
 If the excavations at Olympia had given us this one 
 statue only, Germany might be justly proud of having 
 undertaken them, but they are also interesting from 
 quite another point of view. Artistically they may be 
 reckoned among the most important discoveries of recent 
 years, while archaeologically considered, they are en- 
 couraging as showing what treasures are still hidden 
 beneath the soil of these regions, and what advantages 
 science and art may still gain from investigations which 
 seem to some useless and costly. We can only hope 
 that the spoils the French may win from Delphi will 
 be in no respect inferior to those which have made the 
 excavations undertaken by the Germans at Olympia for 
 ever memorable. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS (1882-89). 
 
 Reference Books for Eleusis: — 
 
 Philios, " Inscriptions d'Eleusis " {Ephemeris Archaiologike, 1883 — 
 1888). 
 „ " Monuments d'Eleusis " {Eph. Arch., 1883—86, 1888). 
 „ " Rapports sur les Fouilles d'Eleusis " (Praktika, 1882 — 
 1888). 
 Tsountas, " Inscriptions d'Eleusis " (Eph. Arch., 1883, 1884). 
 Blavette, "Fouilles d'Eleusis" {Bull, de Corr. Hell., 1884-5). 
 Foucart, " Le Culte de Pluton dans la Religion Eleusinienne" 
 {Bull, de Corr. Hell., 1883). 
 „ " Inscriptions from Eleusis," 1880, 1884, 1889. 
 
 Decharme, Mythologie de la Grece Antique. Paris, 1886. 
 Benndorf, Anzetger der Phil. Hist., Classe d. Academic in Wiett, 
 
 Nov. 1887. 
 Furtwangler, Arch. Gesellschaft in Berlin, jValy 1887. 
 Reinach, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1888. 
 
 „ Antike Denkniciler, pi. 34. 
 
 Louis Dyer, The Gods in Greece, 
 
 Prof. Gardner, " New Chapters in Greek History " (Eleusis and 
 the Mysteries). 
 
 Amongst the excursions which the tourists who visit 
 Athens are in the habit of making, there is none easier 
 or more enjoyable than that to Eleusis. On leaving 
 the city the road, which follows nearly the same course 
 as the ancient Sacred Way once trodden by the solemn 
 procession of the initiated, passes through the great 
 grove of olive-trees whose pale foliage stretches in 
 a dusky band across the thirsty plain of Attica, 
 from Cephissia down to the sea. Then, entering the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 295 
 
 mountains, it crosses the outlying spurs of Fames by 
 the charming pass of Corydallos, where the little 
 monastery of Daphni lies with its graceful Byzantine 
 church, and as it issues from this pass, suddenly there 
 bursts upon the traveller's sight the dazzling surface of 
 the sea, the blue waves washing Salamis, and the little 
 village of Lefsina, the ancient Eleusis, lying at the 
 farther end of its tranquil bay, while in the distance 
 there rise the hills of Megara and the lofty peaks of 
 Cithaeron. Passing by the side of the salt lakes once 
 sacred to Demeter and Cora, the road runs along the 
 coast until it reaches the village of Lefsina, now ex- 
 clusively inhabited by Albanians in their picturesque 
 costume, who, short as the distance is from Athens, 
 scarcely understand a word of Greek. Here the 
 famous temple of Demeter once stood, and here ancient 
 mythology localised the legend of the goddess, one of 
 the most beautiful and touching ever conceived by the 
 imagination of the Greeks. 
 
 The story of this divine tragedy, at once epic and 
 mystical, in which the Greeks symbolised the changes 
 undergone by vegetation, and the life and death of 
 nature, should be read in the beautiful hymn to Demeter 
 discovered about a hundred years ago in a library at 
 Moscow. When Pluto, so the poet's story runs, carried 
 off the maiden Cora as she was plucking flowers in the 
 sunny fields of Nysa, her piercing shrieks reached the 
 heights of Olympus, and Demeter, her mother, shudder- 
 ing as she heard that imploring cry, darted to earth 
 in search of her beloved child. Then began the long 
 and grievous passion of the afflicted mother. Speechless 
 and inconsolable, she wandered over earth and heaven, 
 
296 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 The Demeter of Cnidus (British Museum). 
 
 seeking everywhere for some intelligence of the child 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 297 
 
 she had lost. " For nine days," says the poet, " the 
 dread goddess wandered over all the earth, holding 
 flaming torches in her hands ; in her grief she tasted 
 neither ambrosia nor sweet nectar, nor did she give her 
 body to the bath." When Helios, the sun who looks 
 on all things, told her at last that Pluto was her 
 daughter's ravisher, and that Zeus himself had consented 
 to the deed, the angry goddess left Olympus for ever. 
 Casting aside her immortal beauty, she concealed the 
 bitter grief which was gnawing at her heart beneath the 
 form and vesture of an aged woman, and wandered sadly 
 through the fields and towns of men, consumed by 
 longing for the child she had lost, until at last she came 
 in her sorrow to ask for shelter from the mythical king 
 of the little village of Eleusis. 
 
 Exhausted by grief and bowed down with weariness, 
 the goddess seated herself by the well, in the shade of 
 an olive-tree. Here, in a charming scene which recalls 
 the most delightful customs of Oriental hospitality, the 
 daughters of the house, coming to draw water at the 
 well, find the old woman, question her, and take her 
 back with them to their father's dwelling, where she is 
 entrusted with the care of the king's infant son. Still 
 nothing can relieve the goddess' profound sorrow, neither 
 the kindness of her hosts nor their gentle words. " Seated 
 there, with her hand she held her veil before her face, 
 and speechless in her grief, remained in her place, 
 greeting none either by word or gesture, but without a 
 smile, without touching meat or drink, she sat consumed 
 by longing for her deep-girdled child." The divine 
 glory of Demeter, however, could not long remain con- 
 cealed : she betrayed herself, almost against her will, and 
 
298 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the humble handmaiden, suddenly transfigured, stood 
 revealed to her hosts as the all-powerful goddess who 
 bestows fruitfulness upon the earth and gives corn to 
 men, and promised that in the temple which was to be 
 erected to her on the hill of Eleusis she would herself 
 teach her holy mysteries to the mortals who had given 
 her a kindly welcome. 
 
 Still this is but an episode in the story, though 
 no doubt the most cherished at Eleusis, for the divine 
 passion of this Mater Dolorosa of ancient times was 
 not yet at an end. The goddess would not return to 
 Olympus, and her anger had disastrous consequences : 
 the earth became unfruitful, the seed sown did not 
 spring up, for the curse of Demeter was upon the world ; , 
 and the injured mother would not be reconciled until 
 her beloved child was given back to her. By the com- 
 mand of Zeus Cora returned to the light of day, but 
 alas ! before she left the lower world she had secretly 
 eaten the pomegranate seed, the sacred pledge and 
 symbol of her union with her dread lord, and henceforth 
 she could no longer pass her whole life with her mother 
 in Olympus. For one-third of the year she must again 
 go down beneath the earth ; but, when " in the 
 sweet spring-time the earth is clad with a thousand 
 kinds of flowers," each year the young goddess was to 
 leave that subterranean darkness and ascend once more 
 to the divine abodes. At the sight of her daughter 
 Demeter was appeased, the world resumed its regular 
 course, the earth was covered with leaves and flowers, 
 and joy sprang up all around. Faithful to her word, 
 before she returned to Olympus the goddess instructed 
 the men of Eleusis in her divine knowledge, and taught 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 299 
 
 Triptolemus, her first priest and the founder of her 
 worship, the marvellous secrets of agriculture which he 
 was to spread throughout the world ; above all she 
 initiated him into those august mysteries, " which we 
 may neither neglect, nor penetrate, nor divulge, for 
 reverence for the gods restrains our voice. ' 
 
 It is hardly necessary to explain the meaning of this 
 beautiful legend. It arose from the sight of the phe- 
 nomena of vegetable life, from the mourning of nature 
 during the winter, followed by the new birth of spring. 
 This sight, in which our colder reason only seeks for 
 natural causes, was lit up with the most marvellous 
 colours by the wonderful imagination of the Greeks. 
 For them " nature was full of passionate and living 
 energies, of divine forms sensible of joy and of sorrow, 
 and the different phases of vegetable life became in 
 their eyes the wondrous acts of a drama which was 
 at once divine and human." * The annual descent of 
 Cora into the lower world and her return to the light 
 symbolised the seed falling upon the earth and dis- 
 appearing into its bosom, and then coming to life 
 again and flourishing in spring ; the grief of Demeter, 
 bereft of her child, represented the desolation and 
 barrenness of the earth during the winter. To this 
 assemblage of physical notions were soon added moral 
 ideas of a loftier kind : the life and death of man, and 
 even the problems of the destiny of mankind, were 
 linked with the vicissitudes of the earth, with the life 
 and death of nature ; soon the thought of the future 
 life prevailed over the touching story of the divine 
 tragedy, and the combination gave birth to the mys- 
 
 * Pechfirme, Mythohgie de la Grece Antique, p. 387, 
 
300 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 teries of Eleusis. The author of the hymn to Demeter, 
 himself undoubtedly one of the initiated, makes us feel 
 the lofty aim of these mysterious rites when he closes 
 his tale with the remarkable words, which bear the 
 marks of such profound piety : " Happy among the 
 dwellers upon earth is he who hath beheld these mys- 
 teries, but he who is uninitiated and hath no part in 
 these rites hath never the like destiny, even when 
 death hath made him descend into the gloom of the 
 lower world." 
 
 I. 
 
 The little town of Eleusis, where Demeter lived and 
 suffered and manifested her divine splendour, where 
 she taught men the secrets of her worship, was a 
 veritable Holy Land to the Greeks. Everything there 
 recalled the memory of the goddess and bore the mark of 
 her footsteps. " Here was shown the well by which she 
 sat and the stone on which she rested ; there, the house 
 which sheltered her in her distress and the site of the 
 first temple she commanded to be built. All around the 
 town, the rocks and the slightest irregularities in the 
 ground bore names which recalled the sacred legend to 
 pious souls." On one side stood the wild fig-tree near 
 which Pluto, carrying off Cora, had gone down to his 
 subterranean kingdom, and the fountain Callichoros 
 round which the women of Eleusis had for the first time 
 danced in chorus to the honour of the goddess, on the 
 other the field of Raros the father of Triptolemus, the 
 first land ever sown ; here was the threshing-floor of 
 Triptolemus himself, with the altar consecrated to the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 30I 
 
 hero, and there the tomb of Eumolpus, one of the earhest 
 priest-kings of Eleusis, and ancestor of the great 
 sacerdotal family which administered the mysteries of 
 the temple ; lastly, yonder was the iemenos of the goddess 
 with the shrines it contained. All Greece came each 
 year to these venerable monuments, in order to testify 
 its gratitude to the goddesses who had given corn to 
 mankind and through many centuries the Greek cities, 
 in obedience to the strict commands of the Delphic oracle, 
 consecrated the firstfruits of their harvests at Eleusis. 
 Athens especially, and her allies, never neglected to make 
 these pious offerings, and even in the time of Hadrian 
 the Panhellenic assembly, representing the entire Greek 
 world, in conformity with the old regulation of the fifth 
 century did homage to the benevolent goddess who had 
 taught men the arts of agriculture, and to Athens, who 
 by sharing this gift with the other Greek tribes had 
 deserved to be commended by the god of Delphi to the 
 gratitude of the Hellenes as the /xrjrpoTroXi^ rcov Kapiroiv. 
 Athens, indeed, had early adopted the worship of 
 Demeter, and devoted itself to the administration and 
 embellishment of her sanctuary. From the sixth 
 century B.C. a large building for the celebration of the 
 mysteries had been erected in the iemenos, by the side 
 of the primitive temple built on the hill, and also some 
 early buildings, of which traces still remain in the plain. 
 Recent excavations have recovered the remains of this 
 rectangular hall, which was preceded by a vestibule and 
 supported on twenty-five columns, afterwards buried 
 under the ruins of later buildings, as well as the walls of 
 unbaked brick of the rather narrow Iemenos, which in the 
 time of Pisistratus inclosed the shrines of Demeter. In 
 
302 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 later days, at the time when under the rule of Pericles 
 Athens was being filled with magnificent buildings, 
 
 Eleusis also had a share in the splendid works which 
 owed their rise to the great orator. The primitive 
 temple, built on an isolated hill commanding the plain, 
 had suffered so severely at the hands of the Persains 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 303 
 
 that it had been necessary to rebuild it entirely, but the 
 Hall of Initiation, which had been destroyed by the same 
 invaders, had only undergone temporary repairs. In its 
 place, in the sacred enclosure, which had been enlarged 
 and fortified with strong towers, Pericles had an 
 immense hall built for the celebration of the mysteries, 
 after the plans of Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon, 
 three of whose pupils superintended the work. In the 
 fourth century Athens seems still to have taken an 
 active interest in the sanctuary of Eleusis, and the great 
 orator Lycurgus, who directed its finance in the second 
 half of the century, seems to have been especially 
 devoted to the worship of Demeter. A member of an 
 old priestly family, thoroughly acquainted with all 
 religious matters and eager to restore the ancient 
 ceremonies, he instituted important works within the 
 sacred enclosure. The inscriptions of this period, and 
 the accounts of sums expended on the buildings, recall 
 to us the existence of the numerous edifices which were 
 then crowded together within the temenos. There was 
 a temple of Pluto, built at this very time ; there were 
 the treasuries of the two goddesses, the dwellings of 
 the priests or Neocorion, and that of the priestly family 
 of the Ceryces, as well as the houses of the priestess 
 and the daduchus ; there were altars set up at various 
 points within the enclosure, the bouleuterium or council- 
 chamber, and lastly the Propylaea, dating from the 
 middle of the fourth century, which formed a stately 
 entrance into the newly repaired and fortified temenos. 
 It was already in contemplation to erect a Doric portico 
 before the hall of the mysteries, and this building was 
 completed towards the end of the century, under the 
 
304 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 305 
 
 administration of Demetrius of Phalerum, by the archi- 
 tect Philo of Eieusis. At the same time all the space 
 between the new portico and the temenos-wa.\l was 
 filled up so as to form a vast terrace, where in the 
 marble-paved court there rose the statues and monu- 
 ments which the grateful inhabitants of Eieusis had 
 set up in honour of the benefactors of the temple. 
 
 The Roman period saw the prosperity of Eieusis 
 increase still further. Appius Claudius Pulcher, the 
 friend of Cicero, erected the lesser Propylaea, and 
 Munatius Plancus won for himself statues from the 
 grateful Eleusinians, possibly because he had the portico 
 built which ran along the southern wall of the temenos. 
 The reign of Hadrian was, however, the time when 
 the buildings increased most rapidly. This emperor, 
 learned, artistic, and literary in his tastes, was pas- 
 sionately attached to Greece, took a keen interest in all 
 the relics of its glorious past, and gladly restored every- 
 thing which had formerly existed there. He heaped 
 benefits upon the Athenians and filled their city with 
 buildings, until they believed the golden age of their 
 country had returned as they saw this master of the 
 world wearing the Greek dress, speaking the Greek 
 tongue, and presiding in the archon's robes over the 
 festival of Dionysus. Enamoured, too, of all that was 
 strange or foreign, he wished to be initiated into the 
 mysteries, and one of his teachers in philosophy was 
 a member of the priestly nobility of Eieusis. Marcus 
 Aurelius, Lucius Verus and Commodus, were also 
 initiated, and the temple was naturally the object of 
 imperial liberality. The sacred enclosure was enlarged 
 for the last time, and an imposing entrance made ; the 
 
 20 
 
306 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Great Propylaea were built in imitation of those on 
 the Acropolis of Athens, while the hall of the mysteries 
 was decorated afresh, and on the terrace in front of the 
 portico of Philo, statues of priests and priestesses, and 
 monuments of every kind set up in honour of Roman 
 benefactors, occupied the place of honour in the enclosure. 
 In the neighbourhood of the sanctuary other buildings 
 were erected — here a graceful villa, where fine frescoes 
 have been discovered, and there, close to the gateway, 
 a temple of Artemis Propylaea. Further on were the 
 baths and on one side a triumphal arch, consecrated by 
 the Panhellenes to the goddesses and the Emperor 
 Hadrian. 
 
 Unhappily, in one point the good fortune which 
 marked the explorations at Olympia was wanting at 
 Eleusis, for there was no guide-book to describe the 
 details of the famous shrine and to aid in the identifica- 
 tion of so many buildings of widely different date. 
 Pausanias had undoubtedly seen them, for he had been 
 initiated, and consequently was able to enter the sacred 
 precincts and to be present at the ceremonies there. In 
 spite of the prohibition laid on all who took part in the 
 mysteries, which forbade them to divulge any of their 
 secrets, he seems to have resolved to describe the 
 temples of Eleusis rather than leave a blank in his book. 
 A seasonable dream, however, reminded him of his vow, 
 and of the formal prohibition which not only forbade 
 the uninitiated to see anything of the sacred buildings, 
 but even to become acquainted with their arrangements 
 from description. The other travellers of ancient times 
 are not more communicative than Pausanias. Strabo, 
 who does not seem to have been initiated, only described 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 307 
 
 the buildings which he could see over the temenos-^dM 
 as he passed — that is, the temple and the great hall 
 of the mysteries, which vras so large that it could 
 hold as many spectators as a theatre. Excavations 
 alone could be expected to raise to some extent the 
 veil which had so long hidden the sanctuary of Demeter. 
 In 1 81 5 the Society of Dilettanti which was formed in 
 London for the study of the existing remains of ancient 
 •Greece, and which has rendered valuable services to 
 archaeology, undertook the exploration of the ruins of 
 Eleusis, and made a first statement, necessarily imperfect 
 and to some extent inaccurate, of the buildings which 
 still existed under the houses of the village of Lefsina. 
 In 1860-61 M. Lenormant sank some shafts near the 
 portico of Philo, laid bare a part of the temenos and 
 -explored both Propylaea. It was not, however, until 
 1882 that the Athenian Archaeological Society under- 
 took methodical explorations at Eleusis. The Greek 
 government expropriated the occupants of the modern 
 houses built above the ruins, and when these were 
 pulled down it was for the first time possible to clear 
 out the temenos completely, and thoroughly to explore 
 the sacred precincts of Demeter. The excavations were 
 actively carried on from 1882 to 1889 under the direction 
 of M. Philios; and if the cost was considerable — the 
 Greek government paid 100,000 francs as compensation 
 and the Society 90,000 francs for the expenses of 
 the work itself — important results have been obtained. 
 Interesting works of art have been discovered, as well 
 as numerous and important inscriptions, which help 
 to throw a light on the history of the temple and 
 the details of its administration ; more than this, the 
 
308 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 ■excavations have made it possible to ascertain the plan 
 and arrangement of the buildings within the temenos, 
 and although much still remains uncertain, we can 
 now form a fairly accurate conception of the great 
 festival celebrated at Eleusis in honour of Demeter, of 
 the priesthood which presided over her worship, and of 
 the principal buildings connected with the cultus of the 
 great goddesses. 
 
 II. 
 
 When, after the victory of King Erechtheus over 
 the Eumolpidae, Eleusis entered the Attic Confedera- 
 tion, important privileges were secured to the inhabit- 
 ants of the little town, and they preserved a certain 
 independence in all that concerned their religious rites 
 and the administration of the sanctuary. The two 
 great priestly families, the Eumolpidae and the Ceryces, 
 remained in possession of all that appertained to the 
 mysteries and initiatory rites, they retained the right of 
 collective action under certain specified circumstances, 
 and their official representatives, the hierophant, chosen 
 from among the Eumolpidae only, and the daduchus, 
 always appointed from among the Ceryces, were the 
 two heads of the Eleusinian priesthood. These two 
 important officials, who were appointed for life, jointly 
 determined all matters concerning the cultus of the 
 two goddesses ; in later times the sacred herald, also 
 chosen from among the Ceryces, took the third place in 
 this sacerdotal hierarchy, and the same family also fur- 
 nished a fourth dignitary, the priest of the altar (6 eVl 
 r^ ySco/iw). Parallel to the priestly hierarchy, several 
 priestesses played a part in the cultus of Eleusis ; in the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 309 
 
 inscriptions we find the hierophantis mentioned, and 
 also the priestess of Demeter, the representative of a 
 more ancient cultus, who figures as eponym on several 
 monuments, and whose privileges corresponded to 
 those of the hierophant. The most important part of 
 the religious administration was in the hands of the 
 great family of the Eumolpidae, whose members 
 possessed the right of interpreting the sacred laws of 
 Eleusis to the exclusion of the Ceryces ; as the guardians 
 of the sacred books and of ancient tradition, they could 
 form themselves into a tribunal to try cases of impiety ; 
 they alone regulated the sacrifices, which were their 
 property ; and the Athenian law itself solemnly reserved 
 to them the right of administering the worship of the 
 sanctuary, and of taking all necessary measures, in 
 ■conformity with their institutions. 
 
 Athens, notwithstanding, had early laid her hand 
 upon the sanctuary. One of the ten strategi, the 
 a-TpaT7)yo<; eV 'E\eva-Lvo<;, was put in especial command 
 of this district, in order to protect the temples and 
 to defend this frontier, the most exposed to attack ; 
 and although the town had no permanent garrison, 
 every year the ephebi were encamped there to complete 
 their military training in the fortress. In the religious 
 worship of Eleusis, over against the hereditary priest- 
 hood the King-Archon represented the city. He 
 offered solemn sacrifices in the name of the State ; with 
 the assistance of the four epimeletae (superintendents) 
 of the mysteries, two of whom were appointed from 
 among the citizens of Athens, he watched over the 
 procession of the initiated, and after the festival he pre- 
 sented a report to the Council upon the celebration of 
 
310 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the mysteries, noting any infractions of its rules which 
 had been committed. Besides this, ten members of 
 the Council of the Five Hundred were responsible for 
 the due performance of those among the ceremonies of 
 Eleusis in which the city was concerned. The admini- 
 stration of the sacred treasure was, however, the 
 department in which the State reserved for itself a 
 preponderant influence. The registers of accounts 
 which have come down to us in inscriptions, and the 
 inventories of the treasure, show in what the revenues 
 of the sanctuary consisted, and what use was made of 
 them. The receipts include the rents of the lands be- 
 longing to the temple, the proceeds of the firstfruits 
 consecrated to the great goddesses, and the offerings 
 laid up in the treasuries of Demeter and of Cora. The 
 disbursements, which were numerous, were usually on 
 account of the building or repairing so often undertaken 
 in the sanctuary, the expenses of the festivals and the 
 ordinary rites, the maintenance of the temple staff, who 
 according to ancestral custom, received a part of their 
 pay in kind, and the prizes given to the victors in the 
 games. Almost all this part of the management wa& 
 under the control of Athens. Hieropoioi, appointed 
 from among the Athenians for one year, were respon- 
 sible for the temple and for all the outlay connected 
 with its ritual ; seven epistatae of Eleusis and two 
 treasurers of the goddesses, who remained in office for 
 a period of four years, were entrusted with the super- 
 intendence of the works and the necessary payments ; 
 these, too, were chosen from among the Athenians. 
 Lastly the King-Archon in conjunction with the 
 epistatae and epimeletae, was charged with the letting 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 3H 
 
 of the land belonging to the temple of Eleusis, and 
 the Athenian people reserved the right of control over 
 all these magistrates and the power of fining them if 
 they were unfaithful to their trust. As to the festivals 
 celebrated in honour of Demeter, they were divided 
 between Athens and Eleusis. At the foot of the Acro- 
 polis a sanctuary, the Eleusinium, was consecrated to 
 the great goddesses, and it was beneath its colonnades 
 that the celebration of the mysteries began. Other 
 assemblies took place at Eleusis itself; by the side of 
 the old national festival (Trar/Jto? wycov), which the 
 Eleusinians had been careful to keep up, other solem- 
 nities brought all the Athenian citizens together at 
 intervals of two or four years respectively. There 
 were gymnastic and musical contests, and theatrical 
 representations ; in the management of these, too, the 
 Athenian people interfered by their decrees, and the 
 orator Lycurgus in particular introduced some import- 
 ant innovations. It was, however, to the mysteries,, 
 above all, that Eleusis owed its fame. 
 
 By the side of the public rites, there were secret 
 ceremonies in- the Greek religion from which all were 
 excluded who had not satisfied certain specified con- 
 ditions, and which were called mysteries on account of 
 the secrecy imposed upon the initiated. As a matter 
 of fact, there is no religion without mysteries ; religious 
 feeling is always eagerly desirous of penetrating the 
 unknown, and by the side of the piety of habit and 
 custom there is always to be found a more enthusiastic 
 and more mystical faith which aspires to penetrate the 
 dark enigma of human destiny. It was naturally from 
 the worship of the chthonic divinities who presided 
 
312 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 over the perpetual succession of life and death in nature 
 that the Greeks demanded the secret of the life and 
 death of men ; and it was this that Hellenic piety 
 sought at Eleusis. Under the influence of certain 
 foreign cults, and of Oriental mysticism in particular, 
 under the influence of the Orphic school, which early 
 associated the more exciting cultus of Dionysus with 
 the adoration of Demeter and Cora and imposed upon 
 the initiated the severe practices of asceticism, under the 
 influence too of philosophy, which introduced into 
 them some of its doctrines, the mysteries of Eleusis 
 acquired a much loftier meaning and a far wider range 
 than the simple homage which was rendered to the 
 great goddesses in early times. "They seem to have 
 formed," says M. Renan, "the really serious part of 
 the religion of ancient times ; and they exercised a 
 strong attraction and considerable moral influence over 
 the pious souls of those days." 
 
