Oct. 3, 1878] 



NATURE 



591 



The island Mathitarid Dr. Schliemann visited and 

 carefully measured. Its length is 586 feet ; its breadth 

 varies between 108 feet and 1 76 feet. It cannot, on account 

 of these small dimensions, possibly be identified with the 

 Homeric Asteris, which, as the poet says, had two ports, 

 each of them with two entrances. 



Thoughforallthesereasons Dr. Schliemann was perfectly 

 convinced that no city can ever have occupied the fertile 

 valley of Polls, yet he thought it in the interest of science 

 to investigate the matter by actual excavations. He sunk 

 there many shafts, but in nearly all of them he struck the 

 natural rock in a depth of 10 to 13 feet, except in the 

 middle of the valley, which seems to have been hollowed 

 out to a great depth by a mountain torrent. Fragments 

 of rudely-made black or white Greek pottery and pieces 

 of tiles were all he found. There were only a few frag- 

 rnents of archaic pottery for which he could claim the 

 sixth century B.C. Tombs are sometimes found on the 

 neighbouring heights, but, as is proved by the pottery 

 and coins contained in them, they are of the third, fourth, 

 or fifth century B.C. Of the same period are also the anti- 

 quities found in a cavern to the right of the port of Polls ; for 

 an inscription found there Dr. Schliemann can with cer- 

 tainty claim the sixth or even the seventh century B.C. 

 Therefore, the supposition that Polls is the site of the 

 Homeric capital of Ithaca must now be definitely aban- 

 doned. 



Dr. Schliemann afterwards carefully surveyed the re- 

 maining northern part of the island, but found nowhere 

 the site of an ancient town, except in the environs of the 

 small building of Cyclopean masonry, usually called 

 "School of Homer," which the owner of the property 

 has lately converted into a small church. He refused 

 Dr. Schliemann permission to excavate in the church, 

 but allowed him to do so in the adjoining fields, where a 

 number of rock-cut house foundations and remnants of 

 Cyclopean walls testified to the existence of an ancient 

 settlement. He dug there a great many holes, but always 

 struck the natural rock in less than 3 feet, and sometimes 

 even in a depth of less than 12 inches; thus there can 

 be no doubt that a town has existed here in classical 

 times, and most probably it is the very town mentioned 

 by Scylax Per. 34, and Ptolemaeus III., 14, 13. 



Dr. Schliemann proceeded thence to Mount Aetos, 

 situated on the narrow isthmus, hardly one mile wide, 

 which joins northern and southern Ithaca. He found 

 everywhere the purest virgin soil, except on the very 

 crest of the ridge, where, near the chapel of Hagios 

 Georgios, he found a very small plain with an accumula- 

 tion of artificial soil 10 feet deep. He dug there two 

 long trenches, in one of which he brought to light a ter- 

 race-wall 7 feet high, consisting of huge polygonal blocks, 

 well fitted together ; to compare this wall to the modem 

 terrace-walls which surround it is to compare a giant's 

 work to a work of dwarfs. Of pottery he found there 

 nothing but a few fragments of black Greek vases. 

 Having here also failed in his researches he most care- 

 fully explored Mount Aetos, which rises to the height of 

 1,200 feet from the sea, and has on its artificially, but 

 rudely, levelled summit a platform of triangular form, 

 with two large cisterns and a small one, and remnants of 

 six or seven small cyclopean buildings, which were either 

 separate houses or — and more probably — chambers of the 

 large cyclopean mansion which is said to have stood 

 there, and is commonly called "the Castle of Ulysses." 

 There can hardly be any doubt that the level summit of 

 Mount Aetos was extended to the north and south- 

 west by a huge cyclopean wall still existing, the space 

 between the top and the wall being filled up with stones 

 and debris. Thus the summit forms a quadrangular, 

 even platform 166 feet 8 inches long by 127 feet 4 inches 

 broad, so that there was on the summit ample room for a 

 large mansion and a courtyard. To the north and south 

 of the circuit-wall are towers of cyclopean masonry, from I 



each of which a huge wall of immense boulders runs down. 

