THE ISLAND OF ITHICA.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3141, 13 March 1879, Page 1

THE ISLAND OF ITHICA.

Dr Schliemani, who has recently been engaged in exploring the Island of Ithics, »|.i land of the much travelled 'Ulyses,' in a iV* 6* t0 the Times Kireß the ™lttltl at which ho ha 9 Brrived- Beginning at the northern b :nd, he found that the f alley called Polis, whii,: H h" general y been regarded as the site ot P¥ <*P lt. a! of UI J«" and which Mr Gladstone. »n i'lß «««>«r published • Homer Primer' W* 2,™, 1 with all Homer's indications of thC capital, could not maintain its claim, its fancied Acropolis ' never having been touched by the hands of man,' and the Greeks not having been wont to build their cities on * fertile land, especially 'among these barren crags,' where, arable land was so precious. Proceeding southwards, Dr Schliemann came to the isthmus which joins tbe northern and southern halves of the island, on which Mount Aetos is situated; and here on the 'artificially but rudely levelled summit,' which rises 1200 feet above the sea, found a triangular platform, with remnants of some cyclopean buildings, which he satisfied himself formed the nucleus of the most ancient capital of the old lords of Ithica, and among them of Ulyses. It appears that the 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 a level surface, extensive enough for a mansion and a courtyard, was afforded. There are two circuit walls, one 50 feet below the other, and immense boulderwalls run down and about the upper slope of the mountain. Dr Schliemann thinks that a city, of some 2000 houses, once sheltered under these cyclopean walls, and has found the ruins of 190, the stones of which are far larger than those in the cyclopean houses at Mycenae andTiryns. None of these ruins are visible from below, the sides of Mount Aetoe being very steep, which account! for the discovery not having been made before.. The steepness of the slope and centuries of heavy winter rains also ac« count for the disappearance of almost all remnants ancient industry which have been swept in'o the sea. At the southern end Q f the islana he has found the very pigstyes of Eumseus the swineherd.