 Unfortunately our acquaintance with these mysteries 
 is very imperfect. The vow of secrecy imposed upon the 
 initiated was scrupulously observed ; and a few passing 
 indiscretions, a few chance allusions, a few parodies 
 springing from the imagination of Aristophanes, which 
 we must be careful not to take too literally (for the 
 example of Alcibiades shows that the mysteries could 
 not be mocked at with impunity), would furnish us with 
 very scanty information, if the Fathers of the Church, 
 in their fiery assaults upon paganism, had not, fortu- 
 nately for us, often attacked the mysteries of Eleusis. 
 It is true that in their somewhat intemperate zeal 
 Origen and Clement of Alexandria forgot that the 
 sanctuary of Demeter sheltered all that was noblest in 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 313 
 
 Greek religious belief, and welcomed without criticism 
 more than one foolish tale, and misinterpreted more 
 than one mysterious symbol ; still we owe to them a 
 certain number of curious details which enable us to 
 give a fairly accurate account of what the mysteries 
 really were. ^ 
 
 We can well imagine that the divine revelation 
 which the worshippers sought at Eleusis could not 
 suddenly burst upon their eyes and ears, but must 
 be reached gradually, through the successive steps 
 of a slow initiation. Before they could be worthy of 
 understanding the highest mysteries, and capable at 
 the same time of interpreting the obscure symbols 
 which accompanied the full possession of the secrets 
 of the gods, they must have passed through a pre- 
 liminary course of instruction and have received a 
 preparation which was at once moral and dogmatic. 
 This was imparted in the lesser mysteries, also called 
 the Mysteries of Agrae, from the name of the hill on 
 the banks of the Ilissus on which they were celebrated, 
 at the beginning of spring. They included purifica- 
 tion, symbolical of the moral purity exacted of those 
 who desired to become initiated, possibly also a kind 
 of solemn confession, such as took place in the mysteries 
 of Samothrace, and above all prayers, litanies in 
 honour of the gods, and the recital of the sacred 
 legends — a kind of elementary instruction which was 
 designed to make the initiated acquainted with the 
 mystic story which would afterwards be enacted before 
 their eyes. 
 
 Seven months later, in the autumn, complete initia- 
 tion was received at the greater mysteries, and from 
 
314 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 that time the worshipper belonged to the holy brother- 
 hood of the Mystae. Nevertheless he had not yet 
 attained the highest grade of initiation ; for this a new 
 ceremony, the eTroTrreta, was necessary, and this could 
 only take place after an interval of a year. Then,, 
 however, he had reached the goal of his pilgrimage : 
 the eTTOTTTeta was the final and divine revelation which 
 by its virtue led to complete religious perfection, on 
 which account it was also named TeXerr]. * 
 
 Naturally there could be no question, at the ad- 
 mission of the initiated, of submitting the considerable 
 numbers who presented themselves to any severe ex- 
 amination. In the solemn proclamation made by the 
 hierophant at the beginning of the greater mysteries, 
 only those were excluded who had committed a murder,, 
 or were suspected of impiety or magic, or had been born 
 among barbarians. Each of the candidates, however,, 
 must have a kind of godfather, chosen from among 
 the initiated, called the mystagogus, whose duty it was 
 to explain to the neophyte the symbols he would see 
 and the sacramental words which accompanied them. 
 The heads of the Eleusinian priesthood reserved to 
 themselves the right of acting as mystagogi for the 
 greater number of candidates, and in this way they 
 could exercise a kind of control and render the ceremony 
 of initiation more solemn and severe ; but the ordinary 
 mystagogus had fewer scruples, and more than once 
 slaves and courtesans gained access to the mysteries. 
 
 At first the greater mysteries were celebrated every 
 five years, afterwards they took place annually in the 
 
 * Professor Gardner identifies reXerrj with fiijrjffis — the initiation 
 properly so called. — New Chapters in Greek History, p. 586. — E. R. P. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 315 
 
 month Boedromion, and the Athenian government 
 attached so much importance to their regular celebra- 
 tion that in time of war a sacred truce was concluded 
 for the protection of the festival. It lasted no less 
 than fourteen days, and took place partly at Athens 
 and partly at Eleusis. On the 15 th of the month the 
 mystae assembled under the colonnades of the Eleu- 
 sinium at Athens to listen to the proclamation of the 
 hierophant, enjoining purity of body and mind on all 
 who wished to take part in the festival ; the next 
 day they went together to the sea-shore to undergo 
 the prescribed purifications and ablutions ; the three 
 following days were spent in sacrifices and expiatory 
 ceremonies, by which the mystae were at last made 
 worthy of the great mystery which was about to be 
 revealed to them. Finally, on the 20th, the sacred 
 procession left the city and marched to Eleusis along 
 the Sacred Way, bearing with it in great pomp the 
 statue of lacchus, the divine child whose worship was 
 introduced into the Eleusinian cultus in connection 
 with the Orphic doctrines, while, to the music of the 
 flute and of the sacred hymns, from thousands of 
 enthusiastic voices there rose the name of the youthful 
 deity, the intermediary between the great goddesses 
 and their fervent worshippers. 
 
 The procession left the Eleusinium in the morning, 
 and slowly made its way towards Eleusis along 
 the Sacred Way, bordered with tombs and altars, 
 with chapels and shrines recalling the great memories 
 of the sacred story; renewed purifications took place 
 at the salt lakes, and as night fell the procession 
 entered the holy city by the light of torches. By a 
 
3l6 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 contrast which was not rare in ancient times, a 
 comic element entered into this solemn ceremony. At 
 the bridge over the Cephissus a veritable masquerade 
 awaited the procession of mystae ; the peasants from 
 the neighbouring country, with masks on their faces, 
 saluted them as they passed with a running fire of jests 
 and banter and scurrility to which the initiated did not 
 fail to respond ; it was a regular carnival scene, which 
 satisfied the thirst for clamour and merriment which 
 sometimes bursts out in the midst of the most austere 
 religion. 
 
 After the arrival of the procession at Eleusis the 
 initiatory ceremonies and the mysteries themselves 
 began under the direction of the priests. There were 
 purifications and expiatory rites designed to break down 
 the barrier between men and the gods, sacrifices and 
 processions accompanied by hymns and dances, in 
 which the excitement of the worshippers sometimes 
 rose to frenzy ; above all there were nocturnal festivals 
 to strike the imagination of the faithful, sacred and 
 mystic vigils, and spectacles of extraordinary magnifi- 
 cence which were intended to excite profound emotion 
 in the minds of the worshippers. The principal scenes 
 in the myth of Demeter, her sojourn on earth and 
 her passion, formed the chief subject of these symbolical 
 representations, in which the Mystae were at once actors 
 and spectators. To these were added sacred stories, 
 mysterious and enigmatical sentences, intelligible only 
 to the initiated, which were all connected with the 
 mystic tale. All the details of the legend gave occasion 
 for a picturesque symbolism which acted powerfully 
 upon the imagination. The worshippers imitated the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 317 
 
 action of the goddess, and roused within themselves the 
 feelings of joy and sorrow which she had felt ; for nine 
 days they fasted like her, and during this time they 
 underwent purifications, they wandered, torch in hand, 
 as she had done when searching for her daughter, and 
 rested at the spots consecrated by the sacred story ; 
 then on the tenth day the fast was broken, and in 
 imitation of the goddess they drank the cyceon, a drink 
 composed of meal and water and pennyroyal, and joy took 
 the place of the gloom and sorrow of the days before. 
 
 The mysterious rites which followed within the 
 sanctuary were of two different kinds ; commemorative 
 acts performed by the priests and the initiated, and 
 certain representations of a dramatic character acted 
 before them. Among the first, the most important was 
 a sacred meal which the mystae took in common — a real 
 mystical communion in memory of Demeter, and 
 among the second, the mystery or miracle-play which 
 represented the legend of the great goddesses. The 
 story of the poets became a sacred reality at Eleusis^ 
 " rendered palpable and visible by the different acts of 
 what Clement of Alexandria calls a mystic drama." * 
 As in the mysteries of the Middle Ages, the different 
 scenes of the sacred story were represented in a series 
 of wonderful pictures, and the priests in magnificent 
 robes were the principal actors in this silent and 
 imposing tragedy. The illusion was heightened by 
 certain stage-effects produced by theatrical machinery^ 
 and strange formulae and mysterious words formed an 
 obscure comment on the symbols presented to the eyes 
 of the initiated. At one time the voice of the hiero- 
 
 * Decharme, Mythologie de la Grece Antique, p. 396. 
 
3l8 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 phant would be heard from the depths of the hall, and 
 in the glow of the torches the high priest proclaimed, 
 " The goddess has brought into the world the divine 
 child, the mighty has given birth to the mighty." At 
 another, the epoptae were shown, in the words of 
 Origen, " as the great, the wonderful, the most perfect 
 object of mystical contemplation, an ear of wheat 
 reaped in silence." Then the silence was broken by 
 the piercing cries of Demeter calling her daughter, 
 answered from the depths of the hall by the dull sound 
 of the brazen instruments. On the return of Cora 
 there all was changed to gladness, and then followed 
 choric dances, orgiastic ceremonies and frenzied delight. 
 It is easy to grasp the general meaning of these 
 symbols ; the life of nature and its relations with the 
 life and destiny of man formed their ground work, but it 
 may well be believed that these abstract ideas and this 
 mysterious meaning were bidden from the greater 
 number of the initiated. That which had such a powerful 
 charm for them, and left such a deep impression on 
 their minds, was rather the definite form in which this 
 vague symbolism found expression. For these mystics, 
 among whom were many women, the metaphysical 
 meaning of the drama was quite a secondary thing. 
 ^'What led them," says M. Renan in a beautiful 
 passage, " to hasten in throngs to weep for Adonis ? 
 The desire of bewailing a young god who had blos- 
 somed too soon, of gazing upon him stretched on his 
 funeral couch, cut down in his prime, his head drooping 
 languidly, surrounded by orange trees and plants of 
 rapid growth which they might see spring up and die, 
 the desire of burying him with their own hands, of 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 319 
 
 <;utting their hair to lay upon his tomb, of lamenting 
 and rejoicing in turn — the desire, in short, of tasting 
 all those impressions of transitory joys and mournful 
 vicissitudes grouped around the myth of Adonis." * 
 
 The same kind of interest was found in the miracle- 
 play of Eleusis, when the mystic tragedy represented 
 Cora's stay in Hades ; the initiated, too, were plunged in 
 darkness, they too wandered for a long time in the midst 
 of this dreadful gloom, " through terrible passages, 
 along an endless way," in which their excited imagina- 
 tion saw the windings of the lower world. Lightning- 
 flashes pierced the gloom, terrible voices mingled with 
 fearful apparitions. " Before they reach the end," 
 says Plutarch, j " the terror reaches its height : they 
 shudder and tremble with fear ; a cold sweat chills 
 them." Then all at once the scene shifted, and a 
 marvellous light fell upon the mystae. They were 
 received into the abodes of bliss, wonderful music 
 sounded in their ears, and divine apparitions appeared 
 before their astonished and delighted eyes. " The veil 
 fell," says an ancient writer, "and the deity appeared 
 to the initiated, radiant with celestial light." We can 
 imagine the powerful effect produced by this contrast, 
 which, when applied to human life, represented the 
 transition from the horrors of Tartarus to the bliss of 
 the Elysian Fields. 
 
 We are told, too, of discourses which were delivered 
 during the mysteries; and it may be asked whether 
 these were sermons like those of Christian preachers, 
 ■conveying dogmatic instruction and intended to explain 
 
 * Renan, Etudes dHistoire religieuse, p. 55. 
 t Plutarch, De Anima Fr. vi. ex p. 270. 
 
320 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the symbols and to reveal to the initiated lofty moral 
 and religious truths. This is not at all likely. Accord- 
 ing to Aristotle,* the initiated learned nothing precisely 
 in the mysteries ; " they received impressions, they 
 were put into a certain frame of mind. The mysteries 
 of Eleusis were not addressed to the reason, but to the 
 eyes, to the imagination, to the heart." The greater 
 part of the mystae carried away only confused impres- 
 sions from these ceremonies, they did not find in them 
 any moral instruction or philosophical revelation. The 
 miracle-play, with its splendour and its pathos, was a 
 performance to be followed with passionate interest, but 
 whose meaning no one sought to discover ; it touched 
 the heart by its innate power. " I listened to these 
 things with simplicity," says Plutarch, "as in the 
 ceremonies of initiation and the mysteries, which do 
 not allow of any demonstration or of any conviction 
 produced by reason." Nevertheless, although there 
 was no desire to help the worshipper to fathom the 
 hidden meaning of the rites, or to explain to them 
 their obscure symbols, the solemn ceremonies of Eleusis 
 were not unfruitful. " The scenes which were unfolded 
 before their eyes, the symbolical objects which they 
 touched, the mysterious sentences they heard pro- 
 nounced — all these rites, the exact sense of which they 
 did not discover — were not without meaning for them, 
 and awakened in their minds impressions of a higher 
 kind than those which would have been aroused by a 
 performance of a purely human interest." f 
 
 The noblest minds of antiquity, philosophers, states- 
 
 * Aristotle, Fr. ed. Heitz, p. 40. 
 f Decharme, Myth., p. 399. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 32 I 
 
 men, orators, historians and poets, professed the deepest 
 reverence for the mysteries of Eleusis. From Pindar * 
 to Plato, from Isocrates to Cicero, they all join in 
 acknowledging the profound influence they exercised 
 over the minds of men. " It is said," writes Diodorus 
 SiculuSjf " that those who have taken part in the 
 mysteries become more pious and upright, and better 
 men in all respects, than they were before." Lucretius, 
 too, who was not disposed to be indulgent towards the 
 religions of ancient times, admits that the mysteries 
 consoled the childhood of mankind : '^ Primae dederuni 
 solacia dulcia vitae." They cannot, then, have been mere 
 pious observances and barren ceremonies, but they 
 must have produced some wholesome effect upon the 
 mind. The representation of the lower darkness where 
 the goddess dwelt, the fairy picture of the joys of 
 Olympus, awoke in the minds of the initiated some 
 anxious thought for their own fate ; in the midst of this 
 dread gloom and of the heavenly light which bathed 
 them in its brightness, they looked forward to the day 
 when they themselves would descend into that lower 
 world and would see those horrors and those joys. 
 The thought of a future hfe, more than any other 
 motive, drew the Greeks towards the sanctuary of 
 Eleusis, and they found there both promises and 
 hopes. The mystic poems recited in the sanctuary 
 taught them that, after death, the initiated, crowned 
 with flowers, would take their places at the feast of 
 the righteous, there to taste of eternal joys, that they 
 would form a company of the elect, seeing the gods 
 
 * Pindar, Fr. 102; Sophocles, Fr. 719; Isocrates, Pan. VI. p. 95, 
 § 28 ; Cic, Legg. ii. 14 ; Plato, Phaedriis. 
 t Hist. V. 48. 
 
 21 
 
322 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 face to face, iand that in fields bathed in light, in an 
 atmosphere which was always pure, in the midst of 
 songs and games, they would enjoy eternal bliss. They 
 learned, according to an inscription recently discovered 
 at Eleusis, " the fair and joyful truth that death is not an 
 evil but a blessing to mortals," and they carried away 
 with them, according to Isocrates, "the brightest hopes, 
 not only for the end of this life, but for all time to 
 come." The profane, those who had not enjoyed the 
 privilege of initiation, must look forward to eternal 
 punishment after death, and Triptolemus himself sat in 
 Hades to assign to the initiated the place of honour 
 which was their due. " Thrice happy," cries Sophocles, 
 " are those among mortals who shall go down into 
 Hades, after having gazed upon those sacred rites, 
 since for them and them alone Hfe is possible in the 
 lower world ; for the rest there can be nothing but 
 suffering." We see wherein the great merit of the 
 mysteries consisted : by teaching the immortality of 
 the soul, by making the happiness of this eternal life 
 dependent on certain conditions of piety, purity and 
 justice, by penetrating the soul with the feehng of the 
 infinite, they contributed strongly towards maintaining 
 the moral and religious traditions of humanity. Even 
 in the last days of paganism, when the mysteries of 
 Egyptian, Syrian or Phrygian origin were infected with 
 the gravest disorders, the Eleusinian mysteries remained 
 free from all corruption, and their teaching which was 
 always philosophical rather than religious, preserved its 
 character of austere gravity unimpaired until the day 
 when, in 381 a.d., the sanctuary of Eleusis was closed 
 for ever by the edict of Theodosius. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 323 
 
 III. 
 The excavations have restored to us several of the 
 more important buildings connected with the cultus of 
 the great goddesses. In the northern corner of the 
 sacred enclosure, whose walls and strong towers we 
 can still trace, we find the larger Propylaea, with their 
 six Doric columns and double front ; the inner passage 
 has Ionic columns at the sides, and a large medallion, 
 which no doubt represented an emperor, crowned the 
 outer pediment. Farther on are the lesser Propylaea, 
 which formed the entrance to an earlier temenos, and 
 within this, at the foot of the hill, on which the temple 
 of Demeter was no doubt built, and where a chapel of 
 the Virgin still conceals the remains of the ancient 
 edifice, numerous buildings rose upon the plain. By 
 the side of the Sacred Way, paved with marble and 
 lined with statues, stood the temenos and the Httle 
 temple of Pluto, built in the fourth century B.C., with 
 the numerous grottoes which no doubt played some 
 part in the cultus of this chthonic deity ; close to the 
 temple were the treasuries of the goddesses, one of 
 which was perhaps situated on the small plateau reached 
 by six steps cut in the rock ; and farther on, against the 
 southern wall of the peribolos, was the Bouleuterium, 
 replaced in the Roman period by two sumptuous 
 porticoes, between which was a secondary entrance into 
 the temenos. The most important of the buildings, 
 however, and that which first strikes the eye amidst 
 the confused heaps of ruins, is the great hall of 
 initiation, built in the fifth century under the direction 
 of Ictinus. Its arrangement does not in any way recall 
 
324 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the ordinary plan of ,a Greek temple ; the portico of 
 twelve Doric columns, which now forms the fagade, was 
 in fact added by the architect Philo in the fourth century, 
 and the original building had neither pronaos, cella, nor 
 opisthodomos. It is a large rectangular hall, more than 
 a hundred and sixty feet in length, and rather less in 
 breadth, entered by two doors on each of three sides, 
 and with eight tiers of stone seats running all round 
 the walls, on which nearly three thousand spectators 
 could easily find a place. The singular feature of this 
 hall, which was evidently intended to accommodate 
 a large number of spectators, was that the interior, 
 instead of being left free, was filled by a forest of 
 pillars arranged in six parallel rows which must have 
 entirely prevented the spectators, seated round the 
 walls, from seeing the performance as a whole. In- 
 complete explorations led archaeologists at one time 
 to believe that there had been a subterranean shrine 
 here, or more probably rooms beneath the stage where 
 the machinery was prepared and the arrangements 
 made for the changes of scene and marvellous appari- 
 tions which in the miracle-play of Eleusis had such a 
 powerful effect on the imagination of the spectators. 
 Recent excavations have shown the incorrectness of 
 this hypothesis. The floor of the supposed crypt is on 
 the same level as the portico outside, and consequently 
 we are compelled to recognise in it the hall of initiation, 
 although we do not fully understand its object and 
 arrangement. A projecting piece of rock rises in the 
 centre of the hall; did it once support a colossal 
 statue, an altar, or some other object ? We cannot tell. 
 All we know is that the building of the sixth century 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 325 
 
 which was replaced by the hall of Ictinus, though 
 smaller in size, was on exactly the same plan. The ex- 
 cavations have been carried to a considerable depth, and 
 have in several places laid bare portions of the building 
 destroyed by the Persians, and shown that Ictinus only 
 reproduced on an enlarged scale the hall of initiation 
 designed by the unknown architect of the sixth century. 
 
 In front of this imposing building, supported by two 
 powerful buttresses, there stretched between the portico 
 of Philo and the temenos wall an extensive terrace, 
 built over the remains of the old walls which had sur- 
 rounded the sanctuary in early days. In this courtyard, 
 paved with marble, stood numerous monuments, almost 
 all dating from the Roman period, exedrae and bases of 
 statues of which the dedications and ruins have been 
 discovered. Among others there was a curious statue 
 erected by a Roman, Q. Pompeius son of Aulas, and 
 his two brothers, dedicated " to the power of Rome and 
 to the eternal duration of the mysteries." Lastly, on 
 both sides of the hall of initiation, broad stairs cut in 
 the rock gave access to the upper terrace which lay 
 in front of the temple of the goddess and above the 
 buildings in the temenos. 
 
 The sanctuary of Eleusis, like the Acropolis of Athens, 
 suffered severely, as we know, during the Persian inva- 
 sion. Happily, Xerxes had not the tastes of a collector. 
 He carried off little or nothing from the works of 
 art of the conquered people, and when the storm was 
 over the Greeks found in the midst of the ruins the 
 mutilated remains of the statues dedicated to their gods. 
 We have seen, from the account of the excavations on 
 the Acropolis, that they did not think it worth while to 
 
326 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 replace these broken and headless statues on their 
 bases, but that, covering these relics of the past with a 
 thick layer of earth, they built new and more beautiful 
 temples above the former shrines. They did at Eleusis 
 as they were doing at Athens, and we cannot rejoice too 
 heartily over this good fortune. Whilst the celebrated 
 statues of the fifth and fourth centuries b.c. have dis- 
 appeared for the most part in the shipwreck of paganism, 
 the earth has faithfully sheltered these treasures which 
 were disdained by the Greece of Pericles, and which 
 possess such incalculable value for us. Below the level 
 of the temples of Eleusis the excavations have brought 
 to light precious relics of archaic art, and although 
 these marbles are few in number, and cannot be com- 
 pared to the Acropolis statues, and although none of 
 the bronzes have been discovered here which were so 
 plentiful at Olympia, yet the exploration of the shrine 
 of Demeter has enriched the history of ancient art 
 with some noteworthy examples. 
 
 It is not necessary to discuss at length the female 
 statues reproducing the type with which we are already 
 acquainted from the excavations at Delos and on the 
 Acropolis. Here too we can follow the slow and 
 steady progress of early Greek art, from the almost 
 shapeless figure, still .encased in its stiff sheath, up to 
 the nearly perfect statues which are the works of 
 ripened archaism. All the stages in this long journey 
 are marked by some statue at Eleusis : first comes the 
 old xoanon, scarcely blocked out, encased in its sheath 
 from waist to feet, the bust alone expanding rather 
 more freely under the heavy folds of its drapery; then 
 the female statue with the long tunic falling in folds and 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 327 
 
 finely folded upper garment, the wide mantle over the 
 shoulders, the carefully dressed hair, and calm, hieratic 
 attitude. Two among the figures of this type found at 
 Eleusis are especially interesting, for they belong to 
 that period of transition in which archaism, as it draws 
 to a close, is freeing itself from conventionality, and 
 making an effort after fidelity to nature. One, in 
 accordance with the conventional method adopted by 
 early artists to indicate motion, has one leg advanced 
 and the other bent ; while the body faces the spectator, 
 the legs are seen in profile; the draperies, however, 
 are already treated with marvellous delicacy, and a 
 pliant and youthful form is visible under the different 
 stuffs which the artist has distinguished with rare 
 skill. It is still faithful, it is true, to archaic tradition, 
 but the technique is already remarkable. The other 
 statue is more original, and shows more of the sculptor's 
 individuality ; the hair is treated with more freedom, the 
 attitude is more supple, the novel arrangement of the 
 drapery betrays an ardent desire for something newer 
 and better, while the nude portions show a more careful 
 study of anatomy. It is true that the extremities are 
 wanting in the delicacy and refinement of Attic work, 
 but we are sensible of a firm resolve to break at last 
 through the monotonous conventions of a school, and 
 this renders the statue worthy of attention. The head 
 is unfortunately missing in all these figures ; but some 
 archaic heads have been discovered at Eleusis which are 
 not unlike the less beautiful among the Athenian heads : 
 they have the same symmetrical arrangement of the hair, 
 which is dyed red and surmounted by a blue diadem, the 
 same eyes inclined upwards towards the temples, the 
 
328 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 same mouth with its half smile, and the same sketchy 
 modelling which does not render with exactitude any of 
 the details of the too precise oval of the face. 
 
 As to the artistic riches which adorned the temple of 
 Eleusis after it had been rebuilt, they have almost all 
 disappeared. Scarcely anything remains but a fragment 
 of a colossal statue of the Roman period, which is now 
 in the FitzwilHam Museum at Cambridge, a number of 
 rather poor bas-reliefs found in the temenos of Pluto, 
 and two pieces of sculpture both of which are worthy 
 of attention. One is the celebrated bas-relief in the 
 museum at Athens, in which Demeter in the presence of 
 her daughter is giving the young Triptolemus the ear of 
 wheat which is to make the earth fruitful ; it is one of the 
 most remarkable productions of Attic art in the period 
 immediately preceding Phidias, and the delicacy of the 
 modelling, the pliancy and grace of the movements, 
 belong to the purest style. The other is a beautiful 
 head of a young man, discovered in 1885 near the 
 sanctuary of Pluto, which is certainly one of the finest 
 pieces of Greek sculpture of the fourth century extant. 
 
 An inscription found near the statue bore a dedication 
 to Eubuleus, a divinity whose cultus was in the fifth 
 century associated in the religious worship of Eleusis 
 with that of Triptolemus and the divine pair mysteriously 
 called " the god and the goddess." According to the 
 legend, this personage was a brother of Triptolemus, 
 who was feeding his flock upon the plain at the time 
 of Cora's abduction, but, as a matter of fact, the name 
 designated, by a kind of euphemism, a chthonic deity ; 
 as Pluto means the god who enriches, so Eubuleus 
 signifies the beneficent. This was one of the forms o^ 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ELEUSIS. 329 
 
 the chthonic divinity worshipped at Eleusis, who never 
 assumed in this cultus the savage and destructive 
 character of Hades. Closely associated with the 
 great goddesses, Pluto-Eubuleus watched with kindly 
 care over the seed buried in the soil, and brought the 
 harvest forth out of the earth which is his kingdom. 
 The worship of this deity, which had been cast into the 
 shade by that of lacchus, seems to have undergone a 
 kind of revival in the fourth century, and the temple 
 where the head was found dates precisely from that 
 period. We may then conclude without improbability 
 that this head, with its dreamy and melancholy expres- 
 sion, represents Eubuleus himself, and this hypothesis, 
 by becoming a certainty, has at the same time shown 
 that this marble was an original work by one of the 
 greatest sculptors of antiquity. 
 
