1

the description of a cup offered by Menelaus to Telemachus, 'of massy silver, finished at the lips with gold." The epithet ȧv@ɛμóɛvтα, which we take to be 'flower-patterned,' applied by Homer to a caldron,2 is found illustrated on a Mycenæan cup, No. 344, which has a row of cinquefoil ornaments.

3

The tripods and caldrons at Mycena may be classed together with other domestic vessels, all of copper, whereas all the metallic weapons are of bronze. At Hissarlik, however, were found a lance-head and battle-axes of pure copper (Troy, &c., Nos. 252-60). Mycena, No. 440, is about I foot in diameter, with three handles, but shallow, and having a small lip to pour. From its description it might easily have served for a basin for ablutions. This is about a medium size. Many are of much less diameter, and the largest reach a diameter of 2 feet, and even 2 feet. The largest size mentioned in Homer is a prize one of two-and-twenty measures,' and the same passage mentions another 'of four measures.' The Mycenæan remains on the whole rather surpass the standard of Homeric description in the same kind than fall short of it; and probably the largest of the Mycenæan vessels may be roughly equated with this largest Homeric one, while the handles, especially those of one larger specimen which are vertical, illustrate the epithet TάEvтa, having ears,' an expression familiar to us from the well-known proverb about 'little pitchers.' The distinction drawn by the poet between vessels which had and which had not been on the fire, is preserved among the Mycenæan remains. In the tomb of five were found five large copper caldrons, having a diameter of from 14 inches to 20 inches, of which three showed marks of use on the fire. The Fire-god in Homer has a 'silver (perhaps meaning silver-mounted) chest' or box to receive his tools. In the women's tomb at Mycena was a golden box, with the lid fastened on by wire, and several boxes of copperplate, which latter had been filled with wood (p. 208–9).

The material of ivory is somewhat fully introduced into the Homeric Poems, but appears very sparingly in proportion at Mycenæ, of which more anon. The chair of Penelopê is spiralled (Swwτn) with ivory and silver,' i.e. with plates of them

1 ἀργύρεος δὲ ἔστιν ἅπας, χρυσῷ δ' ἐπὶ χείλεα κεκράανται.—Od. iv. 615-6 et al. 2 Il. xxiii. 885. 3 Il. xviii. 413.

4 Ib. 264-8. In Fragm. Hom. 86 is found mention of a rρíroda xpvσovarov, but this decoration does not seem to be illustrated by any known remains.

5 II. xxii. 267-8, ἄπυρον κατέθηκε λέβητα, καλὸν . . . λευκὸν ἔτ' αὕτως, and 270, ἀμφίθετον φιάλην ἀπύρωτον ἔθηκεν, and 885, λέβητ ̓ ἄπυρον. 7 Úd. xix. 55-6.

6 Il. xviii. 413.

3

showing spiral patterns. The bedstead of Odysseus was enriched or variegated (daιdáλλwv) with gold, silver, and ivory;1 and ivory, with amber and the metals, appears in the decoration of Menelaus' palace interior,2 with which compare the ivory gate' of dreamland. We have already noticed the sword with ivory scabbard, said, as well as the chair, to be spirally ornamented (aupidεdívnтai). There remains the ivory handle of Penelope's treasure-key, the rest of which was of copper.* Compare with this last the key found by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik (Troy, p. 333), described as a copper key, 4 inches long, the head of which, about 2 inches long and broad, greatly resembles the safe-key of a bank. Curiously enough, this key has had a wooden handle. There can be no doubt of this from the fact that the end of the stalk of the key is bent round at a right angle as in the case of the daggers.' He does not state his grounds for believing wood the material, but even if the material was wood the illustration is close and pertinent.

