GOLDEN DRAGON, WITH CRYSTAL SCALES.
I have further to mention among the objects discovered in this tomb the beautiful golden cylinder (No. 451), and the splendid golden handle terminating in a dragon's head (No. 452). Both these objects undoubtedly belong to each other, and most probably composed the handle of a sceptre, an augur's staff, or something of similar importance, for both offer the unique example among the Mycenean antiquities of gold incrusted with a sort of mosaic of rock-crystal. To examine first the golden cylinder (No. 451); it consists of four-leaved flowers united at the points of the leaves. Each of the latter shows in all its length a flat oval hollow incrusted with a piece of rock-crystal, which exactly fits into it. Between every two flowers is a square space with curved sides, which is also filled up with well-fitting pieces of rock-crystal. Of these latter only one can be seen in the engraving before us in the middle of the right side of the cylinder, as it is represented; the other pieces, which are mostly preserved, will be put in again as soon as the Archæological Society shall be able to exhibit the Mycenean collection.
Nos. 451, 452. A Golden Tube; and a Golden Dragon with scales of rock crystal, both being probably pieces of a sceptre-handle. Sepulchre IV. Size 3:4.
The appearance of the cylinder, when all the transparent crystal pieces were in their places, must have been of marvellous beauty. The golden handle with the dragon's head (No. 452), which belongs to the cylinder, is hollow, and still contains débris of the wood with which it was filled. The head of the dragon, with its large eyes, of which one only appears in the engraving, as well as its open jaws, can be distinctly seen. The scales of the dragon have been skilfully imitated by means of small beautifully-cut pieces of rock-crystal, which fit so well into the small symmetrical hollows prepared for them in the gold, that only one of them has as yet fallen out. This is the more astonishing as the handle represents the most unmistakable marks of the fire to which it has been exposed on the funeral pile. If Homer had seen this extraordinary handle when it was entire, he would undoubtedly have ascribed it to the skilful hand of Hephæstus, and would have uttered his sense of its beauty in the words θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι, "a wonder to look upon."
NOTE ON THE ROYAL PALACE.
I omitted to mention, in Chapter V., that in my opinion the ruins extant to the south of the Agora, in which we see no windows, can be only the substructions of the Royal Palace. I would further suggest that all these substructions reached only to the level of the great Cyclopean circuit wall, and that upon them was built the palace proper, of wood. This opinion seems to be corroborated by the tremendous quantities of yellow wood-ashes with which the interior of those substructions was filled up, as well as by the impossibility of admitting that the Royal Palace should have had no windows, and should have been built in the deep hollow, so as to be shut out by the great Cyclopean wall from any view of the lower city and the plain.