Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/200

176 where he would have seen a great deal more than M. Haussoullier has deigned to publish. We are delighted to see Mr. Frazer croscross [sic] swords with Dörpfeld, and come off without a scratch. Dörpfeld's learning commands all respect, but he is no god to bow down before and worship; and many of his theories show lack of judgement. Mr. Frazer, to change the metaphor, pricks those bubbles with a grace; and we hope that Englishmen will be less likely than ever to accept the ridiculous notion that the Greek theatre had no stage. We differ from Mr. Frazer in his account of Pylos, and we think that if he had been there he would never have spoken as he does about the southern entrance to the bay. To talk of stopping up an entrance three quarters of a mile wide, and open to the waves of the sea, with ships fastened together, is so absurd that the Spartans would never have dreamt of alleging this intention as an excuse for their failure. That the Spartans did intend so to close the openings they spoke of, we are convinced, and therefore believe that those openings were two, leading through the sandspit into the present lagoon of Osman Aga. And is Voidiokoilia the name of a little bay? We greatly doubt it; the name was certainly given to the flat sandy knoll close by, and though it may now include the bay, it certainly includes the knoll.

A few details may be mentioned. We do not notice a reference to Penrose's convincing explanation of the lighting of Greek temples. Surely Potami (ii. 423) ought not to be given as a proper name; it is simply the modern Greek word for "river." The meaning of Larissa is probably "hill" or "fort," and this might have been stated (iii. 206); also that the Lesbian Larissa still bears its old name (Lársa). The head of the Platæan serpent (v. 302) is now in the museum at Constantinople.

Mr. Frazer has a great deal to say about art from the commonsense point of view; and he has pricked another bubble (iv. 378) in showing how shallow are often the arguments drawn from style alone. Several plates are given of conjectural restorations of ancient pictures, and a number of good process-blocks of statuary. These contrast with the coins, which, as we said, are bad. This is the greater pity, because they are so useful in showing the type of ancient statues long since gone the way of all marble.