Gell, William: The geography and antiquities of Ithaca (London, 1807)

51

it was a matter of such importance, probably from the labour
required to obtain it in so elevated a situation, that both
the setting out and 'the return of the virgins is mentioned.
The fountain and the rock are in all probability covered
with an .accumulation of soil, as the well was, till the late
discovery of it. It is possible that the building added by
the ancient Kings of Ithaca might have been in the bed of the
torrent, a mode not unusual in Greece, and this liable to be
lost when neglected, either by an accretion of earth brought
doAvn by winter floods, or by the cultivation of its imme-
diate vicinity.

At the distance of one hundred and fifty-five paces from
the church, near the well, proceeding toward the summit of
Aito, is a wall, anciently part of that which surrounded the
city, and forming one side of an irregular triangle, at the
opposite angle of which is the citadel. The two other sides
extend from each extremity of the lower wall to the Acro-
polis, and this, allowing for the little variations which the
natural formation of the ground might introduce, seems to
have been a figure preferred from its convenience, in the

1 Od. 20, line 162,
H 2

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