Yesterday and to-day my excavations have had the honour of being visited by his Majesty Dom Pedro II., Emperor of Brazil. Coming from Corinth, his Majesty rode direct up to the Acropolis, and remained for two hours in my excavations, which he attentively examined and re-examined. The immense double parallel circle of slanting slabs, within which are the three lines of tombstones, and particularly the four sculptured ones, seemed to be of paramount interest to him, and he requested me to send him photographs of them to Cairo. The great Lions' Gate, through which the king of men (ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν) passed when he left for the most glorious expedition of the heroic age, the wonderful threshold of this gate, the large Cyclopean house, the three Cyclopean water-conduits, the immense Cyclopean circuit walls and all the other monuments of prehistoric times, seemed also to be of very great interest to his Majesty, who went thence to the Treasury which we have excavated, and afterwards to the Treasury of Atreus, where dinner was served. This meal, in the midst of the mysterious, dome-like underground building nearly forty centuries old, seemed to please his Majesty exceedingly. He afterwards examined with the deepest interest, in the village of Charvati, the large collection of prehistoric Mycenean antiquities produced by my excavations, and he particularly admired the enormous mass of differently-shaped Hera-idols, the intaglios, the marvellous Mycenean pottery, and the archaic sculptures. His Majesty also examined attentively, in and around Charvati, the ancient quarry whence all the stones for the Cyclopean walls, the Treasuries, and other buildings, have been extracted, and went thence to Argos and Nauplia. His Majesty called here again to-day, to see once more the Mycenean museum and the excavations, and returned hence by Corinth and Calamaki to Athens.
After the departure of his Majesty, Mrs. Schliemann and I ascended, not without the very greatest difficulty, the very steep northern peak of Mount Eubœa, now called Hagios Elias, which is situated immediately north of the Acropolis, and is crowned by an open chapel of the prophet Elias (see Plate II.). The summit forms a very small triangle, the eastern side of which is 35 ft., the two other sides, which converge due west, each 100 ft. long. It is full of rugged and pointed rocks, between which it is difficult even to move, and it can therefore never have been inhabited by men, the more so as there is no water. The only even and level place on the summit is in the south-east corner; it is but 10 ft. broad and 23 ft. long, and is occupied by a very small open shrine, dedicated to the prophet Elias. But in spite of its small dimensions, the summit is surrounded by Cyclopean walls, which are on an average 4 ft. 2 in. thick, and from 3 ft. to 6½ ft. high; but the masses of stones which lie beside them can leave no doubt that they were once much higher.
The entrance, which is on the eastern side, leads to a short passage. In the large stone which forms the threshold of the door is still visible the hole in which the lower hinge turned. At a distance varying from 16 ft. to 53 ft. lower are, on all the three sides by which the summit is accessible, Cyclopean walls, varying from 133 ft. to 266 ft. in length, and 5 ft. thick, which are still now on an average 10 ft. high, and appear to have once been much higher. From between the stones of all these walls I have been able to collect a large number of fragments of hand-made light green vases with black ornaments, which I consider as old as the walls of Tiryns and Mycenæ, because in the former place I found them in situ on and near the virgin soil, in the latter in situ only on the natural rock in the recesses of the gate-passage, and in the tombs. I conclude from this that the Cyclopean fortifications on Mount Eubœa (Hagios Elias) must be contemporaneous with the walls of both cities, and may perhaps claim even a still higher antiquity.
SANCTUARY OF THE SUN-GOD.
The question now naturally arises, for what purpose all these fortifications have been built. The mountain being so high and steep, and the summit so exceedingly small and encumbered by protruding rocks, it can never have served as a fortress. Therefore the only explanation I venture to give of the origin of these Cyclopean walls is that there must have existed on the summit a small temple of great sanctity and immense importance, and by a curious coincidence we may even find in the present cultus on the summit the name of the deity who was worshipped there in antiquity. In times of great drought the inhabitants of the surrounding villages are in the habit of going thither on a pilgrimage in large crowds, the priests leading, to invoke the prophet Elias to give rain. And it appears likely that the very site of the present open shrine of the prophet Elias was in ancient times occupied by a sanctuary of the Sun-god, who had a celebrated cultus there, and who has given way to the prophet Elias, with hardly any change in the orthography or pronunciation of the name, the Sun-god having been originally called ᾽Ηέλιος, pronounced Eëlios. This is a wonderful coincidence, because, as the name of the prophet is purely Hebrew (הײלא or יהולא, meaning "Jehovah is God") it can have no affinity with the Homeric name of the Sun-god, ᾽Ηέλιος' which is probably derived from the primitive name of the moon's husband (perhaps Σείριος) and is at all events purely Greek.
Only half an hour's walk in a westerly direction from the Lions' Gate, and close to the village of Phichtia, are the ruins of a small Cyclopean building, in the same style of architecture as the walls to the right and left of that gate, and probably belonging to the same epoch. This also appears to have been a temple. We likewise see, at an hour's distance in a north-westerly direction from the Lions' Gate, in a secluded valley, on the border of a deep glen, the well-preserved ruins of a quadrangular Cyclopean tower, of which every side measures 40 ft. in length; the walls are 10 ft. to 11 ft. high. At the south-westerly corner is the door, which leads into a small corridor and two chambers. On the outer walls are seen two gutters. The architecture is also very similar to that of the walls close to the Lions' Gate. Most likely this tower served the Myceneans for dominating the narrow pass by which the road leads from Argos to Corinth.
STATE OF THE EXCAVATIONS.
The present state of the excavations is represented by the engraved Plate VII. First we see, to the left of the spectator, the inner side of the great Cyclopean circuit wall, which is terminated in the background by the Lions' Gate, of which, however, there is only visible the reverse side of the great triangular slab, on the exterior side of which is the famous bas-relief of the two lions. The Cyclopean wall seen in the background to the right was part of an interior enclosure.
Further down, just behind the last man, is a Cyclopean wall, of which, however, only the small portion close to the Lions' Gate, with the chamber of the ancient door-keeper, can claim the age of the circuit walls; the remainder is much later, but anterior to the capture of the city by the Argives (468 B.C.). Before this wall is the labyrinth of corridors, two of which, at all events, are cisterns. To the left, close to the circuit wall, is the small Cyclopean house so often referred to, containing only one chamber.
PANORAMIC VIEW.