THE HOMERIC PALACE. 197 



Separate stairs, by which they might ascend to 

 the upper chambers and dormitories, the open por- 

 ticos and pleasure gallery, appear to have been 

 outwardly adjusted to the walls on both sides ; so 

 that any female might descend, and go to the hall- 

 door, at will, without being obstructed or observed ; 

 but nobody could escape out of it, by the passage 

 open towards the lower bedrooms and cells, unless 

 by breaking through the inner wall, constructed 

 perhaps of wood, or wickerwork, or clay ; by the 

 fragments and fissure of which, Melanthius seems 

 to have mounted into the closet, where the arms 

 w^ere deposited. 



I am not unconscious of the various senses, in 

 which the terms of the original Greek have been in- 

 terpreted ; but waiving every estimate of their com- 

 parative worth, I prefer that acceptation, which 

 seems to agree best with their etymology, provided 

 it accords with the strain of the sentence. 



The rafters of the roof and gallery seem to have 

 been brought forward beyond the walls, on every 

 side; and beams protruded and jutting out were up- 

 held by other external columns : for Telemachus, 

 about to enter into the house, affixes the spear of 

 Minerva to the -pillar, in its wonted nook, as if he 

 had already entered within the doors ; the rope, by 

 which the guilty female servants were to be sus- 

 pended, each in her noose, extends round the ceiling 

 from a great column. This column must have 

 been one of the props by which the roof was sus- 

 tained, as is obvious from its name in the original ; 

 though Eustathius, and his interpreter, Ernesti,have 

 egregiously erred in supposing this pillar to stand 

 within rather than without the partition of the edi* 

 fice. It is manifest that this dome was a circular 

 erection, consisting of stone, between the house and 

 the outer wall ; but its use, whether for liberal or 

 servile purposes, has not been intimated by the 

 poet. 



Similar in forms perhaps, though larger in dimen- 

 sions, were the dormitories, successively neighbouring 



