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Mr. Stillman has here reprinted in luxurious dress the series of archaeological articles which he contributed not long ago to The Century magazine-three chapters on the localities of the Odyssey, and one on the vexed question, what is the famous statue which under the name of a Venus now constitutes one of the great treasures of the Louvre? His account of the attempt to trace the route of Ulysses is combined with an interesting narrative of personal adventure. The problem offers some insoluble difficulties, and Mr. Stillman concludes that while Homer was familiar with the scenes of the principal events of the poem and describes the geography of these scenes with accuracy, he had no mental vision of the lands and islands which are merely mentioned by Ulysses in his story. This, says Mr. Stillman, strengthens my belief in the hypothesis of the presence of Homer in Ithaca, and of the early date of the Odyssey, and by a certain implication argues for a logical relation between the hero and the Trojan war, implying the actuality of both. He identifies the site of the city of Ithaca with a site now called Polis, where there are no traces of ruins-a theory which receives some support from the discovery of an inscribed tablet, incorrectly given by Schliemann, who had only half of it, while Mr. Stillman has found and photographed the whole. Respecting the so-called Venus, Mr. Stillman accepts the opinion that it is a statue of Victory, and he sets forth the reasons for believing that it is nothing else than that statue from the temple of Nike Apteros, at Athens, of which it was said that the Athenians made their Victory without wings that she might never leave Athens. Restored, she should be holding with her left hand a table whose lower edge rests on her knee, and inscribing on it the names of Athenian heroes. The element of pure conjecture in this theory is very large, but Mr. Stillman makes a forcible argument, sustained by some telling illustrations. -N. Y. Tribune

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