CHAPTER II.

TOPOGRAPHY OF MYCENÆ.

GATE OF THE LIONS AND TREASURY OF ATREUS.

The road from Argos to Mycenæ--The Plain of Argos: its rivers and hills, horses and vegetation--Myth regarding its arid nature--Swamps in the southern part; and fable of the Lernæan hydra--Early social development here--Legend of Phoroneus--The Pelasgian Argos--The Achæan states of Argos and Mycenæ--Situation of Mycenæ--The _Citadel_ and its Cyclopean walls--The term defined--"Gate of the Lions"--The postern gate--Cisterns--Poetical confusion of Argos and Mycenæ.

The _Lower City_: its house-walls, bridge, treasuries, and pottery--Its partially enclosing wall--The undefended suburb, and its large buildings--Its extent--The only two wells in Mycenæ--Three Treasuries in the suburb--Treasuries in the Lower City--Description of the "Treasury of Atreus"--Dodwell's Argument for regarding the building as a Treasury--Uniqueness of these structures--Excavation of the Treasury by Veli Pasha.

Mycenæ, August 19, 1876.

* * * * *

I arrived here on the 7th inst. by the same road which Pausanias[94] describes. The distance from Argos is only 50 _stadia_, or 5·8 English miles. Pausanias saw, on that side of Argos which looked toward Mycenæ, the temple of Lucina (Εἰλείθυια), and next an altar of the Sun, which appears to have been on the bank of the Inachus. After having passed this river he saw, to his right, the temple of the Mysian Demeter, and further on to his left the mausoleum of Thyestes, the brother of Atreus and uncle of Agamemnon. This monument was crowned with a ram of stone, in commemoration of the adultery of Thyestes with his brother's wife. Still further on he saw, to his right, the temple (ἡρῷον) of Perseus, the founder of Mycenæ. But of all these monuments not a vestige now remains.

The first river I passed, in coming from Argos, was the ancient Χαράδρος, now called _Rema_, an affluent of the Inachus, on the banks of which, as Thucydides[95] informs us, the Argives were in the habit of holding a military court on the return of their armies from abroad, before allowing them to enter the city. Soon afterwards I passed the very wide bed of the famous river Inachus, now called _Bonitza_, which traverses the plain of Argos in its entire length. The beds of both these rivers are dry except when heavy rain falls in the mountains; and this appears to have been the case also in the time of Pausanias, who says[96] that he found the sources of the Inachus on Mount Artemisium, but that the quantity of water was very insignificant and it only ran for a short distance. This seems to prove beyond any doubt that the Arcadian mountains were then already as bare of trees as they are now.

[Sidenote: ROAD FROM ARGOS TO MYCENÆ.]

But as the Inachus plays so important a part in the mythic legends of the Argolid, which make him the husband of Meleia and father of Phoroneus, the first king of Argos, and of the moon-goddess Iö (the later Hera), there can be no doubt that in prehistoric times the Inachus was a river of some consequence. This, however, seems to be only possible if we suppose the Arcadian mountains to have been at that time overgrown with forests. That the Inachus was once, and for ages, an abundant river, is proved also by the fact that the whole plain of Argos has been formed by the alluvia of its rivers, but principally by those of the Inachus.

Further upon the road from Argos to Mycenæ I passed another smaller river-bed, which seems to be the Cephisus mentioned by Pausanias.[97] In speaking of the rivers of the plain of Argos, I must further mention the two streams Eleutherion and Asterion, between which was situated the celebrated Heræum on the lower slope of Mount Eubœa. Both are now dry and have no water except in heavy and long-continued rains, but they seem still in classical antiquity to have had an abundance of water all the year round, for the Eleutherion was the sacred water used in the religious ceremonies at the temple, whilst the water of the Asterion fed the asterion-plant (a kind of aster), sacred to Hera, from the leaves of which wreaths and festoons were made for the goddess. The very name also of Mount Eubœa seems to indicate that it was once a rich pasture ground, whilst now it is as completely barren of all vegetation as are the beds and banks of the two rivers.

