Although there are no windows in the Cyclopean house—and although the scanty daylight through the doors must have been still further diminished by the Cyclopean circuit-wall, which is only separated from the west side of the house by a corridor 4 ft. broad—yet there can be no doubt that it served as a dwelling-house, and further as the dwelling house of the most prominent family of Mycenæ, for it is only such a house that we can imagine close to the Agora in the most imposing part of the Acropolis, within which the space was very scanty and therefore precious. Professor Paley thinks that the passage so often cited from Euripides (Electra, 710) proves beyond any doubt that it must be the Royal Palace, because the people of Mycenæ are there called to the Agora to see the wonderful lamb with the golden fleece. But this lamb (which was a portent symbolical of the monarchy) had been conveyed to the palace by Aëropé, wife of Atreus. Thyestes then and there told the people that he had it in his house (ἔχειν κατὰ δῶμα), consequently the palace was close to the Agora.
If at the time of Euripides the Agora was still partly visible above the débris, such must have been still much more the case with the ruins of that Cyclopean house, and it is more than probable that tradition pointed to it as the Palace of the Atridæ, in which Agamemnon and his companions had been murdered, and that it was shown under this denomination to Euripides. The objects discovered in this house prove that its inmates had pretensions even to luxury; for in one of the chambers, at a depth of 20 feet below the surface, was found a finger-ring cut out of a splendid white onyx, with a seal, on which are represented in intaglio two animals without horns. At first sight they certainly appear to be hinds, but on attentive examination we see that the artist's intention has been to represent cows; both have their heads turned round looking at their calves, which suck the milk from their udders.[253] Though in a very archaic style, the intaglio is nevertheless well wrought; the anatomy of the animal is tolerably observed, and one feels astonished how it could have been possible to do the work without a magnifying glass. On seeing this intaglio, and reflecting that it belongs to an antiquity preceding Homer by centuries, we are ready to believe that all the works of art mentioned by Homer, such as the wonderful shield of Achilles,[254] the dog and the deer in the mantle-brooch of Ulysses,[255] Nestor's goblet,[256] and others, all existed in his time, and that he merely describes what he saw with his own eyes. Mr. Achilles Postolaccas calls my attention to the most ancient didrachms of Corcyra, of the 7th century B.C., on which a cow is giving milk to her calf, this representation being similar in style to the cows and calves on the onyx ring.
No. 213. Fragments of a painted Vase, representing armed Warriors. (5 M.) Size 1 : 3, about.
A PAINTED VASE.
There were further found in the Cyclopean house some beautiful axes of diorite or serpentine,[257] and many whorls of blue stone, and a great many painted terra-cottas, among which the fragments of a large vase, with two or three handles, the ends of which have been modelled into the shape of cowheads, deserve particular attention. Some of the fragments which I have been able to readjust represent six full-armed warriors, painted with a dark red colour on a light yellow dead ground; they are evidently setting out on a military expedition, and all wear coats of mail which reach from the neck down to below the hips. (See No. 213). These coats of mail consist of two distinct parts, which are fastened round the waist by a girdle, and their lower edge is fringed with long tassels. Each warrior's back is covered with a large round shield, which seems to be fastened on the left shoulder, for, though the shield protrudes far on both sides, it does so much more on the left than on the right. Its lower end is cut out in the form of a crescent. In their right hands the warriors hold long lances, to each of which is attached that curious object resembling a Trojan idol, which I have already mentioned in describing one of the bas-reliefs.[258] Though it certainly appears to us that this curious object can have served for no other purpose than for fixing the lances on the right shoulder, yet it deserves particular attention that the primitive Mycenean artist has taken care to represent it a little above the shoulder, in order that it might be seen separately, for had he represented it leaning on the shoulder, it would have been confounded with, and partly covered by, the shield, and it would have been impossible to recognise its shape. For the rest, the shape of the lances is such as we were led to expect from the Homeric "δολιχόσκιον ἔγχος,"[259] for they are very long. We further see that the spear-head has a tube in which the shaft is fixed, and this appears also to have been the case with the Homeric lances.[260]
Very peculiar are the greaves (κημῖδες) which appear to be of cloth, and reach from a little above the knee down nearly as far as the ankles; their upper end is attached by means of a string, which is turned three times round the lower part of the thigh. In my opinion this string is in itself a proof that the greaves are of cloth. All the warriors wear sandals fastened on by straps reaching as far up as the greaves. Of the highest interest are the helmets, dotted all over with a large number of points, which may be intended to represent the lustre of the bronze. The lower part of the helmets is nearly in the form of a crescent, and protrudes both in front and behind; the upper part of the helmet is no doubt the Homeric φάλος.[261] On the top of this φάλος was the λόφος or tube, in which the horsetail crest (ἵππουρις) was fastened.[262] But unfortunately no space was left for this λόφος, and thus the artist has been obliged to leave it out and to represent the crest as fastened on the φάλος itself. What this crest consists of is not clear, but as it is here shewn in the form of a long leaf, it is highly probable that the artist meant to represent it as a horsetail.
THE HOMERIC HELMET.
From the fore part of the helmet rises a long and very curious object, which forms a curve, and is much like a horn. It is altogether inexplicable to me what it can have been used for, and there is no word in Homer which might be interpreted so as to indicate its existence on the Homeric helmet.