Chapter V.).

Seneca says of the walls of Mycenæ:

"majus mihi Bellum Mycenis restat, ut cyclopea Eversa manibus saxa nostra concidant."

and again--

"cerno Cyclopum sacras Turres, labore majus humano decus."

and in another passage[131]

"Ulixes ad Ithacæ suæ saxa sic properat, quemadmodum Agamemnon ad Mycenarum nobiles muros."

[Sidenote: THE LOWER CITY.]

Over the space of about a square mile to the west-south-west and south of this Acropolis, and exactly between the aforesaid deep ravines, extended the Lower City,[132] the site of which is distinctly marked by the remnants of numerous Cyclopean substructions of houses, by a Cyclopean bridge, by five Treasuries, and finally by the fragments of beautifully painted archaic pottery with which the ground is strewn. The site of the lower town is traversed in its whole length by a ridge, which to the right falls off gradually into the plain, and to the left more steeply into the deep ravine, which issues from between the south end of the citadel-cliff and the second peak of Mount Eubœa. The summit of this ridge has evidently been artificially levelled for two purposes; firstly, for the principal street of the town, which commenced at the Lions' Gate and ended at the Cyclopean bridge, an engraving of which forms the vignette to this chapter;[133] and secondly, for the city wall, which ran to the right of the street as far as the same bridge, and undoubtedly united it with the Acropolis at its north-west corner, near the Lions' Gate.

Another branch of this wall extended all along the western bank of the torrent which the bridge spanned, and doubtless connected the latter with the south-western corner of the Acropolis. Of both branches of this wall very numerous traces remain, though with difficulty perceptible. Thus a part of the lower town, but scarcely one-third of it, was enclosed by a circuit wall. This was very insignificant, because its thickness on the ridge is only 6 feet, and it is still less on the bank of the torrent; so that it cannot have been high, and it was probably intended only to impart greater strength to the great Cyclopean walls of the Acropolis, and to prevent the Lions' Gate leading directly into the open country. After carefully examining the remnants of this city wall in numerous places, I see, in consideration of its weakness, no reasonable ground to object to regarding it as of later date than the walls of the citadel.

The remaining part of the town has been, as the remnants of the house-walls show, a vast and well-built suburb, whence, when attacked by the enemy against whom their own means of defence were insufficient, the inhabitants could retire into the fortified part of the city and into the citadel. Some of the buildings of this suburb are very large, and show a most splendid Cyclopean masonry. I call particular attention to the vast building on the very bank of the deep glen in a westerly direction from the Lions' Gate, of which all the four walls are still visible. It is 93 feet long and 60 feet broad, and may have been a temple. I call attention also to the foundations of a large Cyclopean building, perhaps a temple, on the crest of a hill S.S.W. of the Acropolis and north of the village of Charvati. This hill appears to have been at the extremity of the suburb in this direction, for the Mycenean potsherds cease beyond it. I found there two well-polished axes of diorite.

In two glens in the immediate vicinity of this hill are the only two wells of Mycenæ. The ruins of Cyclopean buildings close to them, and the Mycenean potsherds which extend beyond them, can leave no doubt that both wells were within the suburb. Strange to say, Professor E. Curtius has thought the ancient quarry of Charvati to be ruins of the city wall, and he has therefore put this village on his map still within the site of Mycenæ; but this is a great mistake; the city never extended so far.

But not all the Cyclopean walls in the suburb are house-walls, for many of them are only intended for the support of the terraces.

[Sidenote: TREASURIES IN THE SUBURB.]

Much more interesting than all the other buildings in the suburb are the "Treasuries," which, owing to their great resemblance to ovens, are now called φοῦρνοι by the country people. One of them is just without the line of the town wall, on the slope of the hill near the Gate of the Lions. The doorway is visible, but it is nearly buried; the entrance is roofed with three large thick slabs; and the length of the passage is 18 feet, its width 7 ft. 9 in. Only a small part of the lower circular wall of the dome-shaped building can now be seen, the upper part having fallen in, probably ages ago.[134]

Descending the slope in a south-westerly direction, we come to a smaller Treasury, the entrance passage of which is 15½ feet long, and likewise roofed with three large slabs. The width of the door is 7½ feet; part of the lower circular wall of the dome-like building is here also above ground, and shows at the height of the top of the entrance a diameter of 25 feet; so that the diameter on the ground floor may be 32 feet. Turning thence to the south, and ascending the slope, we come, near the crest of the ridge, to a third Treasury, of which only the entrance passage remains. This is 20 feet long, and only 5 ft. 3 in. broad; and is roofed by five large slabs.

