Mycnae
and Mycn (Μυκῆναι, Μυκήνη). A city at the head of the plain of Argolis, reputed in Greek tradition to have been the residence of Agamemnon. Its most flourishing period probably fell within the latter half of the second thousand years before Christ. At that time the seat of wealthy and powerful chieftains, it subsequently fell under the power of Argos, and was during the historical period a place of no importance. The wall of the citadel and several bee-hive tombs have always been visible. Excavations, carried on by Schliemann in 1876, and later by the Greek Archological Society, have enormously increased our knowledge of Mycenae and of the early civilization which it represents.
The first illustration shows in the middle distance the acropolis of Mycenae, with a portion of its encompassing wall. This wall, for the most part, resembles in its construction that of Tiryns (q.v.), though the blocks are not so gigantic. In places, however, we find an outer facing of approximately regular ashlar masonry (so, e. g., at the Lion Gate); in other places, of carefully jointed polygonal work. The principal entrance, the socalled Lion Gate, is shown in the third illustration. It consists of two upright posts surmounted by an enormous flat lintel. The relieving triangle above the lintel is filled by a relief representing [p. 1068]
two lions (or lionesses) facing one another, and having between them an object of doubtful interpretation. There is, in addition, a smaller gate on the north side of the citadel.
Within the Lion Gate is a circular enclosure, nearly ninety feet in diameter. This was formed by two concentric rows of upright slabs, the space between the two rows being covered by horizontal slabs. Within the enclosure are six rectangular graves of various sizes, sunk in the rock at various depths below the double ring of slabs. The graves when opened contained the remains of from one to five corpses each (buried unburned), or nineteen in all, together with gold masks and ornaments, vessels of gold and of bronze, bronze weapons, pottery of the so-called Mycenae type, etc. Above the graves (in precisely what positions it is now difficult to make out) stood a number of grave-stones, partly unsculptured, partly sculptured with rude reliefs.
At the summit of the acropolis remains of a palace, similar in plan to that of Tiryns, but less well preserved, were discovered in 1886 by the Greek Archological Society. The great μέγαρον or hall, with its circular hearth surrounded by four pillars and its double vestibule, is easily recognizable. Above the palace, and partly upon its ruins, are remains of what is thought to have been an early Doric temple.
Outside the acropolis was the city, consisting apparently of several detached settlements. In this region eight large subterranean buildings, doubtless tombs, of bee-hive form, are known to exist. The most imposing of these is the so-called Treasury of Atreus or Tomb of Agamemnon, of which a vertical section is shown on p. 452. It is approached by a passage-way or δρόμος, walled at the sides, but open above. Then comes the doorway, once closed by heavy doors. The principal inner chamber is about fifty feet in diameter at [figure in text: Principal Approach to Citadel of Tiryns.] the bottom and the same in height. It is built of great stones, laid in horizontal courses, each course pushed a little farther inward than the one below; compare the construction of the relieving triangle over the Lion Gate. There is, besides, a smaller side-chamber, cut in the rock. The other seven beehive tombs are built in a similar fashion, but with smaller stones. In addition to these, upwards of sixty smaller tomb-chambers, excavated in the solid rock and approached likewise by δρόμοι, have been discovered and opened.
The prehistoric civilization to which the Mycenaean remains bear witness must have been, in comparison with what meets us at the dawn of the historical period in Greece, a brilliant one. That [figure in text: Lion Gate, Mycenae. (From a photograph.)] it was powerfully influenced by the earlier civilizations of the East, and especially by that of Egypt, there is abundant evidence to show. But the whole subject of its relations to what went before and what came after is in too uncertain a state to be treated in a sketch like the present.
See Steffen, Karten von Mykenai (Berlin, 1884); Schliemann, Mycenae (London, 1878); Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀρχαιολογικῆς Ἑταιρίας (1886); Ἐφημερὶς Ἀρχαιολογική (1887, 1888, 1891); Furtwngler und Loeschke, Mykenische Thongefsse (Berlin, 1879), and Mykenische Vasen (Berlin, 1886); Schuchhardt, Schliemann's Ausgrabungen (2d ed. Leipzig, 1891; Engl. trans. Schliemann's Excavations, London, 1891); Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History (London, 1892); Tsountas, Μυκῆναι (Athens, 1893).