102 
CLARKE S TRAVELS. 
zeal to gratify bis patron, and prevent the disappointment likely 
to ensue from an expenditure of money to no purpose, it is at 
least probable that his Jewish brethen of the Dardanelles sub- 
stituted other antiquities, in the place of reliques which they 
had been told they might find in the tomb.* The mins of 
Parium, and of other ancient cities in their neighbourhood, as 
well as the ordinary tralfick carried on with Greeks who pass 
through the straits from all parts of the Archipelago and Medi¬ 
terranean, might easily have furnished them with the means of 
deception. I have not the smallest hesitation in affirming, that 
I 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.f 
Many authors bear testimony to the existence of the tomb of 
Achilles, and to its situation, on or by the Sigean Promontory.f 
It is recorded of Alexander the Great that he anointed the 
Stele upon it with perfumes, and ran naked around it, accord¬ 
ing to the custom of honouring the manes of a Hero.§ iEliao 
distinguishes the tomb of Achilles from that of Patroclus, by 
relating, that Alexander crowned one, and Hephaestion the 
©iher.jl It will not therefore be easy to determine, at the 
present day, which of the three tombs, now standing upon this 
promontory, was that which the inhabitants of Sigeum formerly 
venerated, as containing the ashes of Achilles**. The same 
degree of uncertainty does not attach to the tomb of Ajax: upon 
the Rhoetean side there is only a single tumulus. 
From hence we descended once more to Koum-kale where 
we embarked for the Dardanelles. And now, having finished 
the survey of this interesting country, it may be proper to add* 
by way of postscript to this chapter, a brief summary of the 
principal facts concerning it, for the use of other travellers, and 
as the result of our observations in Troas, 
* A cast from the broDze figure of Isis, said to have been excavated upon that occa¬ 
sion, is now in the possession of the earl of Aberdeen. It certainly represents very 
ancient workmanship. The inverted position of the wings is alone proof of its great 
antiquity, whatever may have been its real history. 
j Gdyss. IX 73. 
X Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, igllaif, Philostratus in Vit Apollon, &C. 
J Diod. Sic. lib. xvii. 
\) iEiian. Var. Hist. lib. xii. c. 7. The distinction is also made by Strabo, and by 
Other writers. This difference between Horner’s record and the traditions of the 
sountry, respecting the Trojan war, seems to prove that the latter were not derived 
from the former. Dr. Chandler has discussed this subject, in his interesting History- 
Ilium. See p. 133. 
It should also be observed, that to the south of Sigeum, upon the shore of the 
JEgean, are yet other tumuli, of equal, if not greater size, to which hardly any atten¬ 
tion has yet been paid ; and these are visible far out at sea. The opening all of them 
will, it la bowed, ©as day threw sesne light up®® this curious subject 
