REMAINS OF MEGALITHIC WALLS ON MT. ERYX.
There are stones at Selinunte, used in buildings of the fifth century before Christ, that are larger than the largest at Eryx or Cefalù; there are columns thirteen feet in diameter at the base, and in a flute of which my friend Mr. H. F. Jones could stand; but they are written all over in clear though invisible characters with the word "Glory," whereas the stones at Eryx bear not less clearly the word "Economy." I do not think that any true megalithic polygonal walls not worked with metal can be dated much later than 2000 B.C. By the time we reach such buildings as the Treasury of Atreus at Mycene, or the Iliadic wall of Hissarlik (which, however, is built in far less regular courses), cutting, whether with chisels of hardened bronze, or more probably by that time with iron, has ceased to be troublesome; nevertheless as late as Hesiod, who is not generally dated earlier than 1000 B.C., the memory of an age when "as yet swart iron was not," had not been lost. (Works and Days, 148-151.)
Furthermore, I would ask the reader to remark how closely the description of the Cyclopes in the Odyssey tallies with that of the modern Sicilian brigands published in the Times of September 24th, 1892.
The writer—Mr. Stigand—says:—
S. Mauro, the headquarters of the brigands, is a town on the top of a mountain 3000 feet high, and in sight of Geraci Siculo, another town of about the same height, and of Pollina, also on the summit of another mountain. The roads among the mountains, connecting these towns, are mere mule paths. The mountains abound in caves known only to the brigands and shepherds.
The Odyssey says of the Cyclopes:—