The whole site of the vast suburb being on slopes, and having been but scantily inhabited, on account of its vast extent, the accumulation of _débris_ is everywhere small, and seldom exceeds a foot and a half in depth. A much greater accumulation is found only on the terraces immediately to the west and north-west of the Lions' Gate.

Though the site of the enclosed city is also on slopes, yet, as it is but small and must at all times have been more densely inhabited, the accumulation of _débris_ is in general more considerable there, and particularly on the western and south-western side of the Acropolis. But at points more distant from the Acropolis, and particularly on the steeper slopes whence the remains of houses have been washed away by the rains, the accumulation does not exceed the quantity general in the suburb. It deserves particular attention that, except close to the western circuit-wall of the citadel, the site of the enclosed city shows far less of Cyclopean substructions or remnants of house-walls than the suburb; but immediately beyond the Cyclopean bridge on the opposite bank of the ravine are the ruins of two vast buildings which may have been forts and may have served for the defence of the bridge. I may here mention that traces of the ancient Cyclopean highway from Mycenæ to Tiryns are still visible for some distance beyond the bridge.

On the site of the enclosed city are the two largest Treasuries. One of these is the famous Treasury which tradition attributes to Atreus. The other, which is close to the Lions' Gate, appears to have been entirely under ground, and was therefore unknown in historical times; the upper part of its dome has fallen in, but I have not been able to ascertain whether, as some of the inhabitants of the Argolid affirm, this has occurred accidentally, or whether, as others maintain, it is the sacrilegious work of Veli Pasha, the son of the notorious Ali Pasha, who towards the end of 1820 attempted to force an entrance this way, but was prevented by the outbreak of the Greek revolution from proceeding much further.

[Sidenote: THE TREASURY OF ATREUS.]

The "Treasury of Atreus," which is about 400 yards further south, was entirely subterranean, being constructed under the eastern slope of the ridge which traverses the city, and towards the ravine of the same torrent which passes the south side of the cliff of the citadel. On the slope below the Treasury is a large platform of Cyclopean masonry, from which the _dromos_, or approach--20 ft. 7 in. broad, and lined with walls of wrought stones--leads to the doorway of the building, which is 8 ft. 6 in. wide at the top and 9 ft. 2 in. at the bottom. Its height is 18 feet; it is roofed by two enormous slabs, beautifully cut and polished, of which the inner one measures 3 ft. 9 in. in thickness, and 27½ feet in length on its lower and 29 feet on its upper surface; its breadth is 17 feet, and it is computed that it weighs approximately 300,000 English pounds.[135]

The great chamber, which resembles a dome or a vast beehive, is 50 feet high and 50 feet in diameter. It is built of well-wrought blocks of hard breccia, placed in regular layers, and joined with the greatest precision without any binding material. The stones, which on the inside are smooth and well-fitted, are on the outside very irregular, and, contrary to the general belief, they are not immediately covered with earth, but with enormous masses of stone, which, by their ponderous weight, keep all the stones of the circular layers of masonry in their position. Thus the principle of this construction is, as Colonel Leake justly remarks, that of an arch-shaped wall resisting a great superincumbent weight, and deriving its strength and coherence from the weight itself. The same idea, which suggested the circular shape to the Cyclopean architect, induced him also to curve the sides vertically, as they derived from that form an additional power of resistance to the lateral pressure.

The blocks of the lower courses are 1 ft. 10 in. high and from 4 to 7 ft. long; but towards the top of the dome the courses become gradually narrower. The floor of the vast chamber, which is entirely excavated, is the natural rock. A number of large stones, which have remained in the Treasury, make on travellers the erroneous impression that there is still a great deal of _débris_ left.

From the fourth course of stones upwards there are visible in each stone two bored holes, and in many of these can still be seen remnants of bronze nails which, according to Sir W. Gell ("Argolis"), contain 88 per cent. of copper and 12 per cent. of tin. These nails, of which several have been found entire, had broad flat heads, and they can have had no other purpose than to retain the bronze plates, with which the whole interior was once decorated. We know by the testimony of the ancient authors that the Greeks in a remote antiquity ornamented their buildings in this manner, because in no other way can we explain the bronze houses and chambers which they mention.[136]

[Sidenote: TREASURY AT ORCHOMENUS.]

