January 8, 1886.] 



SCIENCE, 



39 



mediaeval, and it had never been imagined that 

 they could be perhaps two thousand years older, 

 and belong to the palace of the mythical king of 

 Tiryns " (p. 8). Who would suppose, upon reading 

 this, that twenty years ago Dr. Rhaugabe, in his 

 ' History of ancient art ' (p. 63), had stated that " it 

 is highly probable that these are the remains of the 

 primitive palace of Proetus " ? We have here an 

 instance of the same self-complacency which 

 manifests itself also in a remark about his " ex- 

 cavations in the prehistoric tumulus on the plain 

 of Marathon, which previously had been wrongly 

 regarded as the tomb of the one hundred and 

 ninety-two Athenians who fell in the battle " (p. 78). 

 Dr. Schliemann seems to have never read Byron's 

 well-known verses upon Marathon and ' the vio- 

 lated tomb,' and not to know that years ago the 

 tumulus was explored by a Frenchman ; which 

 may, perhaps, explain why our author found so 

 little in it, even if its situation itself, in a sandy 

 plain hard by the water's side, would not be suffi- 

 cient to account for the disappearance of the bones 

 of the heroes who were buried under it, as we may 

 fairly infer from what Thucydides and Pausanias 

 and Kritias tell us. 



The first decisive result of the explorations at 

 Tiryns has been to establish the fact of the exist- 

 ence there of two successive structures, built upon 

 a limestone rock which rises to a slight eleva- 

 tion above the surrounding plain. The primitive 

 fortress was constructed of sun-dried bricks and 

 wood, according to Professor Adler, and traces 

 of the sub-structures of a huge gate-tower be- 

 longing to it were discovered under the founda- 

 tions of the palace (p. xii.). Remains of its walls 

 built of rubble and dry mortar of clay were 

 found by Dr. Dorpfeld, buried deep in debris, 

 through which a trench had to be dug before 

 the foundations of the terrace-wall of the upper 

 citadel could be laid (p. 252). Besides these 

 proofs drawn from the construction, there were 

 found among its ruins numerous fragments of rude 

 pottery, mostly hand-made, though in some in- 

 stances showing a knowledge of the potter's wheel, 

 which presents so great a contrast in form, 

 technique, and decoration, to the pottery occurring 

 in the ruins of the subsequently erected Cyclopean 

 palace, as to prove, in Dr. Schliemann's judgment, 

 that they are the work of totally different peoples. 

 This opinion is based upon arguments derived 

 from the continuity of style always to be observed 

 in the art-products of the same race, even at very 

 different periods, which he ascribes to Mr. Dennis, 

 but which really ought to be credited to Professor 

 Brizio (p. 57). 



But the crowning achievement of Dr. Schlie- 

 mann's labors has been the discovery that those 



vast walls, piled up, of huge unhewn stones, so 

 massive that in the exaggerated language of 

 Pausanias "a yoke of mules could not move 

 the smallest of them from its place," were raised 

 for the defence of ' a lordly house,' of which the 

 uniformity of design in its ground plan, and the 

 skilful distribution and arrangement of all its 

 parts, have given to the trained eye of an architect 

 a most favorable impression of the builder's talent 

 and experience. It is indeed a revelation to the 

 world that the high stage of civilization which the 

 Homeric poems disclose was not merely a poet's 

 dream. In the glowing language of Dr. Dorpfeld. 

 " we see the mighty walls, with their towers and 

 gates, and enter into the palace by the pillar- 

 decked Propylaed. We recognize the men's court, 

 with its great altar, surrounded by porticos ; we 

 see, further, the stately Megaron, with its ante- 

 room and vestibule ; we even enter the bath-room, 

 and finally pass on to the women's dwelling, with 

 its separate court and numerous chambers. This 

 is a picture which floats before the mind of every 

 reader of Homer, — a picture which many a savant 

 has endeavored to restore after the data given by 

 him. All such attempts, hitherto, have been to 

 some extent unsatisfactory. There always re- 

 mained questions to which all the acuteness in the 

 world, on the part of Homeric scholars, could give 

 no answer in the words of the poet. Many of these 

 riddles are now solved by the palace at Tiryns " 

 (p. 192). But to attempt even the briefest resume of 

 the interesting and instructive chapter in which Dr. 

 Dorpfeld has given a detailed account of the plan of 

 the citadel, and the singular method of construc- 

 tion of its walls, with their covered galleries and 

 concealed chambers, of the arrangement of the 

 approaches to it and the hitherto unknown stair- 

 way conducting to the postern gate, and finally of 

 the palace itself in all its several parts, and the 

 building-materials employed in it, as these all 

 were brought to light in the explorations of the 

 summers of 1884 and 1885, — this would far ex- 

 ceed the space at our command. We can only 

 refer to some remarkable discoveries, which throw 

 light upon the character of the civilization to 

 which the building belongs, and which are most 

 striking from their novelty. 



We think the series of nine plates, in which are 

 depicted fragments of plastered walls, painted 

 with frescos in five different colors, cannot fail to 

 stir the admiration of every lover of the beautiful, 

 whether he be a student of antiquity, or not. Who 

 could have imagined that the palace walls, in the 

 Homeric age, were ornamented with decorations 

 which for beauty and grace of design, and freedom 

 and boldness of execution, surpass the fresco- 

 painting of oui' own day ? What life and power 