1

Besides the ivory plates, supposed by Dr. Schliemann, as before referred to, to be horse-trappings, and the dagger handle also mentioned above, we have only noticed a small beehive-shaped piece of ivory marked with a cross, from the tomb of three, an ivory needle, No. 229, and about a dozen other small pieces of various forms, Nos. 224-5, as found at Mycena. For the combination of ivory with metals we have an analogue in the golden comb with teeth of bone found in the women's tomb. In this we trace the faint beginnings of chryselephantine decoration and sculptured portraiture, the favourite material afterwards of the greatest artists of the world in their palmiest period. The ivory rein-ornaments of Iliad v. have been already mentioned and illustrated. Of ivory crimson-dyed, introduced in a simile, the remains furnish no example. The prevalence at Mycena of spiral and circular ornamentation is a feature which lies on the surface. In every or almost every material found it maintains its dominant character. The express mention of any definite type of mechanical ornament is comparatively rare in Homer, but where any is mentioned

5

1 xxiii. 199-200.

3 xix. 563.

4 xxi. 7.

2 Od. iv. 73.

5 Il. iv. 141-2.

6 We have mostly general words, daιdáλλwv, tétukto, and the like; the former often or mostly referring to a surface enriched with a contrast of several materials, as the shield of Achilles, the latter to rich workmanship generally.

:

it is mostly of the circular or spiral type.1 Again, the dominant material of artistic work in Homer is unquestionably metal. The many fashions of cup, tripod, armour, and palaceinterior, all attest this. Especially the use of gold and silver belts and girdles, where another material would be suggested by convenience, is even more decisive proof. And this is exactly what we find at Mycena. Of course it may be said, as against this, that metal survives when many other materials perish. But stone, marble, lapidary gems, ivory, even bone, does not perish, while well-baked pottery defies time even in its tints, to say nothing of its form. But the percentage of all these materials put together, except the pottery, as against the metallic remains at Mycenæ, is somewhat as Sir John Falstaff's allowance of bread to his sack, and the pottery is contemptibly poor; that from the tombs, which were each almost a gold mine, being either hand-made or very ancient wheel-made. Again, at Mycenæ, if we except weapons and domestic utensils, gold, at any rate for the purposes of art, seems to supersede and almost drive out all other not only metals but materials. As for silver, it rarely appears. No. 478 is a large silver vase, 2 ft. 6 in. deep by 1 ft. 8 in. diameter, enriched with repoussée work and interwoven spirals. Several silver goblets of curious work and large size were found in the tomb of five. Two vases of silver, one with twelve golden stars, and two broken silver goblets also appear, p. 210. In the supposed oldest tomb outside the agora, as against four golden double-handled cups, several gold rings, gold wire in coils, and a gold signet with an intaglio of mysterious interest, was found a single silver ring. In the tomb of three was a fragment of a silver vase before referred to, but its mouth was of copper thickly plated with gold. In another tomb was

found the golden mouthpiece and handle of a silver vase, and some of the gold brooches had silver pins. Two silver mountings of sceptres, gold-plated, appear in Nos. 309-10. We believe that this is all or nearly all the silver-a mere sprinkling -which the Mycenæan tombs disclosed.

The great paucity of ivory is another remarkable feature. We have seen how fully ivory enters into Homeric decorative

1 Il. xiii. 407, of a shield; iii. 391, of a bedstead; Oď. viii. 405, of a scabbard; xix. 56, of a chair.

2 Od. v. 232; x. 545. Il. iv. 133; xx. 415.

3 We may illustrate the characteristic prevalence of gold at Mycena by the contrast in precisely similar articles found lately at Dodona : ‘One of the richest sections of these discoveries consists of thin plates of bronze, repoussée, which were laid on as decorations to belts, sheathes, leather helmets, or cuirasses.'-Contemporary Review, November 1878, 848.

work, especially where, as in the case of Menelaüs and the Trojan Mydon, who drives with ivory-mounted reins, an Asiatic source may be presumed for the supply. But the Pelopid dynasty was of Asiatic extraction, and Phoenician trade may be presumed the source of Mycenæan wealth. This scanty supply of ivory is unquestionably in favour of a high antiquity. The earliest mention of ivory in the Bible is that of Solomon's ivory throne and traffic with Ophir. Indeed, more than half the passages in the Old Testament which mention ivory are either in the historical records of his reign or in his Epithalamium, Psalm xlv., or in the Song of Songs, his accredited work. It may be supposed that his oriental commerce first introduced it on a large scale, and that previously the supply was as insignificant as it is representatively at Mycena; and that therefore those tombs and the dynasty to which they belong date from a period at least as early as the beginning of his long reign. The absence of iron, save in a few specimens belonging to an historical period, the minute quantity of glass, the total absence of any inscription or trace of writing, plunge us in an antiquity which is higher still.