 But at a certain distance these two walls begin to form a 

 curve, and ultimately join together. Two more cyclopean 

 walls run down from the top— the one in an easterly, the 

 other in a south-easterly direction, and join the curve 

 formed by the two first-named walls. Lastly, he men- 

 tions a huge circuit-wall about 50 feet below the upper 

 circuit-wall. This wall has fallen on the west side, but is 

 in a marvellous state of preservation on the other sides. 

 To increase the strength of the place the foot of the rock 

 has been cut away so as to form a perpendicular rock 

 wall 20 ft. high. In the walls are recognisable three gates. 

 Between all those cyclopean walls once stood a city, which 

 may have contained 2,000 houses, either cut out in the 

 rock or built of cyclopean masonry. Of 190 of these houses 

 Dr. Schliemann has been able to find the ruins more or less 

 well preserved. He measured twelve of them and foimd 

 them between 21 feet and 63 feet long, and 15 feet to 20 

 feet broad. The usual size of the rudely cut stones is 5 feet 

 in length, 4 feet 8 inches in breadth, and 2 feet in thick- 

 ness. The size of these stones by far exceeds that of the 

 stones in the cyclopean houses Dr. Schliemann dis- 

 covered at Mycenae and Tiryns. Some of the houses 

 consisted of only one room, others had four or even six 

 chambers. This cyclopean capital is unique in the world, 

 and every admirer of Homer ought to see it. 



For two weeks Dr. Schliemann excavated with thirty 

 workmen in those cyclopean buildings ; but fragments of 

 pottery, which has no resemblance to any of the 

 Mycenaean pottery, but is much like that from the two most 

 ancient cities at Troy j fragments of most curious tiles with 

 impressed ornaments ; also two with a sort of written 

 characters which he has not yet had time to copy; 

 further, the fragments of a most curious handmill — wer 

 the only result of all his labour. 



Dr. Schliemann has also commenced excavating the 

 stalactite grotto near the little port of Dexia, which is 

 generally identified with the port of Phorkys, where 

 Ulysses was landed by the Phseacians, the grotto being 

 rightly considered to be identical with the Homeric grotto 

 of the Nymphs, in which Ulysses, assisted by Minerva, 

 hid his treasures. But having opened a trench just 

 before the little altar, down to the rock, without even 

 finding a potsherd, he abandoned this ungrateful excava- 

 tion. The grotto is very spacious, and it exactly answers 

 the description of Homer, who says |" that it has two 

 entrances, one on its north side for men, and one on its 

 south side for the immortal gods, for no man can enter 

 by the divine door." All this is true, but by the entrance 

 for the gods he means the artificially cut hole in the 

 vault of the grotto, which must have served as a chimney 

 to lead off the smoke of the sacrificial fires. From this 

 chimney to the bottom of the grotto is 56 feet, and, of 

 course, no man can enter by this way. From the vault 

 of the grotto hang innumerable stalactites, which have 

 given to Homer the idea of the stone urns and amphoras, 

 and the stone frames and looms on which the Nymphs 

 weave purple-coloured mantles and veils. Dr. Schliemann 

 most carefully explored the whole southern portion oflthaca. 

 The town of Vathy, the present capital of Ithaca, is not 

 yet a hundred years old, and the complete absence of 

 ancient potsherds on the flat soil seems to prove that 

 there has been no city or village on the site in antiquity. 

 Before Vathy was founded the .city was on a rocky height 

 about one mile further south. On the site of the old 

 town he found but a very small accumulation of dcbriSy 

 and no trace of ancient pottery. 



Near the south-east extremity of the island, about \\ 

 miles from Vathy, are a number of stable-like rooms, ave- 

 raging 25 feet in length and 10 feet in breadth, partly rock 

 cut, partly formed by cyclopean walls of very huge stones, 

 in which Homer must have seen the twelve swine 

 stables built by the divine swine-herd Euroasus. To the 

 east of these stables and just in front of them, thousands 