 It is well known that Praxiteles chose the motive of 
 several of his statues from the cycle of Eleusis, and 
 made for the sanctuary figures of Demeter, Cora, and 
 Dionysus, as well as a group representing Triptolemus 
 and the great goddesses, and another well known in 
 ancient times under the name of the Katagousa, which 
 represented Demeter carrying her child. The some- 
 what melancholy mythology of Eleusis seems to have 
 had a particular fascination for this master, and to have 
 gratified his desire of modelling expressive statues. 
 He also sculptured an Eubuleus, and this work was no 
 doubt placed in the sanctuary of Eleusis. The style of 
 the recently discovered head is undoubtedly that of a 
 great master ; it is, on the other hand, unquestionably 
 an original which was famous in ancient times, for 
 copies of it exist at Rome and Mantua; lastly, the 
 
330 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 extremely skilful technique of the work, the delicacy 
 and care with which the hair is treated, and the shape 
 of the forehead, strongly recall the Hermes of Olympia. 
 We may then safely recognise in this marble a work 
 of Praxiteles.* The head is undoubtedly very different 
 from that of the Hermes, the expression has more in- 
 dividuality, and its gravity is tempered by infinite sweet- 
 ness, but the Hermes is a work of the master's youth, 
 while the Eubuleus marks the full maturity of his 
 genius. Unfortunately the marble has suffered, and 
 the breakage has impaired the effect of the work. It 
 is none the less a valuable discovery, and it is not the 
 least merit of the excavations of Eleusis that they have 
 restored to us an original work by the great Athenian 
 master of the fourth century. ^ 
 
 * Dr. Otto Kern {Miith., vol. xvi.) denies that the head is the 
 work of Praxiteles, and declares that it represents Triptolemus (the 
 name Eubuleus having no connection with it, and being in fact a title 
 pf Zeus).— E. R. P. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS OF EPIDAURUS (1881-87). 
 
 Books of Reference : — 
 
 Professor Gardner, " New Chapters in Greek History. " 
 
 Louis Dyer, "Tiie Gods in Greece." 
 
 Cavvadias, " Rapports sur les fouilles d'Epidaure " (JPraktika 
 
 1881-85). 
 Stais, Ibid. (1886-7). 
 Cavvadias, " Inscriptions d'Epidaure " (^Ephemeris Archaiologike, 
 
 1883-6). 
 StaTs, Ibid. (1887). 
 
 Cavvadias, "Monuments d'Epidaure " ( „ „ 1884-5). 
 
 Stai-s „ „ ( „ „ 1886). 
 
 S. Reinach, "Chronique d'Orient " {Rev. Archeol., 1884). 
 „ „ " La Seconde Stele des Garrisons Miraculeuses " 
 
 {Rev. Arch., 1885). 
 „ „ "Les Chiens dans le Culte d'Esculape " {Rev. Arch., 
 
 1884). 
 Petersen, " Athenastatuen von Epidauros " {Mitth., vol. xi.). 
 Furtwaengler, "Epidauros" {Berliner Philol. Wochenschri/l, 1888, 
 
 p. 1484). 
 Defrasse et Lechat, "Notes sur Epidaure " {Bull. Corr. Hell., 1890). 
 Foucart, "Sur les Sculptures et la date de quelques Edifices 
 
 d'Epidaure." 
 Girard, " L'Asclepieion d'Athenes." Paris, 1881. 
 
 Among the religious cults of ancient times that of 
 Asclepius, whom the Romans called Aesculapius, was 
 certainly one of the most interesting and remarkable, 
 as it is in some respects also one of the most modern. 
 Whatever liberties Hellenic piety may have taken at 
 times with the other Olympic deities, with Zeus for 
 
332 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 example or Apollo, the prayers addressed to them by 
 their worshippers were mainly spiritual and moral in 
 their nature ; these deities were personages of too much 
 importance to be readily appealed to in all the petty 
 miseries of mankind. The case was quite different with 
 Asclepius. He was a physician, and we all know that we 
 keep no secrets from our doctor; thus his worshippers 
 revealed to him all the troubles and annoyances, not of 
 their souls, but of their bodies ; at the foot of his altars 
 they did not scruple to display all the infirmities of 
 human nature ; their piety was quite at its ease with 
 him, and in dishabille, so to speak. The study of the 
 cultus of this god of help and healing, whose temples 
 seem to us to have been really hospitals, the only 
 charitable institutions ever originated by the ancient 
 Greeks, forms one of the most interesting chapters in 
 their religious history. Thanks to the zeal and devotion 
 of the Archaeological Society of Athens, we can easily 
 pursue this study to-day ; the excavations conducted by 
 them in 1876-77 on the southern slope of the Acropolis 
 made us acquainted with the precinct of Asclepius at 
 Athens, and shortly after, the important explorations at 
 Epidaurus, carried on from 1881-87 under the direction 
 of M. Cavvadias, brought to light the most famous and 
 splendid of his temples, and restored to us a great 
 number of monuments of all kinds which throw quite 
 a new light on a cultus hitherto almost unknown. 
 
 I. 
 
 A traveller of the second century a.d., who saw the 
 dying splendour of Pagan Greece, has given us a some- 
 what lengthened description of the wonders of the temple 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 333 
 
 of Epidaurus, and has explained precisely what were 
 the essential elements of every sanctuary of Asclepius. 
 " Three things were included in it : a temple which 
 sheltered the statue of the god, porticoes or broad and 
 airy galleries where his guests found temporary refuge, 
 and lastly a spring which provided the water necessary 
 for the treatment which he prescribed, and for the 
 purifications and ablutions of the suppliants." * In the 
 greater number of the temples the buildings were 
 very simple : the important matter being the convenient 
 arrangement of the religious hospital attached to the 
 temple, it was necessary, as M. Girard remarks, to secure 
 large empty spaces for the construction of the porticoes 
 destined to receive the patients, together with spacious 
 courtyards and easy means of ingress and egress, in 
 order that the crowd of pilgrims might move about 
 with ease ; so that in order to accommodate the 
 dependants of the god, his temple was encroached 
 upon. Nor was it, as a rule, one of the splendid 
 buildings erected at great cost, with the aid of the most 
 illustrious artists of Greece ; Asclepius contented him- 
 self with a modest chapel, where valuable offerings and 
 curious ex-votos offered by the grateful piety of his 
 worshippers were collected around his statue. The 
 greater part of the sacred precinct was occupied by 
 wide, airy colonnades, where the crowds of worshippers 
 were lodged ; near these was the miraculous spring, 
 and sometimes a sacred wood as well, which diffused a 
 coolness and shade beneficial to the sufferers. Such was 
 also the case at Epidaurus ; but on the other hand, here, 
 at the most celebrated of all the temples of the god, the 
 * Girard, UAsclepieion d'Athenes, pp. 5, 6, 
 
334 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 aspect of the buildings was far more splendid. Within 
 the sacred precinct, entered through propylaea of the 
 Doric order, there rose some buildings of considerable 
 size, of whose arrangements we now know the most 
 important details. There was the temple of Asclepius, 
 nearly 80 feet long by about 40 feet in width, with 
 Doric columns and painted cornice ; its pediments 
 were decorated with statues, and figures were placed 
 upon the summit and at the angles of the principal 
 fagade ; it was built in the early part of the fourth 
 century, and strangely enough had no opisthodomos 
 or chamber to the rear of the cella. Near it stood a 
 fine circular building, the Tholus, built in the fourth 
 century by Polycleitus the younger, a splendid marble 
 rotunda, surrounded by a Doric colonnade, and orna- 
 mented on its inner circumference by sixteen Corinthian 
 columns. This was one of the most beautiful buildings 
 at Epidaurus, with its coffered ceilings painted in a 
 thousand different colours, with its walls decorated with 
 all kinds of marbles, and lions' heads and marble 
 ornaments crowning its summit ; it was also one of the 
 most remarkable, with its circular crypt, where three 
 concentric passages no doubt formed a reservoir fed by 
 the sacred spring. Both buildings contained master- 
 pieces of art : in the temple was the gold and ivory 
 statue by Thrasymedes of Paros, representing Asclepius 
 seated on his throne, and accompanied by his sacred 
 animals, the serpent and the dog, frequently connected 
 with the cultus and the miracles of the god ; while in the 
 tholus, entirely decorated with paintings, was to be seen 
 among others the famous Methe of Pausias, a woman 
 drinking out of a cup of glass, much praised by the 
 
Plan of the Sanctuary 
 OF Epidaurus. 
 
 1. Stadium. 5. Large building, use 8. Tholus of Poly- 10. Statues. 
 
 2. Temple. unknown. cleitus. 11. Double por- 
 
 3. Gymnasium. 6. Temple of Artemis. 9. Temple of Ascle- tico. 
 
 4. Propylaea. 7. Altar. pius. 12. Portico. 
 
336 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 ancients for its wonderful transparency. A little farther 
 on was the Doric temple of Artemis, in front of which 
 there was an altar ; the goddess was worshipped there 
 under the name of Hecate, and as a divinity of 
 healing and succour her cultus was closely connected 
 with that of Asclepius. Then came the chapels built 
 in honour of Hygieia, the beloved daughter of the god, 
 of Aphrodite and of Themis, and of Apollo Maleatas, 
 who at Tricca, his Thessalian shrine, worked miraculous 
 cures like Asclepius, and to whom the faithful often 
 addressed their prayers and oiTered their worship 
 before going to Epidaurus. In the midst of the precinct 
 stood a large altar, and along its northern wall there 
 ran two Ionic porticoes, one of which consisted of two 
 stories, one above the other, which formed the sacred 
 dormitory or abaton, divided into two long bays, where 
 the patients spent the night ; at the eastern end of this 
 building was a well, from which came the water needed 
 for the treatment prescribed and for purifications. 
 There were many other buildings as well : a large 
 square edifice to the south of the temple of Asclepius, 
 which was found full of statues and offerings ; another, 
 of which the purpose is unknown, between the temple 
 of Artemis and the Propylaea ; to the north of the 
 Abaton magnificent baths, adorned with statues and 
 built by the emperor Antoninus, in which a library has 
 been found among the many halls grouped round a wide 
 courtyard ; lastly, outside the precinct lay the stadium, 
 and at a greater distance on the opposite hill-side the 
 theatre, also built by Polycleitus the younger, which 
 was considered one of the largest and finest in Greece. 
 The excavations have restored to us this magnificent 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 337 
 
 ■edifice in an almost perfect state of preservation, with 
 its thirty-two tiers of seats, its circular orchestra, of 
 which the centre was occupied by an altar, and its wall 
 decorated with columns and statues supporting the 
 stage ; while before it the view stretched far away over 
 the beautiful picture formed by the buildings within the 
 sacred precinct. Everywhere, on the terraces of the 
 peribolos and around the temples, there rose a multi- 
 tude of statues representing the god, richly-decorated 
 exedrae, monuments erected to famous doctors, stelae 
 or tablets recording the miraculous cures worked at the 
 sanctuary, and pious ex-votos and bas reliefs painted in 
 bright colours, bringing before the visitors the miracles 
 of the god or the homage paid by the worshippers. 
 Only one thing was wanting to this sanctuary of the 
 healing art : one might be cured there of any disease, but 
 one could not die in peace. It was forbidden to dese- 
 crate any holy place, Epidaurus as well as Delos, with 
 the pollution inseparable from birth and death ; and 
 the sick, when on the point of death, were mercilessly 
 driven out of the sacred precinct, whither sometimes 
 they had come from the most distant parts of Greece 
 to consult the god, and sank down overcome by exhaus- 
 tion and fatigue on the very threshold of the temple. 
 It was left for the benevolence of a Roman Emperor 
 to put an end to this wretched and barbarous state 
 of things. Antoninus had a large building erected 
 outside the boundaries of the peribolos, in which the 
 <iying might at least pass their last moments in peace. 
 Such refinements of humanity were always deemed 
 superfluous in Greece. 
 
 Such is the scenery which formed the background 
 
 22 
 
338 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 of the festivals of Asclepius, and amidst which the 
 superstitious crowd of worshippers came every day to 
 the foot of the altars to lay bare their sorrows and to 
 await the marvellous effects of the almighty power of 
 the saviour-god. It is time now to bring forward the 
 principal characters in the play. 
 
 Asclepius, like every other deity, had his high priest,, 
 whose duties did not differ much from those of the 
 ministers of other cults : the charge of the sacrifices, the 
 superintendence of the temple decorations, the manage- 
 ment of the sacred treasure, formed the ordinary business 
 of every priestly body. Still it seems likely that the 
 character of the god in whose service he stood, imposed 
 certain special duties upon the high priest of Epidaurus.. 
 The crowds of sick persons who came to the temple- 
 in search of health must undoubtedly have imposed 
 various obligations upon him. It must have been 
 necessary for him to exercise some supervision over 
 the multitudes crowded together in this vast cara- 
 vansary, and undoubtedly the duty of keeping order 
 within the sanctuary devolved upon him : in any 
 case the head of the priesthood at Epidaurus could not 
 be entirely indifferent to the pilgrims who flocked to the 
 temple, for the more frequent and wonderful the cures,. 
 and the more numerous the patients, the more glory 
 and profit accrued to himself; consequently the high- 
 priest exercised absolute control over the sacred 
 hospital entrusted to his care, although he does not. 
 seem to have operated himself. It was the inferior 
 officials of the temple who came into direct contact 
 with the sick, whose duty it was to receive them, to- 
 instal them in their places in the porticoes, to bestow 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 339 
 
 certain elementary attentions upon them, and to see 
 that the prescriptions of the god were properly carried 
 out. Among these subordinate functionaries the in- 
 scriptions name the zacorus, the cleiduchus or key- 
 beaver, the pyrphorus or torch-bearer. Their duty 
 was simply that of acting as intermediaries between 
 the god and his worshippers ; it was not from them 
 that the cure came, and Asclepius himself received all 
 the honour. The prescriptions given by the god were 
 communicated to the priests, and it was their business 
 simply to see that the miracle which had been foretold 
 did not fail; consequently it is rare to meet with a 
 doctor among them — whose presence indeed must have 
 been quite unnecessary, when we think what the course 
 of treatment at these temples really amounted to. 
 Certainly medical science reached a very high point in 
 ancient Greece : the schools of Cos and Cnidus, of 
 Rhodes and Cyrene, were famous throughout the 
 Greek world, but the doctors trained in them were 
 mostly laymen. In fact by the side of the religious 
 treatment practised in the sanctuary, every city had lay 
 doctors, and by the side of the religious hospital, which 
 lay under a slight suspicion of charlatanism, the city 
 organised a civil hospital under the direction of a 
 physician appointed and paid by the state. In this 
 building was to be found all the equipment necessary 
 for scientific treatment — a consulting room, an operating 
 theatre with all its instruments and apparatus, levers 
 of all kinds, a beam from which to suspend the patient 
 by the feet in order to reduce dislocations of the thigh, 
 knives and bistouries, trephines and instruments for 
 cutting the uvula, premises for the preparation of drugs, 
 
340 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 and lastly, rooms for the sick. In establishments 
 of this kind the treatment was thoroughly scientific, 
 carried out under the eye and by the hands of a 
 professional physician. In the temples of Asclepius 
 nothing of the kind was to be found. The variety of 
 ailments and the recurrence of cases of the same kind 
 no doubt gave the priests at last a certain amount of 
 practical experience, but their share in the treatment 
 was limited as a rule to certain simple attentions to the 
 sick. The cures effected were the purely divine and 
 supernatural effects of the intervention of a higher 
 power. "A sick man who came to take up his place 
 under the porticoes of the temple of Asclepius, and 
 who went to sleep there, after having offered the 
 customary sacrifices and gone through the usual for- 
 malities, in the hope that the god would appear to him 
 and point out the remedy for his disease, did not rely 
 for his cure upon the aid of human science ; he put his 
 whole trust in the working of a higher power, — it was 
 a miracle that he expected. We can therefore under- 
 stand how it was that the presence of a doctor was 
 unnecessary ; all that was wanted was for the priest 
 and his subordinates to see that the miracle did not 
 fail. The Asclepieum was not a hospital to which 
 one went to be treated by men who had enjoyed 
 professional training and long practice ; it was a temple 
 to which men resorted in order to place themselves 
 under the protection of a divinity." 
 
 II. 
 
 Pausanias relates that at Epidaurus he saw six 
 tablets recording the miraculous cures effected by 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 34 1 
 
 Asclepius in his sanctuary, and giving, together with 
 the name of the sick person, a statement of the disease 
 and of the treatment prescribed by the god. By a rare 
 piece of good fortune two of these interesting records 
 have been found in the course of the excavations. Two 
 very long inscriptions, both dating from the fourth 
 century, have been discovered near the large Ionic 
 portico, and make us acquainted in a very curious 
 fashion with the sacred therapeutics. Each inscription 
 mentions about twenty cases which give an admirable 
 idea of the tact and skill of the divine physician. We 
 will only briefly mention the cases of the one-eyed or 
 the blind, whose sight Asclepius restored by rubbing 
 the empty socket with a salve of his own making, or of 
 the lame whose crutches were stolen during their sleep, 
 and who in the morning could run after the thief; we 
 will say nothing, interesting as the case is, of that man 
 of Mytilene who, as the inscription says, " had no hair 
 on his head but plenty on his chin," and for whom 
 Asclepius made a thick head of hair grow in a single 
 night ; we will not even dwell upon the paralytics 
 whom the god commanded to go out and to bring a 
 heavy stone into the temple, — these are but the " small 
 change " of the miraculous cures. We will hasten on to 
 the more remarkable cases — the treatment of dropsy, 
 for example. There was a Spartan woman who was 
 suffering from dropsy. Her mother went to consult the 
 god of Epidaurus on her account, for Asclepius could 
 work his cures from a distance, and the presence of the 
 sick person was not indispensable. She fell asleep 
 within the precinct, and had the following vision : "It 
 seemed to her that the god cut off her daughter's head 
 
342 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 and hung up her body neck downwards ; the water ran 
 out in streams, and then he took the body down and 
 replaced the head upon the neck. After she had seen 
 the vision the mother returned to Lacedaemon and found 
 her daughter restored to health." Let us see how 
 Asclepius treated a case of cancer. There was a man 
 who had a cancer in his stomach ; he went to Epidaurus, 
 slept, and had a vision. "It seemed to him that the 
 god commanded his attendants to seize him and hold 
 him firmly while he opened his stomach. The man 
 began to run away, but the attendants caught him and 
 bound him ; then Asclepius opened his stomach, cut out 
 the cancer, sewed up the incision, and released the man 
 from his bonds." Immediately he went away healed. 
 The god had equally efficacious remedies against gout 
 and headache ; he restored speech to the dumb, health 
 to those who were suffering from incurable wounds, 
 ease to those afflicted by leprosy or vermin ; he heard 
 the prayers of barren women, and of those who sought 
 for delivery when too long-delayed ; he knew the 
 remedy for every ailment, and had prescriptions for 
 all kinds of sickness, and it is to be regretted that the 
 coarseness of the details prevents our giving the par- 
 ticulars of some of his cases. He was certainly in 
 favour of violent treatment : to cure a bandy-legged man 
 he laid him on the ground in front of the temple, and 
 mounting his chariot, he trampled him under the horses' 
 hoofs until his legs were straight. He was an ardent 
 lover of surgical operations. One of his patients had 
 swallowed leeches : what did the god do ? "It seemed to 
 this man," says the inscription, "that the god cut open 
 his chest with a knife, and taking out the leeches, gave 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 343 
 
 them into his hands and sewed up his chest again. 
 When day broke he departed, carrying the leeches in 
 his hands, and from that moment he was cured." The 
 •cause of this malady is scarcely less remarkable than 
 the treatment. It was due, according to the inscrip- 
 tion, to a trick of the patient's stepmother, who had put 
 the leeches into a mixture of wine and honey which he 
 had swallowed. We see how cruel were the sufferings 
 to which the stepsons of ancient times were exposed. 
 
 One of the most wonderful cases, and one of the 
 most celebrated in antiquity, was the miraculous cure of 
 a woman who suffered from a worm of monstrous size. 
 Her case was given up by the doctors. She went to 
 sleep in the temple of Asclepius at Troezen, and it seemed 
 to her that the sons of the god — who was too much 
 •engaged to come himself — cut off her head, plunged 
 their hands into her intestines, and pulled out the worm ; 
 but, when they had done so, they could not put the head 
 on the poor woman's body again. They had to send in 
 hot haste to Epidaurus to beg Asclepius to come and 
 repair the effects of their clumsiness. The god hastened 
 to their aid, reproved the imprudence of his children, 
 who wished to do more than their skill admitted of, 
 and then with his unrivalled art, put the head on the 
 shoulders again, and the woman was healed. 
 
 Asclepius did not give his services for nothing ; he 
 made a point of receiving his fee, and sometimes it was 
 a high one, for we are told of one remarkable cure for 
 which he charged nearly ;^2500. He was not to be 
 trifled with in this matter, and did not hesitate to use 
 the irresistible means of compulsion which his divine 
 character put into his hands. One blind man whom he 
 
344 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 had healed refused to pay the price of his cure, and 
 was at once deprived of his sight again ; but when 
 he came humbly promising to be more grateful in 
 future, Asclepius was generous enough to heal him 
 once more. He was always a good-natured god, who 
 was not above being merry, and liked a joke, A sick 
 child promised him ten knucklebones as a fee, and 
 the offer amused Asclepius so much that he cured his 
 little patient at once. He made merry in a very 
 irreverent fashion at the cost of a good woman who 
 had put the questions she asked of the god in a clumsy 
 way ; he bore no grudge against the sceptics who mis- 
 trusted his power, but only tried to convince them of 
 the injustice of their doubts. A man whose fingers 
 were paralysed came one day to Epidaurus, and seeing 
 the votive tablets set up to commemorate miraculous 
 cures, began to ridicule all these inscriptions. What 
 did the god do ? He appeared to the sceptic in a dream^ 
 and stretching out his fingers one after the other, restored 
 him the use of his hands ; then, when the man in his 
 surprise could not credit the miracle, and was clenching, 
 and extending his fingers in turn, Asclepius came back 
 to him and asked him if he were still sceptical. He 
 replied that he was not. Then the god said, " Since 
 but just now thou didst not believe things which are 
 not incredible, I will now bestow upon thee an in- 
 credible cure." This was the only vengeance he took. 
 The same thing happened to a woman from Athens. 
 " Walking round the precinct, she began to ridicule 
 some of the cures, saying that it was absurd and. 
 impossible for the lame to walk and the blind to see^ 
 simply because they had had a vision. And sleeping^ 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 345 
 
 she saw a vision : she thought the god stood by her and 
 said that he would make her whole, but that he required 
 her as payment to dedicate in the precinct a silver 
 pig, as a memorial of her folly. And when the day 
 broke she went away healed." In short, the god was 
 thoroughly good-natured, kindly, and obliging, always 
 ready to work a miracle, even when it was quite 
 foreign to his craft, and making success in difficult 
 cases a point of honour. Here is the case of the porter 
 who let his bag fall, and broke the cup out of which his 
 master used to drink. As the man, much grieved, was 
 trying in vain to fit the pieces together, a passer-by 
 saw him, and said with a smile, "Why, unfortunate, 
 do you try in vain to put the cup together ? Asclepius 
 himself, the god of Epidaurus, could not make it whole." 
 This was enough : the god thus challenged was on his 
 mettle, and when the slave, on reaching the temple, 
 opened his bag, he found the cup miraculously mended. 
 Nothing was too hard for Asclepius ; he could mend 
 broken crockery as easily as broken limbs, and was as 
 ready to work a miracle to save Sparta from the attacks 
 of Philip of Macedon as to restore to health the sick 
 who sought his aid. 
 
 From these curious tablets of Epidaurus we can get 
 an admirable idea of the ordinary methods of treatment 
 in use at the shrine. There is no question of pharma- 
 ceutical remedies ; the inscriptions only speak of visions 
 and dreams.* It was not by ordinary remedies, but by 
 
 * There is, however, on the second tablet, a curious case which seems 
 to show that the priests sometimes performed actual surgical opera- 
 tions after having sent the patient to sleep : cf. Reinach, Chroniqties 
 d' Orient, Paris, 1 891, p. 93. 
 
346 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 purely supernatural intervention, that the god relieved 
 the sufferings of the faithful who sought his aid. The 
 maladies, too, to which he devoted himself belonged to 
 the province of miracle rather than to that of science, 
 and professional physicians would as a rule have found 
 as much difficulty in treating them as in curing them. 
 This is not the least curious side of these stories 
 which throw such interesting light on the therapeutics 
 of ancient temples. 
 
 We can easily imagine that these miraculous cures, 
 of which the fame spread throughout the Greek world, 
 attracted many patients to the temple of Asclepius ; 
 and as one could go there not only on one's own behalf, 
 but on that of others, if the sick people were too 
 seriously ill to undertake the pious pilgrimage in person, 
 the sanctuary was always full. Every class in society 
 furnished its contingent ; rich and poor, great and 
 small, all met there at the foot of the altars, but the 
 greater number were women. The worship of Asclepius 
 was in fact well suited to attract them : the dreams, the 
 nocturnal revelations, the miracles, all the attendant 
 circumstances, by inspiring them with a holy terror, 
 charmed their imagination and attracted them to the 
 god. Religious bodies placed themselves under the 
 protection of Asclepius, fanatical devotees passed their 
 whole lives under the shadow of the sanctuary, inflamed 
 by a kind of mystical love for the god who had bestowed 
 some favour upon them, and even the laymen of the 
 medical profession, although they were in direct com- 
 petition with the unlearned practitioners of the 
 Asclepieia who robbed them of many patients, lowered 
 their colours, if not before the priestly wonder-workers 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 347 
 
 whom they suspected of quackery, at least before the 
 god whose almighty powers they recognised. Public 
 physicians willingly placed themselves under the protec- 
 tion of the god of healing, and thanked him for the 
 fortunate cures they had accomplished. The inscrip- 
 tions prove this subordination of science to religion, and 
 the writings of Hippocrates bear many traces of it : he 
 knows no other remedy for epilepsy than sacrifices, 
 vows and supplications, and as a cure for melancholy 
 he recommends the worship of the gods. Elsewhere, 
 too, there occurs this remarkable passage : " As regards 
 diseases and their symptoms, medicine in the greater 
 number of cases inclines to do honour to the gods. 
 Physicians bow before them, for medicine has no 
 superabundance of power."* Thus faith in the super- 
 natural existed even in men of science ; medicine often 
 confessed itself powerless before religion, and the appeal 
 to divine assistance always remained, says M. Girard, 
 for the learned as well as for the ignorant, the final 
 resource and the last hope. 
 
