It is of this exceeding simplicity that we must picture to ourselves the palaces of the kings, one of which is so attractively described by the singer of the Odyssey, in the account of the royal dwelling at Ithaca. The entire establishment must have been similar to a grange—a wall enclosing a number of buildings with the court before them. The rustic parallel is clearly brought to mind by the description of this farm-yard, where the compost-heap, surrounded by swine and geese, was the bed of the old watch-dog, who, in Homer’s truly idyllic account, alone recognizes his master, and, dying, wags his tail in greeting. From this yard a gate led to an inner court, comparable to the peristyle of later buildings, but without the ornament of columns, and in all respects extremely primitive. Goats and beeves were driven in here without further ado to be slaughtered. This adjoined upon one side the chambers of the men, upon the other those of the women, so separated that the tumultuous massacre of the suitors in the principal hall did not disturb the slumber of Penelope, and only reached the ears of the maids like distant moaning. Upon the third side, probably opposite the entrance, was the hall of the men, a ceiled space, which must have been of considerable extent, as the hundred and eight unwelcome guests could here unite in the banquet and other amusements. Its ceiling, like that of the armory and that of the royal sleeping-chamber, was supported by upright beams of wood. We may imagine these similar to the shafts in the Palace of Oinomaos at Elis, one of which, bound together with iron hoops, was preserved as a relic in the time of Pausanias. The ceiling beams of the hall were smoked and blackened by open fires and torch-lights as in rustic dwellings. Of the walls there is no mention, though the supposition is not improbable that the bright metal sheathing of the palaces of Menelaos and Alkinoös existed here also. It would be explained by the Phœnician overlaying of wood-work with beaten bronze, or, to speak more correctly, with copper. The space could not have been without openings for light and air. These are not directly mentioned by the poet, but may be assumed, from the analogies offered by other civilized nations of early antiquity, to have existed in the wall, immediately under the ceiling. Here the interstices between the immense horizontal beams, which rested upon the walls, were left open, and the motive of the subsequent Doric metope resulted of itself. That the timbers overhead were not sheathed with boards is evident from a Homeric simile: Athene rose to the ceiling, and there sat, “like unto the resting swallow;” that is to say, upon the cross-beams of the open triangle formed by the roof-framing. Further evidence is offered by the account of the hanging of Epicaste upon a ceiling beam, which must have been exposed from all sides.
The tholos of the palace at Ithaca was an isolated circular structure, before the court, and may perhaps be identified with the high thalamos to which Telemachos descended. In this also lay gold and metal in heaps; while shrines containing garments, and amphoras filled with oil and wine, etc., stood around. Its double door, of careful workmanship, agrees with the character of a treasury. If this identification of the tholos and thalamos be accepted, no doubt can remain that we have here to deal with a space similar to many yet remaining in Greece, generally known under the name of treasure-houses. Examples exist at Orchomenos, near Pharsalos, Amyclæ, Menidi, and in Mykenæ.
One of the five in Mykenæ, known as the Treasury, or the Tholos, of Atreus, remains in an admirable state of preservation, especially as regards the interior. This consists of a space of circular plan, 15 m. in diameter, and of the same height, formed like a pointed vault. (Fig. 121.) Its walls begin to curve from the floor, which is of stamped clay pisé. Upon this the first circular course of masonry immediately reposes. The walls then rise, in parabolic outline, to a pointed apex. They are not constructed upon the principle of a vault—that is to say, with wedge-shaped stones, and with the direction of joints to a common centre—but are laid in horizontal beds, each course so projecting over the one beneath it that, by this diminution of the concentric circles, they finally unite at the summit. They were smoothly cut upon the jointing surfaces, while the face was not chiselled until after the completion of the masonry. The blocks were rectangular, and the joints, which consequently increased radially in plan, were filled with the same pisé used for the floor; the interstice between the wall door and the rock-cut inner chamber upon one side being also cemented with this substance. An entrance-passage, the dromos, led from the valley to the tholos in a gently inclined ascent. It was bordered by walls of cut stone, but nowhere ceiled. Its floor, 6.20 m. broad and 36 m. long, was paved with pisé. Thisentrance-passage was terminated without by a terraced retaining-wall, and within by an elaborate portal façade. The recent investigations of Stamatakis and Thiersch have given sufficient information concerning the composition and details of this front to permit a restoration of its chief masses. (Fig. 122.) The lower part was