DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0087
46 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
This was undoubtedly an altar or, more strictly speaking, a
sacrificial pit.1
Exactly opposite this altar on the north side of the court
two stone steps lead up to a vestibule, again faced with two
The Men's columns between two pilasters. This in turn
opened by three folding-doors into a room which
served as the antechamber to another larger room (M) lying
behind it. This suite, occupying the very highest level of
the citadel, is obviously the centre of the whole palace; and
in view of its close correspondence with the heart of the
palace, as described by Homer, we may apply Homeric
terms. Our vestibule, then, will answer to the Homeric
aitkbusq; our antechamber to the prodomos; and our
great hall (M) to the megaron.
The side-walls of the vestibule, which have a set-back of
some 16 inches immediately behind the antae, obviously
required a casing of some kind; and, in fact,
ami Kyanos along; the foot of the west wall was found a frieze
Frieze
of alabaster slabs (Fig. 11) resting on the ground
and reaching all the way from the anta to the back wall.
For structural reasons Dr. Dorpfeld at first held that the
frieze could not have been originally designed for this place,2
but he now admits that "it may have been made for the
1 When first found in 1884, the circular opening was blocked np, and Dorp-
feld took the block for an ordinary domestic altar, like that of Zeus Herkeios
in the court of Odysseus' palace, whereon " oft Laertes, and Odysseus too, had
burned the thighs of kine " (Od. xxii., 334 ; cf. II. xi. 772-7). Its size (he says)
was sufficient to burn a whole victim at onee. But in the excavations of 1885
he discovered the opening. " At first we thought that our altar must, after all,
have been a cistern or a well. But when we had the central hole excavated,
it was discovered that the circular masonry only reached to a depth of 0.90
metres. Further down there were neither side walls of masonry nor any arti-
ficial floor. As the hole could by no means have been either a cistern or a
well, it must have been a sacrificial pit. Similar sacrificial pits have been
found in the Asklepieion at Athens and in Samothrace."
2 See Tiryns, p. 291 f.
This was undoubtedly an altar or, more strictly speaking, a
sacrificial pit.1
Exactly opposite this altar on the north side of the court
two stone steps lead up to a vestibule, again faced with two
The Men's columns between two pilasters. This in turn
opened by three folding-doors into a room which
served as the antechamber to another larger room (M) lying
behind it. This suite, occupying the very highest level of
the citadel, is obviously the centre of the whole palace; and
in view of its close correspondence with the heart of the
palace, as described by Homer, we may apply Homeric
terms. Our vestibule, then, will answer to the Homeric
aitkbusq; our antechamber to the prodomos; and our
great hall (M) to the megaron.
The side-walls of the vestibule, which have a set-back of
some 16 inches immediately behind the antae, obviously
required a casing of some kind; and, in fact,
ami Kyanos along; the foot of the west wall was found a frieze
Frieze
of alabaster slabs (Fig. 11) resting on the ground
and reaching all the way from the anta to the back wall.
For structural reasons Dr. Dorpfeld at first held that the
frieze could not have been originally designed for this place,2
but he now admits that "it may have been made for the
1 When first found in 1884, the circular opening was blocked np, and Dorp-
feld took the block for an ordinary domestic altar, like that of Zeus Herkeios
in the court of Odysseus' palace, whereon " oft Laertes, and Odysseus too, had
burned the thighs of kine " (Od. xxii., 334 ; cf. II. xi. 772-7). Its size (he says)
was sufficient to burn a whole victim at onee. But in the excavations of 1885
he discovered the opening. " At first we thought that our altar must, after all,
have been a cistern or a well. But when we had the central hole excavated,
it was discovered that the circular masonry only reached to a depth of 0.90
metres. Further down there were neither side walls of masonry nor any arti-
ficial floor. As the hole could by no means have been either a cistern or a
well, it must have been a sacrificial pit. Similar sacrificial pits have been
found in the Asklepieion at Athens and in Samothrace."
2 See Tiryns, p. 291 f.