"You ask me also my opinion with regard to the objects found by you at Mycenæ. There are several categories of these, which it would be unwise to confuse and consider as one—for they bear marks of different origins. It is impossible to mistake the Assyrian or Assyrio-Babylonian character of the gold objects which your fine excavations have brought to light in such great numbers. These ornaments are identical with those which we see on the Assyrian carvings in the museums of London and Paris; they have no resemblances to Egyptian jewelry. Two among them are characteristic, and may give rise to important discussions,—these are the two golden signet rings which you have published as figures 530 and 531. The seal of the first represents a religious ceremony, that of the plucking of the sacred plant: everything is Assyrian; the sun, with the crescent moon and the waters of heaven, the six days, the tree, the costume of the persons represented. The second is a kind of Asiatic hieroglyph, such as is often met with on the cylinders and carved stones of the countries along the Euphrates and the Tigris; it relates, beyond doubt, to some event which happened during the first of the great months of the year—that is to say, after the vernal equinox; the object at the left seems to indicate that it refers to some agricultural operation—reaping or sowing. However this may be, these two signets seem to me to have come to Mycenæ from an Asiatic country—perhaps from the banks of the Euphrates or Tigris.
"I can tell you nothing in regard to the mass of fragments of pottery which you have taken from the excavations. They have a great resemblance to those found on all the shores of the Mediterranean. Their origin is now attributed to the commerce of the Phœnicians, or, more exactly, of the Sidonians; but perhaps there is some exaggeration in this. It is not probable that Sidon furnished all the pottery of the Mediterranean; and the character of the clay used by its manufacturers varied in different places; but the process of manufacture is nearly the same, and the character of the ornamentation changes but little. One is thus led to believe that the potter's art first came to the Mediterranean from the East, but that it was almost everywhere established in local factories at a very early period.
DATE OF THE CAPTURE OF MYCENÆ.
"The idols and cows, found in such numbers by you in the ruins of Mycenæ are, evidently, of local origin. If these rude statuettes had been Phœnician, and had represented Astoreth, it would not have been Hera, but Aphrodite, who would have been the principal goddess of Argolis; there would have been not a Heræum, but an Aphrodisium. Moreover, the coiffure of many of the Mycenæan idols characterized Hera all through the succeeding centuries; and, as you very rightly note, the form of the crescent in others indicates that ancient goddess of the moon, who bore the name of Io, and who was, au fond, identical with Hera. I should say the same of the terra-cotta cows; it is a manifest error to identify them with the Egyptian bull. The museums of Europe contain a great number of specimens of the Apis; they have very distinct forms and characteristics which are not wanting in a single case;—such are especially the three large black spots on the crupper, the back, and the hinder part of the body. The Mycenæan cows are more often yellow, striped with red. It is true that they have no udders; but neither have they the male organs.
"Apropos of this, permit me to correct an error which has fairly become classic; the words βοῦς and bos of Greek and Latin mythology are almost always translated ox; but they are generally feminine in the classic authors, and mean cow—the cows of the sun-god, the cows stolen by Cacus—abstractæque boves, abjuratæque rapinæ; and we know also the great supreme cow of the Indian hymns—i. e., the heavens considered as the source of cosmic life, and identical with the Hera of Greek tradition. I would call your attention to the fact that the ancient agricultural peoples of Asia and Europe did not raise oxen, but cows; that they yoked bulls to the plough; and that the ox was almost never used among them. Thus the absence of sex in the Mycenæan terra-cottas leaves only the choice between bulls and cows; while religious tradition, as well as the epithet βοῶπις, constantly point out the cow as the symbol of Juno. It is this goddess, therefore, who is meant by the terra-cotta images. And as you have found them in great numbers in your excavations, this is a new proof of the importance given in Argolis to that divinity. These conclusions are moreover in perfect agreement with the Homeric texts and with the religious traditions of all Greek antiquity. I may add that they come to the support of the often-combated assertion, that the Trojan idols were meant to signify Athena Glaukopis. The Mycenæan cow and the Trojan owl are two facts of the same order, which occupy corresponding places in Greek mythology, and relate to the same epoch of linguistic development in the religious symbolism of antiquity."
M. Burnouf also informs me that he has sent to the Révue des deux Mondes an extended article on the excavations at Mycenæ.
On the discovery of the Treasures of the Royal Sepulchres, I had the honour of addressing a telegram to His Majesty, the King of the Hellenes, which I insert here, with His Majesty's gracious reply:
"A SA MAJESTÉ LE ROI GEORGE DES HELLÈNES, ATHÈNES.
"Avec une extrême joie j'annonce à Votre Majesté que j'ai découvert les tombeaux que la tradition, dont Pausanias se fait l'écho, désignait comme les sépulcres d'Agamemnon, de Cassandra, d'Eurymédon et de leurs camarades, tous tués pendant le repas par Clytemnestre et son amant Egisthe. Ils étaient entourés d'un double cercle parallèle de plaques, qui ne peut avoir été érigé qu'en honneur des dits grands personnages. J'ai trouvé dans les sépulcres des trésors immenses en fait d'objets archaïques en or pur. Ces trésors suffisent à eux seuls à remplir un grand musée, qui sera le plus merveilleux du monde, et qui, pendant des siècles à venir, attirera en Grèce des milliers d'étrangers de tous les pays. Comme je travaille par pur amour pour la science, je n'ai naturellement aucune prétention à ces trésors, que je donne, avec un vif enthousiasme, intacts à la Grèce. Que Dieu veuille que ces trésors deviennent la pierre angulaire d'une immense richesse nationale!
"HENRY SCHLIEMANN."MYCÈNES, 16 (28) Novembre 1876."
His Majesty's Reply:—