The only other example extant of walls which had once this kind of decoration is presented by the Treasury of Minyas in Orchomenus, which is built of beautiful white marble, but shows in other respects the very greatest resemblance to the Treasury of Atreus. It is constructed on the same principle, and appears to be of the same age and to have been erected for the same purpose. Each stone of this treasury likewise shows two or more holes, with frequent remnants of the bronze nails which once retained the brazen plates that decorated the inner walls of the edifice.[137] Thus it is certain that in a remote antiquity, before sculpture or painting came into use for wall decoration, polished metal plates were employed to give both splendour and dignity to the houses of the rich.

In the Treasury of Atreus, the exterior of the door-lintel is decorated with two parallel mouldings, which are also carried down the jambs of the door. Above the lintel numerous holes can be discerned, to which bronze ornaments must have been attached. There are more such holes in the flat wall above the entrance, and all testify to the elaborate exterior ornamentation of the edifice. Above the entrance is an equilateral triangular niche, each side of which measures 10 feet. It is constructed like the triangular niche over the Lions' Gate; namely, the courses of masonry are shaped to the form of the niche, and it can have had no other purpose than to bear up the weight which would otherwise have pressed on the lintel.

On the outside, before each door-post, there stood formerly a semi-column, having a base and capital with fantastical sculptures in the Persepolitan style. In the middle of the doorway can be seen the holes for the bolts and hinges of the doors, and in the same line are a number of round holes, 2 inches in diameter and half an inch deep; in these are two small holes for bronze nails, of which fragments still exist, to fasten on ornaments of a circular form.

To the right of the great circular hall, a doorway, 9½ ft. high and 4 ft. 7 in. broad, leads to a second dark chamber, which is nearly square, being 27 feet long and broad, and 19 feet high. It is entirely cut out in the rock. Over the door is a triangular niche, which is likewise intended to bear up the weight of the masonry from the lintel. In this chamber is an accumulation of rubbish, from 3½ to 4 feet deep, mostly consisting of the detritus of bats' dung. By means of the two trenches, which I dug three years ago in this chamber, I found in the centre a circular depression, in the form of a large wash-bowl, 1 ft. 9 in. deep, and 3 ft. 4 in. in diameter. Near this I found some large wrought calcareous stones, which seem to indicate that some monument once existed in this chamber, for otherwise their presence is inexplicable.

This Treasury is the most important and the only complete monument of prehistoric times in Greece, and the interest attached to it is so much the greater, as tradition assigns it to Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, king of men.

[Sidenote: PURPOSE OF THE TREASURY.]

Dodwell,[138] in speaking of this treasury and the smaller ones, says:--"There is moreover complete evidence that these structures were called θησαυροί, and belong to ages prior to the origin of that architecture of which the Doric temple in Europe and the Ionic in Asia are the crowning invention. As this latter architecture advanced, temples served for treasuries, or, when buildings were erected solely for treasuries, they had the ordinary forms of that later style of architecture, as we learn from the description which Pausanias has given of the treasuries at Olympia and Delphi.[139] Nevertheless subterranean buildings, similar in construction to the treasuries of the heroic ages, continued to serve for containing oil or corn or water, and when attached to private houses might often be employed for depositing property of any kind. These are very numerous in Greece, but in no instance are they entered at the side. The largest I know of is in the Acropolis of Pharsala. But the strongest reason for designating the constructions at Mycenæ as treasuries is the evidence of Pausanias,[140] unless it be denied that he intended those buildings by the words ὑπόγαια οἰκοδομήματα, which can hardly be alleged, as the ruins agree too well with his words to render such a supposition reasonable. Seventeen hundred years ago, therefore, those buildings were believed to be the Treasuries of Atreus and his sons. Nothing had then occurred to interfere with the course of the mythology or history of Greece, as transmitted to the Greeks by their ancestors: and although on many occasions the reports received by Pausanias from the ἐξηγηταί may have been inventions of a date comparatively recent, no such suspicion can well attach to the principal traditions of Mycenæ, which accord with all that has reached us concerning that city in poetry or prose. The extant edifice was the largest of the treasuries, and bears proofs of having been a costly building, highly decorated at the entrance and lined within with metallic plates. To Atreus himself, therefore, the most opulent and powerful of the kings of the πολύχρυσος Μυκήνη, and not to either of his sons, this greatest of extant treasuries may, with a high degree of probability, be attributed. Agamemnon dissipated the wealth of Atreus in the expedition to Asia, passed the greater part of his reign abroad, and returned home poor and powerless, leaving Μυκῆναι to be, after his time, no more than a secondary town of Argolis. Nor is it likely, under these circumstances, that the sepulchre of Agamemnon was a monument of any great magnificence. Pausanias, who saw it, does not mention it as such, but gives us clearly to understand that the Treasury and the Gate of the Citadel were the most remarkable antiquities at Mycenæ."