 A curious scene in the Plutus\ of Aristophanes, in 
 which, through the exaggerations of comedy, it is 
 easy to distinguish the elements of truth, describes to 
 us with great exactitude the way in which one of the 
 pilgrims, who came in crowds to Epidaurus to pray 
 for healing, spent his day. When the sick man was 
 brought to the temple, it was customary first to 
 purify him, by plunging him into the sacred spring. 
 Worshippers were to present themselves pure before 
 the God ; and purity meant for the ancients, as it does 
 
 * Hippocrates, Ilept ivo'xVM'OO'^''^^- 
 •j- Plutus, 653, 899. 
 
348 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 for the Orientals of our own time, corporal cleanliness* 
 more than anything else ; in a hospital, moreover, such 
 as the sanctuary really was, precautions of this kind 
 were necessary measures of hygiene, and the priests no 
 doubt were careful to see that no one took up his place 
 in the porticoes without first having carefully bathed. 
 Then, having consecrated some cakes and other delicacies 
 on the altar of Asclepius, or offered to the god, if one 
 were richer, the more costly sacrifice of a pig or a ram, 
 he took up his position for the night in the sacred 
 dormitory. The patients had to bring with them all 
 they needed, both their provisions and the coverlets in 
 which they wrapped themselves, for the authorities 
 of the temple only put at their disposal modest 
 beds of straw. At nightfall they lighted the sacred 
 lamps, and the priest recited a kind of evening prayer,, 
 to entreat the divine protection for the pilgrims. 
 Then they all lay down, and the temple-servant went 
 through the porticoes putting out the lights, and 
 bidding the sick people go to sleep. The holy night 
 had begun. 
 
 When the worshippers had fallen asleep, their 
 imaginations inflamed by the expectation of some divine 
 vision, and their minds excited by the atmosphere of 
 the temple and the solemn surroundings of the evening 
 prayer, Asclepius appeared to them in a dream, and 
 revealed to them either the treatment they were to 
 adopt or the religious observances they were to perform 
 in exchange for a sudden and miraculous cure. We 
 have had some examples of the miracles which the god 
 worked as he went his way ; the prescriptions he gave 
 
 * Girard, L'Asclepieion, p. 71. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 349 
 
 were not less remarkable. To some he recommended 
 baths ; some he advised to drink lime-water or hemlock- 
 juice, and for others he prescribed gymnastic exercises 
 and cold baths. One of his directions was to eat a 
 spiced partridge ; another, a sovereign remedy against 
 pleurisy, was to apply to the side affected a poultice 
 •of ashes moistened with wine. A certain cure for 
 spitting blood was to eat fir-cones cooked with honey ; 
 to recover one's sight, nothing was better than a certain 
 eye-salve made with the blood of a white cock ; lastly, 
 water, played a more important part in his treatment 
 than anything else, both applied externally by means 
 ■of baths, or internally as a drink." * 
 
 All these prescriptions were very simple, as we see ; 
 if the treatment he administered with his own hands 
 was somewhat rough, Asclepius prescribed little to his 
 worshippers beyond simple hygienic measures ; the rest 
 was a matter of faith, and the miraculous intervention of 
 the god always played the principal part in the cure. 
 
 In the morning, all the patients related to the priests 
 the directions which Asclepius had communicated to 
 them in their dreams, and busied themselves in carry- 
 ing out the divine prescriptions. They hastened to the 
 spring, and waited eagerly for the promised miracle. 
 When sudden cures took place, there were cries of joy, 
 and endless congratulations addressed to the fortunate 
 recipients of the blessing ; but often the revelation was 
 awaited night after night, the god put the patience of 
 his worshippers to the proof, and was slow to appear ; 
 still each new cure brought fresh hope with it, and 
 gave to those whose prayers were still unanswered, 
 
 * Girard, UAsclepieion, p. 71. 
 
350 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 Strength to wait until the day should come when the 
 god would take pity on them too. 
 
 The influx of visitors was still greater at the time of 
 the great festivals celebrated in honour of Asclepius, 
 the Epidauria and Asclepieia. Then the temple was 
 magnificently decorated, the statues were adorned with 
 their finest jewels, the tables loaded with the sacred 
 oanquet offered to the god ; then, too, took place those 
 holy vigils when all night long, by torchlight, the wor- 
 shippers, their souls filled with the hope of a blessing, 
 addressed their prayers and invocations to the god ; 
 and then, among this great multitude, in this overheated 
 atmosphere, were no doubt worked the most wonderful 
 of the miracles, those which most powerfully impressed 
 the imagination of the people. At such a time the 
 precinct was full of noise and stir ; together with the 
 multitude of worshippers doing homage to the god, and 
 of sick people, accompanied often by their whole families, 
 who had come to pray for their restoration to health, 
 a crowd of spectators and an army of merchants 
 thronged around the temenos. Dealers in ex-votos 
 and curiosities set up their stalls in the plain, and tcv 
 this great fair held under the shadow of the temple, 
 worldly needs and pleasure attracted as many visitors 
 as piety and devotion led worshippers to the foot of 
 the altars. 
 
 When once the blessing had been received, it re- 
 mained for the worshipper to discharge his debt of 
 gratitude to the god. On this point ancient piety was 
 of a very practical nature, and made a real bargain 
 with the divinity, a reciprocal arrangement which gave 
 nothing for nothing. Propitiatory sacrifices intended 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 3 5 I 
 
 to conciliate the good-will of the god were very rare, 
 and always very modest ; a man did not pay his 
 debt until his prayer had been heard. If Asclepius 
 remained deaf to the entreaties of his worshipper, he 
 lost thereby all right to the promised offering ; on 
 the other hand, if he was faithful to the terms of the 
 agreement, the devotee was exact in payment, and as 
 Asclepius was a deity who kept his word, popular piety 
 was lavish of gifts and ex-votos. Sometimes the god, 
 in the vision in which he appeared to the suppliant, 
 himself named the offering he would prefer, and the 
 inscriptions show that in this case Asclepius, with 
 remarkable courtesy, usually directed the faithful to the 
 altars of other divinities. Apollo Maleatas and Athena 
 Polias, Hygieia and the sons of Asclepius, Helios and 
 the Dioscuri, Telesphorus the saviour and the mother 
 of the gods — sometimes indeed the whole Greek pan- 
 theon — received these attentions paid by the god of 
 Epidaurus at the expense of his worshippers. At 
 other times he allowed his worshippers to discharge 
 their debt in what way they pleased, and then the 
 variety of offerings was infinite. Sometimes they 
 took the shape of painted reliefs representing scenes of 
 worship or prayer, showing the god at the bedside of 
 the patient, or depicting the precise moment of the 
 miraculous cure, somewhat like those naive pictures 
 hung round the necks of the blind, which bring before 
 our eyes the catastrophe in which they lost their sight. 
 Sometimes they were statues or portraits of the sick 
 who had been healed ; most frequently they consisted 
 of a multitude of small articles in marble or metal, the 
 list of which, preserved in the temple inventories, i& 
 
352 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 very curious. Some offered to the god a reproduction 
 on a small scale of the body of the person healed, others 
 ■consecrated a representation of the part affected, in 
 
 Ex-voto to Asclepius (Athens). 
 
 memory of the benefit they had received. There were 
 whole faces, mouths and eyes, noses and ears, hands 
 and feet, legs and trunks, hearts and breasts in gold or 
 silver, or simply in gilded metal, to suit more modest 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 353 
 
 purses, — just as in Italy to-day we find offerings of this 
 kind suspended on the walls of famous shrines. Then 
 there were surgical instruments, probes, medicine- 
 chests, the gifts of physicians to Asclepius ; there were 
 vases, toilet-requisites, clothes, shoes, jewels, all the 
 thousand things that the gratitude of the faithful con- 
 secrated in the sanctuaries of antiquity. Lastly, there 
 were metrical inscriptions, hymns, paeans, sometimes 
 composed by the sufferers themselves, and engraved 
 in the sanctuary in honour of the god. One of these 
 poems has been found at Epidaurus, in which a certain 
 Isyllus,* at the command of the oracle of Delphi, sang 
 the genealogy and the miracles of Asclepius, and else- 
 where there are thanksgivings which reveal a naive 
 and touching piety. " Listen," says one of these poets 
 " to the words of thy faithful zacorus : O Asclepius,^ 
 how shall I go into thy gilded dwelling, O god, blessed 
 and desired, beloved, how shall I go, deprived of 
 those feet which once led me to thy sanctuary, if thy- 
 self, in thy goodness, thou dost not take me there after 
 having healed me, that I may behold thee, O my god, 
 whose glory surpasses that of the earth in spring? 
 Here is the prayer of Diophantus. Save me, and heal 
 my grievous gout, O blessed and most mighty presence. 
 I adjure thee by thy father, to whom I loudly pray. 
 None among mortals can bring a surcease from such 
 pangs ; thou alone, divinely blessed one, thou hast the 
 power, for the supreme gods bestowed thee upon men, 
 inestimable gift ! to take pity on their sufferings and 
 relieve them. O blessed Asclepius, god of heahng, it 
 is thanks to thy skill that Diophantus, relieved of his 
 
 * Ephemeris, 1885, p. 74. 
 
 23 
 
354 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 incurable and horrible disease, will no longer go like 
 a crab ; he will no longer walk upon thorns, but he will 
 have a sound foot as thou hast decreed." * 
 
 III. 
 
 It was towards the end of the fifth century that the 
 sanctuary of Epidaurus seems to have reached the 
 height of its fame. It was then, almost at the same 
 time that the temples of Sunium, of Rhamnus and of 
 Phigalia were being built in other parts of Greece, that 
 the sacred precinct of Asclepius was filled with splendid 
 edifices ; the Tholus and the theatre, the colonnades of 
 the Abaton and the temple of the god, date from this 
 period, and the excavations have shown with what 
 magnificence all these buildings were carried out. For 
 the temple especially no expense was spared ; a 
 long and interesting inscription found at Epidaurus 
 has made us acquainted with all the details of its con- 
 struction, and has given us, in the amount expended on 
 the building, a presentiment of its splendours. The 
 works of art discovered in the course of the excava- 
 tions confirm this testimony, and give a very high 
 idea of the sculptural decoration of the sanctuary. 
 
 A large number of statues in Pentelic marble were 
 found in front of both fa9ades of the temple ; they un- 
 doubtedly belonged to the pedimental sculptures, and 
 although most of them are very much injured, it is 
 by no means impossible to reconstruct the composition 
 of which they formed a part. On the eastern pediment, 
 the scene represented was the battle between Centaurs 
 
 * The translation is taken from M. Girard, U Asde'pieion, p. 121- 122. 
 See Prof. Dyer's Gods in Greece. — E.R.P. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 355 
 
 and Lapiths, of which we possess only a few fragments 
 — amongst others a fine head of a Centaur; on the 
 western pediment appears the same subject which we 
 find at the temple of Phigalia and on the mauso- 
 leum of Halicarnassus, the struggle between Greeks 
 and Amazons. Many of the pediment figures have 
 •come down to us almost intact, and we cannot 
 sufficiently praise the grace of their attitudes, the 
 variety of their expression, the delicacy of the model- 
 ling and the elegance of the drapery ; their exquisite 
 style recalls the marbles of the temple of Wingless 
 Victory, and they are undoubtedly the work of a 
 master of the Attic school. Amongst them we should 
 mention a fine equestrian statue, a remarkable head of 
 a dying Amazon, an admirable torso of Victory, and 
 two figures of Nereids on horseback which were 
 probably placed at the corners of the pediment. 
 Lastly, three statues of winged Victories in Parian 
 marble crowned the summit of the building, which by 
 the boldness of their pose, their exquisite refinement, 
 and the impetuous motion of their drapery, strikingly 
 recall the Victory of Paeonius found at Olympia and 
 the Nereids which decorate the monument of Xanthos. 
 They should perhaps be attributed to some sculptor of 
 the Parian school, of which one master, Thrasymedes, 
 worked at Epidaurus, and whose chief, Scopas, seems 
 to have been inspired more than once by the tradition 
 and manner of Paeonius.* 
 
 Many other statues have been found at Epidaurus 
 
 * These figures of Amazons and Nereids were made after models 
 by Timotheus. See Prof. Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History 
 p. 369.-E.R.P. 
 
3 56 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 which bear witness to the length of time 'through which 
 the prosperity of the sanctuary endured. The greater 
 number represent Asclepius, and some of them seem 
 to reproduce a famous image of the god, perhaps the 
 seated statue which was shown within the temple, 
 while others are figures of divinities associated with 
 his cultus, — the triple Hecate, Hygieia, Aphrodite and 
 especially Athena. Most of these works, however, 
 date from a late period, and do not merit much atten- 
 tion. An Aphrodite however of the first century B.C., 
 offers a fine and interesting replica of the Venus 
 Genetrix. 
 
 Before we end we may ask of what use these temples 
 were, and what we are to think of the part they 
 played in ancient times. Much evil has been said of 
 the Asclepieia of late : the priests of the god have 
 been considered notorious charlatans who impudently 
 traded on the credulity of the simple and ignorant. 
 Some have thought that they discovered among the 
 ancients themselves a deep dislike to these trickeries. 
 Undoubtedly the miraculous cures of Asclepius early 
 aroused some scepticism, as the inscriptions of 
 Epidaurus prove, but even this was not without 
 benefit for the sanctuary. When faith grew cool, and 
 the patients began to doubt the miraculous power of 
 Asclepius, the priests, in order to preserve the reputa- 
 tion of the temple, felt the necessity of applying to the 
 sufferers the resources of scientific medicine. This is 
 shown by a curious inscription from Epidaurus,* where 
 the treatment of dyspepsia is set out at length. The 
 prescription is very complicated, and I should not like 
 Ephemeris, 1885, p. 220. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT EPIDAURUS. 357 
 
 to guarantee its efficacy, but these are the principal 
 directions : never to give way to anger, to submit to a 
 special diet of bread and cheese, of parsley and lettuce, 
 of lemon boiled in water, and milk with honey in it, to 
 run in the gymnasium, to swing on the upper walk 
 of the sanctuary, to rub the body with sand, to walk 
 barefoot before bathing, to take a warm bath with wine 
 in it, to bathe and rub oneself, and to give a drachm to 
 the bathing-man, to rub oneself with salt and mustard, 
 to gargle the uvula and tonsils with cold water, finally, 
 and this is all-important, to sacrifice to Asclepius, and 
 not to forget to pay one's fees when going away. The 
 treatment was to be tried for nine days, and the effect 
 would be excellent.* 
 
 The value of the institution cannot be denied. The 
 temples of Asclepius were, in truth, vast benevolent 
 institutions or hospitals, doing their work under the 
 eye of the god, with the encouragement and aid of the 
 state. There the rich found useful guidance, the poor a 
 refuge, and physcians themselves salutary inspiration, f 
 No doubt the institution degenerated in time ; the temple 
 of medicine often became a refuge for every kind of 
 superstition, but it is none the less true that medicine 
 found its earliest cradle there, and that for a long time 
 the cultus of the physician-god was one of the most 
 popular in Greece. 
 
 * Translations of the text of this inscription in Reinach, Chroniques 
 d'Oricnt, pp. 96-7. 
 f Girard, p. 126. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA (1870— 1889). 
 
 Books of Reference : — 
 
 Rayet, "Les Figurines de Tanagra au Louvre" (Etudes d'Arche- 
 ologie et d'Art, pp. 275-324). 
 „ " L'Art Grec au Trocadero " (Ibid., 364-79), 
 Heuzey, " Recherches sur les Figures de Femmes Voilees " 
 (Mon. Grecs, 1873). 
 „ "Recherches sur un Groupe de Praxitele," etc. (Gas. des 
 
 Beaux-Arts, 1875). 
 „ "Nouvelles Recherches sur les Terres-cuites Grecques" 
 
 (Ibid., 1876). 
 „ "Les Figurines Antiques du Musee du Louvre." 
 Kekule, " Thonfiguren aus Tanagra. " 
 Pettier, " Les Statuettes de Terre-cuite dans I'Antiquite." 
 Pettier and Reinach, "La Necropole de Myrina. Paris, 1886. 
 Reports of Late Excavations in Deltion Archaiologikon. 
 Martha, "Catalogue des Figurines de Terre-Cuite du Musee de la 
 
 Societe Archeologique d'Athenes." 
 Haussoullier, "Quomodo Sepulcra Tanagraei Decoraverint." 
 
 Paris, 1884. 
 Pettier, "Quam ob Causam Graeci in Sepulcris Figlina Sigilla 
 deposuerint." 
 
 Amongst all the provinces of modern Greece, Boeotia i& 
 certainly one of the least attractive and the least visited.. 
 Travelling there is difficult, the inns are full of dis- 
 comforts, and hospitality anything but ready ; while the 
 scenery is rarely grand, and the ruins never striking ; 
 in addition to all this moreover the very name of the 
 country, in spite of the great memories of Pindar and 
 Hesiod, of Epaminondas and of Plutarch, awakes an 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 359 
 
 indescribable notion of heaviness, clumsiness and hope- 
 less stupidity. From ancient times Boeotia has had a 
 most unenviable reputation : the Athenians, like good 
 neighbours, were never weary of jesting upon the 
 stupidity and awkwardness and ignorance of the 
 Thebans ; their slanderers were always ready to com- 
 fuse Boeotian with imbecile ; and, indeed, when we cast 
 up the intellectual balance-sheet of Boeotia and see 
 that, with two or three exceptions, it has contributed 
 nothing to Greek literature, and has never produced a 
 great sculptor nor a great painter, we are inclined to 
 think that its reputation was not undeserved. We 
 should still be of this opinion if, during recent years, 
 excavations had not chanced to reveal to us, in this ill- 
 famed region, wonders of taste and refinement, of fancy 
 and grace ; we mean those exquisite terra-cotta statu- 
 ettes generally known as Tanagra figurines, from the 
 name of the town where the greater number of them 
 were found, but many charming examples of which 
 have been discovered in all parts of Boeotia, at Thisbe, 
 Thespiae, Thebes, Abae, and at other places as well, 
 which amply avenge the Boeotians upon the contempt 
 of antiquity. 
 
 I. 
 
 If from the heights of Parnes we turn our eyes 
 towards the north, we see at its foot a very long and 
 fairly broad depression running to the east towards the 
 straits of Euboea ; it is the valley of the Vourienis, the 
 Asopus of the ancients, a stream which possesses this 
 peculiarity amongst others, that its channel only runs 
 
360 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 dry for a very small part of the year. In the centre 
 of this valley, at the confluence of the Vourienis and 
 one of its affluents, lie the scanty remains of the ancient 
 city of Tanagra, quite close to the modern village of 
 Skimatari. If the saying is true, Happy is the people 
 which has no history, the inhabitants of Tanagra must 
 have enjoyed perfect felicity, for we know in fact 
 almost nothing of the history of their town, except that 
 it enjoyed a certain strategical importance from its posi- 
 tion where several important roads met, and that its 
 possession was keenly disputed in the fifth century b.c. 
 between Thebes and Athens. In later times, when 
 the battle of Chaeronaea had overthrown the power of 
 both Thebes and Athens, Tanagra, which was already 
 a flourishing town, saw its importance still further 
 increased ; and after the destruction of Thebes by 
 Alexander had rid it of a formidable rival, it became 
 for some centuries the most populous city of Boeotia. 
 A traveller of the second century b.c. describes it in 
 these terms* " The city is steep and lofty, white in 
 appearance and clayey. The interiors of the houses are 
 elegant, and decorated with encaustic paintings." Life 
 there, it seems, was easy and agreeable, the wine good, 
 the people courteous, hospitable and charitable, the 
 cock-fights famous throughout Greece; so that altogether 
 Tanagra was an earthly paradise. In addition to this 
 its women were beautiful, " the most comely and 
 graceful in all Greece," says an ancient writer, " from 
 their shape, their bearing, and the rhythm of their 
 movements." According to the same traveller, there 
 was nothing Boeotian in their conversation, and their 
 
 * Dicaearchus, Frag. Hist. Grace, ed. Miiller Die, fr. A. 8. 9. 10. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 36 1 
 
 voices were full of charm ; it is therefore easy to under- 
 stand why strangers found Tanagra so agreeable, and 
 also why a poet of the period said, " Make friends of 
 the Boeotians, and do not shun their women ; for the 
 men are worthy fellows and the women are delightful." 
 Nevertheless, in spite of the memory of their charm- 
 ing manners, in spite of the love of the beautiful which 
 seems to have been widely diffused in the town, in 
 spite of the splendour of its temples adorned by famous 
 works of art from the hand of Calamis, and of the fame 
 of its poetess Corinna who more than once was Vic- 
 torious over Pindar himself, the name of Tanagra would 
 be completely forgotten if some astonishing discoveries, 
 made about twenty years ago, had not drawn attention 
 to this obscure district of Greece. For a long time the 
 peasants of the neighbouring villages, when tilling their 
 ground, had come across ancient tombs full of vases 
 or statuettes ; the name Skimatari, village of figurines, 
 no doubt arose from this, but the objects themselves, 
 found in small numbers, passed through so many hands 
 before they reached a final resting-place that all pre- 
 cise indications of their origin were lost. It was not 
 until 1870 that the explorations were pushed on more 
 actively. A Greek from Corfu, Giorgios Anyphantis, 
 better known under his nickname of Barba-Jorghi (old 
 George), was just at this time engaged in secretly 
 exploring the burial-ground of Thespiae ; he heard a 
 report of the discoveries which had been accidentally 
 made at Tanagra, and established himself in the village, 
 where, thanks to the experience he had had in work of 
 this kind, he soon made the most splendid discoveries. 
 Until his arrival the tombs explored had belonged 
 
362 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 almost exclusively to a very early period, and their 
 contents were not very valuable ; he was fortunate 
 enough to find tombs of a later date, more richly pro- 
 vided, and containing objects which fetched a much 
 higher price, so that in a short time he made a very 
 handsome profit. Encouraged by his example, the 
 peasants of the village left their farms and also began to 
 excavate, so that the windows of the Athenian dealers in 
 antiquities soon contained a large number of exceed- 
 ingly lovely terra-cotta figurines. The prodigious 
 success which these figures met with in Europe, and the 
 rapid increase in price which followed in consequence, 
 brought sudden riches to the people of Skimatari and re- 
 doubled their zeal. All the land of the village was dug 
 up and turned over in every direction, and as the Greek 
 government made no effort to organise regular excava- 
 tions, and the Archaeological Society of Athens did 
 not condescend to take any interest in these delightful 
 discoveries, the burial-ground of Tanagra was literally 
 plundered by ignorant men whose chief anxiety was 
 to make some lucrative finds. When at last the 
 authorities bethought themselves that the excavations 
 were unauthorised, and the Archaeological Society 
 realised that the finest statuettes had been taken out 
 of the country, it was too late. It was useless to 
 send a representative of the Society in 1873, supported 
 by a detachment of soldiers, to put an end to clandestine 
 researches with a strong hand ; all that was of value 
 had long since crossed the frontier, and nothing re- 
 mained but to collect the refuse. 
 
 Three times the Archaeological Society returned to- 
 the charge: in 1873, in 1875, and in 1876 it ordered 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TAN AGRA. 363 
 
 excavations to be made in the burial-ground; but as its 
 chief anxiety was to fill its empty cases, it cared little 
 for making scientific explorations, and thus in spite of 
 the great number of tombs which have been opened, — 
 not less than eight or ten thousand — the excavations 
 at Tanagra have furnished us with thousands of 
 exquisite figures, but with no exact and certain in- 
 formation regarding the arrangement of this important 
 cemetery. 
 
 Nevertheless it is possible, by means of inquiries 
 made upon the spot and information furnished by some 
 better instructed visitors who chanced to be present at 
 some of the excavations, to form some notion of the 
 circumstances in which the contents of the tombs in the 
 burial-ground of Tanagra were found ; and fortunately 
 new explorations set on foot by the Archaeological 
 Society in 1888, and carried on this time on a really 
 scientific plan, have recently supplied what was lacking 
 in our imperfect knowledge. On the other hand, the 
 excavations in the cemetery of Myrina, near Smyrna, 
 where during three successive years (1880-82) under 
 the direction of the French School at Athens, nearly 
 five thousand graves were opened, afforded the most 
 valuable information as to the arrangement of the 
 ancient burial-ground, and brought to light tombs very 
 similar to those of Tanagra. If we combine these 
 different sources of information we shall understand 
 with sufficient exactness how the Greeks buried their 
 dead. 
 
