Professor Ridgeway, in _The Early Age of Greece_, has pointed out that the civilization reflected in the Homeric poems differs in many essential points from that which is revealed by the monuments found at Mycenæan sites on the mainland of Greece and in the Ægean islands. Confirmation has since been added to his convincing arguments by the discoveries of Mr Arthur Evans in Crete, which prove that the so-called Mycenæan remains were but the last efforts of a dying civilization which stretched back at least as far as the third millennium before our era. The culture revealed by the excavations at Knossos and other sites in Crete presents a striking contrast to that of the Greeks of the classic period; whereas the state of society described in the Homeric poems seems to contain analogies with both periods. The palace of Alcinous and the house of Odysseus, as described in the _Odyssey_, correspond in plan to the palace of Mycenæ excavated by the Greek Archæological Society in 1886, which undoubtedly belongs to the older stratum of civilization;[1] on the other hand, the methods of disposing of the dead, and the underlying principles of costume, are utterly different in the two cases. The Homeric heroes burn their dead, whereas the remains found in Mycenæan graves prove that in the state of society to which they belong burial was the common method of disposing of the dead. The difference in costume is equally striking; the women’s dress, illustrated by the Mycenæan gems and the wall-paintings and faïence statuettes from Knossos, consists of elaborately made garments, with tight jackets fitting closely to the figures at the waist, and full and frequently flounced skirts; there is no indication of fastening by means of brooches or fibulæ. In Homer the brooch is almost invariably mentioned as an essential detail of female costume, and the garments described are of a simple character, and such that they can be spread out and used for other purposes. For example, Aphrodite, when protecting Æneas from his assailants, shields him from their weapons by drawing a fold of her peplos over him (_Iliad_, v., 315); and again, at the funeral rites of Hector, the body is covered, πορφυρέοις πέπλοισι μαλακοῖσιν (_Iliad_, xxiv., 796), “with soft purple robes.” [1] J. L. Myres, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. xx. Cp. also, for general principles of ground plan, “The Palace at Knossos,” _British School Annual_, VIII.