My esteemed friend, Professor F. A. Paley, has been the first to advance the opinion, accepted by Mr. Charles T. Newton and by myself, that the double parallel circle of slabs, having been in the most solid way covered with cross slabs, must necessarily have served as a bench to sit upon and as the enclosure of the Agora of Mycenæ. He thinks that the first idea for the form of an Agora was given by the circular-dances (κύκλιοι χοροί) and the recitation of the dithyrambs.[236] The assembled people sat in a circle, and the orator stood in the centre, as we see in Homer,[237] and in Sophocles[238]; and just in the centre of this enclosure at Mycenæ I found a rock forming a slight elevation, which might well have served as the platform (βῆμα), from which the speakers addressed those sitting on the circular bench.[239]

We therefore know with certainty, in the first place, that the Agora was round, and, secondly, that people used to sit there. The circular form of the Agora is also proved by Euripides,[240] who speaks of the "circle of the Agora" (ἀγορᾶς κύκλον). Professor Paley infers from the passage of Euripides already cited (Electra, 710), that the poet had known this Agora in the Acropolis of Mycenæ from personal inspection, and that by πέτρινα βάθρα he means the enormous circular stone bench by which the Agora is enclosed, and that consequently on this bench he makes the herald stand, when in a loud voice he calls the people of Mycenæ to the Agora; he also believes that Euripides had perhaps in mind the βῆμα in the Athenian Pnyx. I should not hesitate to accept Professor Paley's opinion, had I not found the Agora deeply buried in the prehistoric débris. But it may very well be that at the time of Euripides the Agora was not yet entirely covered, and that the greater part of the prehistoric débris, with which I found it covered, was only after his time washed down by the heavy winter rains from the five upper natural or artificial terraces of the Acropolis. At all events it appears from the pottery of the later Hellenic city that the latter was not built till after the time of Euripides.[241]

Mr. Charles T. Newton calls my attention to the passage in Thucydides, who says of Corcyra, "the houses which lie in a circle around the Agora."[242] Also to the following passages in Pausanias, which prove that the heroic tombs were in the Agora of Megara. "Here they built the place for council in order that they might have the tomb of the heroes within the place for council;"[243] for there can be no doubt that this βουλευτήριον was in the Agora. (It must be borne in mind that this was done at Megara by the advice of the Delphic oracle.) Further: "also the tomb of Coroebus is in the Agora of the Megarians."[244]

Another esteemed friend also calls my attention to the passage in Pausanias: "Here is the tomb of Opheltes, with an enclosure of stones and altars in the walls; (here) is also the tumulus, the sepulchre of Lycurgus, the father of Opheltes."[245] But Opheltes was a son of the Nemean King Lycurgus and Eurydice, and he was killed by a serpent whilst his nurse, Hypsipyle, showed a spring to the seven heroes when on their expedition to Thebes. Owing to this event the people of Nemea founded in his honour the Nemean games, and he, as well as his father, was interred in the sacred grove of the Nemean Jove, where their tombs were seen by Pausanias, who mentions nothing of an Agora.[246]

Professor Paley reminds me of Pindar's Pythian Ode (V. 69-98), in which we read:[247] "(Apollo) caused the valorous descendants of Hercules and Aegimius to dwell in Lacedaemon, and at Argos, and at sacred Pylos. Now they say that from Sparta came my own much cherished race. Sprung from thence the heroes called Aegidae came to Thera, even my ancestors,—not indeed without the guidance of the god, but a certain destiny brought thither a festive rite attended with much sacrificing; and from thence receiving thy Carnea, Apollo, we honour at the banquet the grandly built city of Cyrene, possessed as it is by the brass-loving strangers, Trojan descendants of Antenor. For they came thither with Helen, after they had seen their native city become a smoking ruin in the war. And the horse-driving race is religiously received with sacrifices, and propitiated by offerings (at their tombs), by the men whom Aristoteles (Battas) brought, when he opened the deep highway of the sea for his swift vessels. He founded also larger groves of the gods, and laid down a paved road, cut straight through the plain, to be smitten with the feet of horses in processions to Apollo for averting evil from mortals; and there he lies in death, apart from the rest, at the furthermost end of the Agora. Happy did he live while among men, and afterwards he was blessed as a hero worshipped by the people. And away from him, in front of their palaces [but of course also in the Agora], lie other consecrated kings that have their lot with Hades."