constructed of long stones, carefully cut and jointed. The stepped jambs of the opening, peculiar to all antique doors, were probably cut after the blocks were in position. Upon either side were decorative engaged columns, which are so entirely similar to the one represented upon the Gate of the Lions at Mykenæ that it is possible completely to understand their nature by that general guide; by the help of fragments which still exist, and others drawn in former publications, though now lost; by traces upon the wall, and especially by the sockets cut for the swallowtail clampings of the bases and capitals. The shaft, instead of being diminished, increases as it ascends, as does also the column upon the relief over the Gate of the Lions. Its base, from this analogy, and from the narrow space left for it by the clampings, seems to have consisted of a simple tore. The abacus and parts of the mouldings beneath it still exist; the coronation was formed by two roundlets, separated by a scotia, the lower being considerably smaller in height and diameter than the upper. (Fig. 123.) Without the lower member, there is a certain similarity of the capital to a Doric echinos, which is increased by the proportions of the boldly projecting abacus; but the whole is so similar to an Asiatic (Ionic) base that it was not natural to believe it a capital, and the fragment published by Donaldson has hitherto been believed to be the foot of the shaft. The columns were entirely covered with an ornamentation in relief of zigzag lines alternating with the well-known spiral wave; they stood upon rectangular pedestals, of which the triply stepped plinths have been preserved. The existence of bronze ornaments upon the lintel of the door is evident from the traces of nails; five lion-heads can be distinctly recognized. An epistyle extended from capital to capital across the entire front of the portal; it projected far beyond the lintel, upon which it partly reposed. Above this entablature was a surface, like an attica, which masked the triangle formed by the relieving blocks over the lintel. The upper walls were not originally visible, having been reveted by thin slabs of stone, secured in position by dowels. Fragments from Mykenæ deposited in the British Museum, in the Munich Antiquarium, and in Athens appertained to this upper façade; they all show spiral ornaments between horizontal grooves, and are similar to many other decorations of the same age. The borders of the casing over the relieving triangle and its extreme upper corner were patterned in like manner, as is plain from the mitre-joint of some of the slabs, and from a small fragment exactly fitting the upper angle of the opening. The entire triangle was probably closed by some light stone carving, since it could have had no function as a passage for light. The door, as may be seen from traces of pivots upon the sill and lintel, had two wings, which, from their bolt-holes, appear to have been so large that, when closed, they considerably overlapped. Upon the exterior jambs a broad strip of metal was affixed, still to be traced by two vertical rows of nail-holes, in which fragments of bronze occasionally remain. This work leads to the supposition that the wings of the door were themselves overlayed with metal, and, with the characteristic forms of the decoration upon the monument, points to the peculiarities of Asiatic art. It is natural to attribute this to the influence of Phœnicia; indeed, the effect of the civilization of that country upon early Greece can hardly be overestimated. A broad, horizontal strip of metal sheathing existed also upon the exterior, and small fragments of it are repeatedly met with in the rubbish filling the tholos; similar vestiges are found in a second monument of the kind near by. This overlaying of walls with sheet copper was by no means uncommon in ancient Greece. The subterranean bronze chamber of Danae may be explained as a tomb sheathed with metal. In mythical ages, in the sanctuary at Delphi, as well as in later times, in the Chalkioicos of Athene at Sparta, this wall-treatment appears employed for temples, even as Homer described it in palaces at Sparta and the Island of the Phæacians. The Tholos of Atreus was itself subterranean; the exterior of the conical mass of masonry was covered with a hill of earth. In consideration of the almost perfect preservation of the interior, it is evident that some remains of a strictly architectural exterior would have been recognizable, had it existed. A tumulus covered and protected the structure; though its earth is now, for the greater part, washed away, to it must still be ascribed the good condition in which the kernel has remained.
The recently discovered grave at Menidi, in Attica (Lolling), is a parallel construction. As regards beauty of execution and richness of ornament, it is far inferior to the Tholos of Atreus; it is also much smaller, having an average diameter of 8.35 m. and 9 m. original height. Its only peculiarity is that the relieving blocks over the lintel, instead of projecting one over the other so as to form a triangle, are so placed as to leave four voids between as many horizontal beams, in a manner similar to the arrangement for relieving the ceiling of the principal chamber of the great pyramid of Gizeh.