DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.840#0059
KRABATA. MYCENAE. 41
base, there remained a projection at the top sufficient to enable an
archer to defend the wall below. The blocks of the superstructure
are in general of great size, while those of the foundation are much
smaller.
This is observable in almost all the very early fortifications of
Greece. Except the gates the whole circuit of the citadel is built of
rough masses of rock, hnt though rough, they are even yet some-
times found very nicely adjusted and fitted to each other, though the
smaller stones which filled up the interstices have generally disap-
peared. This style of building has usually been termed Cyclopian,
but it certainly appears that the walls of the most ancient cities of
the Peloponnesus, whether attributed to the Cyclopes or not, were of
this construction. Tiryns, and indeed Mycense, differ from the rest
in the galleries and the gates, so that perhaps the ponderous method
which so much resembles the style of the Egyptians, and of which
the gate of the lions is the best specimen in Europe, is the real Cyclo-
pian, while the remainder of the circuit was erected by the natives.
These fortifications were reputed to be impregnable in ancient
times, for " when the Argives were unable to destroy the walls of
Mycenae, on account of their extraordinary strength, being like those
of Tiryns, the work of the Cyclopes, the inhabitants were forced by
famine to abandon the city. Some went to Cleonae, many into Mace-
donia, and the remainder to Cerynea, in Achaia." Pamanias. Achaia.
Mycenae was ruined by the Argives after the battle of Ther-
mopylae, in the seventy-eighth olympiad. The Argives over-
base, there remained a projection at the top sufficient to enable an
archer to defend the wall below. The blocks of the superstructure
are in general of great size, while those of the foundation are much
smaller.
This is observable in almost all the very early fortifications of
Greece. Except the gates the whole circuit of the citadel is built of
rough masses of rock, hnt though rough, they are even yet some-
times found very nicely adjusted and fitted to each other, though the
smaller stones which filled up the interstices have generally disap-
peared. This style of building has usually been termed Cyclopian,
but it certainly appears that the walls of the most ancient cities of
the Peloponnesus, whether attributed to the Cyclopes or not, were of
this construction. Tiryns, and indeed Mycense, differ from the rest
in the galleries and the gates, so that perhaps the ponderous method
which so much resembles the style of the Egyptians, and of which
the gate of the lions is the best specimen in Europe, is the real Cyclo-
pian, while the remainder of the circuit was erected by the natives.
These fortifications were reputed to be impregnable in ancient
times, for " when the Argives were unable to destroy the walls of
Mycenae, on account of their extraordinary strength, being like those
of Tiryns, the work of the Cyclopes, the inhabitants were forced by
famine to abandon the city. Some went to Cleonae, many into Mace-
donia, and the remainder to Cerynea, in Achaia." Pamanias. Achaia.
Mycenae was ruined by the Argives after the battle of Ther-
mopylae, in the seventy-eighth olympiad. The Argives over-