I think that nothing could better prove the remote antiquity of this majestic underground Treasury and its companions, than their very singularity and dissimilarity to other ancient buildings in Greece and Asia Minor; besides, the barbarian method of securing treasures by burying them argues a very early state of society.

As a further proof of these underground buildings having been used as treasuries, I may mention that Mycenæ and Orchomenus are the only cities which can boast of such edifices, and also the only cities to which Homer gives the epithet πολύχρυσος, or to which he attributes great wealth.

[Sidenote: EXCAVATION BY VELI PASHA.]

The Professor of Medicine in Athens, Johannes P. Pyrlas, has kindly called my attention to an article he published in the Tripolis newspaper, "Βελτίωσις," of the 19th November, 1857, on the first excavation of the Treasury of Atreus (commonly called in the Argolid the "Tomb of Agamemnon"), of which I give here the translation with all reserve.

"THE TOMB OF AGAMEMNON IN MYCENÆ.

"In 1808, as old people relate, in the month of April, a Mahomedan of Nauplia presented himself before Veli Pasha, who was at that time governor of the Peloponnesus, and told him that he knew there were several statues hidden in the 'Tomb of Agamemnon.' Veli Pasha, who was energetic and ambitious, at once began to excavate the space in front of the tomb with forced labour. When he had dug down to a depth of three fathoms, the workmen descended by means of a ladder into the interior of the dome, and found there a great many ancient tombs, and having opened these they found in them bones covered with gold, which was no doubt derived from the gold embroidered drapery. They found there also other gold- and silver- ornaments, also precious stones in the form of those called '_antiques_' (gems), but without any incised work. Outside of the tombs they found about twenty-five colossal statues and a marble table, all of which Veli Pasha transported to the Lake of Lerna (the Mills), and having got them washed and cleaned and wrapped up in mats, he sent them on to Tripolis, where he sold them to travellers and obtained for them about 80,000 gros (then worth about 20,000 francs). Having gathered the bones and all the _débris_ contained in the tombs, he got these also transported to Tripolis, and entrusted them there to the most notable goldsmiths, D. Contonicolacos and P. Scouras, who, after having cleaned the _débris_ and scraped off the gold from the bones, collected about 4 okes (4800 grammes) of gold and silver. The stones in form of antiques as well as the bones were thrown away. I had this account from the mouth of the two goldsmiths when they were still alive, and from my own father, who saw the statues at the Mills."

Now not to speak of the improbability that statues of the heroic age should have been found, the above account is in no way confirmed by the old men of Charvati, the village nearest to the site of Mycenæ, nor by those of the other villages of the plain of Argos, all of whom agree that the excavation took place in 1810, and that the sole objects found in the Treasury were some half-columns and friezes, a marble table, and a long bronze chain suspended from the top of the dome, at the end of which was hanging a bronze candelabrum.[141] I have heard this account repeated so many hundred times by the old people of the Argolid that I believe it to be perfectly correct, except, of course, as to the candelabrum; because, not to speak of candles, even lamps were totally unknown to Homer, and I never found them either at Troy, or at Tiryns or Mycenæ, in the strata of prehistoric house remains. Nay, lamps appear not to have existed at Tiryns or Mycenæ before their capture by the Argives in 468 B.C., because I only found them in the latter place in the _débris_ of the more modern city, and none were found at Tiryns. Thus the object which the villagers had regarded as a candelabrum must necessarily have been something else.

Moreover, this whole story of the excavations by Veli Pasha seems to relate to a spoliation of the treasury which took place at a much more remote period; for Dodwell, who began his journeys in Greece in 1801, and ended them at all events not later than 1806, gives a description and plans of both the exterior and interior of the great chamber. Gell (_Argolis_), who visited Mycenæ about 1805, also gives exact drawings of the exterior and interior of the Treasury. Clarke (_Travels_), who visited Mycenæ at the same period, says of the treasury of Atreus (vi. 492): "This chamber has evidently been opened since its construction, and its interior thus revealed; but absolutely nothing certain is known as to the time when this may have occurred. To judge by the present appearance of the edifice, it must have been at a very remote epoch." Dodwell, Colonel Leake, and Ernst Curtius speak also of excavations made by Lord Elgin in the treasury of Atreus. But in the collection of Lord Elgin's drawings preserved in the British Museum, nothing is found which relates to this treasury.

