Gell, William: The itinerary of Greece: With a commentary on Pausanias and Strabo and an account of the monuments of antiquity at present existing in that country (London, 1810)

40 KRABATA. MYCENiE.

called the sons of Apollo. The pillars and balls occur frequently in
Egypt. See Denon, who in plate 115, fig. 10, has three pillars, over
each of which is a ball. Fig. 12 has five balls, and fig. 17 the same
number. These circles are common on the heads of winged
figures. At Tentyra and at Apollinopolis, see plates 116 and 120,
where are more pillars surmounted with balls.

Among other conjectures, it may be imagined that the lion was the
national symbol. The Lacedaemonians certainly placed lions upon
their sepulchres, Meursius; and Agamemnon was represented on the
chest of Cypselus, with the head of a lion upon his shield. Pau-
sanias.

Some have also supposed that the four balls signified the united
kingdoms of Mycenae, Corinth, Sicyon, and Achaia; and others
might imagine they referred to the establishment of the games of
Olympia, Nemaea, the Isthmus, and Delphi. Another conjecture
might be, that the lions represented the two which were destroyed by
Hercules on Mount Cithaeron and at Nemea, but that would refer
them only to the reign of Eurystheus. The triangular form of the
stone above the doors at Mycenae, may also have had a particular
signification; it was certainly a mysterious figure among the Egyp-
tians. Plutarch de Isid. et Osir.

To the south of the gate of the lions, the wall of the citadel is
much ruined. In one part something like a tower is visible, which
being perpendicular, while the curtain inclines a little inward from its

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