Annual of the British School at Athens, 1908-1909. (Macmillan and
Co. 25s. net.)—A conffiderable portion of this volume is given up to an account of the work which the school has been carrying on for four years in Laconia. The discoveries—to speak only of those relating to the classical period—are important in many respects ; certainly they. compel us to modify our ideas about Spartan culture. Some of the pottery discovered, for instance, is of a high order of art. Another interesting matter is the light thrown on Spartan life during the Roman period, a subject of which very little had been known. During the season 1908-9 the Menelaion was explored and a great quantity of objects discovered. These are described and figured in this volume. After the Spartan section comes an account of the memorials of the Gattelu.si, a great Genoese family in Lesbos, Aenos (near the mouth of the Hebrus), and elsewhere. Some important sculptures at Aeg,ina are described by Mr. D. Mackenzie ; finally, :we learn something about the
Kouretes from Miss Jane E. Harrison, Professor R. C. Bosanquet, and Professor Gilbert Murray. The Kouretes were the " medicine- men " of early Greece. Legend connected them with the birth and rearing of Zeus in Crete. Professor Murray has restored the " Hymn " from materials furnished by Professor Bosanquet. Here is his translation of the second stanza, which indicates clearly enough the function which they were supposed to fulfil
To us also leap for full jars, and leap for fleecy flocks, and leap for fields of fruit, and for hives to bring increase." Its date is put at "not far from the year 300 B.C.," though the inscription from which it is taken is much later. It doubtless represents a much earlier original.
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