DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7382#0084
XX. ARGIVE HERAEUM
The Argive Heraeum, situated about three miles from Mycenae on the old
Mycenaean road to Nauplia, was, according to tradition, the site of the temple where
the Achaeans swore allegiance to Agamemnon before the expedition to Troy. Be that as
it may, the site has a long history, dating from Middle Helladic to Roman times. There
are Late Helladic chamber-tombs there. There is a great Royal Tholos (Late Helladic II,
Wace's second group). There are temples and colonnades of all dates from the seventh
century onwards.
It was the sanctuary in Hellenic times of the whole Argolid, and it was naturally
here that the sailors of Pheidon and the merchant princes of Argos dedicated the
little magic symbols and amulets that they brought from their wanderings.
Many, perhaps most, of the scarabs and figures are from Naucratis. The typically
Hellenic-Egyptian "Flute Player" type shows this. But no doubt some came from
farther up the Nile, particularly No. 114, which from its careful work may well be a
survival from the days of Thothmes III. For the rest they date from the XXVIth
Dynasty. Some are good copies of earlier work but spoiled by ignorance of the
hieroglyphics proper to the period which they imitate.
They are found chiefly below the second temple, in association with Orientalizing
pottery and terracottas. Nothing was found below the black layer of the old temple,
and they can safely be dated to the first half of the sixth or last half of the seventh
century.
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The Argive Heraeum, situated about three miles from Mycenae on the old
Mycenaean road to Nauplia, was, according to tradition, the site of the temple where
the Achaeans swore allegiance to Agamemnon before the expedition to Troy. Be that as
it may, the site has a long history, dating from Middle Helladic to Roman times. There
are Late Helladic chamber-tombs there. There is a great Royal Tholos (Late Helladic II,
Wace's second group). There are temples and colonnades of all dates from the seventh
century onwards.
It was the sanctuary in Hellenic times of the whole Argolid, and it was naturally
here that the sailors of Pheidon and the merchant princes of Argos dedicated the
little magic symbols and amulets that they brought from their wanderings.
Many, perhaps most, of the scarabs and figures are from Naucratis. The typically
Hellenic-Egyptian "Flute Player" type shows this. But no doubt some came from
farther up the Nile, particularly No. 114, which from its careful work may well be a
survival from the days of Thothmes III. For the rest they date from the XXVIth
Dynasty. Some are good copies of earlier work but spoiled by ignorance of the
hieroglyphics proper to the period which they imitate.
They are found chiefly below the second temple, in association with Orientalizing
pottery and terracottas. Nothing was found below the black layer of the old temple,
and they can safely be dated to the first half of the sixth or last half of the seventh
century.
58