From this passage in Pindar we see that Battas, also called Aristoteles, the founder of Cyrene, 640 B.C., and its first king, descended from Hercules, and that his ancestors, the Heracleids or Dorians, had emigrated from Sparta to Thera. As Pindar saw his tomb, as well as those of other consecrated kings (probably the successors of Battas), in the Agora of Cyrene, Professor Paley thinks that it was an ancient Doric and not an Achæan custom to bury the kings in the Agora. But this is in contradiction with the above statement of Pausanias (I. 43, §§ 4, 8), that the Megarians had the sepulchres of Coroebus and other heroes in their Agora, because Coroebus was an Elian Olympic victor in the stadium (Ol. I.), and, according to tradition, he killed Ποινή, sent by Apollo to the Argives.[248] Besides the Megarians had nothing whatever to do with Doric customs.

In like manner as at Megara and Cyrene, so in the Acropolis of Mycenæ, in honour of the illustrious personages who lie buried here, the Agora was erected in a circle around their tombs. Had the circle of slabs served only as an enclosure for the five royal tombs there would have been no necessity either to make it double and slanting and to cover it horizontally, or to build a huge wall for the sole purpose of sustaining it in the lower part of the Acropolis, and of raising it to the level of that part which rested on the rock in the higher part of the Acropolis; nay, one single circular enclosure, following the sinuosities of the rock, would in my opinion have done just as much honour to the five royal sepulchres as the artificially levelled and covered double row.

It deserves particular notice that between and on both sides of the double circular row of slabs, there were found many objects of interest, such as a fish of wood (No. 211), and a large number of Hera-idols of the various forms already described; also some in the shape of a standing or a sitting cow without horns, but with a female head-dress,[249] or with the neck perforated for suspension with a string,[250] which seems to indicate that they were worn as amulets. Also a female idol having two feet instead of a tube as usual; it has an uncovered bird's head, no mouth, very large eyes, protruding hands, and a necklace; the hair is well represented on the back; the dress is marked with a red colour.[251] There was also found an unpainted male figure of clay, with large eyes, an aquiline nose, and no mouth; the head is covered with a cap in form of a turban. I doubt if this is an idol. There was also found a very primitive idol, with an uncovered bird's head and two ears; the hands are on the breast, but not joined; the head is turned towards heaven (No. 212). I here call attention to the large number of idols of Aphrodite in the British Museum, which are represented touching both breasts with the hands, probably as symbols of fecundity.

There were also found two knives of lever-opal and three arrows of obsidian,[252] which are of rare occurrence here; further, a number of small perforated glass necklace beads, and three whorls of terra-cotta.

I frequently find here, in the prehistoric débris, fragments of a wall-coating of chalk with painted archaic ornamentations of red, blue, green, or yellow spiral lines. As no trace of chalk is found in any of the Cyclopean houses, I cannot claim for these wall-coatings a remote antiquity; and I fancy they are derived from frame houses of the last century before the capture of the city by the Argives.

To the south of the circular double row of slabs my excavations have brought to light a vast Cyclopean house, which, so far as it has been uncovered, contains seven chambers intersected by four corridors of four feet in breadth (see Plans B and C). Here and there the walls still retain their clay coating, which, however, nowhere shows a trace of painting. The walls are from 2 to 4½ ft. thick, and the same wall is in some places 6 to 8 in. thicker than in others. The largest room is 18½ ft. long by 13½ ft. broad, and its east side is cut out in the rock to a depth of 16 in.

Below this and the adjoining room is a deep cistern cut out in the rock. Into it runs a Cyclopean water-conduit, which comes down the hill, and probably brought water from the spring Perseia, half a mile east of the Acropolis, which has a well-deserved celebrity in the plain of Argos for its purity and its salubrious properties. Pausanias (II. 16) saw this spring in the ruins of Mycenæ; but the city never extended so far east. I suppose, therefore, that what he saw of the water of the Perseia was nothing but the discharge of an artificial conduit from the natural source above the citadel. This would also perfectly agree with the word κρήνη, which he constantly employs with that meaning, in opposition to πηγή, a natural spring.

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.

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.

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.