 All along the roads which in ancient times stretched 
 from Tanagra out into the country there ran long lines 
 of tombs, grouped into three large cemeteries ; naturally 
 
364 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the tombs which they contained were not all of the 
 same period nor of the same shape. Sometimes the 
 grave is a simple quadrangular trench, a large hole 
 dug in the ground, without any lining to protect the 
 corpse ; sometimes the bones of the dead are contained 
 in sarcophagi of terra-cotta or stone placed in the earth ; 
 sometimes— and this is the commonest kind — the grave 
 cut in the tufa is protected by a lining of bricks or by 
 slabs of stone. "The great anxiety of the ancients was 
 to give their dead a strong and inviolable retreat in 
 order to ensure their repose, and at the same time 
 to protect from desecration the objects of value often 
 placed in the tomb. It was for this purpose that 
 they endeavoured to make the walls of the tomb in- 
 destructible and to close it as completely as possible, 
 either by filling the grave with a thick layer of earth or 
 by covering it with heavy slabs of stone forming a kind 
 of lid." * At the bottom of the grave the corpse was laid, 
 with the head turned to the east or to the north — in this 
 matter there was no unvarying rule — and all around it, 
 mixed up with the bones and the earth in the tombs, 
 were objects of all kinds, buried with the corpse and 
 forming its funeral equipment. There were objects 
 which the dead had used in daily life, — strigils and 
 mirrors, boxes for paints and perfumes, ornaments and 
 children's toys ; there were vessels, too, designed to 
 hold their food and drink, dishes of earthenware and 
 bronze, cups and platters, bottles and lamps ; there were 
 also coins, and lastly figurines of terra-cotta. Naturally 
 we do not find in all the tombs opened a complete set 
 of the objects forming the equipment of the grave ; 
 
 * Pettier and Reinach, La Ne'cropole de Myrina, p. 63. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 365 
 
 Statuettes, in particular, were a luxury which only the 
 rich could offer to their dead. Very often a common 
 unpainted vase placed at the head of the corpse and a 
 few other worthless objects, were the whole garniture of 
 the grave. It is only in a few tombs that we meet with 
 the terra-cotta figures, which are sometimes entire but 
 more often broken into a hundred pieces. As a rule the 
 same tomb contains a considerable number of them ; 
 sometimes fifteen or twenty have been found in a single 
 grave, and sometimes as many as fifty. They are not 
 found however, as we might expect, arranged in good 
 order as if on the shelves of a cabinet, but they have 
 been thrown in carelessly, wherever there was space, 
 between the wall of the grave and the corpse, generally 
 on either side of the head or at its feet ; many of them 
 have been broken in the fall ; many were intentionally 
 dashed to pieces, to remove all temptation from those 
 who might despoil the grave ; while many, thrown into 
 the tomb during the burial, have suffered still more. 
 Consequently the number of figurines found entire is 
 very small, and a too perfect state of preservation is 
 almost calculated to throw a doubt on the genuineness 
 of the figure. The scattered fragments of these fragile 
 reUcs can fortunately be put together without difficulty ; 
 this is even, we may add, a favourite employment of 
 the forgers, who, by dint of restoring and repairing and 
 arranging, make up hundreds of false figurines for the 
 benefit of unsuspecting purchasers. 
 
 Amongst the objects laid in the grave these statuettes 
 of terra-cotta form by far the most interesting class. 
 They constitute a little world by themselves of infinite 
 variety, in which we find every style, every fashion, and 
 
S66 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 €very period; figurines of men and women, statuettes of 
 •divinities and spirits, as well as grotesque and indecent 
 ones ; jointed figures like puppets, and hollow figures 
 with a stone inside like rattles ; animals of every kind, 
 statuettes of every degree of merit, rudimentary or 
 exquisite, coarse or finished, all differing from one 
 another according to their circumstances and their date. 
 In very ancient tombs terra-cottas are rare, and in their 
 place we usually find fine vases painted in the oriental 
 style ; it has been generally noticed that the tombs in 
 which we find few figurines are rich in vases, whilst 
 those in which statuettes are abundant contain hardly 
 any pottery, as though these two forms of funeral adorn- 
 ment had succeeded one another. Nevertheless, as 
 early as the seventh and sixth centuries b.c, the tombs 
 ■contain very quaint figures, singularly naive in concep- 
 tion and exceedingly coarse in execution, which the 
 peasants, struck by the resemblance they offer, by their 
 long garments in straight folds and the high caps upon 
 their heads, to the dress of Greek monks, call irairdZe^ 
 •or priests, and which undoubtedly possess a religious 
 character. They recall the ^oava of early Greece, which 
 were for so long the objects of popular veneration ; their 
 form is shapeless, their garments are only indicated by 
 a number of coloured lines, their legs are not separated, 
 and their arms are only stumps, while the profile is 
 sometimes scarcely traceable, and is sometimes accen- 
 tuated until it becomes like the beak of a bird. They 
 are sometimes represented as standing, and sometimes 
 as sitting on a high-backed seat, they are of no 
 artistic value, and are only interesting from their 
 antiquity. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TAN AGRA. 367 
 
 In the tombs of later date, in which we can discern 
 the approaching perfection of Greek art, terra-cottas are 
 more numerous. Instead of these shapeless figures, we 
 meet with works whose beauty is already striking; 
 figures of divinities, easily recognisable from their at- 
 tributes, busts of noble style which were placed on the 
 walls of the tomb, and whose figures, cut off at the waist, 
 seemed in a manner to spring from the ground, and 
 symbolised the divine ascension of the chthonic deities. 
 The greater number of these busts represent a veiled 
 woman of majestic expression, whose gentle gravity 
 and rather severe grace evidently denote a divinity, 
 probably Demeter, the great goddess of Eleusis. 
 
 Most of the tombs, however, contain a greater variety 
 of figurines. By the side of the statuettes of divinities, 
 whose majesty, moreover, seems to grow more human, 
 we meet with a great number of familiar scenes from 
 daily life. There are children playing with their 
 favourite animals, or carrying in their hands their balls 
 and their knuckle-bones ; there are ephebi equipped 
 for the gymnasium or the chase, elegantly dressed 
 women playing or walking, fashionable ladies and demi- 
 mondaines, the thoughtless and the melancholy, the 
 laughing and the sad, whose incognito it is not 
 always easy to pierce. Then there are genre scenes, 
 statuettes of animals, and jointed figures ; and all these 
 fragile wonders, in which an exquisite feeling for form 
 is united with a profound understanding of life, are 
 admirable in their animation, their fanc}', and their 
 brightness. In spite of certain differences in style and 
 workmanship they all spring from the same inspiration, 
 and belong to the same period of art, no less brilliant 
 
368 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 than ephemeral, which, however, suffices to ensure the 
 glory of Boeotian workshops. 
 
 Unfortunately, it is very difficult, in the absence of 
 precise information drawn from coins and- inscriptions, 
 to determine the exact date of the Tanagra figurines ; this 
 is the inconvenient result of the clandestine excavations 
 and the frauds which accompanied them. The greater 
 number of the statuettes, however, must, it would seem, 
 be attributed to the fourth century. Just at this time, 
 as Rayet says, a remarkable transition was taking place 
 in Greek art : it was emancipating itself from tradition, 
 and freeing itself from the religious austerity of the 
 preceding age, and seeking everywhere the charm of 
 individuality and life. Praxiteles and Scopas brought 
 the gods of Phidias to the level of humanity, Lysippus 
 devoted himself to portraits, Apelles worked from the 
 living model ; in all directions, even in literature as well,^ 
 we find a new taste for realism. This is precisely the 
 characteristic of the Tanagra figurines ; the workmen 
 who modelled the statuettes — coroplasts, as they were 
 called — went boldly forward on the new road which art 
 was treading in the fourth century. The clay of which 
 they made their little figures lent itself better than 
 bronze or marble to the inventions of an art attracted 
 by all that was natural and familiar, and masterpieces of 
 the most charming and ingenious grace and fancy were 
 produced by an inspiration, thoroughly popular in its 
 nature. 
 
 It is on this account that the statuettes deserve to be 
 studied with the keenest interest. They reveal an art 
 which is quite new to us, with whose methods we were 
 scarcely acquainted, and whose perfection we did not 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TAN AGRA. 369 
 
 suspect. They introduce us to the everyday life of 
 ancient Greece, its customs and pleasures and habits 
 and dress, they bring the contemporaries of Alexander 
 to life before our eyes, and, above all, they are charming 
 in themselves. Less than this would have made 
 Tanagra the fashion ; and, in fact, all the museums of 
 Europe contended for these exquisite and fragile figures. 
 Since the year 1875 the Louvre has been so fortunate 
 as to gather together a number of examples, almost 
 all of which are of value ; private collections at the 
 same time, particularly those of MM. Lecuyer, de 
 Clercq, Dutuit, Bellon, Greau, Rayet, were enriched 
 by charming statuettes, and, in spite of the acquisitions 
 made since then by the British Museum, and the 
 purchase of the splendid SabourofF collection by the 
 Hermitage Museum at St. Petersburg, France has 
 become the possessor of the greater part of the spoils 
 of Tanagra. The exhibition at the Trocadero in 1878 
 revealed the exquisite art of these Boeotian coroplasts 
 to the general public and set a seal upon their fame, 
 so that now even laymen are acquainted with these 
 masterpieces which the soil of Boeotia has restored to 
 us by thousands, and pride themselves on appreciating 
 their graceful ingenuity, their lively fancy, and their 
 unexpectedly modern spirit. 
 
 n. 
 
 " The Tanagra statuettes vary considerably in size : 
 the largest are as much as fifteen inches in height, 
 while the smallest only measure between two and three 
 inches ; but the greater number reach a height of about 
 
 24 
 
370 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 eight inches when seated, of from five to seven when 
 kneeHng, and of eight to ten when standing. The 
 appearance of all, however, is the same, and they are 
 all made in the same way. Generally it is only the 
 front which is carefully modelled ; the back presents 
 simply a rounded surface, in which contours and 
 draperies are represented in a very sketchy way, and 
 in the middle of which is a rectangular hole, sometimes 
 of considerable size — the vent-hole, made in the figurine 
 when the clay is still soft, which served to facilitate 
 evaporation during the baking. Almost all are placed 
 on a very shallow plinth added beneath the statuette 
 before it was fired ; some stand on a lofty pedestal 
 which forms part of the figurine." * Most of them were 
 made in a mould, but the figure thus formed was 
 afterwards touched up with modelling tools, and com- 
 pleted and corrected so that each figurine received an 
 individual stamp under the hand of the coroplast, and 
 thus the mechanical reproduction became a work of 
 art. It is on this account that the Tanagra figures 
 deserve a place in the history of art, and that the 
 way in which they were made deserves to be studied 
 with some attention. 
 
 We shall not dwell upon the very simple technique 
 adopted in the manufacture of early examples and 
 those of little value, such as cheap idols, dolls, and 
 children's toys ; all these cheap goods were made by 
 hand, and naturally in a very coarse way. The use of 
 the mould, which made the work at once easier and 
 more certain, and by leaving the inside of the figure 
 hollow, also made the statuettes much lighter, soon 
 
 * Rayet, Etudes d'Arche'ologie ei d'Art, pp. 287-88. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 37 1 
 
 took the place of this primitive method, the only one 
 with which the simple workmen were acquainted who 
 fashioned the first quaint figurines stamped out of a thin 
 cake of terra-cotta. It is easy to imagine how the 
 ■coroplast set to work ; with a first layer of fine, well- 
 kneaded clay he took the impression of the mould in 
 terra-cotta by pressing the clay with his finger into all 
 the cavities of the mould ; then to the first layer he 
 applied a second, and so on, until he obtained the 
 required thickness. In many statuettes we can still 
 trace the marks of the workman's fingers on the inner 
 side of the figurine. The mould was usually in two 
 parts, one of which represented the front and the other 
 the back of the figure; the clay was pressed into 
 each of the two halves, and then the moulds were 
 brought together, and the two parts of the statuette 
 made to adhere on the inside with a little clay. The 
 head, arms, and feet, were also, as a rule, made 
 separately. Naturally, on its removal from the mould, 
 often worn by long use, the cast presented a rather 
 rude appearance. Here began the true function of the 
 coroplast : he set to work afresh on this rough model 
 of a statuette, worked it up, and finished it off; he 
 -emphasized the somewhat lax modelling, he hollowed 
 the folds of the drapery with his graving-tool, rendered 
 the head more expressive with a touch of his thumb, 
 and delicately threw into relief the dainty edifice of the 
 hair, thus impressing on the work the mark of his 
 individuality. Nay, more : as the prominent parts were 
 generally added later — as the head, feet, hands, and 
 accessories of all kinds, hats and fans, balls, wreaths, 
 wings and the rest, were made separately — the figurine 
 
372 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 had really to be dressed, and the coroplast could adorn 
 it to please his fancy. He chose one or another of 
 these little heads, attached its long neck to the top of 
 the statuette, and fixed it with a touch of his finger ; 
 then he bent or raised it, and bestowed upon it 
 according to his fancy a dreamy or coquettish, a sad 
 or gay expression, thus giving quite a different aspect 
 to two casts from the same mould. He would put 
 a garland of flowers into the hands of one, and give a 
 fan or a mirror to another, and his fancy combined the 
 accessories of all kinds which were at his disposal 
 with astonishing fertility of imagination. 
 
 If we wish to see some examples of the trans- 
 formations, often very witty and amusing, which the 
 coroplast's caprice made the different copies from the 
 same mould undergo, a figurine from Athens will show 
 us a piquant combination. The statuette as it left 
 the mould represented a young girl picking flowers ; 
 some fancy crossed the mind of the modeller, and 
 without stopping to correct the feminine contour of the 
 bust, he worked it over so as to represent the roughness 
 of a shaggy skin ; between the shoulders he planted a 
 grinning head, with pointed beard and long ears, — and 
 behold the graceful girl transformed into a satyr ! On 
 the body of a young man, dressed in a short cloak, the 
 coroplast would put different heads in turn, sometimes 
 he would make him wear a cap and sometimes a pointed 
 hat. One day chance threw a winged cap into his hands^ 
 and the ephebus became a Hermes. Further on we 
 shall find two young girls resting on a seat without a 
 back in a charming attitude of reverie ; both are alike^ 
 and no doubt they came from the same mould, but to 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TAN AGRA. 373 
 
 one the artist has given a dainty little head, the hair 
 dressed to perfection, while he has bestowed upon the 
 other a face wrapped in a veil and wearing a sorrowful 
 expression, thus rendering the two sisters absolutely 
 unlike. When the mould represents a group, the 
 variety is still greater, for an alteration in the slightest 
 detail gives it a new aspect. The motive which 
 represents a pair of lovers has been reproduced to 
 infinity in the coroplasts' workshops ; and still they 
 were able to present this uniform type in a thousand 
 different ways ; by the change of a head or an attribute, 
 they represented in turn Aphrodite and Eros, Aphrodite 
 and Adonis, Dionysus and Ariadne, Dionysus and 
 Methe. Lastly (and this is a new source of piquant 
 variety), when a mould was worn out a new impression 
 could be taken from a particularly successful copy, 
 and by this double contraction there was produced a 
 statuette of the same type but much smaller, and in 
 this way a series could be formed of identical repre- 
 sentations gradually decreasing in size. Thus with a 
 very small number of moulds the coroplast produced a 
 display of marvellous originality and novelty, and we 
 cannot sufficiently admire the fertility of imagination, 
 the changeful fancy, and the prodigious dexterity with 
 which these unknown artists succeeded, by skilful re- 
 touching and ingenious combinations, in giving infinite 
 variety to a small number of types. 
 
 The toilette of the figurine was, however, not yet at 
 an end. When it had been retouched, it was allowed 
 to dry ; it was then fired, and returned to the workman's 
 hands in order to be painted. It was first dipped in a 
 bath of lime or chalk, which formed a creamy white 
 
374 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 surface which took the colours better than the porous 
 clay, and then it was painted from head to foot. The 
 drapery was generally coloured blue, red, or pink ; but 
 besides these tints, black, yellow, green, and a light 
 violet were often used. Jewels and ornaments, 
 diadems, bracelets, and earrings were gilded, the hair 
 was painted a beautiful reddish brown, recalling the 
 auburn tresses of which the Boeotian women were so 
 proud, the lips were red, the pupil of the eye pale 
 blue, while the black eyebrows, very much prolonged, 
 recall the fact that antimony was known in ancient 
 times ; the cheeks, lastly, were given a pale pink hue. 
 Sometimes the colours were fixed by being fired a 
 second time with a gentle heat, but this is the exception 
 rather than the rule, and consequently many of the 
 figurines have lost their original brightness through 
 their long burial, though many statuettes have been 
 found both at Tanagra and at Myrina which have 
 retained an incomparable freshness of colouring. 
 
 It is difficult to realise the astonishing favour which 
 the Tanagra figurines found throughout the ancient 
 world ; in Asia Minor, Italy and Sicily, and from Cyrene 
 up to the Cimmerian Bosphorus, wherever terra-cotta 
 statuettes were made, the products of Boeotian work- 
 shops were eagerly sought after and imitated. In all 
 these workshops, moreover, the methods of manufacture 
 were nearly the same. The art of the coroplasf is 
 essentially an industrial art — one which has its fixed 
 rules, and in which mechanical labour has a large share. 
 It is true that the originality of the artist makes itself 
 felt in ingenious and unforeseen combinations of ac- 
 cessories, in the skill and intelligence displayed in 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 375 
 
 retouching and in the tasteful harmony of colours, but, 
 before all, the workman is practising a trade by which 
 he has to live. This must never be lost sight of in en- 
 deavouring to interpret the meaning of these graceful 
 statuettes, for where we endeavour to find the traces 
 of premeditation and profound thought, there is often 
 nothing more than a fanciful caprice, the whim of an 
 artist desirous of showing with what ingenuity he 
 can vary a single type, and how tastefully he can 
 group the most heterogeneous elements. " Suspended 
 between the ideal and the real world," M. Heuzey has 
 gracefully said, "many of these figures remain in an 
 uncertainty which forms part of their grace. They are 
 fragile and delicate things, which science must not touch 
 with too heavy a hand lest it should crush them." 
 Would that the commentators had been guided by 
 these words of wisdom, and that the author himself 
 had not sometimes forgotten them a little. 
 
 III. 
 
 During the twenty years, in fact, that we have been 
 acquainted with these Tanagra figurines, the question 
 has often been put, What do these graceful and 
 dainty little figures represent, with their piquant air, 
 their gait now rapid and agile, now indolent and 
 languishing, and their exquisitely graceful attire ? 
 And upon this difficult question there is discord in the 
 camp of the archaeologists. On the one hand, M. 
 Heuzey, a champion of delicate taste, undoubted learn- 
 ing, and marvellous ingenuity, endeavours to show, 
 with astonishing fertility of argument and remarkable 
 skill, that these figurines so delicate and spirituelles 
 
376 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 have a religious and symbolical sense, and that under 
 their mundane appearance are concealed the great and 
 mysterious divinities of the lower world. On the other 
 hand, a whole school of archaeologists, adopting a 
 simpler and more ordinary explanation, seek for repre- 
 sentations of daily life in these graceful statuettes, and 
 will see nothing in them but genre subjects. The battle 
 between the two systems has lasted long, and among 
 the most ardent of the combatants, among those who 
 have fought most brilliantly in this sometimes epic con- 
 flict, we cannot forbear to mention Oliver Rayet, so 
 early taken from the study to which he had rendered 
 and might still have rendered such great services. As 
 always happens in battles of this kind, there are neither 
 victors nor vanquished and both parties have encamped 
 on the field, but now, when the heat of conflict is over, 
 it is perhaps possible to find a middle way between the 
 contradictory opinions which will doubtless be nearer 
 the truth than either. 
 
 We must certainly admit as an indisputable fact 
 the point which serves as a basis for all M. Heuzey's 
 demonstrations : that is, that in tombs of comparatively 
 early date, from the period of archaic art to that which 
 borders upon the period of perfection, the figurines 
 always represent divinities, and are, in fact, idols be- 
 longing to the grave. These figurines, stamped from a 
 cake of terra-cotta, with their calm and solemn attitude, 
 their strange and lofty head-dress, undoubtedly possess 
 a religious character, these busts, stamped in low relief, 
 in which definite attributes enable us to recognise 
 Demeter, Persephone, and Dionysus, these figures cut 
 ■off at the waist, whose expression is so noble and whose 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 377 
 
 Style is so perfect, evidently represent the powerful 
 deities of the lower world, leaving their subterranean 
 home to ascend among the gods ; and I need not refer 
 to that significant gesture, which with one hand brings 
 one of the folds of the veil over the breast, a delicate 
 and modest transformation of the Oriental type, which 
 by the two hands pressed upon the breast naively re- 
 presents the goddess-mother who sustains life in the 
 world and among human beings. 
 
 It becomes, however, more difficult to follow M. 
 Heuzey, when from these solemn figures he passes to 
 the slender and graceful figurines of the fourth century, 
 whose expressive faces, and whose attitude and attire, do 
 not immediately suggest types borrowed from religious 
 and heroic myths. Undoubtedly we may admit that 
 races do not in the course of a few years change their 
 traditional ideas concerning the life beyond the grave, 
 and yet it is very difficult to recognise the mysterious 
 divinity which conceals itself in these nameless beauties 
 of such mundane grace. We cannot fail to admire 
 the extreme ingenuity and marvellous flexibility with 
 which the slightest caprices and the most fugitive 
 thoughts of the ancient modeller are interpreted in 
 favour of the theory, and it is interesting to see how, 
 under M. Heuzey's pen, everything conspires to make 
 us recognise the great goddess Demeter in this youthful 
 female figure with its slow uncertain steps and its some- 
 what sad and melancholy expression ; how everything 
 becomes significant in this charming figurine, even to 
 the blue colour of the veil, the hue of sadness, to the 
 broad, pointed hat which befits the wandering goddess 
 traversing the world in search of her daughter, even 
 
378 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 indeed to the absence of characteristic attributes and 
 the efFacement of the divine type, by which the artist 
 wished to indicate the mystery in which the chthonic 
 deities loved to shroud themselves. In this way, every- 
 thing in these little folks of Tanagra can easily be 
 explained. If the veiled figure is accompanied by a 
 younger companion, clothed in bright colours and with 
 uncovered head, we must see in this group the happy 
 reunion of Demeter and Cora, while if we are called 
 upon to identify this young girl kneeling on the ground 
 and resting one hand on the earth, we think at once of 
 Cora picking flowers in the meadow of Nysa, or at 
 least of some immortalised being playing with her 
 dice, continuing the pleasures of life beyond the grave, 
 and symbolising with profoundly philosophical intent 
 " the contrast between the full bloom of womanly beauty 
 and a tragic fate." If we betray some astonishment at 
 finding these profound thoughts hidden beneath such 
 slight and trifling appearances, and wonder that the 
 ancient deities are content with such an easy grace, such 
 a familiar fashion of representing the gods, M. Heuzey 
 explains this profound change by the transformation 
 which art and religious feeling underwent in Greece in 
 the fourth century under the influence of Praxiteles. 
 These softened types are none the less easily recog- 
 nisable ; they represent divinities now as formerly, 
 — Demeter and Cora, Dionysus and Aphrodite, who in 
 the fourth century enters the cycle of the goddesses of 
 the dead ; around them cluster a whole train of beings 
 of a nature more familiar, but not less divine, nymphs 
 and spirits of the lower world bearing the poetic em- 
 blems of Elysian bliss, followers of Aphrodite, bacchantes 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 379 
 
 forming part of the thiasos of Dionysus, veiled attend- 
 ants on Demeter, a whole new and charming cycle 
 closely connected with the beliefs and the funeral rites 
 of Greece, and forming an utter contrast assuredly to 
 those genre subjects created indifferently, apart from 
 religious thought, by the caprice of the modellers. 
 
 A superficial analysis can give no idea of the 
 unrivalled skill with which M. Heuzey supports his 
 thesis, and the refined grace of the style in which he 
 clothes his supple dialectics. Nevertheless, in spite of 
 the seductive charm of his ingenious essays, we cannot 
 deny that there are remarkable differences in style and 
 inspiration between the idols of primitive times and the 
 figurines of the fourth century, and that it is almost 
 irreverent to recognise divinities in the fashionable 
 ladies who are quite absorbed in arranging their 
 draperies gracefully, in looking behind them to see the 
 effect of their trains, and in trifling with their fans and 
 mirrors, when they are not casting bewitching glances 
 around them . A large number of statuettes, too, are very 
 much out of harmony with the lofty meaning M. Heuzey 
 ascribes to them. The women prosaically engaged in 
 putting their bread into the oven, the good barber of 
 Tanagra just about to curl his customer's hair, the 
 hawker crying his wares, the child writing his copy under 
 the master's eye, and the other child fighting a strange 
 battle with a goose as big as himself, the cook getting 
 his luncheon ready, and many others — are all these 
 religious subjects ? have they the slightest connection 
 with burial rites ? Have these grotesque figurines, 
 these grinning and distorted faces of comic and tragic 
 actors, these often obscene caricatures, any relation to 
 
380 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the deity ? It may certainly be said that the object of 
 these statuettes was to amuse the dead man and thus 
 to overcome his ill-will against the living, or that they 
 are part of the train of Bacchus, of his escort of jesters 
 and actors, but, as a matter of fact, if we look with an 
 unprejudiced eye on a fairly numerous collection of these 
 figures, they produce upon us a very definite impression. 
 Certain figures are unquestionably representations of 
 divinities, others as undoubtedly bear an entirely 
 human and familiar character, but between the mytho- 
 logical subjects and those inspired by the scenes of 
 daily life there are a multitude of doubtful statuettes 
 whose meaning it is difficult to discover. It is round 
 these fair figures of uncertain origin that the battle 
 rages, according as we bring into prominence their 
 religious signification or dwell upon their realistic and 
 picturesque side, and it is to themselves that we must 
 look for the solution of the question. We may perhaps 
 find that it is not impossible to reconcile two theories 
 each of which contains a part of the truth. 
 
 The art of the coroplasts was above all industrial and 
 popular — " a sort of trade in cheap images," in which 
 the maker worked at great speed, and concealed the 
 hastiness and sketchiness of his work under an air of 
 pleasing negligence. Consequently we must not look 
 for any very profound aim or very philosophical inten- 
 tion in this rather hurried method of production, which 
 repeats by dozens the impressions from the same mould. 
 The sculptor who spends whole days in hewing out of 
 the marble an original figure may be able to make 
 every detail in this patient work of genius contribute 
 to the realisation of his thought, but the coroplast, as 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TAN AGRA. 38 I 
 
 M. Martha says, is an artisan who makes a figure with 
 somewhat mechanical indifference, and who is in haste 
 to have done with it that he may pass on to another 
 piece of work. Moreover, as he works for a living, 
 the little figures exposed for sale at his stall must take 
 the fancy of purchasers, and therefore they must be 
 suited to the prevailing taste. If the fashion is in 
 favour of religious figures, he will manufacture idols 
 for the grave ; when art emancipates itself, and under 
 the influence of Praxiteles the gods of Olympus assume 
 a more human aspect, the coroplast transforms the 
 primitive types and arrays the old divinities of Hellenism 
 in more modern dress. On the other hand, it is in- 
 evitable that subjects which are originally religious 
 should in time lose their primitive meaning. By dint 
 of repeating and reproducing the original composition 
 according to the traditions of the craft, the meaning 
 of the myth is gradually lost ; the study of natui e, to 
 which the artist of necessity devotes himself, introduces 
 variations, and the sacred type becomes nothing more 
 than a mechanical reproduction of a workman's pattern 
 in which the desire for a beautiful and picturesque 
 effect has gained the upper hand. At this moment it 
 would be very difficult to say whether the coroplast 
 has forgotten the religious thought expressed by the 
 primitive type, or whether he has intentionally re- 
 juvenated the sacred model by a piquant blending of 
 symbolism and realism ; whether he has simply, to 
 adopt an ingenious comparison, transposed a grand 
 and noble air into an easier and more familiar key, or 
 whether he is playing a new air unconsciously inspired 
 by ancient themes. The transition from a religious to a 
 
382 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 genre subject has become so easy that the step is often 
 taken, but whilst the symboUcal meaning has dis- 
 appeared, the plastic composition retains its essential 
 features, and an obscure connecting-link often binds 
 together two groups which seem to support two 
 contradictory theories. Certainly we cannot seek for 
 a symbolical or mystic meaning in every statuette, but 
 on the other hand it is impossible to deny the persistent 
 influence of religious traditions ; the desire of rejuve- 
 nating ancient types by picturesque effects is capable 
 of insensibly changing their character, but scenes of 
 every-day life are often closely connected by some bond 
 of origin with religious subjects. 
 