[Sidenote: OBJECTS FOUND AT THE ENTRANCE.]

According to Professor E. Curtius ('Peloponnes,' II. p. 408), the following fragments of ancient ornaments were found before the entrance of the Treasury:--

"The basis of a semi-column of greenish marble with wreathed stripes in relief; further, the fragment of a half round column with a zigzag decoration; stone tables, the one of greenish, the other of lustrous red colour, a third of white marble, all with a relief ornamentation in the form of muscles, fans or spiral lines, which are distinguished by sharply and neatly chiselled outlines; finally, a red marble slab, which Gell found in a neighbouring chapel."

FOOTNOTES:

[93] In the background is the second peak of Mount Eubœa, 2000 feet high, which rises immediately south of the Acropolis of Mycenæ.

[94] II. 18. See the Sketch Map on p. 1.

[95] V. 60.

[96] II. 25, 3.

[97] Κηϕισός. II. 15, 5; the lesser streams are not shown on the Sketch Map, p. 1.

[98] The accuracy of this name is confirmed by Pausanias, II. 17, § 2.

[99] _Il._ II. 287, III. 75 and 258, VI. 152, IX. 246, XV. 30, and XIX. 329. Comp. Horat. _Carm._ I. 7, 8, 9:--

"Plurimus in Junonis honorem Aptum dicet equis Argos, ditesque Mycenas."

[100] II. 15.

[101] _Meteorol._ i. 14.

[102] Soph. _Electra_, 4.

[103] Paus. II. 15, 5; comp. Plato, _Timæus_.

[104] Comp. Æschyl. _Suppl._ 250.

[105] _Od._ III. 263:--"μυχῷ ῎Αργεος ἱπποβότοιο."

[106] See the large Plate II. and Plan B of the Acropolis.

[107] See Émile Burnouf, 'La Ville et l'Acropole d'Athènes.'

[108] A good view of this wonderful wall is seen in the background of Plate VI., which represents the Ichnography of the tombs discovered in the Acropolis. (See Chap. V.)

[109] See Plan B., Plate III., and Nos. 21, 22 (p. 34)

[110] Soph. _Electra_, 1374.

[111] Schol. Eurip. _Orest._ 5; Apollod. iii. 5, 6; Soph. _Antig._ 818.

[112] _Agam._ 1259: λέοντος εὐγενοῖς ἀπουσίᾳ.

[113] _Agam._ 1258.

[114] For an account of the discovery of the ground plan of the Lions' Gate and its enormous threshold, see Chapter V.

[115] See Plan C, and the cut No. 23.

[116] To ῎Αργιον ὄρος. _De Fluv._ 18, 7.

[117] _Troad._ 1088, τείχη λάïνα κυκλώπια οὐράνια.

[118] _Electra_, 1158, κυκλώπεια οὐράνια τείχη.

[119] VIII. p. 377.

[120] _Iliad_, I. 29-31:

τὴν δ' ἐγὼ οὺ λύσω πρίν μιν καὶ γῆρας ἔπεισιν ἡμετέρῳ ἐνὶ οἴκῳ, ἐν ῎Αργεï, τηλίθι πάτρης, ἱστὸν ἐποιχομένην καὶ ἐμον λέχος ἀντιόωσαν.

[121] _Iliad_, II. 108: πολλῇσιν νήσοισι καὶ ῎Αργεï παντὶ ἀνάσσειν.

[122] _Iphigenia in Aulide_, 152: κυκλώπων θυμέλαι.

[123] _Ibid._ 265: Μυκῆναι κυκλωπίαι.

[124] _Ibid._ 1500-1501:

καλεῖς πόλισμα Περσέως, Κυκλωπίων πόνον χερῶν;

[125] _Iphig. Taur._ 845:

κυκλωπίδες ἑστίαι, ὦ πάτρις, Μυκήνα φίλα.

[126] _Electra_, 710:

πετρίνοις τ᾽ ἐπιστὰς κάρυξ ιάχει βάθροις, αγοράν, ἀγοράν, Μυκηναῖοι στείχετε μακαρίων ὸψόμενοι τυράννων φάσματα, δείματα.

[127] _Iphigenia in Aulide_, 1498-1499:

ἰὼ γᾶ μᾶτερ ὦ Πελασγία, Μυκηναῖαί τ᾽ ἐμαί θεράπναι.