From geographical position the coasts of the Gulf of Argos would needs be the part of the Greek mainland first open to Phonican commerce, and become the entrepôt for the Greek home-produce which that commerce absorbed. The ornaments show traces of maritime influence not observable elsewhere. A fine gold goblet has the image of a fish in repoussée upon it, very true to nature; a curious form of marine creature, sometimes called a 'sea-pen,' is figured frequently, we are told, on Mycenæan pottery; one of the smaller trinkets in the women's tomb was taken for a hippocamp or sea-horse, while the cuttlefish pattern' appears on the ornamental plates in handfuls. This points to the sea as the chief source of Mycenæan wealth, and not improbably royalty, in an Asiatic dynasty, may have carried, as in Solomon's case, the monopoly of traffic with it. Thus Mycena became 'rich in gold' (πoλúxpuσos),2 and alone of cities in Homer's song retains the title.3 Thus the royal tombs might be expected to be disproportionately rich. Thus Agamemnon himself,' to turn to Homer, 'gave ships' to the Arcadians, who had none; and thus his dominion included many

1 Mr. Sayce (Contemporary Review, December 1878, p. 75) mentions 'Ostrich eggs covered with stucco dolphins' as 'found .... at Mykenæ.' 2 Il. vii. 180 et al.

3 Troy had been so once, but through the waste of war was so no more. (İl. xviii. 289-90.) 4 Il. ii. 612-4.

islands as well as the whole of Argos,'1 with a hegemony further ranging over a wide zone of land and sea. Thus we easily account for his relations with Cyprus. Such a dynasty and hegemony could alone have made possible a transmarine war of considerable duration. And, if the tale of Troy belong to that region of myth to which some would relegate it, what could have inspired a poet with the notion of an universal combination of Greeks for an Asiatic war? Down to the period of Macedonian supremacy there was nothing in Greek history to suggest it. The Persian invasion found Greece divided, so did Roman intervention later. The Dorian armed immigration, the formation of nuclei of opposite ideas at Sparta and Athens, the death-struggle of Messenia, and afterwards of Mycenæ itself, were all antagonistic to the notion of a combination of united Greece. There was everything against it; there was nothing to suggest it, if there was not a root of fact out of which it sprang.

Before we quit the region of Homeric art, some remarks seem proper on its masterpiece, the Shield of Achilles-once the stumbling-stone of critics who sought to defend the substantial antiquity of the Iliad, but now a strong link in the chain of proofs which evince the primitive character of the Homeric Poems. This is due to recent discoveries of the ancient world of art. The very ancient (Mycena, No. 530) signet shows one or two elements of the detail in the effigies of the sun and moon and wave-lines as if representing a stream, seen in its upper margin.3 As regards the style of art indicated by the poet, the beautiful bowls of the Cypriote collection found by General di Cesnola, the great shield of Cervetri, and various specimens of early Assyrian design conspire to show that metal work with figures grouped dates as far back as any period to which our Homer can reasonably be referred, say to the ninth century B.C. A copper bowl from a tomb at Dali (Di Cesnola's Cyprus, p. 79) has for its subject a dance before Isis, with vases on a table before the dancers. It is said to be 'ornamented with designs peculiar to the very archaic pottery found at Idalium and elsewhere, not only in Cyprus, but on the mainland of Greece and Italy.' This, therefore, assigns to the bowl a very high antiquity. Its subject illustrates one of the many groups-the last one -introduced in the Homeric shield, and, as showing less of Phoenician and more of early Greek character than most others, it has a special interest. It ranges with Homeric arts See Il. xviii. 484 and 607-8.

1 Il. ii. 108.

2 xi. 20-2.