The plain of Argos is enclosed on the west and north by the highlands of Artemisium, on the east by those of Arachnæon. From the former several parallel ridges of hills advance for some distance into the plain; the most northerly of them is Mount Lycone, which terminates in Mount Larissa, 900 feet high, with the Acropolis of Argos, the city itself being situated at the foot of the mount, in the plain. The second ridge is the Chaon, at the foot of which the river Erasinus issues in a copious stream and falls into the Argolic Gulf, turning many mills. This river was in all antiquity considered to be identical with the Stymphalus, which disappears by two subterranean channels under Mount Apelauron in Arcadia. The third parallel ridge is the Pontinus. On the east side much smaller and more detached hills slope gently into the plain. To the north the mountains are very rough and abrupt. On the north and south-east of the Acropolis of Mycenæ are the two highest peaks of Mount Eubœa;[98] the northern one, which is crowned with an open chapel of the prophet Elias, is 2500 feet high.

In all antiquity the plain of Argos was celebrated for the breeding of horses, and Homer,[99] seven times in the Iliad, praises its splendid horse-pasture grounds by the epithet "ἱππόβοτος."

Owing to the great dryness of the land, wine and cotton can now be grown only in the fertile lower plain, and a little corn and tobacco is all that can be produced in the highlands. Even as late as the Greek war of independence (1821) there must have been much more moisture here, because at that time the whole plain, and even a large portion of the highlands, were thickly planted with mulberry, orange, and olive trees, which have now altogether disappeared.

[Sidenote: THE PLAIN OF ARGOS.]

The epithet πολυδίψιον, "very thirsty," which Homer gives to the plain of Argos, agrees perfectly with its present condition, and also with the myth told by Pausanias:[100] "Poseidon and Hera disputed about the possession of the land (the plain of Argos), and Phoroneus, son of the river Inachus, Cephisus, Asterion, and Inachus himself, had to decide; they adjudged the plain to Hera, whereupon Poseidon made the waters disappear. Hence neither Inachus nor any other of the aforesaid rivers have any water, except when Jove sends rain (Ζεὺς ὕει); in summer all the rivers are dry except the (springs of) Lerna." The epithet πολυδίψιον, however, does not agree with the passage already cited from Aristotle,[101] which asserts that at the time of the war of Troy the land of Argos was swampy, whilst that of Mycenæ was good.

The most southern part of the plain of Argos has at all times had a great abundance of water, but with little or no profit to agriculture; for the sea-shore is lined with vast and almost impassable swamps, and the river Erasinus, which pours down from Mount Chaon, soon empties itself into the Gulf of Nauplia. Further, the springs at the foot of Mount Pontinus form the famous swamps of Lerna, where Hercules is fabled to have killed the Hydra. Probably this myth is the symbolic account of an attempt once made to drain the swamps and to convert them into arable land.

Owing to its exuberant fertility and exceptional situation on the splendid gulf, this plain has been the natural centre and the point of departure for the whole political and social development of the country, and for this reason it deserves the appellation "ancient Argos."[102] Here Phoroneus, son of the river Inachus and the nymph Meleia, was said, with his wife Niobe, to have first united the inhabitants, who till then had lived dispersed, into one community, and to have founded a city which he called ῎Αστυ ϕορωνικόν,[103] which was renamed by his grandson Argos, and became the centre of a powerful Pelasgic state.[104] Indisputable proofs of this Pelasgic settlement are found in both the names Argos and Larissa, which are Pelasgic, the former meaning "plain," the latter "fortress"; further, in the myth of the ancient Pelasgic moon and cow-goddess Iö, who, as has been said above, was fabled to have been born here, her father being the river Inachus. The Pelasgic state comes afterwards under the dominion of the Pelopids, under whom the country is divided into two states, as we find it still in the Iliad; the northern part, with the capital Mycenæ, being under the sceptre of Agamemnon; the southern, with Argos as its capital, under the dominion of Diomedes, who was, however, only a vassal of the former. At all events, at the time of the invasion of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians, Argos was the mightiest state in the peninsula, and thus tradition allots it to the Heraclid Temenus, the firstborn son of Aristomachus.