Now, with regard to the physiognomy of the six warriors, it is most decidedly not Assyrian or Egyptian. All have exactly the same type—very long noses, large eyes, small ears, and a long well-dressed beard, which ends in a point. Thus, except the beard, there is nothing Asiatic about them. Five of the warriors are followed by a woman, seemingly a priestess, who is dressed in a long gown fastened at the waist by a girdle; her forehead is ornamented with a diadem, and she seems to wear some kind of a head-dress. Only her right arm remains, which is uplifted, and by the curve it forms it appears that the woman has lifted her joined hands and is praying to the gods to be propitious to the departing warriors, and to grant them a safe return. This custom of lifting both hands when praying is continually found in Homer.[263]

On other fragments of the same vase (No. 214[264]) are represented two warriors, who cover their left side with their shields and hold in their uplifted right hand a lance, which they thrust at their enemies, of whom, however, the figure of only one is partly preserved. The armour of the two warriors and that of the opponent is perfectly identical with that of the six warriors described before, except the head-dress, which, instead of bronze helmets, consists here seemingly of a low helmet of boarskin, with the bristles outside. In fact, these helmets vividly remind us of the low helm of oxskin which Ulysses put on his head when he and Diomed went in the night as spies to the Trojan camp.[265] I may here remark that the word κυνέη means dogskin, and that consequently the low helmets must originally have been made of dogskin. But at the epoch of Homer the original conception of the word had long disappeared, and he not only uses κυνέη for a low helm, but also for a large bronze helmet. Behind the warrior to the left is seen part of the coat of mail and the shield of another man, and behind the other warrior is seen a shield; thus it seems that many warriors were here represented fighting together. Below the first handle is represented a flying bird. On the two cow-heads, in which the handles terminate, only the place of the horns is marked, because the artist knew that, if he made them, they would at once break when the vase was to be used. The clay of this vase, which has been made on the potter's wheel, is unusually bad and mixed with coarse sand; the fabric also is extremely rude; inside it is painted red.

There were further found in the Cyclopean house other vases of excellent fabric, and ornamented with rows of circles, containing numerous signs which at first sight appear to be written characters, but from the continual repetition of the same signs one soon sees the mistake. There were also found in the Cyclopean house two copper vessels, one of which is a tripod of very large size.

I now find here in the Acropolis numerous fragments of hand-made pottery, but not in distinct layers as at Tiryns. It is evident that the layer of prehistoric hand-made pottery (for there must have been such a layer) has been disturbed; and I think it probable that it was disturbed when the huge wall was built, which sustains the circular double parallel enclosure of the Agora in the lower part of the Acropolis, because this wall is at all events later than the hand-made pottery. What I find of this pottery has usually an ornamentation of black horizontal bands or spiral lines on a light green dead ground; but fragments of monochromatic lustrous black vases also occur.

I have explained on pp. 3 and 4 that the name "Cyclopean walls" is founded on an error, being derived from the mythic legend that the Cyclopes were distinguished architects, but that the name having come into use, we cannot help employing it for the different kinds of walls of huge blocks which I have specified. But in Tiryns as well as here in Mycenæ, where I am surrounded by the grandest Cyclopean walls in the world, I am, for brevity's sake and in order to avoid misunderstandings, bound to use the name "Cyclopean" even for the smallest walls of houses or water conduits which show the same kind of masonry. But it must be distinctly understood that I should of course not think of calling them so if I found them in places where there are no huge walls of that kind, for the name "Cyclopean" can only be applied to the gigantic.

NOTE.—The pattern on the two fragments here shown, evidently representing a sea animal, a sort of cockle, is the most common pattern at Mycenæ; but it never occurs either in the five royal tombs, or in the dromos before the Treasury, which circumstance leads me to conclude that it came into use at Mycenæ both after the epoch of the tombs and after the covering up of the dromos of the Treasury. The pottery with this pattern has nearly always a light yellow dead ground, only in a few instances a light red dead ground, and the pattern itself is always of a black (or dark red) colour. Now it is a remarkable fact that this pattern, which has never been found yet elsewhere, is to be seen, of exactly the same form, on nearly all the terra-cotta goblets, and on some of the terra-cotta vases from the sepulchre of İalysus, which are now in the British Museum. At the same time I remind the reader that these İalysus goblets have exactly the same shape as all the terra-cotta goblets of Mycenæ, and that this form has never yet been found elsewhere, except in the first and most ancient of the four prehistoric cities at Hissarlik. But then again it deserves particular notice that this pattern never and in no instance occurs on the Mycenean goblets, and solely on the Mycenean vases.

