DESCRIPTION OF THE SPOT.
We cannot do better than give the extract from the notes of an excursion, made on the very spot, under which Dr. Schliemann is now digging for treasures and historical facts, which undoubtedly are of the greatest importance for the knowledge of antiquity and the land of Homer. This excursion was made in 1871, some five years before the persistent doctor commenced his researches.
It reads substantially as follows:
“From Tiryns we proceeded, Feb. 7th, by carriage to Argos, the city of Inachus, where we found horses saddled, waiting for us, to enable us to go to Mycenæ. We crossed, on our way, the river Inachus, and found, on the Argolic plain, for the first time, the red poppies which we afterwards noticed as so abundant in Palestine. After having gone up the crumbling steps of the amphitheater, the most important monument at Argos, (where, beset by the importunate solicitations of some boys, we bought two or three old coins, where coin is said to have been first invented. The invention of coin is ascribed to the Lydians, yet it is certain that it was used at Argos.) We mounted our horses and rode over the plain, finding in many places only a difficult bridle-path, to the treasury of Atreus, or the tomb of Agamemnon. This structure, for it may be either treasury or tomb, or both, (we commend to Dr. Schliemann the solution of the problem,) consists of a building cut out of the side of a hill, entrance to which is through a gateway, down an inclined plane, with walls on both sides, into two vaulted apartments—one larger than the other, and both now empty. The most remarkable feature is the gateway, and especially the huge soffit which spans it, not more from its immense size, than from the apparent impossibility of removing it from the place which it occupies, held in its position by its own weight, and supporting the pressure of the mass above it. (A similar contrivance we noticed in the gateway of the temple of Jupiter at Baalbek.) ‘The remains of copper nails in the walls of the larger apartment, indicated that it had been sheathed with copper plates, while the inner chamber may have been coated with marble.’
“Here, after having examined the ruin, we lunched and again mounting our horses, proceeded to view the celebrated ‘Lions’ of Mycenæ, once the site of the royal palace of Agamemnon—itself a ruin in the time of Homer—its foundation going back to an almost dateless antiquity. The ruins of Mycenæ are, in many respects, unequaled in interest by any object in Greece. Their position is fortunate; there is no habitation near them. The traveler ascends from the open plain to the deserted hill on which they stand. The walls of the citadel may still be traced in their entire circuit, and on the western side they rise to a considerable height. Only a few foundations of ancient buildings remain, and one or two cisterns hewn in the rocky soil, and lined with cement. Such is the present state of the Acropolis of Mycenæ. Two gates, one on the northeast, the other on the northwest, both guarded by a tower, gave entrance into the city. The two gates and tower seem to have been connected, and illustrate the military architecture presented to our notice in the Iliad. The ‘Lions’ are represented in high relief, rampant, headless, their feet resting on a pedestal which is a Doric column reversed, carved out of a block of gray limestone. By whom erected, or for what purpose, must ever remain a mystery. Perhaps the simplest explanation is the best, that they denote the ‘courage leonine,’ and were heraldic badges upon the national escutcheon of Mycenæ. We clambered over the walls of the ruined palace of Agamemnon, on the hill-side we came across several pieces of antique pottery, which we have preserved. To make the illusion more complete, while we were exploring the ruins, a fierce, wolfish, shepherd-dog, the only guardian of the place, in a field below, kept up a loud, persistent barking, which ceased not till we had left the spot.”
It is perhaps too soon, in the present imperfect state of the excavations at Mycenæ, to form a true estimate of their value, as related to the authenticity of the heroes of Homer. However, we will give, as far as that is possible, from the reports of Dr. Schliemann himself, a review of the wonderful things which this great sapper and miner has brought to light:
THE CITY OF MYCENÆ.
The city of Mycenæ must have been wonderfully beautiful. Homer calls it “the city rich in gold and broad of streets,” at the time when the ruler of Mycenæ, Agamemnon, assisted the Greeks against Troja, with one hundred ships, and a great number of men, for which service he was elected their commander-in-chief. He fell, at his return, by the faithlessness of his wife, and with him the glory of the city was gone. Only rarely we find, in history, traces of her unimportant existence. About the middle of the fifth century B. C., she was destroyed by the Argivi, and her inhabitants dispersed.