[Sidenote: SITUATION OF MYCENÆ.]

The situation of Mycenæ is beautifully described by Homer,[105] "In the depth of the horse-feeding Argos," because it lies in the north corner of the plain of Argos, in a recess between the two majestic peaks of Mount Eubœa, whence it commanded the upper part of the great plain and the important narrow pass, by which the roads lead to Phlius, Cleonæ, and Corinth. The Acropolis occupied a strong rocky height, which projects from the foot of the mountain behind it in the form of an irregular triangle sloping to the west.[106] This cliff overhangs a deep gorge, which protects the whole south flank of the citadel. Through the abyss below winds the bed of a torrent usually almost dry, because it has no other water than that of the copious fountain Perseia, which is about half a mile to the north-east of the fortress. This gorge extends first from east to west, and afterwards in a south-westerly direction. The cliff also falls off precipitously on the north side into a glen, which stretches in a straight line from east to west. Between these two gorges extended the lower city. The cliff of the citadel is also more or less steep on the east and west side, where it forms six natural or artificial terraces.

The Acropolis is surrounded by Cyclopean walls, from 13 to 35 feet high, and on an average 16 feet thick. Their entire circuit still exists, but they have evidently been much higher. They are of beautiful hard breccia, with which the neighbouring mountains abound. They follow the sinuosities of the rock, and show three different kinds of architecture. By far the greater portion of them is built exactly like the walls of Tiryns, although not so massively; and as this kind of architecture is generally thought to be the most ancient, I have marked it on the adjoining cut (No. 17) with the words, "Walls of the first period." A large piece of the western wall I have marked on the accompanying cut (No. 18) as "Walls of the second period," because it consists of polygons, fitted together with great art, so that, in spite of the infinite variety of the joints, they formed as it were one solidly united and neat wall, as if of rock; and this sort of building, which can be seen in so many places in Greece and Southern Italy, is universally acknowledged to be generally of a later period than the former. I have marked here (No. 19) as "Walls of the third period" those walls to the right and left of the great gate, which consist of almost quadrangular blocks arranged in horizontal layers; but their joints are not always vertical and they present lines more or less oblique.

[Sidenote: THREE KINDS OF PRIMITIVE WALLS.]

I have made this division into three periods merely to point out the different architecture of the walls, and with no intention of maintaining that the one must be more ancient than the other. On the contrary, after mature consideration, I cannot think that the one kind of wall should be considered older than the other, for, after the circuit walls had once been built of rough stones of enormous size, it is hardly possible that in after times part of them should have been destroyed in order to replace them by walls of another type. Or if part of the primitive walls had been razed by an enemy, there could have been no reason why they should not be restored in the same style, which was quite as solid as the other, and was besides much cheaper and easier, because only the wall could have been destroyed, but not the stones, which lay ready to be put up again. It appears also to have been the custom of the primitive builders to pay a little more attention to symmetry and regularity in the more monumental portions of their work. I conclude, therefore, that the three kinds of architecture existed simultaneously in that remote age of antiquity when the walls of Mycenæ were built, but that in later times the style of architecture marked as of the "first period" went out of fashion, and the two other modes of building alone remained in use. Walls of polygonal blocks continued in use in Greece until the time of the Macedonian dominion; a proof of which is seen, for instance, in the masonry of the sepulchres at the Hagia Trias in Athens, as well as the fortifications on the island of Salamis, of which we know with certainty that they were erected in the fourth or fifth century, B.C.[107] Within the last sixteen years walls of polygonal blocks have come extensively into use in Sweden and Norway, particularly for the substructions of railway bridges.

The first western terrace is bordered on its east side, for a distance of 166 feet, by a Cyclopean wall 30 feet high, which is crowned by the ruins of a tower, and runs parallel with the great circuit wall; it is no doubt part of a second enclosure.[108] Remnants of other enclosures are visible a little higher up the mount to the left, as well as on the eastern side. A second interior tower appears to have stood at the south-western corner of the summit.

