Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/464

The Islands of the -^gean. 437 of Temenia, and their very archaic character is unmistakable. Nowhere could I perceive the smallest scrap of cornice or frontel, capital or regular course ; no point, in fact, to remind one of Hellenic culture. The walls throughout are constructed in Cyclopaean or polygonal style, and follow the outer edge of the plateau above the escarp. Here and there the defence has been strengthened by towers, made of blocks sometimes two metres long. The area is strewn with smaller stones from ruinous houses similarly built. The conclusion forced upon the mind by the sight of this fastness, is that it was erected by the first settlers who came to this part of the island ; whilst the absence of any sign or token of classic times clearly points to its having been abandoned at a very early date.^ About an hour beyond Temenia are the ruins of Elyros, a Dorian town, once full of great and Fig. i68.— Tomb at Milato. Stately buildings. Had Temenia been in existence in the golden day of Elyros, it could not have helped being influenced by the culture of the latter, and its name, which no geographer or inscrip- tion has handed down to us, would have been duly chronicled. It is self-evident, therefore, that in those days it had already passed out of men's memory. Were plans, and above all excava- tions, made here, they would perhaps enable us to creep back to the Eteocretae, who are supposed to have preceded the Acha^ans and Dorians in the island. In this way some notion of their social status, their industry and their rustic but massive style of architecture, might be gained. For the rest, if we are to 1 A rather. circumstantial description of this field of ruins, from the pen of my travelling companion, Thenon, has appeared in the Revue archeoiogique : Forteresses de la vallee du Viithias et mines de Temenia ; but no drawings are given, nor is the style of the masonry defined with precision. Thenon cites a curious passage of Theophrastus relating to the centres in question, from which it would appear that in his day the sites of these dead cities were already shown to travellers and commented upon.