CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF MYCENÆ AND THE FAMILY OF PELOPS.

THE SEPULCHRES OF AGAMEMNON AND HIS COMPANIONS.

Traditional foundation of Mycenæ by Perseus--His dynasty succeeded by the Pelopids--The legend of their crimes unknown to Homer and Hesiod--The Homeric story of Agamemnon's murder by Ægisthus and Clytemnestra, avenged by Orestes--Cycle of crimes devised by the later bards--Dominion of Agamemnon--End of the Dynasty at Mycenæ with Ægisthus--Orestes and his sons--The Dorian invasion--Part taken by Mycenæ in the Persian wars--The Argives besiege and take Mycenæ--The walls of the citadel preserved from religious reverence--Homeric epithets of Mycenæ--Its "abundance of gold" confirmed by Thucydides--The Treasuries of the Pelopids mentioned by Pausanias--Treasury at the Heræum, near Mycenæ--Probable existence of another Treasury at Mycenæ.

The _Royal Sepulchres_ described by Pausanias--General misinterpretation of the passage--Experimental shafts sunk there in February, 1874--Excavations begun, August 7, 1876--Porter's lodge at the Lions' Gate--The later habitation of the city after 468 B.C.--No coins of Mycenæ known--Remains below this first stratum--Painted archaic vases, like those at Tiryns--The vases almost all made on the Potter's wheel--Female idols and cows of terra-cotta--Other idols and animals--Iron knives and curious keys of a later period--Bronze knives and arrow-heads--Stone implements and other objects--A little gold and much lead found--Fragments of a lyre and flute--Plates of ornamented terra-cotta for lining walls--Cyclopean house-walls--A remarkable water-conduit--Twelve tomb-like reservoirs--Two tombstones with bas-reliefs, probably of the same epoch as that over the Lions' Gate 52