Near the north-western corner the circuit wall is traversed by an ogive-like passage 16½ feet long, like those of Tiryns (see No. 20). Traces of Cyclopean house-walls and foundations can be seen on all but the first eastern and western terraces.

Notwithstanding the remote antiquity of Mycenæ, its ruins are in a far better state of preservation than those of any of the Greek cities which Pausanias saw in a flourishing condition, and whose sumptuous monuments he describes (about 170 A.D.); and, owing to its distant and secluded position, and to the rudeness, magnitude, and solidity of the ruins, it is hardly possible to think that any change can have taken place in the general aspect of Mycenæ since it was seen by Pausanias.

In the north-western corner of the circuit-wall is the great "Lions' Gate," of beautiful hard breccia.[109] The opening, which widens from the top downwards, is 10 ft. 8 in. high, and its width is 9 ft. 6 in. at the top, and 10 ft. 3 in. below. In the lintel (15 feet long and 8 feet broad) are round holes, 6 inches deep, for the hinges, and in the two uprights, which it roofs over, are four quadrangular holes for the bolts. Over the lintel of the gate is a triangular gap in the masonry of the wall, formed by an oblique approximation of the side courses of stone. The object of this was to keep off the pressure of the superincumbent wall from the flat lintel.

[Sidenote: GATE OF THE LIONS.]

This niche is filled up by a triangular slab of the same beautiful breccia of which the gateway and the walls consist: it is 10 feet high, 12 feet long at the base, and 2 feet thick. On the face of the slab are represented in relief two lions, standing opposite to each other on their long outstretched hind-legs, and resting with their fore-paws on either side of the top of an altar, on the midst of which stands a column with a capital formed of four circles enclosed between two horizontal fillets. The general belief that the heads of the lions are _broken off_ is wrong, for on close examination I find that they were _not_ cut out of the same stone together with the animals, but that they were made separately and fastened on the bodies with bolts. The straight cuts and the borings in the necks of the animals can leave no doubt as to this fact. Owing to the narrowness of the space, the heads could only have been very small, and they must have been protruding and facing the spectator. I feel inclined to believe that they were of bronze and gilded. The tails of the lions are not broad and bushy, but narrow, like those which are seen in the most ancient sculptures of Egypt.

It is universally believed that this sculpture represents some symbol, but many different conjectures have been made as to its meaning. One thinks that the column alludes to the solar worship of the Persians; another believes that it is the symbol of the holy fire, and a _pyratheion_ or fire altar, of which the lions are the guardians; a third conjectures that it represents Apollo Agyieus, that is, the "guardian of the gateway." I am of this last opinion, and firmly believe that it is this very same symbol of that god which Sophocles makes Orestes and Electra invoke when they enter their father's house.[110] As to the two lions, the explanation is still more simple. Pelops, son of the Phrygian king Tantalus,[111] migrated hither from Phrygia, where the mother of the gods, Rhea, whose sacred animal is the lion, had a celebrated worship. Most probably, therefore, Pelops brought with him the cultus of the patron deity of his mother-country, and made her sacred animal the symbol of the Pelopids. Æschylus compares Agamemnon himself to a lion;[112] he also compares Agamemnon with Ægisthus as a lion with a wolf.[113] Thus here above the gate the two lions, either as the sacred animals of Rhea or as the symbol of the powerful dynasty of the Pelopids, have been united to the symbol of Apollo Agyieus, the guardian of the gateway. To the left of the sculpture of the lions is a large quadrangular window in the wall.

The great gate stands at right angles to the adjoining wall of the citadel, and is approached by a passage, 50 feet long and 30 feet wide, formed by that wall and by another exterior wall, which runs nearly parallel to it, and which forms part of a large quadrangular tower erected for the defence of the entrance.[114] Within these walls the enemy could advance only with a small front of perhaps seven men, exposed on three sides to the arrows and stones of the defenders. A zigzag road on immense Cyclopean substructions, now covered with large blocks which have fallen from the wall, led up to the entrance of the gateway. Leake rightly says that the early citadel builders bestowed greater labour than their successors on the approaches to the gates, and devised various modes of protracting the defence of the interior by numerous enclosures and by intricacy of communication.

