DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0170
143
New. Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. V.
carefully arranged: in the Odyssey (17, 85) the suitors,
"when they came to the fair-lying palace, laid aside their
cloaks on the couches and chairs, and went to the well-
polished baths and bathed them." •
(6.) At Tiryns the door-sills were in some cases made of -
stone, in other cases of wood : this is altogether in harmony
with the Homeric custom.
(7.) The glass and alabaster frieze found at Tiryns is
not only in accordance with Homeric custom, but it
explains as has above been pointed out, the Homeric
phrase dpiy/cbs Kvdvoio, which had before been imperfectly
understood.
(8.) In the men's hall at Tiryns the hearth stands in
the midst of four pillars which supported, as is supposed,
a raised square of roof above. In the Odyssey, when
Nausicaa is directing Odysseus to the palace of her father
(vi. 304), she bids him quickly to pass through the hall
to where her mother "sits by the hearth in the light of
the fire" busy with the loom, and " resting against a
pillar." The coincidence here is very remarkable: in the
conjectural restorations of the Homeric palace the hearth
had been placed at a considerable distance from the
pillars.
These coincidences, besides others of a more doubtful
character, or requiring a long discussion to prove, are
sufficient to show that the poet of the Odyssey knew from
tradition, if not from personal observation, many of the
features of the Greek prehistoric house, such as those of
Tiryns and Mycenae. But he does not seem to be
sufficiently familiar with such houses to escape confusion
in some parts of his narrative. In the stirring episode of
the slaying of the suitors especially he sometimes nods:
we find it hard, or even impossible, to determine at which
end of the hall Odysseus stood when he shot them down,
or how Melanthius contrived to fetch the. arms. No one
New. Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. V.
carefully arranged: in the Odyssey (17, 85) the suitors,
"when they came to the fair-lying palace, laid aside their
cloaks on the couches and chairs, and went to the well-
polished baths and bathed them." •
(6.) At Tiryns the door-sills were in some cases made of -
stone, in other cases of wood : this is altogether in harmony
with the Homeric custom.
(7.) The glass and alabaster frieze found at Tiryns is
not only in accordance with Homeric custom, but it
explains as has above been pointed out, the Homeric
phrase dpiy/cbs Kvdvoio, which had before been imperfectly
understood.
(8.) In the men's hall at Tiryns the hearth stands in
the midst of four pillars which supported, as is supposed,
a raised square of roof above. In the Odyssey, when
Nausicaa is directing Odysseus to the palace of her father
(vi. 304), she bids him quickly to pass through the hall
to where her mother "sits by the hearth in the light of
the fire" busy with the loom, and " resting against a
pillar." The coincidence here is very remarkable: in the
conjectural restorations of the Homeric palace the hearth
had been placed at a considerable distance from the
pillars.
These coincidences, besides others of a more doubtful
character, or requiring a long discussion to prove, are
sufficient to show that the poet of the Odyssey knew from
tradition, if not from personal observation, many of the
features of the Greek prehistoric house, such as those of
Tiryns and Mycenae. But he does not seem to be
sufficiently familiar with such houses to escape confusion
in some parts of his narrative. In the stirring episode of
the slaying of the suitors especially he sometimes nods:
we find it hard, or even impossible, to determine at which
end of the hall Odysseus stood when he shot them down,
or how Melanthius contrived to fetch the. arms. No one