CHAPTER VI.

Since the 30th of September I have continued the excavations with the utmost vigour, employing constantly 125 labourers and 5 horse-carts. In the Treasury the difficulties were far greater than I had anticipated, particularly as the delegate of the Greek Government opposed the removal of the foundations of the Hellenic house just above the lower part of the "dromos," which I have mentioned before. Thus we have been unable to clear the latter of the débris, 9 ft. deep, which still covers its pavement, and have only succeeded in clearing out the entrance passage, which is 13 ft. long and 8 ft. broad, and the central part of the Treasury; but we have left a border of huge stones and rubbish, 7 ft. to 9 ft. high, and 10 ft. to 15 ft. broad.

The two semi-columns to the right and left of the entrance were fluted; one of them (4 ft. 3 in. high and 1 ft. 4 in. broad) was found in the passage near the door. At 9½ ft. before the latter the "dromos" is shut up by a wall of square blocks of calcareous stones, 5 ft. high. The door of the Treasury has the enormous height of 18 ft. 5 in., and is 8 ft. 4 in. broad. On the threshold, which consists of a very hard breccia, and is 2 ft. 5 in. broad, we found a very thin round leaf of gold. The floor of the Treasury is the levelled rock covered with a coating of sand and chalk, traces of which are visible in many places; it slopes towards the centre, which is 1 ft. lower than the threshold.

There was found in the Treasury a large fragment of a frieze of blue marble, carved with a circle and two rows of a wedge-like ornamentation in the form of fish-spines; it is 9 in. high, 10 in. broad, and 2 in. thick (No. 215). There was further found the fragment of a beautiful frieze of white marble, which is 1 ft. 4 in. long, 8 in. broad, and 3½ in. thick. The engraving here given (No. 216) represents the broad side of the frieze with an ornamentation of spirals between two small borders. We have already given the small face, on which we see, between two fillets on each side, an ornamentation of the same kind of spirals, which are, however, deeper cut and better preserved.[266] There were further found five unornamented blades of copper or bronze, 5½ to 6½ in. long, and a Hera-idol of the usual form, with two horns.

Treasure may be hidden in the large border of stones and débris which I have been forced to leave behind, but I scarcely believe it. Considering that very ancient fragments of pottery with geometrical patterns were found exclusively in the "dromos," and, on the other hand, a variety of potsherds of different ages in the Treasury itself, I am convinced that only the "dromos" and the entrance were covered up in remote antiquity, that the Treasury remained empty, and that the fragments of vases now found in it were contained in the thick layer of rubbish which covered the upper vault when, fifty-six years ago, Veli Pasha tried to force an entrance by this way.

In the Acropolis I brought to light, at a few yards from the second gate, a very curious Cyclopean water-conduit leading into one of the long narrow corridors. I therefore suppose that at least one, and perhaps two, of these are nothing else than cisterns. There is another Cyclopean water-conduit and another cistern immediately south of them; and the latter seems to be connected with the twelve recesses, in which I also recognize nothing but six small cisterns. These water-conduits, like that which runs into the two cisterns below the Cyclopean house, have doubtless brought the water from the copious spring "Perseia," whose name seems to be derived from Perseus, the founder of Mycenæ.

In clearing out the masses of débris, 13 ft. to 20 ft. deep, which obstructed the passage of the gate, I found three bronze rings. Two of these (Nos. 217 and 219), which were found close to the surface, may be of the Hellenic time, but it is impossible to say this with certainty. The former (No. 217), as shown by the hollow, has had a stone, which is now missing. The third ring is a seal-ring, and the intaglio is too archaic not to be derived from a period preceding the conquest of the city (468 B.C.). On it we see a young woman in a sitting posture, with extended arms; her head, which is turned aside, has luxuriant hair; to the right, a little further down, is a male figure, with a broad chest and extended arms.

