DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.840#0043
52
KRABATA. MYCENiE.
proverbially rich, but the edifices might have been erected before
his time as in the cases of Acrisius, of Proetus, and Minyas. Eurys-
theus, who immediately preceded his uncle Atreus, is said by Diodorus
and others to have concealed himself in a brazen vase when terrified
by the return of Hercules to Mycenae. Apollodorus however, b. 2.
says, that he concealed himself in an urn of brass, which he con-
structed secretly underground, an account which would be perfectly
applicable to a brazen chamber, though it is nonsense when referred
to a vase.
This building has not the smallest traces of holes for bolts, nor
sockets for hinges, at the great entrance. The first chamber might
have been both a temple and a tomb. See the chamber of Danae at
Argos, and the inner apartment a treasury; for that has been se-
cured by strong bars. Perhaps the holes in the great architrave
might have held nails, which supported a curtain or veil. Pausanias,
Books, Chap. 10. mentions a temple of Neptune Hippius, only pro-
tected by its sanctity and a woollen veil, built by the same Tropho-
nius and Agamedes, who were famous for their skill in erecting trea-
suries and temples, and who actually built the treasury of Minyas at
Orchomenos in Baeotia, and another for king Hyrieus at Delphi.
Pausanias says, " the treasury of Minyas is one of the wonders of
Greece, a work not yielding in magnificence to any of those in other
countries. It is thus constructed: the walls are all of stone, the
building is of a circular form, the roof is not very much pointed, they
say that the parts of the edifice are proportioned to each other even
to the highest stone." This passage, and the present existence of the
KRABATA. MYCENiE.
proverbially rich, but the edifices might have been erected before
his time as in the cases of Acrisius, of Proetus, and Minyas. Eurys-
theus, who immediately preceded his uncle Atreus, is said by Diodorus
and others to have concealed himself in a brazen vase when terrified
by the return of Hercules to Mycenae. Apollodorus however, b. 2.
says, that he concealed himself in an urn of brass, which he con-
structed secretly underground, an account which would be perfectly
applicable to a brazen chamber, though it is nonsense when referred
to a vase.
This building has not the smallest traces of holes for bolts, nor
sockets for hinges, at the great entrance. The first chamber might
have been both a temple and a tomb. See the chamber of Danae at
Argos, and the inner apartment a treasury; for that has been se-
cured by strong bars. Perhaps the holes in the great architrave
might have held nails, which supported a curtain or veil. Pausanias,
Books, Chap. 10. mentions a temple of Neptune Hippius, only pro-
tected by its sanctity and a woollen veil, built by the same Tropho-
nius and Agamedes, who were famous for their skill in erecting trea-
suries and temples, and who actually built the treasury of Minyas at
Orchomenos in Baeotia, and another for king Hyrieus at Delphi.
Pausanias says, " the treasury of Minyas is one of the wonders of
Greece, a work not yielding in magnificence to any of those in other
countries. It is thus constructed: the walls are all of stone, the
building is of a circular form, the roof is not very much pointed, they
say that the parts of the edifice are proportioned to each other even
to the highest stone." This passage, and the present existence of the