[Sidenote: THE POSTERN GATE.]

The postern-gate[115] consists likewise of three large slabs, namely, two uprights and the lintel by which these are roofed. The opening of this gateway likewise widens from the top downward; at the top it is 5 ft. 4 in. wide and 5 ft. 11 in. at the bottom. On the lintel stands a triangular slab, inclusive of which the gate is 14 feet high. The grooves for the bolts in the jambs of the door are square and of large dimensions. The situation of this gate is not very favourable, because the enemies who attacked it would have their left arm, which was guarded by the shield, on the side of the Acropolis. On the slope on the west side are several subterranean cisterns.

According to Plutarch, the first name of the mount of the citadel was Argion.[116] It is significant that it is never mentioned by ancient authors under the appellation of "acropolis." Sophocles (_Electra_) calls it δῶμα Πελοπιδῶν or 'residence of the Pelopids,' also οὐράνια τείχη, 'heavenly walls.' Euripides[117] also calls it, "stone Cyclopean heavenly walls," and further[118] "Cyclopean heavenly walls," and this must refer to the hugeness of the walls and towers. Strabo[119] justly observes that, on account of the close vicinity of Argos and Mycenæ, the tragic poets have made a confusion regarding their names, continually substituting the one for the other. But this is to be excused, because in antiquity travelling was both difficult and very unsafe. Besides, people were not archæologists, and though every one took the very deepest interest in the ancient history of Greece, no one cared to submit to the trouble and hardship, or to incur the danger, of visiting even the places which had been the scene of his country's most glorious actions. This could not possibly be better proved than by the fact that no ancient author mentions the reconstruction of Mycenæ after its capture and destruction in 468 B.C.

[Sidenote: MYCENÆ AND ARGOS.]

Homer himself is seemingly guilty of making a confusion regarding the names of Argos and Mycenæ, because he puts into the mouth of Agamemnon the words concerning Chryseis:

"Her I release not, till her youth be fled; Within my walls, in Argos, far from home, Her lot is cast, domestic cares to ply, And share a master's bed...."--LORD DERBY.[120]

But by the name Argos Homer understands here the Argolid territory and perhaps the whole Peloponnesus; a sense of which another passage can leave no doubt:[121]

"O'er all the Argive coast and neighbouring isles to reign."

The same may be the case, more or less, with the later tragic poets, and at all events it must be so with Euripides, because he knew Mycenæ too well to mistake it for Argos. Thus he calls Mycenæ[122] "the altars of the Cyclopes;" "the Cyclopean Mycenæ";[123] and "the handiwork of the Cyclopes":--[124]

"Do you call the city of Perseus the handiwork of the Cyclopes?"

In other passages he says, "O Cyclopean houses, O my country, O my dear Mycenæ!"[125] Again, "Standing _on_ (or _at_) the stone steps, the herald calls aloud '_To the Agora, to the Agora_, ye people of Mycenæ, to see the portents and the terrific signs of the blessed kings."[126] Again, "O mother-country, O Pelasgia, O my home, Mycenæ."[127] Again, "Dear ladies of Mycenæ, first in rank in the Pelasgic settlement of the Argives.[128] Again, "I will go to Mycenæ; crow-bars and pickaxes will I take to destroy with twisted-iron the town, the foundations of the Cyclopes, which are well fitted together with the chisel and the purple rule."[129]

This description can only refer to Cyclopean walls composed of well-fitted polygons, such as we see in the western part of the great circuit walls.[130] Besides Euripides knew accurately that the Agora, with the Royal sepulchres, was in the Acropolis; and thus it appears certain that Euripides visited Mycenæ, and that the grand Cyclopean walls of the Acropolis, as well as the sacred enclosure of the circular Agora, with the mysterious tombs of the most glorious heroes of antiquity, made a profound impression upon him, for otherwise we cannot explain his so often speaking of the gigantic Cyclopean walls, describing also their structure and mentioning even the Agora situated in the Acropolis (see