 Another and not less difficult question arises if we 
 inquire for what reason figurines were placed in the 
 tombs, and in order to reach a solution it may be worth 
 while briefly to recall the conceptions which the Greeks 
 entertained of the life beyond the grave. For them, as 
 for all the other people of antiquity, life did not come to 
 an abrupt close at death, but in the tomb where the body 
 was imprisoned an obscure existence was maintained 
 with all the needs and pleasures and desires of human- 
 ity. Even at a later time, when the Greeks pictured 
 to themselves all the souls of the dead assembled in 
 Hades, a subterranean region vaster than the tomb, 
 their only conception of this future life was as a repeti- 
 tion of life on earth. It was therefore the duty of the 
 living to supply food to the dead, who continued to 
 exist within the tomb ; and this is the reason why wine 
 and cakes and milk were placed upon the grave, and 
 also why, on certain anniversaries, funeral banquets 
 were celebrated there, at which the shade of the dead 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 383 
 
 man was present though invisible. It was also the duty 
 of the living to see that in the solitude of the tomb the 
 departed were surrounded by the objects they had 
 cared for on earth, and therefore arms, gymnastic 
 appliances, mirrors, needles, boxes of paints and cases of 
 perfumes, were buried with them. They must not only 
 be provided with necessaries, but with superfluities as 
 well, they must take their friends and companions down 
 with them into the other world in order to recommence 
 their round of pleasures there ; for this reason their 
 horses and dogs were buried with them, and in early 
 ages slaves and captive women were often sacrificed 
 upon the grave, that they might go down into Hades to 
 wait upon the departed, or to enliven his loneliness. In 
 later times when manners became less barbarous, these 
 cruel customs disappeared, and bloodless sacrifices, 
 prayers and music offered at the grave took the place 
 of these sanguinary rites ; but still the idea remained 
 that the solitude of the dead man must be enlivened, 
 and the melancholy of his shade dispelled. To cheer 
 the departed in the depths of the tomb, and to protect 
 him against the dangers of that mysterious journey, 
 was the twofold desire by which the piety of the sur- 
 vivors was inspired. It was for this purpose that the 
 Egyptians placed statuettes in the tomb, to answer the 
 summons of the departed, to aid him in the cultivation 
 of the celestial fields, to form a devoted escort around 
 him, and to secure him immortality. The Assyrians, 
 from a similar motive, placed in the graves figurines 
 designed to avert the hostility of the chthonic powers, 
 and this too is the object of the sepulchral idols found 
 in ancient burial-grounds at Rhodes, which represented 
 
384 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the guardian divinities of the tomb and afforded escort 
 and society for the departed. This is also undoubtedly 
 the reason why the cemeteries of Tanagra and of 
 Myrina are full of terra-cotta statuettes ; but this 
 question is still keenly disputed according as we look 
 to one or the other of these two dominant ideas — the 
 wish to protect the dead, and the wish to provide them 
 with company in the grave. 
 
 M. Heuzey, who recognises divinities in all the 
 figurines found in the tomb, easily arrives at a solution 
 of the problem : it was to protect the departed on their 
 dread journey that the piety of the survivors placed 
 around them the images of their gods, and naturally 
 the first place among these images was given to the 
 mysterious powers of the lower world. This was the 
 object of the archaic figures, of the sepulchral idols of 
 noble style, of the fourth century figurines of more ' 
 familiar aspect, and even of those grotesque or ridicu- 
 lous figures whose presence causes some astonishment 
 at first. Even this buffoonery, however, played a useful 
 part : it was a protection against the evil spirits and 
 malevolent influences which surrounded the departed ; 
 it provoked a laugh in their gloomy subterranean 
 prison, and laughter was believed by the ancients to 
 have a beneficent effect ; it diverted the dead, and lifted 
 the inauspicious gloom of the grave. 
 
 It cannot be denied that the very ancient figurines 
 do in reality represent the guardian divinities of the 
 dead. May there not, however, be some imprudence in 
 attributing a strictly symbolical and sepulchral meaning 
 to all these statuettes ? Terra-cottas have been found 
 in the greatest numbers in the burial-groundS) but is 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 385 
 
 this equivalent to admitting that they are only found 
 there ? We shall very soon see the contrary. Among 
 the objects found in the tombs, are there not many 
 articles of domestic use or belonging to the toilette^ 
 pins and mirrors, collars and bracelets, to which no one 
 has even thought of assigning an exclusively sepulchral 
 meaning ? Hence the other view, that the terra-cotta 
 figurines are not the guardian deities of the deceased, 
 but simply the articles he had cared for — the charming 
 toys which during his life had adorned his home on 
 earth, and which went with him into the grave in order 
 to adorn his dwelling in the shades. Formerly they 
 had formed the decoration of his domestic shrine or had 
 been arranged in graceful lines on the walls of his house ; 
 now — as was very natural — they followed in death the 
 master who loved them and took delight in them. 
 
 Some of these statuettes, notwithstanding, have such 
 a clearly sepulchral character, that many, while denying 
 that they represent divinities, are inclined to connect 
 them closely with the cultus of the dead. In Rayet's 
 opinion, their essential aim was to keep the dead man 
 company in the solitude of the grave. Formerly, as 
 we have seen, he was given real companions, sacrificed 
 upon his tomb ; in later times, these living victims were 
 replaced by simple imitations, in the same way as real 
 jewellery was replaced by gold leaf, precious stones by 
 glass beads and gilded beads of terra-cotta and the food 
 and flowers formerly offered to the departed by similar 
 articles in terra-cotta which were not costly and would 
 last longer. 
 
 It might well be supposed that the shade of the 
 jewels might sufifiee for the shade of the dead, and 
 
 25 
 
386 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the piety of the survivors suffered them to make the 
 substitution without feeling any scruples or becoming 
 conscious of any irreverence.* Even the gods of Hellas 
 were not offended by this kind of subterfuge ; the dead 
 were not harder to please than the living, and in default 
 of the actual flesh-and-blood companions formerly 
 sacrificed upon their tombs, they willingly accepted 
 these terra-cotta companions, who recalled the pleasures 
 and the employments of earth, and brightened by their 
 presence the unsubstantial life which the shade still 
 preserved in the depths of the tomb. 
 
 In order to harmonise these diverse opinions, it will 
 perhaps be sufficient to take the different periods care- 
 fully into account. In early days the chief object in 
 popular belief was undoubtedly to secure divine pro- 
 tection for the dead at the moment when they crossed 
 the threshold of that lower world, of which no Greek in 
 primitive ages could think without terror ; and it is for 
 this reason that in archaic tombs we find only sepul- 
 chral idols. But can we expect from the fourth and 
 third centuries, from the sceptical age of Alexander 
 and his successors, the strict symbolism and profound 
 faith of the time of the Persian wars ? Not only the 
 religious beliefs but the character of the people had 
 undergone a great transformation ; new and more 
 winning deities were insensibly substituted, even in 
 the cultus of the dead, for tlie austere figures of the 
 goddesses of the lower world ; the meaning of the old 
 traditions grew dim or faded away. In early ages the 
 articles which were to bear the dead man company 
 
 * Rayet Etudes d' Archeologie et d'Art, p. 323, gives two examples. 
 Thuc. Bk. I. 134. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TAN AGRA. 387 
 
 were carefully placed quite near the corpse, while very 
 often in later graves we find them heaped up carelessly 
 above and outside the tomb which was already closed. 
 The traditional habit of throwing terra-cottas into the 
 grave had been preserved, but the reason of the custom 
 had been forgotten. The subject represented by the 
 figurines mattered little then ; once they had been gods, 
 now they were men ; the essential point was to render 
 the departed the homage he claimed and to bring a 
 pious offering to his ashes. 
 
 If, in fact, we try to ascertain from existing remains 
 and literary sources what use was made of these 
 terra-cotta statuettes in antiquity, we shall find that 
 they were by no means always destined for the 
 sepulchre. In the charming passage at the opening of 
 the Phaedrus of Plato, Socrates is walking on the banks 
 of the Ilissus, and at the waterside, at the foot of a 
 plane-tree, he meets with a shrine consecrated to the 
 Nymphs and decorated with figurines of clay. Modern 
 excavations show that offerings of this kind were often 
 laid at the foot of the altars ; at the sanctuaries of 
 Asclepius at Athens, of Demeter at Tegea, of Athena 
 Cranaia at Elatea, at Olympia, at Corinth, at Cyprus, 
 and in Southern Italy, great heaps of terra-cottas have 
 been found near the temple, the ex-votos consecrated 
 by the faithful. In other cases figurines were used for 
 strictly domestic purposes, and served either to protect 
 the house or to adorn the interior of the dwelling. In 
 the excavations at Pompeii, they have been found by 
 hundreds, arranged in niches at the foot of the Lares 
 or interspersed with the small bronzes which decorated 
 the gardens and the rooms. Lastly, they served as toys 
 
388 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 for children and even for grown-up people. At the 
 time of the Saturnalia the Romans sent one another 
 clay figures as presents, and on vases we more than 
 once find children and girls playing with terra-cotta 
 figurines. What is most remarkable is that all these 
 statuettes, both those that were consecrated in the 
 temple and those that decorated the houses, toys as 
 well as religious offerings, represent exactly the same 
 subjects as those we find in the cemeteries. 
 
 It would be very imprudent, when we venture on 
 an interpretation of these delicate and charming toys, 
 to attribute to the coroplast who made them any 
 conception especially connected with the cultus of the 
 dead. We undoubtedly find in the cemeteries certain 
 subjects which are especially sepulchral, like the 
 winged Sirens with loosened hair, or the Loves with 
 drooping heads and pensive faces, who symbolise the 
 mourning and the sorrow of the survivors, but we 
 only meet with a few figures of this kind, and the 
 remainder would be equally suited for a private house or 
 for the treasury of a temple. Several of the figurines 
 too, which were discovered in the tombs of Myrina, 
 evidently belonged to the dead man during his lifetime. 
 Some still bear upon their pedestal their owner's name ; 
 while others, like the group of thirteen figures of 
 different heights, arranged symmetrically and forming 
 a descending series starting from a central subject 
 evidently formed a decorative ensemble in the dead 
 man's house, to which he was particularly attached, 
 and which on that account was laid in his tomb. 
 
 There is then, properly speaking, no necessary 
 relation between the terra-cottas and the graves. The 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 389 
 
 coroplast, who made the figures in his workshop, was 
 only desirous of making them pretty and attractive, in 
 order to draw customers to his shop and to make a good 
 profit from the work of his hands. If any curious person 
 were to ask him what divinity he wished to represent, 
 aind to what use he meant to put it, he would simply 
 answer, as some curious inscriptions placed on certain 
 accessories at Myrina show, that he had modelled an 
 ephebus, a young man, almost as French workmen speak 
 •of their bon homme;* the purchaser would decide the des- 
 tination of the figurine, according as he wished to make 
 an offering to a divinity, to adorn his dwelling, or to do 
 homage to some departed friend ; it was the intention 
 of the donor, and not the subject represented, which 
 would assign the statuette to a particular purpose. In 
 . Attica, where pottery was the chief manufacture, it was 
 natural to place vases in the tombs, while in Boeotia, 
 where the charming art of the coroplast was flourishing, 
 figurines were purchased to do homage to the dead. 
 
 It is now easy to arrive at our conclusion. According 
 to the sepulchral beliefs of the ancients, the dead man 
 not only needed to be accompanied by his guardian 
 divinities on his journey into the other world, but after 
 death he became a sacred being, who might prove 
 mischievous or helpful to the living ; if they ceased to 
 offer him the funeral banquet, or neglected the rites of 
 his tomb, his shade would come out of his grave to 
 reproach them with their impious neglect, while on the 
 other hand he would love and protect those who paid 
 him honour, and this protection was always effectual. 
 The survivors had, therefore, an interest in conciliating 
 
 * Pettier and Reinach, Necropole de Myrina, p. 195. 
 
390 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 the good will of the dead and in showing them by their 
 pious offerings the respect and attention they exacted. 
 It was for this reason that together with sepulchral 
 divinities to afford him escort and protection, and 
 figures of objects specially expressing the regret of the 
 survivors, they would buy any statue, no matter what^ 
 in the coroplast's shop ; for the intention alone gave value 
 to the offering ; it was for this reason too that we do 
 not find such statues in all the tombs, for such costly 
 homage was not within the reach of every purse. In 
 all these cases, however, just as the coroplast was not 
 bound by strict rule and was chiefly anxious to make, 
 not orthodox statuettes but elegant figurines suited to 
 the prevailing taste, so the donor was not concerned 
 about the subject his offering represented ; he simply 
 sought a pleasing object which might be agreeable to the 
 dead and draw down his protection upon the living. For 
 this reason he gave him the escort of his god, he buried 
 with him the ornaments he had cherished during his life 
 on earth, and cheered his solitude with companions ; 
 by this pious homage he paid his debt to the shades, 
 while at the same time he deserved their gratitude. 
 
 We must not, I think take too gloomy a view of 
 antiquity, and ascribe to its sepulchral rites the deep 
 and subtle meaning of a more austere piety. The 
 Greek burial-ground must have borne a strong likeness, 
 I think, to those great Turkish cemeteries, full of shade 
 and verdure, where the graves, piled up in picturesque 
 disorder, do not arouse any thought of death. In the 
 great cemetery of Scutari, whose cypresses climb the 
 sloping shores of the Bosphorus, the thought of death 
 and of the gloom which surrounds it is absent,. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 391 
 
 the rays of the sun glance brightly through the black 
 pyramids of cypresses, the birds are singing in the sky^ 
 and the changing colours of the dresses of the Turkish 
 ladies, whose favourite walk is in the cemeteries, con- 
 trast gaily with the whiteness of the tombs and the 
 dark green of the turf. It would seem to have been 
 much the same in ancient times ; a visit to the burial- 
 grounds gave the women, usually shut up in their 
 apartments, the opportunity of taking a walk, and also 
 of displaying their charms and winning admiration. 
 Gn Attic vases we often see opposite the figure of a 
 woman who has brought sepulchral offerings to the 
 grave, a young man, a passer-by, who has stopped, 
 and seems to be taking a warm but not altogether dis- 
 interested share in the grief which is displayed beneath 
 his eyes.* Death, too, for the quick and lively tem- 
 perament of Southern races, has never acquired the 
 darkness and gloom which are associated with it in 
 other countries, and has never aroused in their minds 
 the deep and melancholy thoughts so often expressed 
 in the poetry of Northern races. This should never 
 be forgotten in studying the statuettes found in Greek 
 burying-grounds, lest we should throw too deep a veil 
 of sadness over these exquisite and fragile figures. 
 
 IV. 
 
 It is time for us now to forsake these controversies^ 
 and to seek for enlightenment from the Tanagra figurines 
 on other points, and while we assign its share to 
 mythology, and recognise among these charming little 
 
 * Cartault, Terres-cuites antiques de la collection C. Le'cuyer, and 
 Terres-cuites Grecques. 
 
392 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 people the undeniable presence of divinities, and es- 
 pecially of the troops of graceful figures, Loves, Satyrs 
 and Bacchantes that accompany them, we will rather 
 devote our attention to the types derived from daily 
 life. These Boeotian statuettes will tell us more of the 
 daily life of the Greeks in the age of Alexander — of their 
 games and pleasures and customs, and above all of their 
 dress — than the study of many a folio volume and the 
 contemplation of the sublimest monuments of statuary, 
 nor is this the least valuable feature of the discoveries 
 at Tanagra. 
 
 The Boeotian coroplasts did not assign a very promi- 
 nent place in their collection to the male sex. It may 
 have been that clay, the material used by the modellers, 
 is better adapted to render the rather soft and indeter- 
 minate contours of women and children, or that in this 
 somewhat hasty industrial art the figurines which 
 admitted of more careless and fanciful execution, those 
 to which a touch of the thumb would give a striking 
 and ingenious turn, were given the preference over 
 figures whose contours were more noble and severe. 
 The art of the coroplasts was always readily satisfied 
 with a hasty and somewhat sketchy style of execution, 
 and was satisfied to substitute a pleasing neglect for 
 exactness of work, and to replace by charming in- 
 definiteness the clear and precise contours of older 
 masters. It is equally certain, whatever the cause 
 may be, that masculine life is only represented among 
 these statuettes by two types, that of the child and 
 the ephebus. The artists' imagination has no doubt 
 diversified these two themes with marvellous fertility, 
 but it has never tried to invent any novelty. 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 393 
 
 Scenes from childhood have a special charm for 
 the coroplasts. The graves are full of laughing and 
 refractory little ones, who busy themselves with charm- 
 ing nai'vefe and grace with their childish games. Some- 
 times seated on a square altar, scantily clad in a little 
 shirt, the child holds in its hand the net containing 
 his ball or the bag with his knuckle- bones, some- 
 times he is trundling a hoop or spinning a top, and at 
 other times he has harnessed himself to a little carriage, 
 or is gravely wearing a comic mask, or carrying a 
 musical instrument. The greatest pleasure of these 
 children is, however, to play with their favourite 
 animals, we find them sitting astride geese, cocks, 
 and rams, generally on very bad terms with their steeds, 
 and struggling with them with all the strength of their 
 little arms ; again there are epic duels with cocks and 
 geese, mighty battles in which the combatants, the 
 one as eager as the other, are hotly disputing the pos- 
 session of a bunch of grapes. 
 
 Then the years pass on, and the child becomes a 
 youth. We find him again on his way to school, 
 accompanied by the paedagogus, who is carrying his 
 gymnastic equipment and has him in charge. By the 
 side of the master we find his pupils, sometimes on 
 horseback and sometimes dressed for the palaestra, 
 with a large felt hat upon the head, and a lance or an 
 oil-flask in their hand. In other groups they are play- 
 ing their favourite games, and are very often engaged 
 in cock-fighting, one of the most popular of diversions 
 at Tanagra and throughout the whole of Greece, and 
 one which sometimes led young men into the wildest 
 excesses. 
 
394 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 The female figures are far more numerous, and their 
 execution is, as a rule, more careful. There is a great 
 diversity among them, and their classification is often 
 difficult — attitudes, faces, gestures, accessories, are 
 infinitely varied. There are love-lorn maidens whose 
 spindles are in front of them, but who are paying less 
 attention to the hateful wool " which makes women grow 
 old " than to the little Love perching upon their knees, 
 while others, melancholy and deserted, are sitting on a 
 rock, their heads drooping and shrouded in veils, their 
 thoughts lost in profound despair or in vague dreams. 
 Fashionable beauties come walking by with proud grace, 
 or looking coquettishly around them and displaying, with 
 apparent carelessness, the elegant details of their dress. 
 These charming figures bring up before our eyes 
 women's life in all its phases, from the still childish 
 pleasures of the young girl to the amusements and 
 coquetry of the woman, and afford us a thousand 
 unexpected revelations as to the way in which Greek 
 ladies attired themselves, the colour of their dress, and 
 the infinite resources and refinements of their toilette, 
 the study of which has so much attraction for us. 
 
 The young girls of ancient Greece were not very well- 
 informed, they would have found it difficult to discuss 
 music or painting or literature with any understanding 
 of the subject, and they had not even that insight 
 into everything which was expected of Frenchwomen 
 in the seventeenth century. During the years of idle- 
 ness which preceded marriage they receive very little 
 instruction. "What did my wife know," asks an 
 ancient writer, " when I married her ? She was not 
 fifteen then, and up to that time the chief care of those 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TAN AGRA. 395 
 
 who surrounded her had been to keep her eyes and 
 ears closed and not to excite her curiosity. Was it not 
 enough for her to know how to make a cloak with the 
 wool that was given her, and to distribute their tasks 
 to her maidens ? As regards discretion, she had 
 been taught excellent principles." Spinning, weaving 
 and embroidery formed the chief part of a woman's 
 occupations and of the useful knowledge expected from 
 a young girl ; still these employments were not very 
 absorbing, and left a good deal of time for amusement, 
 as we can plainly see from the terra-cotta figurines. 
 The education these girls received was not at all grave, 
 and no very deep or serious thoughts had prematurely 
 clouded their brows. We find them playing with 
 their pets, especially with their doves, upon whom 
 Greek girls bestowed the nicest care, sprinkling them 
 with perfumed water and giving each a different scent. 
 Sometimes they are at their games, playing at ball as 
 Nausicaa loved to do, and displaying, if they choose, not 
 only their dexterity but their graceful and charming 
 attitudes as well. There were many ways of playing 
 this favourite game ; some would exercise their skill in 
 keeping several balls up at once, while others found a 
 pleasure in letting it fall into a fold of their dress, an 
 amusement in which it is very difficult to see the point, 
 it seems so simple. Knuckle-bones was also a favourite 
 pastime, either thrown into the air and caught on the 
 back of the hands, or thrown to a distance into a circle 
 or a hole made in the ground. Many of the figurines 
 represent girls playing this game, looking after the dice 
 as they fly out of the box, or picking them up from the 
 ground, either alone or sitting opposite their partners. 
 
396 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 There were other amusements, too, the excitement of 
 the swing and the joys of the encotyle, a game in which 
 the loser had to carry the victor on her shoulders for a 
 certain time, and finally the pleasures of the bath. Thus 
 the long hours went by in the retirement of the women's 
 apartments, and this careless existence lasted until 
 marriage. " Timareta," says an epigram in the Anthology, 
 ■" consecrated to Artemis before her marriage her musical 
 instruments, the ball she loved so much, the net which 
 confined her hair, her dolls and their dresses. O 
 goddess, it was natural that, a young girl herself, she 
 should offer these little ones to a young girl." This 
 offering of dolls would seem very tardy to us, our young 
 girls 7?;z de Steele are more precocious and their amuse- 
 ments less simple. 
 
 Marriage came at last to set these caged birds free. 
 The constitution of the family, however, in ancient times, 
 and the obligation, often imposed by law, of marrying 
 a woman with whom one was scarcely acquainted, 
 did not leave much room for sentiment in marriage. 
 Whilst the bridegroom looked for a dowry, the bride 
 hoped for an opportunity of giving fuller satisfaction to 
 her love of luxury and dress. In the fifth century the 
 strict seclusion of the women's apartments placed some 
 check upon her whims, but the freer life of the fourth 
 century gave full rein to her caprices. Her toilette, 
 into which fashion had introduced many refinements, 
 then became the chief business of every woman ; all 
 wore fine and transparent materials of varied hues 
 falling in harmonious folds, all adorned themselves 
 with jewels, and dyed their hair and introduced into 
 its arrangement the most complicated devices and 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 397 
 
 audacious novelties, they darkened their eyes and 
 painted their faces, and as men were the first to set 
 this example, we may imagine that they did not lack 
 eager imitaters. 
 
 Nothing was more simple than the dress of a Greek 
 woman. Its essential part was the talaric chiton, some- 
 what resembling the long, embroidered garment worn 
 by Albanian women. In this dress the skirt and the 
 bodice are undivided ; sometimes it has short sleeves, 
 sometimes it is open at the top, and buttons on the 
 shoulders. Such was the dress worn in the house^ 
 made of some material both heavy and flexible, gener- 
 ally wool, sometimes flax — " the greatest luxury of 
 woman," says an ancient writer. As a rule this garment 
 was white with a coloured border, and was confined at 
 the waist by a girdle, by which means different effects 
 could be produced. Young girls put it round their 
 waists, so as to make the chiton cling closely to the 
 body and reveal its outline, while married women 
 wore it higher, after the fashion which the Directorate 
 borrowed from classical times. The arms were un- 
 covered, and the feet, peeping from under the chiton, 
 were delicately shod. " The women of Thebes," says 
 an ancient traveller, " wear thin shoes, low and narrow 
 and red, — they are so well laced that their feet look 
 almost bare." The figurines of Tanagra have yellow 
 boots with red soles. 
 
 Such was the indoor dress of Greek women, but 
 this somewhat scanty and careless attire was neither 
 warm nor modest nor elegant enough for the street. 
 When they wished to dress for a walk, they put 
 on over the chiton the himation, a large rectangular 
 
39^ EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 piece of stuff, sometimes called peplos and sometimes 
 calyptra. It is difficult to define the difference between 
 these terms, the more so that the Greeks were no less 
 fond of new fashions than we are, and fashion is always 
 a changeable thing. It seems, however, that the 
 calyptra was smaller and finer, and the peplos broader 
 and heavier. 
 
 The most important point, however, was to know 
 how to arrange gracefully this piece of stuff, which 
 was between four and five feet broad, and twice or 
 two and a half times as long, sometimes white and 
 sometimes pink, as at Tanagra, or bordered with purple 
 or black stripes. The ways of wearing it were infinitely 
 varied. " Every year," says M. Rayet, from whom 
 most of our details are derived, " evidently introduced 
 a new fashion, every change of temperature and every 
 circumstance of life gave rise to a different arrangement, 
 and every woman had her preference, which varied 
 from hour to hour. If the weather were warm and 
 she wished to be at her ease, a Greek woman would 
 allow her calyptra to fall down behind to her waist, 
 only keeping it up by her folded arms and letting 
 the ends fall at either side, or taking up one of these 
 ends, she would throw it carelessly over her left 
 shoulder. It was then nothing more than an elegant 
 scarf, an excuse for graceful attitudes." If she wished 
 to drape herself more closely, she placed the piece of 
 stuff on the top of her head, and threw the right end 
 over the left shoulder so as to let it hang down 
 behind ; the garment clung close to the breast and left 
 one hand at liberty. Sometimes the lower part of the 
 face was hidden by the piece of stuff: this was the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 399 
 
 ordinary fashion among Theban women. " The part 
 of their himation," says an ancient writer, " which 
 forms a veil over their heads, is arranged in such a way 
 that the face is reduced to the size of a small mask, — 
 the eyes only are uncovered, all the rest is hidden 
 under the mantle." 
 