[128] _Orestes_, 1246-1247:

Μυκηνίδες ὦ φίλαι, τὰ πρῶτα κατὰ Πελασγὸν ἑδος ᾽Αργείων.

[129] _Hercules Furens_, 974-944:

πρὸς τὰς Μυκήνας εἶμι λάζυσθαι χρεὼν μοχλοὺς δικελλας θ᾽, ὡς τὰ κυκλώπων βάθρα φοίνικι κανόνι καὶ τύκοις ἡρμοσμένα στρεπτῷ σιδήρῳ συντριαινώσω πόλιν.

[130] See Plate II.

[131] _Epistul. Mor._ 66, 26.

[132] See Plan D.

[133] See No. 16, p. 23.

[134] All these Treasuries are indicated on Plan D.

[135] See Plate IV., "Treasury of Atreus."

[136] Thus we read in Homer (Od. VII. 84-87):

῞Ὡστε γὰρ ἠελίου αἴγλη πέλεν ἠὲ σελήνης, Δῶμα καθ᾽ ὑψερεφὲς μεγαλήτορος ᾿Αλκινόοιο, Χάλκεοι μὲν γὰρ τοῖχοι ἐρηρέδατ᾿ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα, ᾽Ες μυχὸν ἐξ οὐδοῦ· περὶ δὲ θριγκὸς κυάνοιο.

"Like the sun or the moon beam in bright splendour, so beamed the high palace of the magnanimous Alcinoüs; for the brazen walls extended from the threshold of the gate to the innermost part of the building; their entablature was of blue steel."

Further the palaces of the immortal gods on Olympus must have been thought to be also ornamented with brazen plates, because Homer says (_Iliad_, I. 426): Διὸς ποτὶ χαλκοβατὲς δῶ, "To the brazen house of Jove."

We also read in Pausanias (II. 23):

῎Αλλα δέ ἐστιν ᾽Αργείοις θέας ἄξια · κατάγαιον οἰκοδόμημα, ἐπ᾽ αὺτο δὲ ἦν ὁ χαλκοῦς θάλαμος, ὃν ᾽Ακρίσιός ποτε φρουρὰν τῆς θυγατρὸς ἐποίησεν. Περίλαος δὲ καθεῖλεν αὐτὸν τυραννήσας · τοῦτό τε οὖν τὸ οἰκοδόμημά ἐστι. "In Argos there are still other remarkable objects: a subterranean vault, over which was the brazen chamber which Acrisius made for his daughter (Danaë's) prison; it was destroyed under the dominion of Perilaüs, but the building still exists."

Further in Horace (_Carm._ III. 16):

"Inclusam Danaën turris ahenea Robustæque fores et vigilum canum Tristes excubiæ munierant satis Nocturnis ab adulteris."

"A bronze tower, solid doors, and the severe watch of the dogs, had been for the imprisoned Danaë a sufficiently strong protection against nocturnal lovers."

Another case is the temple of _Athena Chalciœcus_ at Sparta, where King Pausanias was put to death. The name of this sanctuary can of course refer to nothing else than to the brazen plates with which the walls were decorated.

My esteemed friend, Mr. Chas. T. Newton, of the British Museum, calls my attention to Colonel Mure's article in the _Rheinisches Museum_, VIII. 272, in which the author states that General Gordon told him he had in his collection in Scotland fragments not only of the bronze nails, but also of the brazen plates of the Treasury of Atreus. At the same time Colonel Mure quotes the passage of Sophocles (_Antigone_, 944-947):

ἔτλα καὶ Δανάας οὐράνιον φῶς ἀλλάξαι δέμας ἐν χαλκοδέτοις αὐλαῖς· κρυπτομένα δ' ἐν τυμβήρει θαλάμω κατεζεύχθη.

("The body also of Danaë endured to exchange the heavenly light against the darkness in the halls covered with brazen plates; hidden in a sepulchral chamber, she was fettered").

[137] Pausanias (ix. 38) says of this Treasury: "The Treasury of Minyas is the most wonderful edifice in Greece, and is second to no work of art abroad; it is built in the following manner: it consists of stone and has a circular form; the summit is not very pointed; it is said that the topmost stone holds together the whole building."

[138] 'A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece.'

[139] Paus. VI. 19, 1; X. 11, 1.

[140] II. 16, 6. See the passage fully quoted in the next chapter, p. 59.

[141] The reader is warned not to confound this with Veli Pasha's attempt to rifle the other Treasury, mentioned on p. 42.