"The idols and cows, found in such numbers by you in the ruins of Mycenæ are, evidently, of local origin. If these rude statuettes had been Phœnician, and had represented Astoreth, it would not have been Hera, but Aphrodite, who would have been the principal goddess of Argolis; there would have been not a Heræum, but an Aphrodisium. Moreover, the _coiffure_ of many of the Mycenæan idols characterized Hera all through the succeeding centuries; and, as you very rightly note, the form of the crescent in others indicates that ancient goddess of the moon, who bore the name of Io, and who was, _au fond_, identical with Hera. I should say the same of the terra-cotta cows; it is a manifest error to identify them with the Egyptian bull. The museums of Europe contain a great number of specimens of the Apis; they have very distinct forms and characteristics which are not wanting in a single case;--such are especially the three large black spots on the crupper, the back, and the hinder part of the body. The Mycenæan cows are more often yellow, striped with red. It is true that they have no udders; but neither have they the male organs. "Apropos of this, permit me to correct an error which has fairly become classic; the words βοῦς and _bos_ of Greek and Latin mythology are almost always translated _ox_; but they are generally feminine in the classic authors, and mean _cow_--the _cows_ of the sun-god, the _cows_ stolen by Cacus--_abstractæque boves, abjuratæque rapinæ_; and we know also the great supreme cow of the Indian hymns--_i. e._, the heavens considered as the source of cosmic life, and identical with the Hera of Greek tradition. I would call your attention to the fact that the ancient agricultural peoples of Asia and Europe did not raise oxen, but cows; that they yoked bulls to the plough; and that the ox was almost never used among them. Thus the absence of sex in the Mycenæan terra-cottas leaves only the choice between bulls and cows; while religious tradition, as well as the epithet βοῶπις, constantly point out the _cow_ as the symbol of Juno. It is this goddess, therefore, who is meant by the terra-cotta images. And as you have found them in great numbers in your excavations, this is a new proof of the importance given in Argolis to that divinity. These conclusions are moreover in perfect agreement with the Homeric texts and with the religious traditions of all Greek antiquity. I may add that they come to the support of the often-combated assertion, that the Trojan idols were meant to signify Athena Glaukopis. The Mycenæan cow and the Trojan owl are two facts of the same order, which occupy corresponding places in Greek mythology, and relate to the same epoch of linguistic development in the religious symbolism of antiquity." M. Burnouf also informs me that he has sent to the _Révue des deux Mondes_ an extended article on the excavations at Mycenæ. * * * * *