There were also found many Hera-idols in the form of a cow or a horned female, and among the former a fragment showing on a light yellow dead ground a number of dark red signs, which may be letters, like those shown on the coloured plate B, fig. h; also large quantities of melted lead; further a very primitive golden earring (see No. 220), consisting of a quadrangular golden wire turned twice round. Mr. Chas. T. Newton concludes from the sharp angles of this and all the other quadrangular gold wires which I shall hereafter describe, that they have been a strip or riband cut out of a plate. But it is altogether inexplicable to me how the primitive goldsmith can have performed this operation, particularly as his knives must necessarily have been of bronze. The same form of earrings occurs also in the second of the four prehistoric cities at Troy,[267] with the sole difference that the wire there is round.

There were also found here, in a hollow of the rock, a great many fragments of hand-made vases, coloured either of a plain black or red, both inside and outside, or, on the outside only, of a light green, with black spiral ornamentation. At only 6 ft. behind the Cyclopean wall, on the east side of the passage, I have brought to light the remnants of an evidently much more ancient wall of huge blocks.

In the large Cyclopean house, which tradition seems to have indicated as the palace of the Atridæ, immediately to the south of the circular Agora, were found Hera-idols of new forms: for example, a perfectly flat cow with only one big hind-leg and two fore-legs;[268] a female idol, with a very compressed bird's face, and with a Phrygian cap, instead of the usual "polos;" and a headless idol, with two protruding breasts, but with two long cow-horns. There was likewise found a terra-cotta cow-horn, 3½ in. long, which shows that there must have been much larger idols than those hitherto found. I further collected there a number of small terra-cotta tripods in the form of arm-chairs and cradles, in one or two instances even cradles containing children: all are gay-coloured and may have served as offerings. Among the other objects found there I may mention two perforated parallelopipeds of variegated colours, 4 in. long, the use of which I cannot explain;—a comb, which, according to Professor Landerer, consists of a very hard white clay paste;—several pointed sticks (stilettos) for female needlework,[269] which the same scholar recognises to consist of opal;—six small perforated round flat transparent beads of white stone, belonging to a necklace; and a large button of alabaster, which seems to have been on the handle of a sword. There was also found the bronze sword (No. 221). A pair of tongs of iron was found near the Lions' Gate close to the surface, and may be of the Macedonian period.

To my very greatest annoyance and displeasure, but by the most urgent demand of the Greek Archæological Society in Athens, I have been forced to leave in the Acropolis, on either side of the Lions' Gate, a large block of débris untouched in situ, because this Institution has not yet sent, as it intended to do, an engineer to consolidate the sculpture of the two lions with cramp-irons, and to repair the Cyclopean walls to the right and left of it. But they still intend to do this work sooner or later, and they believe that the two masses of débris will facilitate the raising of the blocks and their insertion in the walls. I hope that this work will be done promptly, so that the two blocks of débris may not have long to wait for their removal, for they give the excavations a miserable aspect, and particularly the mass of débris to the right on entering, because this latter consists of loose ashes, and, should it be left for a few years more as it is, it will be washed away by the rains and spread over my excavations. I call particular attention to this, because every visitor will naturally attribute the leaving behind of these two blocks of débris to my negligence.

Yesterday and to-day my excavations have had the honour of being visited by his Majesty Dom Pedro II., Emperor of Brazil. Coming from Corinth, his Majesty rode direct up to the Acropolis, and remained for two hours in my excavations, which he attentively examined and re-examined. The immense double parallel circle of slanting slabs, within which are the three lines of tombstones, and particularly the four sculptured ones, seemed to be of paramount interest to him, and he requested me to send him photographs of them to Cairo. The great Lions' Gate, through which the king of men (ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν) passed when he left for the most glorious expedition of the heroic age, the wonderful threshold of this gate, the large Cyclopean house, the three Cyclopean water-conduits, the immense Cyclopean circuit walls and all the other monuments of prehistoric times, seemed also to be of very great interest to his Majesty, who went thence to the Treasury which we have excavated, and afterwards to the Treasury of Atreus, where dinner was served. This meal, in the midst of the mysterious, dome-like underground building nearly forty centuries old, seemed to please his Majesty exceedingly. He afterwards examined with the deepest interest, in the village of Charvati, the large collection of prehistoric Mycenean antiquities produced by my excavations, and he particularly admired the enormous mass of differently-shaped Hera-idols, the intaglios, the marvellous Mycenean pottery, and the archaic sculptures. His Majesty also examined attentively, in and around Charvati, the ancient quarry whence all the stones for the Cyclopean walls, the Treasuries, and other buildings, have been extracted, and went thence to Argos and Nauplia. His Majesty called here again to-day, to see once more the Mycenean museum and the excavations, and returned hence by Corinth and Calamaki to Athens.

