rbarous age, but,
on the contrary, the product of enormous appliances, and of a perfect
knowledge of all the mechanical requirements for any building, if we
except the application of the arch. The stones are hewn square, or
curved to form the circular dome within, with admirable exactness. Above
the enormous lintel-stone, nearly twenty-seven feet long, and which is
doubly grooved, by way of ornament, all along its edge over the doorway,
there is now a triangular window or aperture, which was certainly filled
with some artistic carving like the analogous space over the lintel in
the gate of the Acropolis. Shortly after Lord Elgin had cleared the
entrance, Gell and Dodwell found various pieces of green and red marble
carved with geometrical patterns, some of which are reproduced in
Dodwell's book. Gell also found some fragments in a neighboring chapel,
and others are said to be built into a wall at Nauplia. There are
supposed to have been short columns standing on each side in front of
the gate, with some ornament surmounting them; but this seems to me to
rest on doubtful evidence, and on theoretical reconstruction. Dr.
Schliemann, however, asserts them to have been found at the entrance of
the second treasury which Mrs. Schliemann excavated, tho his account is
somewhat vague. There is the strongest architectural reason for the
triangular aperture over the door, as it diminishes the enormous weight
to be borne by the lintel; and here, no doubt, some ornament very like
lions on the other gate may have been applied.

There has been much controversy about the use to which this building was
applied, and we can not now attempt to change the name, even if we could
prove its absurdity. Pausanias, who saw Mycenae in the second century
A.D., found it in much the same state as we do, and was no
better informed than we, tho he tells us the popular belief that this
and its fellows were treasure-houses like that of the Minyae at
Orchomenus, which was very much greater, and was, in his opinion, one of
the most wonderful things in all Greece.

Standing at the entrance, you look out upon the scattered masonry of the
walls of Mycenae, on the hillock over against you. Close behind this is a
dark and solemn chain of mountains. The view is narrow and confined, and
faces the north, so that, for most of the day, the gate is dark and in
shadow. We can conceive no fitter place for the burial of a king,
within sight of his citadel, in the heart