THE excavations carried on by Dr. Waldstein and his associates
at Argos were completed nearly ten years ago. The results, however, were not published till 1902, when the
first of the two volumes now under review appeared. The second was promised within a few months, and we thought it better to postpone our notice till the whole work had been
published. But the usual difficulties again occurred, and the interval was lengthened from a few months to more than two years and a half. Meanwhile research has been energetically pursued in Crete, and we find ourselves faced by a difficult question of priority. The Heraeum, the central shrine of the kindred races successively dominant in the plain of Argolis at Tiryns, Myeenae, and Argos, represented the civili- sation commonly known as Mycenaean. This discovery meant a revolution in our ideas of Greek art. We were carried hack. to a period of culture which was decadent at the time of
the Dorian invasion, and was probably at its height five centuries before. Then came the great "finds " at Cnossos, and, as a result of these, yet another revolution. We were asked .
to accept a pre-Mycenaean civilisation. It was in Crete, and not in mainland Greece, that the original home of Greek culture was to be looked for. Here Dr. Waldstein rebels, and gives reasons for his refusal to accept the new development of pre-Hellenic theory in the prefatory note to his second volume. The question is difficult and complex in a high degree, with many ramifications, some of them demanding a technical acquaintance with such matters as the ornamentation of pottery. Even if the evidence were complete, which, on the Cretan side at least, it is not, we could only say, Non nostrum tantas componere lites. Dr. Waldstein certainly makes a strong appeal to the convictions, perhaps we ought to say the prepossessions, of the student of Greek history, letters, and art when he writes as follows :—
"I cannot feel that the literary traditions doncerning the Minoan Cycle in any way warrant us in assigning a central position to it in the formation of Hellenic tradition. In its relation to the established and predominant body of earliest tradition it partakes of what I should like to call an 'episodical' character. We can conceive of the organism of Hellenic myth and heroology retaining its organic character if this cycle were expunged. An intimate connection with Greece Proper, so as to suggest an essential influence in the form of civilization, is not manifest, certainly not as regards the Argolid."
The Theseus story, he thinks, points to a temporary state of things, while the Daedalus myth indicates influence from the mainland on Crete rather than the converse. The real art influence acting from Crete outwards he puts qtfite late; the age of the statuaries Dipoenus and Scyllis possibly about ' the sixth century B.C.
The historic importance of the Heraeum of Argos—for it is in connection with this city that we hear of it in historic times—is beyond question. No -Hellenic shrine equalled it in importance, as we might say that no cult touched more nearly the most sacred sanctions of life.' Years were reckoned by the priestesses ; so Thucydides fixes the beginning of the Peloponnesian War not only by the names of officials of Athens and Sparta, protagonists in the conflict, but by the
years of Chrysis, the priestess of the Heraeum ; and he turns aside from his narrative to tell how, the temple was burnt down. The chronology of the Olympiads had not yet come into use, though there are indications of its beginning.
It is, of course, the temple that replaced the one so destroyed that Pausanias describes. He says little about it—indeed, he is commonly chary of praise—but he describes the image of Hera at some length, and ascribes it to Polycleitus, a direct testimony which there seems no adequate reason to discard in favour of a theory which would ascribe the art of the second Heraeum to Pheidias.
The temple itself was from the design of a native architect, Eupolemus, of whom we have no other mention. The front'
elevation, with the sculptures on the pediment, has been restored by Mr. E. L. Tilton. The size is possibly dis- appointing, for the extreme height is less than forty feet, Other restorations of the building are given, and there are • The Argive Heraeurn. By Charles Waldstein, with the Co-operation of G. H. Chase, H. F. cle Coo, and others. 2 vols. Boston, : Houghton. Muffin,guid Co. [56 15s. net.] also representations, actual or conjectures, of older-structures, reaching back to a very remote antiquity. The temple of Eupolemus probably survived for many years after the time of Pausanias, and we may be sure that much of the material still exists in the buildings or ruins of the Argolid plain.
We cannot attempt adequately to describe or appreciate the results which Dr. Waldstein and his co-operators have given in these two stately volumes. In addition to the general account of the subject, and of the Architecture, as before mentioned, we have special papers on the Marble Statuary, by Dr. Waldstein ; the Geology of the locality, by Mr. H. S. Washington ; the Terra Cotta Figurines and Reliefs, by Dr. Waldstein and Messrs. G. H. Chase and J. C. Hoppin ; the Vases and Fragments, a most elaborate and interesting section, by Mr. J. C. Hoppin ; the Inscriptions, a department in which the industry and ingenuity of the explorers, Messrs. R. B. Richardson and J. N. Wheeler, have been able to work out little of general interest ; the Bronzes and Coins, by Mr. H. F. de Cou ; and Engraved Stones, Gems, and Ivories, by Mr. R. Norton.
The work is issued jointly by the Archaeological Institute of America and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, two bodies to whom, as to those who have carried out the work, the most ample acknowledgments are due.
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