 We can understand that with these broad pieces of 
 stuff women of fashion could produce very pleasing 
 combinations and a very harmonious disposition of folds. 
 To arrange her drapery well was a matter of the first 
 importance for a woman in society, and those who did 
 not succeed in so doing were very much ridiculed. 
 They were treated as rustics ; and a poet says con- 
 cerning them, " One of the marks by which we know 
 an ill-bred person in the street is her ungraceful way 
 of walking. What hinders you from walking well ? 
 We put no tax upon it, and it costs nothing; those 
 who possess this advantage do themselves honour and 
 give pleasure to the passers-by ; if you are wise you 
 should always try to gain it." 
 
 We must admit, moreover, that there was some 
 merit in turning a commonplace piece of stuff to account, 
 for as it was impossible to buy a complete and well- 
 fitting costume from a fashionable dressmaker, the 
 success of the toilette depended on the good taste of 
 the wearer, and a well-dressed woman was necessarily 
 an intelligent one. 
 
 Another very important feature in the toilette was 
 the style of dressing the hair, and it is strange to 
 see how fashion in its changes always comes round 
 to the same point. The coiffure of a fashionable 
 lady of Tanagra would do no discredit to a Parisian 
 
400 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE. 
 
 elegante, and it would often be easy to tell its modern 
 name. "The three styles we meet with most fre- 
 quently," says Rayet again, " are very simple ; in the 
 first, the hair is carried up to the top of the head, 
 and there tied with a fillet so as to form a kind of tuft 
 or bunch. In the second, the whole mass is divided by 
 a parting on the top of the head, each half is arranged 
 in ringlets and then carried back to the nape of the 
 neck and there made into a kind of curl. In the 
 last style, the hair, drawn to the back of the head, is 
 kept up by a handkerchief, the two ends of which are 
 fastened together on the top of the head." By the 
 side of these simple and graceful coiffures we find, 
 especially among singers and dancers, others which are 
 more showy and complicated. There are enormous 
 chignons, curls and crimps, flowers and garlands, one 
 wears a lofty golden diadem on the front of her head, 
 while another keeps her hair in place by a net of ribbons 
 and gold thread, others again have gilded wreaths twined 
 among their hair and long metal hairpins supporting the 
 skilfully constructed pile, built up with much aid of 
 curling-tongs and cosmetics. We can imagine the 
 importance, among these people, of the hair-dressers 
 who erected these marvellous structures ; their shops, 
 always full of dandies and idlers, were the rendezvous 
 of all the newsmongers in the town. All day long 
 they discussed the current news of the town and 
 important political affairs, and the master of the shop 
 led the conversation with an inexhaustible flow of 
 words. King Archelaus is reported to have uttered 
 a witty repartee apropos of this habit. A garrulous 
 hairdresser asked him once, as he wrapped the 
 
THE EXCAVATIONS AT TANAGRA. 40 1 
 
 cloth round him, " How must I cut your hair, your 
 Majesty ? " 
 
 " In silence," answered the King. 
 
 A few more accessories completed the toilette of a 
 woman of fashion. On her head she placed a round 
 hat, almost flat but rising to a peak in the centre, in 
 her hand she took a fan, shaped like a lotus leaf, and 
 generally painted a pale blue, she fastened golden 
 ornaments on arms and hands, finally, paint and anti- 
 mony embellished her face, and certain skilful mixtures 
 gave her hair a beautiful golden-red hue something like 
 Venetian yellow. Then she might appear in public, 
 with quick, light step, her mirror at her side, in the 
 delicate grace and studied daintiness of her attire. 
 
 In this hasty notice we can only bestow a passing 
 mention on many other figurines equally pretty and 
 graceful — such as the jugglers performing their varied 
 feats, musicians swelhng their cheeks as they blow the 
 double flute, or playing the harp and the tambourine, 
 dancers executing their steps to the sound of castanets 
 and drums, and all that world of beauties, with smiling 
 faces and saucy looks and exquisitely charming dress. 
 The Greek genius in the fourth century took delight 
 in these marvels of taste and fancy and piquant grace, 
 and it is by these unrivalled beauties, and by their 
 thoroughly modern style, that these charming figurines 
 from the burial-grounds have bewitched our own age 
 and won a deserved fame which the humble coroplasts 
 of Tanagra in Boeotia can never have anticipated. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 26 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Achilles, 17, 71. 78. 
 Acraephiae, 194, 196. 
 Acropolis of Athens, 24, 86, 89, 
 
 95. 97, I04- 
 marbles, 89-93, 99-104, 107- 
 
 iio, 121, 1^6, 189, 287, 
 
 326. 
 museum, 99, loi, 114, 125. 
 Actium, 199. 
 Aeginetan school, 1 18-21, 209, 
 
 210, 286. 
 Aegisthus, 12, 13. 
 Aeneas, 78, 130. 
 Aetion, 253. 
 
 Agamemnon, 7, 12, 19-21. 
 Agasias of Ephesus, 191. 
 Agrae, 313. 
 Alcamenes, 106, 256, 262, 
 
 267. 
 Alcibiades, 253, 313. 
 Alexander, 151, 154, 156, 195, 
 
 369- 
 age of, 386, 392. 
 Alpheus, 211, 218, 226, 257, 
 
 259. 
 Alxenor of Naxos, 120. 
 Amazons, 277, 355. 
 Amphictyonic Council, 195. 
 Angelion, 185. 
 Antenor, 85, 120, 125. 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, 146. 
 Antoninus, 336, 337. 
 Apelles, 368. 
 Aphrodite, 71, 146, 149, 287, 
 
 356. 373. 378. 
 
 Apollo, 79, 130, 201. 
 
 Delian, 130, 134. 
 
 revenues of, 175. 
 
 temple of, 137, I45. I70. 
 
 Maleatas, 336, 351. 
 
 Ptoios, 195. 
 
 temple of, 198. 
 
 statues of, 102, 239, 145, 206, 
 207. 
 Apollos (so-called), 102 186, 
 
 191, 199- 
 
 Orchomenus, 202. 
 
 Piombino, 207. 
 
 Ptoios, 203. 
 
 Strangford, 207. 
 
 Tenea, 204. 
 
 Thera, 200. 
 Apolloniastai, 165. 
 Archaeological Society of 
 
 Athens, 24, 136, 307, 362, 
 Archermus, 113, 120, 124, 
 
 189. 
 Argolis, 8, 23, 24, 28, 29. 
 Argonauts, 79. 
 Argos, 8, II, 41, 196, 285. 
 Aristion, 116, 120. 
 Aristocles, 12. 
 Aristophanes, 313, 347. 
 Artemis, 130, 147, 190, 336, 
 
 396- 
 
 Persian, 285. 
 
 Tauric, 131. 
 Asclepius, 147, 332. 
 Assyria, 22,31, 33, 383. 
 Astarte, 32, 71, 165. 
 
404 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Athena, — 
 
 head of, 88, ii8. 
 
 of Endoeus, 87, 94. 
 
 Polias, 107, 351. 
 
 Promachos, 102, 119. 
 
 temple of, 95, 105. 
 Athens, ^^, 80, 133, 151, 159, 
 
 163, 196. 
 Atreus, 12. 
 
 treasury of, 10, 13. 
 Atlas, 272. 
 
 Attic school, 83, 108. 120, 124, 
 355. 
 
 Boeotia, 24. 
 Boeotian League, 196. 
 
 school, 201, 204, 205, 207. 
 Bronze, Delian, 142, 169. 
 Burial customs, 17, 364. 
 Byzantines, 12, 23. 
 
 buildings, 42, 45, 216, 295. 
 Byzantium, 160, 216. 
 
 Cadmus, 27. 
 
 Calamis, 106, 232, 361 
 
 Gallon, 120. 
 
 Callonides, 120. 
 
 Canachus, 205, 208. 
 
 Carapanos, 66, 73, 74, ']']. 
 
 Carians, 28, 36. 
 
 Cavvadias, 87, 332. 
 
 Cecrops, 27. 
 
 Centaurs, 256, 260, 354. 
 
 Ceryces, 308. 
 
 Cesnola, 94. 
 
 Chaeronaea, 230, 360. 
 
 Chaldaea, 22, 32. 
 
 Chios, 84, 120, 123, 124, 186, 
 
 189. 
 Cimon, 97, 248, 249. 
 Cladeus, 225, 257, 259. 
 Clement of Alexandria, 313,318. 
 Clytemnestra, 12, 19. 
 Cnidus, 287, 339. 
 Cnossus, 38, 39. 
 Cora, 295, 378. 
 
 Corcyra, 76. 
 
 Corinna, 361, 
 
 Corinth, 8, 146, 197. 
 
 Cos, 339. 
 
 Crete, 24, 36, 38, 120, 133, 200. 
 
 Crimea, 23, 136. 
 
 Critius, 85, 120. 
 
 Curtius, 222. 
 
 Cyclopean buildings, 10, 15, 16, 
 
 41. 
 Cynisca, 241. 
 Cynthus, 136, 137, 149. 
 Cyprus, 24, 38, 94. 
 Cypselus, 228. 
 Cyrene, 339. 
 
 Daedalus, 85, 107. 
 Danaus, 27. 
 Delian league, 152. 
 ' Delos,— 
 
 excavations, 136. 
 
 history, 150-164. 
 
 religious importance, 1 30, 337. 
 
 statues, 185-193, 199. 
 
 trade, 164-170. 
 Delphi, 79. 
 Delphic oracle, 302. 
 Demeter, 295, 367, 376. 
 Dione, 69, 70, 71, ']']. 
 Dionysus, 147, 288, 312, 373, 
 
 376, 379- 
 Diophantus, 354. 
 Dipoenus, 200. 
 Dipylon, 35, 61. 
 Discobolus, 250. 
 Discophorus, 117. 
 Dodona, — 
 
 games, 79. 
 
 oracles, 74-80. 
 
 situation, 65. 
 Dorian invasion, 18, 24, 40, 61. 
 Dcirpfeld, Dr., 45. 
 Dress, 91, 397. 
 
 Echo portico, 231. 
 Egypt, 17, 22, 29, 30, 31, 33 
 69. 155, 157, 284, 383. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 405 
 
 Electra (play), 13, 249. 
 Eleusis, 295. 
 
 buildings, 323. 
 
 statues, 107, 326. 
 Elis, 213, 255. 
 Endoeus, 85, 120. 
 
 Athena of, 87, 94, 108, 118. 
 Engraved stones, 25, 38. 
 Epaminondas of Acraephiae, 
 
 196. 
 Epidaurus, 332. 
 
 buildings, 334. 
 Epirus, 65, 66, 72. 
 Erechtheum, 87, 107. 
 Erisychthon, 130. 
 Eubuleus, 329. 
 Euenor, 120. 
 Eumolpidae, 308. 
 Eumolpus, 301. 
 Euripides, 13. 
 Euthycles, 120. 
 Ex-votos, — 
 
 Dodona, 67, TJ. 
 
 Mount Ptoion, 95. 
 
 Olympia, 284. 
 
 Florentine art, 82, 114. 
 French School of Archaeology, 
 136, 141, 198, 363- 
 
 Games, 79, 196, 235. 
 Gauls, 23. 
 Geranos, 133, 147. 
 Goths, 216. 
 
 Hadrian, 302, 305. 
 Halicarnassus, 271, 355. 
 Hallstadt, 23. 
 Hecate, 336, 356. 
 Hegesias, 85. 
 Helios, 297, 351. 
 Hellanodicae, 231, 237,242,252. 
 Hera, — 
 
 festival of, 254. 
 
 head of, 286. 
 
 of Samos, 84, 121. 
 
 temple of, 229, 281. 
 
 Heracleistai, 148, 165. 
 Hercules, 41, 78, 212, 243. 
 
 and Atlas, 272. 
 
 and Cretan Bull, 221. 
 
 and Hydra, 89, 99. 
 
 and Triton, 99. 
 
 and lyphon, 100. 
 
 labours of, 256, 272. 
 Hermaistae, 148, 165. 
 Hermes of Praxiteles, 288. 
 Herodes Atticus, 231. 
 Herodotus, 29, 69, 70. 
 Heruli, 23. 
 Hieropoioi, 178, 311. 
 Hippocrates, 347. 
 Hippodamia, 212, 259. 
 Hissarlik, 6, 38, 39, 40. 
 Holleaux, M., 198. 
 Homeric hymns, 132, 151, 300. 
 Homeric poems, 6, 11, 12, 15, 
 
 17, 22, 25, 29,44, 52, 71. 
 Homolle, M., 137, 141. 
 Horns, altar of, 130, 147. 
 Hygieia, 336, 351, 356. 
 Hymns, Homeric, 132, 151. 
 
 lacchus, 315, 329. 
 
 lalysus, 38, 39. 
 
 Ictinus, 303, 325. 
 
 Inscriptions, 73, 150, 198, 322, 
 
 341- 
 Iphitus, 212. 
 Iron, 25. 
 
 Janina, 65. 
 
 Karditza, 194. 
 
 Kharvati, 8. 
 
 King archon, 309, 310 
 
 Lapiths, 256, 260, 354. 
 Larissa, 63. 
 Lefsina, 295. 
 Leonidaeum, 234. 
 Leto, 130, 146. 
 Libon, 256. 
 Libya, 70. 
 
4o6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Lion gate, lo, 13, 14. 
 Lucian, 80. 
 Lycurgus, 303, 311. 
 Lysippus, 290, 292, 368. 
 
 Macedonia, 155, 158. 
 
 Mantinea, 196. 
 
 Masks, 18, 34. 
 
 Megara, treasury of, 287. 
 
 Megaron, 54. 
 
 Menidi, 24, 36, 56, 59, 60. 
 
 Messenians, 268. 
 
 Methe, 334, 373. 
 
 Metroum, 230. 
 
 Micciades, 189. 
 
 Milo of Croton, 245, 247. 
 
 Minos, 36. 
 
 Mithridates, 140, 168, 
 
 Morea, expedition to, 23, 220. 
 
 Moschophorus, 87, 95, 115, 122, 
 
 123. 
 Mycenae, 34, 38, 39, 46, 52, 56, 
 
 .59. 
 civilisation, 26, 35, 37, 40, 
 
 59- 
 
 lower city, 25. 
 
 palace, 25, 46, 52, 56, 59. 
 
 situation, 8. 
 
 tombs, 15, 19. 
 Mycono, 129. 
 Myrina, 363, 374. 
 Myron, 106, 244, 250, 293. 
 Myrtilus, 257. 
 Mysteries, greater, 316. 
 
 hall of, 303, 324. 
 
 lesser, 313. 
 
 of Samothrace, 314. 
 
 Nausicaa, 395. 
 Naxos, 139, 187, 199. 
 Nereids, 271, 355. 
 Nero, 198. 
 Nesiotes, 85. 
 Nicandra, 187. 
 Nicias, 134. 
 Nysa, 295,378. 
 
 Oenomaus, 213, 257. 
 Onatas, 120, 232. 
 Oracles, — 
 
 Delphic, 79, 238. 
 
 Dodonaean, 72. 
 
 Lebadaea, 196. 
 
 Ptoian, 195. 
 Orchomenus, 7, 38, 56, 59. 
 
 Apollo of, 199, 201, 202. 
 Orestes, 12, 20, 78. 
 
 (play), 13, 15. 
 Origen, 313, 318. 
 Oriental influence, 8, 27, 31, 37, 
 39, 59-61, 285. 
 
 Paeonius, 233, 256, :62, 267, 
 
 269, 355- 
 Palaces, Homeric, 25, 44, 46, 
 
 52, 58, 62. 
 Panaenus, 276. 
 Pancratium, 236, 247. 
 Panhellenes, 302, 306. 
 Parthenon, 86, 88. 
 Paros, 120. 
 
 Pausanias, 13, 21, 139, 215, 
 232, 248, 260, 276, 281, 306. 
 Pausias, 334. 
 Pediment sculptures, — 
 
 Athens, 88, 89, 99, 102, 123. 
 
 Delos, 192. 
 
 Megara, treasury of, 287. 
 
 Olympia, 257, 260. 
 Pelasgic walls, 104. 
 Pelopium, 229. 
 
 Peloponnesian school, 207, 275, 
 Peloponnesus, 196, 220. 
 Pelops, 12, 27, 28, 211, 212, 
 
 228, 257, 258. 
 Penrose, 45. 
 Pentathlum, 236, 249. 
 Perdicovrysi, 198. 
 Pericles, 86, 95, 104, 303. 
 Persians, 86, 95, 97, 102, 105, 
 
 134, 153. 195. 325. 
 Pharaohs, 30, 31. 
 Pheidolas, 249. 
 Pherenice, 241. 
 
INDEX 
 
 407 
 
 Phidias, 106, 119, 234, 275, 280. 
 Philip, 154. 
 Philip v., 148. 
 Philippeum, 230. 
 Philo, 120. 
 
 of Eleusis, 305. 
 Philostratus, 81. 
 Phoenicia, 22, 28, 29, 31, 33, 
 
 36, 59, 60, 61, 70, 284. 
 Phrygia, 12, 28, 36. 
 Pindar, 194, 235, 361. 
 Pirithous, 260. 
 Pisistratus, 95, 98, 105, 118, 
 
 124, 303- 
 Plato, 22. 
 Plutarch, 319, 320. 
 Pluto, 295, 300, 
 Polycleitus, 334, 336. 
 Porinos Oikos, 144, 181. 
 Poseidoniastai, 148, 165. 
 Pottery (Mycenaean), 25, 34, 61. 
 Praxiteles, 288, 290, 330, 368, 
 
 381. 
 Propylaea, 52, 306, 323, 336. 
 Ptolemies, 157, 180. 
 Pygmalion and Galatea, 107. 
 Pythia, 79. 
 
 Rameses II., 21, 30. 
 
 Rhodes, 24, 38, 155, 156, 159, 
 
 339. 383- 
 Roman period, 196. 
 Romans, 161-3, 166, 238, 
 
 Samos, 84. 
 Santorin, 24, 38, 39. 
 Schliemann, Dr., — 
 
 at Mycenae, 14, 
 
 at Tiryns, 44. 
 
 excavations, 6, 7. 
 
 life, 2, 
 Schhemann, Mrs., 4, li. 
 Scopas, 271, 355, 368. 
 Selli, 69, 71. 
 
 Serapis, 136, 149, 165, 185. 
 Sicyon, 84, 218. 
 Skimatari, 360, 362. 
 Skyllis, 199. 
 
 Slavonic invasion, 12, 218. 
 Sophocles, 13, 322. 
 Sparta, 79, 84, 153, 238, 345. 
 Spata, 24, 37, 39, 60, 61. 
 Sphacteria, 268. 
 Sterope, 257, 259. 
 Syra, 128, 169. 
 Syrens, 388. 
 •Syria, 71, 72, 155. 
 Sword-blades, 32. 
 
 Tanagra, 17, 360. 
 
 Tectaeus, 185. 
 
 Telesphorus, 357. 
 
 Tenea, Apollo of, 199, 204. 
 
 Terra-cottas, 283, 366. 
 
 Thebes, 195, 359, 360. 
 
 Themis, 336. 
 
 Theodorus of Samos, 120, 125. 
 
 Theodosius, 216. 
 
 Theoriai, — 
 
 Delos, 133, 159. 
 
 Olympia, 252. 
 Thera, Apollo of, 199. 
 Theseum, 260, 274. 
 Theseus, 130, 133, 147, 260, 277. 
 Thespiae, 359, 361. 
 Thessaly, 24, 38, 63. 
 Thrasymedes, 334, 355. 
 Thucydides, 12. 
 Tinos, 140, 146, 169. 
 Tiryns, 25, 38, 39, 41. 
 
 citadel, 46. 
 
 galleries, 48. 
 
 paintings, 56. 
 •palace, 45, 52, 59. 
 
 wralls, 42, 47. 
 Tomaros, 66, 72. 
 Tombstones, 15, 16, 18. 
 Treasuries, 230. 
 Tricca, 336. 
 
 Triptolemus, 299, 322, 328. 
 Troezen, 343. 
 Troy, 6. 
 
 Turks, II, 12, 218. 
 Typhon, head of, 100. 
 TjTannicides, 85, 125. 
 
4o8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ulysses, 29, 52, 78, 130. 
 
 Vaphis, 38. 
 
 Veli Pacha, 11. 
 
 Victories, winged, 113, 124, 
 
 188, 355. 
 Victory of Paeonius, 233, 268, 
 
 270, 355. 
 Victory of Samothrace, 271. 
 
 Winckelmann, 219. 
 
 Zanes, 232. 
 Zeus, — 
 
 altar of, 228. 
 
 archaic, 286. 
 
 Dodonaean, 66, 71-80. 
 
 Herceius, 53. 
 
 of Phidias, 217, 276. 
 
 Otricoli, 279. 
 
 Polieus, 147. 
 
 temple of, 227, 255. 
 
 Verospi, 278. 
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
H. GREVEL & CO.'S 
 
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 " Judged by their price, the plates are little short of wonderful. They will be of 
 no little value to the serious student of art, who will be able by their means to compare 
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 " It is worth the attention of those who wish to make a collection of illustrations 
 of the works of great painters at a small cost. " — Builder. 
 
 "All the principal galleries in England and on the Continent have been laid 
 under contribution, and the masterpieces of the great painters are admirably repro- 
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 is given for one shilling. This collection is by far the best of the cheap editions of 
 copies from the Old Masters." — Graphic. 
 
 "The reproductions are marvellously cheap, and they certainly give a far better 
 idea of the pictures represented than any publication we have seen. To those who 
 have an interest in art, to whom pictures in foreign galleries are mere names, the 
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 desire to recall what they have seen. " — Birmingham Daily Post. 
 
 "The idea is well carried out, and it should prove popular." — The Art Journal. 
 
 THE CLASSICAL PICTURE GALLERY. 
 
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 DIEGO VELAZQUEZ AND HIS TIMES. By 
 
 Carl Justi, Professor at the University of Bonn. Translated 
 
 by Professor A. H. Keane, and Revised by the Author, With 
 
 52 magnificent Woodcuts, an Etching of Velazquez' Own 
 
 Portrait by Forberg, and a Plan of the Old Palace at Madrid. 
 
 I Vol. Royal 8vo, Roxburgh. ^1 is. 
 
 " No better example could be given of the growth of historical knowledge during 
 the past thirty years than is to be found in Carl Justi's recent book on ' Velazquez,' 
 well translated by Professor A. H. Keane. The amount of research and of real 
 observation which his book shows is typical of the modem scholar." — Times. 
 
 " It may appear a paradox to state that no complete or adequate account of the 
 life and works of Diego de Siloa Velazquez has been written until the masterly 
 Biography by Professor Carl Justi, which will long be looked upon as the definitive 
 biography of the Great Master." — Edinburgh Review. 
 
 ' ' Considering the estimation in which the works of Velazquez are now held in 
 this country, it was fitting that the monograph which Professor Justi has devoted 
 to his life and times should be presented in an English form to the public. The book 
 has been written with true German thoroughness, and the labour involved in amassing 
 and digesting the enormous amount of information contained in it is beyond con- 
 ception. Every picture that Velazquez ever painted seems to be enumerated. Every 
 event in his life is carefully recorded. " — Morning Post. 
 
 MUSIC. 
 
 RICHARD WAGNER'S LETTERS TO HIS 
 
 DRESDEN FRIENDS (Letters to Theodor Uhlig, 
 1849-1853 ; Letters to "Wilhelm Fischer, 1841-1859 ; 
 Letters to Ferdinand Heine, 1841-1868). Translated by 
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 Wagner's Portrait taken in 1853, and a Complete Index. 
 I Vol. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt top. 12s. 6d. 
 
 " Admirers of Wagner's genius will find here a fund of information about the 
 vie intinie of the musician." — (7ra/^jV. 
 
 ' ' All who are interested in the personal character and career of Richard Wagner 
 — such persons may hold diverse opinions as to his art — will welcome this book as a 
 companion volume to the English version of the correspondence between Wagner 
 and Liszt." — The Musical Times. 
 
 " It is quite impossible within limited space to give a satisfactory description of 
 the contents of this extremely interesting volume." — Athemeum. 
 
 ' ' These letters are supremely interesting, for they show Wagner as he really was, 
 no one-sided representation, but the whole man." — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
"M-USlC—Coniinued. % 
 
 RICHARD WAGNER'S CORRESPOND- 
 ENCE WITH LISZT FROM 1841 TO 1861. 
 Translated into English, and with a Preface by Dr. Francis 
 HuEFFER. 2 Vols, Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt top. jQz 4s. 
 
 " Nothing more instructive with regard to the real character and relations of 
 Liszt and Wagner has been published. Seldom has the force and fervour of Wagner's 
 German been rendered with such accuracy and character in a strange tongue." — 
 Manchester Guardian. 
 
 MANUAL OF MUSICAL HISTORY. With 
 
 150 Illustrations of Portraits, Musical Instruments, Facsimiles 
 of Rare and Curious Musical Works. By James E. Matthew. 
 I Vol. Crown 8vo, cloth. los. 6d. 
 
 " This book is well written, interspersed now and again with an anecdote or 
 amusing passage in the lives of the great composers." — Morning Post. 
 
 " The sketch of the later music in Germany, Italy, France, and England, brings 
 the book up to date, and concludes a well- written, profusely illustrated, and admirably 
 compiled volume. " — Musical News. 
 
 "The plan of the book is admirably arranged and printed. The work can be 
 well recommended to all who desire a musical history, giving full information in a 
 concise and accessible form, and which is detailed without being diffuse." — Musical 
 Standard. 
 
