The Palace of Menelaos is described in the thirty-seventh line and fol lowing lines in the fourth canto of the Odyssey; Homer makes Menelaos say that Asia and Egypt had furnished models for the described dwelling. The Palace of Alkinoos is described with even more detail. Walls of beaten brass, silver door-jambs, and a golden door with a golden ring, having on either side the golden hounds wrought by Hephaistos, chairs along the wall hung with gorgeous tapestry made by female hands, and statues of golden youths bearing burning torches, figure in this description.
Though we must make some allowance for poetic fancy, we may yet believe the description to be in the main correct, and even the allusion to the dwelling of Zeus (not a temple, but the home of the human person ality of the god at Olympus) in the description of the Palace of Menelaos must not be relegated to the realm of fancy, since the gods were believed to manifest themselves with human forms and needs. The universal use of bronze, and particularly the bronze statues which adorned the mansion of Alkinoos, become doubly significant through the allusion of Menelaos to the Plicenicians as a source from which he procured the models for the decoration of his palace. This allusion clearly indicates the relationship which existed between Pelasgic culture and that of Egypt and Western Asia. The Pelasgi were acquainted with both sources, from which they borrowed, and out of which they worked a style peculiarly their own.
Historical records leave here a notable gap. With the exception of a few architectural remains for the determination of whose exact age no external testimony exists, we have only the short notices of the later Greek writers, as of Pausanias, whose descriptions are based on traditions none too critically examined, and of Homer, concerning- whose poetical account always arise the questions, To what date can the definitive collec tion of the whole, and especially of the portions which most interest us, be traced ? or are not such parts later interpolations? If we consider the time of the Trojan war, the twelfth century B. c., as the most flourishing period of Pelasgic art, then information is entirely wanting concerning its further development on Grecian soil.
In exchange, we find in Lykia some very interesting additions to our knowledge of its further development in a number of tombs, some of them sarcophagi or pillared buildings standing free, others consisting of rock-hewn facades in front of burial-chambers, many being placed close together. It cannot in all cases be determined from what age they date.
Some belong to a later era and show the influence of Grecian architectural forms, but others exhibit such unique characters that, even though they may be late, we recognize the perpetuation of forms whose origin lies far back in primitive times, while even the later works attempt to imitate those of an earlier period.
Lykian Rock-iombs.—The appearance of these rock-tombs is shown on Plate 4 (figs. 1-3). Figures r and 2 are most interesting, since they retain survivals of the timber-construction and furnish us with proof that in the earliest days wood was largely employed in building, and that in the change to stone the same cycle of forms was retained; so that the idea that the fully-developed Greek columnar architecture was a reminiscence of timber-construction has to a certain extent a positive basis. We shall return to this when we treat of Greek architecture.
Probably we have here the transition to the Grecian style which is separated by an interval of several centuries from the Heroic Age, but of this transition we have no records, either monumental or historic; so that Grecian art conies suddenly upon us as a beautifully complete whole, an entity which breathes a spirit differing entirely from that with which the Heroic Age piesents us. We observe a much closer relationship when we cross into Italy and consider the works which are usually known as " Etruscan." Etruscan Architecture: TT irils and Gates.—The origin of Etruscan art must be sought in the remains of Italian city walls, to which we have referred (p. 53) in connection with those of Greece. We must now return to them, as in the construction of the portals we find an element which does not occur in Greece. This is the formation of the arch with wedge shaped voussoirs put together according to the rules of vaulted construc tion, as in the Gate at Falerii (ev. 5, fig. S), in which the keystone of the archivolt is decorated with a sculptured head. In a doorway at Volterra not only the keystone, but the springing stones, bear carved heads. In other buildings, as in the city gate of Arpino, a pointed arch is formed by projecting horizontal courses.