After the departure of his Majesty, Mrs. Schliemann and I ascended, not without the very greatest difficulty, the very steep northern peak of Mount Eubœa, now called Hagios Elias, which is situated immediately north of the Acropolis, and is crowned by an open chapel of the prophet Elias (see Plate II.). The summit forms a very small triangle, the eastern side of which is 35 ft., the two other sides, which converge due west, each 100 ft. long. It is full of rugged and pointed rocks, between which it is difficult even to move, and it can therefore never have been inhabited by men, the more so as there is no water. The only even and level place on the summit is in the south-east corner; it is but 10 ft. broad and 23 ft. long, and is occupied by a very small open shrine, dedicated to the prophet Elias. But in spite of its small dimensions, the summit is surrounded by Cyclopean walls, which are on an average 4 ft. 2 in. thick, and from 3 ft. to 6½ ft. high; but the masses of stones which lie beside them can leave no doubt that they were once much higher.

The entrance, which is on the eastern side, leads to a short passage. In the large stone which forms the threshold of the door is still visible the hole in which the lower hinge turned. At a distance varying from 16 ft. to 53 ft. lower are, on all the three sides by which the summit is accessible, Cyclopean walls, varying from 133 ft. to 266 ft. in length, and 5 ft. thick, which are still now on an average 10 ft. high, and appear to have once been much higher. From between the stones of all these walls I have been able to collect a large number of fragments of hand-made light green vases with black ornaments, which I consider as old as the walls of Tiryns and Mycenæ, because in the former place I found them in situ on and near the virgin soil, in the latter in situ only on the natural rock in the recesses of the gate-passage, and in the tombs. I conclude from this that the Cyclopean fortifications on Mount Eubœa (Hagios Elias) must be contemporaneous with the walls of both cities, and may perhaps claim even a still higher antiquity.

The question now naturally arises, for what purpose all these fortifications have been built. The mountain being so high and steep, and the summit so exceedingly small and encumbered by protruding rocks, it can never have served as a fortress. Therefore the only explanation I venture to give of the origin of these Cyclopean walls is that there must have existed on the summit a small temple of great sanctity and immense importance, and by a curious coincidence we may even find in the present cultus on the summit the name of the deity who was worshipped there in antiquity. In times of great drought the inhabitants of the surrounding villages are in the habit of going thither on a pilgrimage in large crowds, the priests leading, to invoke the prophet Elias to give rain. And it appears likely that the very site of the present open shrine of the prophet Elias was in ancient times occupied by a sanctuary of the Sun-god, who had a celebrated cultus there, and who has given way to the prophet Elias, with hardly any change in the orthography or pronunciation of the name, the Sun-god having been originally called ᾽Ηέλιος, pronounced Eëlios. This is a wonderful coincidence, because, as the name of the prophet is purely Hebrew (הײלא or יהולא, meaning "Jehovah is God") it can have no affinity with the Homeric name of the Sun-god, ᾽Ηέλιος' which is probably derived from the primitive name of the moon's husband (perhaps Σείριος) and is at all events purely Greek.

Only half an hour's walk in a westerly direction from the Lions' Gate, and close to the village of Phichtia, are the ruins of a small Cyclopean building, in the same style of architecture as the walls to the right and left of that gate, and probably belonging to the same epoch. This also appears to have been a temple. We likewise see, at an hour's distance in a north-westerly direction from the Lions' Gate, in a secluded valley, on the border of a deep glen, the well-preserved ruins of a quadrangular Cyclopean tower, of which every side measures 40 ft. in length; the walls are 10 ft. to 11 ft. high. At the south-westerly corner is the door, which leads into a small corridor and two chambers. On the outer walls are seen two gutters. The architecture is also very similar to that of the walls close to the Lions' Gate. Most likely this tower served the Myceneans for dominating the narrow pass by which the road leads from Argos to Corinth.