DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0130
io8
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. IV.
a narrow way led between walls to a forecourt, like that
of the men but smaller (see plan); and facing this court
stands a hall with its vestibule, and in the midst of the hall
a hearth. Between this women's hall and the outer wall of
the palace cluster a number of rooms of various sizes, and
there is reason to believe that it is possible to indicate the
place where there was a staircase, leading to an upper
story, of which of course no trace now remains. Among
these rooms Dorpfeld would look for the bed-chamber
of the mistress of the palace, for the treasury where the
valuables were kept, and other rooms necessary to a
princely establishment.
That this scheme of arrangement was by no means
peculiar to Tiryns appears certain when we re-examine
the ruins of that city on the hill of Hissarlik, which
Dr. Schliemann, not without some reason, regards as the
historical prototype of the Homeric Troy. There we find
as central mass of the remains * two oblong blocks of
buildings side by side, a lesser and a larger, which at first
Schliemann, misled by Hellenic analogy, supposed to be
temples. There can now be little doubt that they are not
temples at all. Temples occupied the acropolis hills of
sites in Greece and Asia Minor in historical times, but not
in these pre-historic days which are so fast becoming
clearer to us. Then the most important places were
occupied by those earthly gods or god-like heroes, the
wealthy and splendid race of Zeus-descended kings. At
Hissarlik too then we must take the ruins to be those of
the men's and women's apartments respectively ; and in
fact looking on their ground-plan in the new light, we at
once see the remains of the family hearth.
Also the recent excavations of the Greek Archaeological
Society at Mycenae have resulted, as we have already
mentioned, in the discovery there of the foundations of a
* See cut, p. 53.
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. IV.
a narrow way led between walls to a forecourt, like that
of the men but smaller (see plan); and facing this court
stands a hall with its vestibule, and in the midst of the hall
a hearth. Between this women's hall and the outer wall of
the palace cluster a number of rooms of various sizes, and
there is reason to believe that it is possible to indicate the
place where there was a staircase, leading to an upper
story, of which of course no trace now remains. Among
these rooms Dorpfeld would look for the bed-chamber
of the mistress of the palace, for the treasury where the
valuables were kept, and other rooms necessary to a
princely establishment.
That this scheme of arrangement was by no means
peculiar to Tiryns appears certain when we re-examine
the ruins of that city on the hill of Hissarlik, which
Dr. Schliemann, not without some reason, regards as the
historical prototype of the Homeric Troy. There we find
as central mass of the remains * two oblong blocks of
buildings side by side, a lesser and a larger, which at first
Schliemann, misled by Hellenic analogy, supposed to be
temples. There can now be little doubt that they are not
temples at all. Temples occupied the acropolis hills of
sites in Greece and Asia Minor in historical times, but not
in these pre-historic days which are so fast becoming
clearer to us. Then the most important places were
occupied by those earthly gods or god-like heroes, the
wealthy and splendid race of Zeus-descended kings. At
Hissarlik too then we must take the ruins to be those of
the men's and women's apartments respectively ; and in
fact looking on their ground-plan in the new light, we at
once see the remains of the family hearth.
Also the recent excavations of the Greek Archaeological
Society at Mycenae have resulted, as we have already
mentioned, in the discovery there of the foundations of a
* See cut, p. 53.