210 DISTRICT OF TROAS. 
brethren of the Dardanelles substituted other 
antiquities, in the place of reUcs which they 
had been told they might find in the tomb\ 
The Ruins of Pariwn, and of other antient cities 
in their neighbourhood, and the usual traffic 
carried on with Greeks who pass through the 
Straits from all parts of the Archipelago and 
Mediterranean, might easily have furnished them 
with the means of deception. We have not the 
smallest hesitation in affirming, that we believe 
these tombs to be coeval with the time of Homer, 
and that to one of them, at least, he has alluded 
in the Odyssey". Many authors bear testimony 
to the existence of the To7nb of Achilles, and to 
its situation, on or by the Sigean Promontory^. 
It is recorded of Alexander the Great, that 
he anointed the Stele upon it with perfumes, 
and ran naked around it, according to the 
custom of honouring the manes of a Hero"*. 
JElian distinguishes the Tomb of Achilles from 
that of Patroclus, by relating, that Alexander 
(1) A cast from the bronze figure of Isis, said to have been exca- 
vated upon that occasion, is now in the possession of the £arl nf 
Aberdeen. It certainly represents very antient workmanship. The 
inverted position of the wing's is alone proof of its great antiquity, 
whatever may have been its real history. 
(2) Odyss. il. 73. 
(3J Diodorus Slculus, Slralo, JElian, Philostratiis in Vit. /Jpollon, kc' 
(4} Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. 