 "■ The author covers the entire ground of his subject from the time of St. Gregory 
 to the present day, and serves admirably for those who wish to obtain some general 
 idea as to the progress of the art. The facts are succinctly set forth, the statements 
 are correct, and the many illustrations give the work a distinct value." — Daily 
 Telegraph. 
 
 " The book is handsomely got up in every way." — Queen. 
 
 VERDI : an Anecdotic History of his Life and 
 
 Works. By Arthur Pougin. With Portrait and Facsimile. 
 Translated from the French by James E. Matthew. Crown 
 8vo, cloth extra. 6s. 
 
 *' It is long since a more readable and fascinating book has come under our notice. 
 Mr. Matthew has acquitted himself excellently of the task of translation, and the 
 well-printed volume will be heartily welcomed by musicians." — Athenatan. 
 
 " Mr. Matthew's well-written translation of Pougin's work would at any time be 
 pleasant, and just now must have special charms."— 77;^ Quarterly Musical Review, 
 
 "The publication is very timely. It comes just when most wanted, and enables 
 musical readers to study every stage of the fortunate career which has now reached its 
 climax and consummation."^ — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " This extremely interesting volume will be much appreciated in the musical 
 world." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 ' * The work has a good portrait and a good index, and for the latter the translator 
 deserves grateful thanks." — Publishers' Circular. 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
4 ARTISTIC ANATOMY. 
 
 THE STUDENT'S ATLAS OF ARTISTIC 
 
 ANATOMY, for the Use of Sculptors, Painters, and 
 Amateurs. With Thirty-four Plates. By Charles Roth, 
 Professor of Sculpture at the Munich Academy. Edited by 
 C. E. FrrzGERALD, M.D. i Vol. Fol., in cloth case. j[^\ 5s. 
 
 " Professor Roth's well-known and highly valued plates of the human muscles 
 and bones, with his nomenclature and descriptive notes, are worthily reproduced in 
 this complete portfolio." — Athenaiim. 
 
 " The plan of the Atlas, which has been considerably enlarged from its original 
 form, is very simple and convenient. The two first plates represent the bony frame- 
 work of the body, and the eight following ones the muscles in action. The figure 
 plates are carefully drawn and admirably printed, and each is followed by an expla- 
 natory plate, in which the parts depicted are numerated, while notes are added 
 directing attention to those points which are of especial interest to artists." — Daily 
 Graphic. 
 
 " It is a bold experiment to attempt to combine at once the classical, natural, 
 and anatomical elements in drawing from the nude, but in this the author has 
 succeeded remarkably well. The limitation to a single pose prevents all confusion, 
 and very much facilitates anatomical knowledge, whilst the addition of separate 
 sketches at the end of the atlas furnishes an opportunity for more detailed study of 
 the limbs and head. The plates are admirably executed, the engraving being smooth 
 and even, and' at the same time sufficiently vigorous in the contrast of light and 
 shade. Dr. Fitzgerald's translation of Professor Roth's work is altogether a valuable 
 aid to the study of artistic anatomy, and in itself a work of zxi."— Lancet. 
 
 THE HUMAN FIGURE: its Beauties and 
 
 Defects. By Ernest Brucke, Emeritus Professor of Physi- 
 ology in the University of Vienna, and formerly Teacher of 
 Anatomy in the Academy of Fine Arts at Berlin. With 29 
 Illustrations by Hermann Paar. Edited, with a Preface, by 
 W. Anderson, Professor of Anatomy to the Royal Academy of 
 Arts, London. Crown 8vo, cloth. 7s. 6d. 
 
 "An exceedingly valuable work for sculptors, painters, and all such as, possessing 
 some knowledge of anatomy, are engaged in artistic pursuits, and one which may 
 likewise be read with pleasure and profit by the comparatively uninitiated. Written 
 in a clear, concise style, equally removed from pedantry as from superficiality, Herr 
 Brucke combines an artist's sentiment with the anatomist's keen eye, and his work- 
 is evidently the result of thoughtful study. The artist, he tells us, should be able to 
 detect the faults of the human frame as easily as the horse connoisseur recognises the 
 defects of an animal." — Times. 
 
 ' ' The work is primarily addressed to artists, but all those who are interested in 
 the artistic representation of the human body will find it a very interesting and 
 suggestive work." — Edinburgh Medical J otirnal. 
 
 "No book could be more welcome to the English artist and anatomist." — Lancet. 
 
 "We can strongly recommend it both to the art-student and to the full-fledged 
 artist." — Saturday Review. 
 
 "We cannot single out the numerous points of interest touched u^on." -^Dublin 
 Journal of Medical Science. 
 
 " It is long since we have been called upon to review a more thorough, learned or 
 interesting book upon an attractive and important subject." — Athemeum. 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STEEET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
ARCHEOLOGY. 5 
 
 MANUAL OF ORIENTAL ANTIQUITIES: 
 
 including the Architecture, Sculpture, and Industrial 
 Arts of Chaldsea, Assyria, Persia, Syria, Judaea, 
 Phoenicia, and Carthage. By Ernest Babelon, Librarian 
 of the Department of Medals and Antiques in the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale, Paris. Translated and enlarged by B. T. A. Evetts, 
 M.A., of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, 
 British Museum. With 241 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth 
 extra, gilt top. los. dd. 
 
 " The * Manual of Oriental Antiquities,' which takes deservedly a high position 
 both for the general accuracy of its statements and excellent character of its illustra- 
 tions.' ' — AthencEum. 
 
 " This carefully written and beautifully illustrated book forms a worthy companion 
 to the Egyptian Archaeology of M. Maspero included in the same series." — 
 Manchester Guardian. 
 
 "M. Babelon's work has already won such a high measure of praise from the 
 students of Oriental archaeology that its place is assured among modern authorities 
 on the art and culture of the ancient civilised nations of Western Asia." — Academy. 
 
 "This book will be most valuable and useful, not only to students of Oriental 
 archaeology, but to every one who is interested in the early beginnings of architecture, 
 sculpture, and the industrial arts. The quantity of information contained in one 
 small volume is wonderful, embracing the art history of Chaldaea, Assyria, Persia, 
 Syria, Judsea, Phoenicia, and Carthage. By the study of the illustrations alone a 
 clear idea can be gained of the different characteristics of these nations. " — Spectator. 
 
 MANUAL OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY IN 
 
 RELATION TO GREEK ART. By Maxime Collignon, 
 late Member of the Ecole Fran^aise, Athens. Translated and 
 Enlarged by Jane E. Harrison, Author of " Myths of the 
 Odyssey," "Introductory Studies in Greek Art," etc. With 
 140 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt top. los, dd. 
 
 " This is a good book. It fills a gap in our literature, doing for Greek mythology 
 much the same service which Mrs. Jamieson rendered to Christian hagiology." — 
 Academy, 
 
 "The gradual development of the type of each god according to the general 
 principles which govern the formation of types in art is historically considered. Miss 
 Harrison's translation does not read like a translation, but like an English book, and 
 we know no higher praise than this." — Saturday Review, 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STKBET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
6 AUCHJEOIaOGY— Continued. 
 
 MANUAL OF ANCIENT SCULPTURE. By 
 
 Pierre Paris, formerly Member of the Ecole Frangaise, at 
 Athens. Edited and Augmented by Jane E. Harrison, Author 
 of " Myths of the Odyssey," *' Introductory Studies in Greek 
 Art," etc. With 187 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 
 gilt top. I OS. 6(i. 
 
 " It is written in a felicitous and interesting style, and its illustrations reproduce 
 in an accurate manner the best of the sculptured treasures which are referred to in the 
 text." — Scotsman, 
 
 "A book of standard merit, it has received additions of great value from the 
 accomplished archaeologist through whose hands it has passed in the process of 
 adaptation to the needs of English readers." — Spectator. 
 
 "Mr. Paris' admirable manual, which owes much more than its English dress 
 to its accomplished editor, gives us within the narrow compass a lucid and com- 
 pendious survey of the sculpture of the ancient world." — St. fames' Gazette. 
 
 MANUAL OF EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY. 
 
 By Professor G. Maspero, D.C.L., Oxon. English Edition, with 
 Notes, by Amelia B. Edwards, Ph.D., LL.D. With 299 Illus- 
 trations. New Edition, revised, with a Complete Index. Crown 
 Svo, cloth extra, gilt top. los. dd. 
 
 CONTENTS.— Chapter I. Civil and Military Architecture. Chapter II. 
 Religious Architecture. Chapter III. Tombs. Chapter IV. Painting and 
 Sculpture. Chapter V. The Industrial Arts. 
 
 "It is a marvel of erudition and condensation. It sums up the long results of 
 thousands of years of Egyptian civilisation in language precise enough to make the 
 work a handbook for the specialist, and popular enough to insure its becoming a 
 guide to the antiquarian lore of the country for travellers in Egypt." — Scotsman. 
 
 MANUAL OF ARCHEOLOGY: containing 
 an Introduction to Egyptian and Oriental Art, Greek, 
 Etruscan, and Roman Art. With 114 Illustrations. By 
 Talfourd Ely, Member of the Councils of the Society for the 
 Promotion of Hellenic Studies, i Vol. Crown Svo, cloth. 
 
 "A most admirable gift to those who take an intelligent interest in ancient art 
 would be the ' Manual of Archaeology,' by Talfourd Ely." — Graphic. 
 
 " We know of no such complete and concise handbook to ancient art, for 
 Mr. Ely, beginning with Egypt, the mother of the sciences, takes us through the art 
 of Chaldea and Assyria to that of Greece and Rome. " — St. fames' Gazette. 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
ARCHJEOIuOGY—Coniinuet/. 7 
 
 PICTORIAL ATLAS TO HOMER'S ILIAD 
 AND ODYSSEY. 36 Plates, containing 211 Illus- 
 trations from Works of Ancient Art. With a complete 
 Descriptive Text, and an Epitome of the Contents of each Book, 
 for the use of Schools and Students of Literature and Art, by 
 Dr. R. Engelmann and Professor W, C. Anderson, Firth College, 
 Sheffield, i Vol., 4to, cloth. los. 6d. 
 
 " Every school library should possess this book. It is of the very highest 
 interest. ' ' — Spectator. 
 
 " An excellent educational idea. The editors regard the Homeric poems as a 
 secular Greek Bible, the illustrations to which not only make the Iliad and the 
 Odyssey more intelligible to the Greek student, but supply a clue to the sacred 
 mysteries of ancient art and literature."^ — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " The atlas is thus not only useful as an aid to the study of the poems, but 
 available also for the purposes of a student of ancient art as a thing by itself." — Scots- 
 man. 
 
 " It ought certainly to prove of service to teachers who wish to render ' Homer * 
 intelligible to their younger pupils." — Standard. 
 
 " The compilers have gone through ' Homer ' book by book, and whenever they 
 found an opportunity they have reproduced a bust, or mural painting, or a group of 
 statuary illustrating and elucidating the text." — Graphic. 
 
 " Mr. Anderson has done valuable work in preparing this English edition of 
 Engelmann's well-known ' Homeric Atlas.' The additions are all clear, and have been 
 admirably planned." — Classical Review. 
 
 " It is a book which every one who loves his ' Homer ' should study and keep at 
 his elbow." — University Correspondent. 
 
 OLYMPOS : Tales of the Gods of Greece and 
 
 Rome. By Talfourd Ely. With 47 Woodcuts and 6 full- 
 page Photographic Plates, i Vol. Crown 8vo, cloth. 105. dd. 
 
 " In ' Olympos* Professor Talfourd Ely furnishes a book which should be found 
 useful by a large number of readers of the present day. The author has set himsell 
 to provide an account, which shall be at once systematic and readable, of the chief 
 Greek and Roman deities ; accurate according to the light of modern researches and 
 theories, and popular enough in style for general reading — a kind of Lempriere up 
 to date. One feature of the book should be especially useful to young readers. Zeus 
 and Jupiter, Hera and Juno, Poseidon and Neptune, and the rest, have parallel but 
 distinct accounts given to them, so that the difference of origin of Greek and Roman 
 deities is made clear." — St. James' Gazette. 
 
 " This is a really excellent book of its kind." — The Spectator. 
 
 "The book is most pleasantly written, and is the fruit of laborious research 
 among the best available authorities on the subject." — £cho. 
 
 " Makes a capital gift book." — Scotsman. 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
AUCHJEOLiOGY—Coniinued. 
 
 EXCURSIONS IN GREECE to recently Ex- 
 
 plored Sites of Classical Interest : Mycenae, Tiryns, 
 
 Dodona, Delos, Athens, Olympia, Eleusis, Epidauros, Tanagra. 
 
 A Popular Account of the Results of Recent Excavations. By 
 
 Charles Diehl, late member of the French Schools of Rome and 
 
 Athens, and Professor at the University of Nancy. Translated 
 
 by Emma R. Perkins, Headmistress of the Thetford Grammar 
 
 School for Girls. With an Introduction by Reginald Stuart 
 
 Poole, LL.D., Professor of Archaeology at University College, 
 
 London ; Corresponding Member of the Institute of France. 
 
 Illustrated. Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6ci. 
 
 The aim M. Diehl has set before himself in this book is — discarding the techni- 
 calities of Archaeology and leaving on one side its more obscure problems — to present 
 in a clear and simple form the chief results of the excavations which, within the last 
 twenty years, have done so much to enlarge our knowledge of the art, the life, and 
 the religion of the Greeks. The work is thus a summary of the latest results of 
 Archaeology in Greece, and the only complete and succinct view of the whole field, 
 with needful plans of each site. 
 
 THE MASTER OF TANAGRA: an Artist's 
 
 Story of Old Hellas. By Ernst Von Wildenbruch. 
 Translated from the Seventh German Edition. Illustrated with 
 25 Tanagra Figures. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt top, 5s. 
 1 his is a novel. 
 
 "In 'The Master of Tanagra' the life of old Greece is reconstructed with a 
 realism that gives a correct reflex of the times in a language that is both elegant and 
 picturesque." — Morning Post. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 THE BOOK: its Printers, Illustrators, and 
 Binders, from Gutenberg to the Present Time. By 
 
 Henri Bouchot, of the National Library, Paris. With a 
 Treatise on the Art of Collecting and Describing Early Printed 
 Books, and a Latin-English and English-Latin Topographical 
 Index of the Earliest Printing Presses. Containing 172 Fac- 
 similes of Early Typography, Book Illustrations, Printers' 
 Marks, Bindings, numerous Borders, Initials, Head and Tail 
 Pieces, and a Frontispiece, i Vol. Royal 8vo, vellum cloth. 
 £1 IS. 
 
 "Beginning with the Block Books, which anticipated by a few decades the 
 discovery of Printing, this work gives an account of the rise and progi-ess of Printing, 
 the dispersion over Europe of the German printers, the growth of Book Illustration, 
 of the Binder's Art, and all similar matter down to the present day." — Athemzum. 
 
 H GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
BIBLtlOGRAPHY—Confimtec/. 9 
 
 MANUAL OF BIBLIOGRAPHY: being an 
 Introduction to the Knowledge of the Book, Library 
 Management, and the Art of Cataloguing. With a 
 Latin-English and English-Latin Topographical Index of the 
 Early Printing Centres. With 37 Illustrations. By Walter T. 
 Rogers, Inner Temple Library. New Edition, Enlarged, i vol. 
 Crown 8vo, cloth. 5s. 
 " Contains much rare and curious information." — Morning Post. 
 
 " To this little work the printer, the bookbinder, the artist, the author, the 
 librarian, the bibliophile, will all turn with interest, and, we venture to predict, will 
 not be disappointed. It describes 'The Invention and Progress of Printing,' treats 
 elaborately of 'The Book,' 'The Ornamentation of the Book,' 'The Library and 
 the Catalogue,' and kindred topics. A useful list of books of reference, a glossary, 
 and an index are added. The book is nicely got up, and the illustrations add to its 
 beauty and value." — Publishers^ Circular. 
 
 "It gives in a pleasant way a great deal of information about the invention 
 and progress of printing, about rare books, matters of abbreviation, illuminated 
 capitals, wood engraving, steel engraving, heliotype, etc., and a great many other 
 subjects which touch the hearts of book lovers and book maniacs. It also contains 
 many illustrations of mediaeval and modern printing, binding, and decoration." — 
 Echo, 
 
 LACE BOOK. 
 
 MANUAL OF EMBROIDERY AND LACE : 
 
 their Manufacture and History from the remotest 
 Antiquity to the present Day. By Ernest Lefebure, 
 Lace Manufacturer and Administrator of the Musee des Arts 
 Decoratifs, Paris. Translated and Enlarged, with Notes and 
 New Designs, by Alan S. Cole, of the South Kensington 
 Museum. With 156 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 
 gilt top. I OS. dd. 
 
 "A book which is not only a comprehensive, well-arranged, and trustworthy 
 history of a delightful art, but a book which is pleasant to see and pleasant to read, 
 well written and well edited. Its manner of production does much credit to the 
 publishers. ' ' — Academy. 
 
 FENCING AND GAMES. 
 
 SKAT : AN ILLUSTRATED GRAMMAR OF 
 
 the German Game of Cards called Skat, with a 
 Bibliography on the Subject, By Erxst Eduard Lemcke. 
 I Vol. 8vo, cloth. 4s. 6d. 
 
 "The game offers so great a variety of combinations that, though there is almost 
 unlimited scope for skill or good play, still there is a sufficient element of chance to 
 maintain the interest to the other hands, however apparently bad the cards they hold, 
 as opposed to the player. The student who has patience to go carefully through Mr. 
 Lemcke's book will be able to master the principles and rules of the game." — 
 Morning Post. 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
lo FENCING AND GA.mKS-Continued. 
 
 THE SWORDSMAN: a Manual of Fence for 
 the Foil, Sabre, and Bayonet. With an Appendix 
 consisting of a Code of Rules for Assaults, Competi- 
 tions, etc. By Alfred Hutton, late Capt. King's Dragoon 
 Guards, Author of " Cold Steel," " Fixed Bayonets," etc. With 
 42 Illustrations, i Vol. Crown 8vo, cloth. T)^. 6d. 
 
 50 copies printed on Whatman paper, bound in vellum, at los. 6d. 
 
 " Captain Alfred Hutton, a well-known authority on the subject, has compiled 
 a book, which should prove of much service to the beginner, and which also contains 
 many useful hints to the more accomplished performer." — Morning Post, 
 
 ' ' Books of the kind are rare in English, and as Captain Hutton is a skilled 
 master, and his method carries authority, the book deserves a welcome from all who 
 are interested in the maintenance of good swordsmanship." — Scotsman. 
 
 " We do not know a work that is so full of clear explanation and sound instruc- 
 tion on the art of fencing." — Court Journal, 
 
 " Captain Hutton, a well-known authority on all connected with the use of cold 
 steel, has here dealt with another branch of the subject, which he has further explained 
 by many admirably drawn illustrations." — -Journal of the United Service Institution. 
 
 " This little treatise should be read by all who take any interest or who desire 
 to gain a practical knowledge in the art of fence, an art which has, unfortunately, been 
 much neglected of late years. Captain Hutton deserves the gratitude of all admirers 
 of the arvte blanche, not only for his able advocacy of the art, but also for his excellent 
 exposition of its practice. The book, which is replete with valuable lessons, contains 
 forty-two illustrations, and will be found a most valuable companion to his other 
 works, 'Cold Steel,' ' Fixed Bayonets,' etc." — United Service Gazette. 
 
 OLD SWORD PLAY. By Capt. Alfred Hutton, 
 
 Author of the "Swordsman," "Cold Steel," and "Fixed 
 Bayonets," etc., with 58 Illustrations after Alfieri, Angelo, Di 
 Grassi, Liancourt, Marozzo, De la Touche, Weischner, and other 
 celebrated Fencing Masters^ containing a Series of Studies of 
 the Swordsmanship of the i6th, 17th, and i8th Centuries, em- 
 bracing the Twohand Sword, Rapier, and Dagger, Broadsword 
 and Buckler, " Case of Rapiers," Early Small Sword Play, etc. 
 Royal 8vo. Superfine Dutch paper. Vellum cloth, extra. 
 Limited to 300 copies. Buckram, ^\ is. 
 
 " Captain Hutton has compiled and arranged the lessons in his book so as to make 
 the antique methods accessible to the student without the labour of searching through 
 many ancient volumes." — Graphic. 
 
 " Captain Hutton's clear and concise treatment of this curious form of Sword Play, 
 illustrated as it is by plates from Marozzo and Di Grassi, is extremely interesting. 
 This latest contribution to the literature of fencing should not be neglected by any one 
 interested in that fine art." — Illustrated London News. 
 
 "The plates are superbly reproduced, and form a most valuable collection." — 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
MEMOIRS. II 
 
 A HANOVERIAN-ENGLISH OFFICER A 
 
 HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Memoirs of Baron 
 Ompteda, Colonel in the King's German Legion, 26th Novem- 
 ber, 1765, to i8th June, 181 5. Translated by John Hill, M.A. 
 With Portrait. Demy 8vo, cloth, price 16s. 
 The life of Baron Ompteda, who was born in 1765, and fell on the field of 
 Waterloo in 1815, is full of variety, and rich in deeds and sufferings. He took part 
 in the Coalition War in the Netherlands in 1793-4, and was engaged thenceforward 
 to his end in the struggle maintained by England and Hanover against the French 
 domination. On the breaking up of the old Hanoverian drmy, in 1803, he was one 
 of those officers who forthwith constructed from its fragments the Kings German 
 Legion. With this corps war took him to Ireland, to Gibraltar, to Copenhagen, into 
 the hands of the Dutch and French as a prisoner of war, to Spain (1812-14), until at 
 last he met a hero's death at Waterloo. The work throws also many sidelights on 
 English politics and society under George IH., and teems with interesting anecdotes. 
 Baron Ompteda was a man distinguished for striking intellectual gifts and general 
 culture. He was intimately acquainted with Schamhorst and Gneisenau, as the 
 correspondence testifies. 
 
 " A very interesting life of a very interesting soldier" — General Viscount 
 
 WOLSELEY. 
 
 MEDICINE. 
 
 MY WATER CURE TESTED FOR MORE 
 
 THAN 35 YEARS for the CURE of DISEASES and 
 the PRESERVATION of HE ALTH. By SEBASTIAN 
 KneiPP, Parish Priest of Worishoven, Bavaria, with 100 Illus- 
 trations and a Portrait of the Author. Complete Copyright Edition. 
 Enlarged by 136 pages ; translated from the last (the 36th) 
 German Edition. Entirely revised by the Author, with 50 
 additional Illustrations of Medicinal Plants. Post 8vo, cloth, 
 396 pp., price 6s. 
 This Edition is an accurate rendering of the Original Work, as revised by the 
 Author himself, and is not to be confounded with another Translation, of 272 pages, 
 price 5j., which is made from an old German Edition, and contains neither the 
 Original Woodcuts nor the New Illustrations of Medicinal Plants. 
 
 "All Germany bears witness to the worth of his regimen." — The Guardian. 
 " Here is an author whose book has already gone through thirty-six editions in 
 German alone. There is no form of water cure but the Bavarian pastor has some- 
 thing to say about. This book deals, first, with the numerous forms of water application, 
 shawls, bandages, wet shirts, etc., next with medicines, and, thirdly, with diseases. 
 We hope it may find a wide circulation in England." — Echo. 
 
 "The author expresses himself with directness and simplicity which are truly 
 refreshing. Common sense is the prevailing element running through the book, and 
 by common sense and observation many diseases may be averted. This volume 
 should take its place as an honoured member of the domestic pharmacopoeia of the 
 day." — Salds Journal. 
 
 " The translation of this valuable work into English will have the effect of 
 giving us a handbook to health the like of which we cannot boast. The idea of the 
 culture of health is in a sense original, since the methods instituted by the author have 
 in their entirety never been adopted in England. Hydropathy, it is true, has long 
 been popular here, but not altogether on the lines of Sebastian Kneipp. His system 
 he has given in the work under notice, a work that is at once original in conception 
 and able in execution." — Christian Union. 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON W.C. 
 
12 ME'DICl'N'E—Coniinued. 
 
 PLANT - ATLAS, illustrating SEBASTIAN 
 
 Kneipp'S " My Water Cure "; describing and picturing 
 true to nature all Medicinal Plants mentioned in his 
 books, with addition of several others frequently 
 resorted to by the people. With 41 coloured Plates con- 
 taining 69 specimens. 8vo, cloth, los. 6d. 
 
 Everybody is enabled, by simply consulting the " Plant- Atlas," to find out for 
 himself whatever herb he will have to look for in woods or fields, and thus to make 
 up, in a most pleasant way, that " Family-Medicine-Chest," recommended by Kneipp. 
 
 The description is supplied by a distinguished Botanist, and dwells on any point 
 of importance, for instance upon the General and Special Characteristics of every 
 Plant, its flowering time, use, occurrence, diagnostics, mode of acting, healing 
 power, etc. 
 
 THE KNEIPP BROCHURE: containing all 
 
 about the Life and W^orks of the celebrated ^A/'oris- 
 kofen Priest, and his Healing Method. Illustrated. Free 
 on Application. 
 
 CORPULENCE AND ITS TREATMENT 
 
 on Physiological Principles. By Dr. W. Ebstein, Pro- 
 fessor of Medicine and Director of the Clinical Hospital at 
 Gottingen. i Vol. 8vo, boards. 2s. 6d. 
 
 "This work is written in a thoroughly scientific spirit, and has no sign of 
 charlatanry about it." — Medical Times. 
 
 GERMAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 PRACTICAL GRAMMAR OF THE GER- 
 MAN LANGUAGE. With Reading Lessons, and a 
 German-English and English-German Vocabulary. 
 
 By William Eysenbach. New Edition, i Vol. 8vo, cloth. 
 "^s. dd. 
 
 "It is decidedly * practical.^ We like the gradual mode of presenting difficulty 
 after difficulty, and the conversational tone of the exercises." — Schoolmaster. 
 
 DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH AND 
 
 GERMAN LANGUAGES. By Dr. Fr. Koehler. 30th 
 Edition, brought up to date, by Professor Dr. H. Lambeck. The 
 best German Dictionary extant, even better for practical use 
 than any of the larger Dictionaries, i Vol. 8vo, cloth, 
 is. 6d. 
 
 H. GREVEL & CO., 33, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C. 
 
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