At the highest and narrowest point of the low pass between Volo and Velestino, ten kilometres from the former and seven from the latter, upon a low spur projecting into the pass, is situated the tumulus known by the Turkish name of Piláf-Tepé. This tumulus is different from all the other numerous tumuli of Thessaly not only because of its greater size and more conical shape, but also in that it is placed upon a hill while the rest lie in the plain. These peculiarities, combined with the fact that it is situated nearly halfway along the high road between the ancient Pherae and its port Pagasae, were sufficient to point it out as a promising site for excavation. Local theorists were divided between three opinions. Some said the tumulus was prehistoric, others suggested that it contained the tomb of some prince of Pherae, while others again insisted upon attributing it to the Turkish occupation.

There are few truths that are more forcibly impressed on the attention of any one engaged in restoring the lost monuments of antiquity than the painful one—that no form of written words is sufficient to convey a distinct idea of a building which has been destroyed. No adequate reproduction of its form can be made unless the words are accompanied by a diagram or drawing of some sort, or when these cannot be obtained, unless some sufficient remains of the building still exist to make its restoration possible, or if neither of these be attainable, unless it proves to be part of a known series—in other words, unless some edifices exist, either before or after it in date, so similar in form and purpose as to enable us from a study of their peculiarities to appreciate the meaning of the terms applied to the one we are attempting to restore.

The Temples of the Jews are a conspicuous illustration of this truth. Though so minutely described in the Bible or by Josephus, nothing can be more discrepant than the notions entertained by restorers of their forms and dimensions, and it is only very recently that we have begun to perceive that they form a part of a series (though it must be confessed not of familiar or well understood types), and that we begin to realize their forms with anything like distinctness. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, were important buildings of which we knew nothing till very recently, except from written descriptions; and nothing could be more various than the restorations that were proposed to reconcile their features with the verbal texts. Thanks to the excavations conducted by Messrs. Newton and Wood, we now know what the real appearances of these celebrated buildings were with sufficient exactness for all practical purposes.

In May and June 1952, as a member of the Anglo-Turkish expedition working at Sultantepe, between Harran and Urfa, I excavated a bath building in the Roman settlement at the foot of the mound. The main hall of the bath was paved with a fine mosaic, decorated with geometric patterns, some of which had affinities with motifs current at Antioch on the Orontes during the first half of the fifth century A.D. At the northern end of the pavement, incorporated in the mosaic, was a five-line hexameter inscription in a tabula ansata (Fig. 1). The inscription was almost undamaged, except for a diagonal break at the left-hand end (which resulted in the loss of about four letters in ll. 1/2, and of about three or two in ll. 3/5), and a small hole which obliterates three letters not far from the beginning of l. 1.

If the Hymns of Homer are, as probably they are, comparatively little regarded as a rule even by those who take a general interest in Greek literature and its history, this is certainly not for want of artistic merit, and still less for want of historic importance. However widely students have differed, or may differ, in their conclusions about this enigmatic collection, it is an undoubted fact, and worth insisting upon when every day a wider and more popular audience is invited to form a judgment on matters of criticism, that any theory of ‘Homer’, to be entertainable, must make its account with the Hymns not less than with the more celebrated epics. For the sake of this larger bearing, if not for the sake of the poem itself, the reader may be disposed to consider and weigh the following reflexions upon Homer's Hymn to Apollo.

The four antefixes from Tarentum, shown in Plate XXXII., where they are reduced in size to about half the actual diameter, are only specimens selected from the not inconsiderable number of types found in recent excavations. All that I have seen are marked by great breadth and freedom of execution. Even those which seem to have been originally cast, in the rough, in the same mould have undergone such subsequent touching up and remodelling as makes them distinct works of art. Identical types sometimes occur in slightly varying sizes which implies successive moulds imitative of some established original. The faces when found are covered with a hard and rough lime-deposit, but the removal of this often reveals traces of colour laid as usual on a white priming. The Medusa, head in the plate appears to have been coloured to the life—cheeks pink, lips red, and not only the pupil, but even the iris of the eye painted. The colour of eyebrows and lashes is dark, that of the hair now a dirty brownish-yellow—like the tint of the common yellow lichen—probably modified by time or by the action of the acid used to remove the lime accretion. The modelling of the lips shows that fleshy and life-like firmness which is peculiar to the best time of Greek art. Under the chin of this, or a similar head I notice the marks of the moulder's finger, but instruments seem to have been used also. The lines of the hair, though fine in the plate, lose considerably by the absence of the part by the cheeks, where over each ear there rises a snake curved like a flattened S. The specimens which show these do not come up in features to the one figured. The colour on the snakes is blue-green. The small button above the centre of the brow is a curious feature.

Like his predecessor Herodotus, Ctesias has a great deal to report of marvellous springs, lakes and other bodies of water. Indeed, in one of the most noteworthy tales in his book on India, he describes a remarkable well which produces not water but gold. The story has never been discussed in full. A recent scholar, in fact, in one of the few allusions to it, reproduces the account, but only in part, namely the lines which concern the gold. The original narrative, however, includes much more, for it deals, in addition, with the iron found at the bottom of the well and with its remarkable properties, as well as with the two swords of this metal which Ctesias allegedly received, one from the queen-mother, the other from the king.

The coin of Sicyon, of the obverse of which a drawing by Mr. F. Anderson (made over a photograph) is given here, has been twice published both times by Professor Percy Gardner.

The inscription on the obverse, which lends special interest to this piece, is unique among adscititious inscriptions upon Greek coins, not only in its elaborate character, but in the manner of its execution. Such inscriptions are in other cases graffiti, scratched with a point; this is pricked into the metal with a pointed instrument.

Scenes from the history of Pandora are rare in works of Greek art. There have at present been published, so far as I am aware, only five representations of her, in two reliefs and three vases. These all represent her birth or her coming into being. All the vases are in the British Museum. To these I have to add a fourth vase (Pl. I.), recently presented to the Ashmolean Museum by Mr. Edmund Oldfield, and bringing before us a fresh scene from the interesting history of the strange being made by the gods for the delusion and betrayal of men.

The tale of Pandora, as it appears in Hesiod, is so well known that I need only glance at its main features. When Prometheus had stolen for men fire from the gods, Zeus, determining to punish him, caused Hephaestus to make of earth a beauteous woman, whom, the goddesses adorned with ornaments, but in whom Hermes implanted a deceitful heart and a treacherous tongue.