DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0105
THE PALACE 63
apartments; the court is surrounded as at Tiryns by colon-
nades, apparently the usual resort of the prince's retainers
and attendants. In this court stood the altar of Zeus
Herkeios, just as we still see the altar (or sacrificial pit) in
the court of the Tirynthian megaron. Doubtless, the
Homeric (3ut{i6s is a real altar rather than a sacri-
ficial pit, — though Odysseus finds use for the
latter in the JVekuia, — but the difference may he accounted
for (as we shall presently see) by the progress of religious
belief between the Mycenaean age and that of the poems.
Again we seem to have in Homer the self-same distribution
of the megaron suite which we actually see in the palace
of Tiryns and Mycenae, namely, the aithcmsa or 0ne £orc.
vestibule, the prodomos or antechamber, and the ha" or two
megaron or hall proper. It is true that Homer's aithousa
and prodomos, instead of denoting two distinct apart-
ments, are ordinarily (if not always) used of one and the
same, which is properly styled aithousa as being open to
the sun, and prodomos from its relation to the Great Hall.
On the other hand, while the great halls at Tiryns and
Mycenae are distinguished by the statelier arrangement, we
find the simpler single vestibule to the women's hall at
Tiryns and in a private house (to be described further on)
at Mycenae. More important still is the fact that in the
recently discovered palace at Ame (or Gha in Lake Copais)
there is no room with more than a single vestibule. Again
the interior of the great hall, in Homeric times still
centering in itself the life of the whole house, is pictured
by the poet very much as we can actually see or reasonably
restore it in these Mycenaean palaces to-day. Around the
In the actual halls we still see the great circular
hearth with the four pillars about it, just as we have always
known it in the vivid Homeric picture of the Phaeacian
apartments; the court is surrounded as at Tiryns by colon-
nades, apparently the usual resort of the prince's retainers
and attendants. In this court stood the altar of Zeus
Herkeios, just as we still see the altar (or sacrificial pit) in
the court of the Tirynthian megaron. Doubtless, the
Homeric (3ut{i6s is a real altar rather than a sacri-
ficial pit, — though Odysseus finds use for the
latter in the JVekuia, — but the difference may he accounted
for (as we shall presently see) by the progress of religious
belief between the Mycenaean age and that of the poems.
Again we seem to have in Homer the self-same distribution
of the megaron suite which we actually see in the palace
of Tiryns and Mycenae, namely, the aithcmsa or 0ne £orc.
vestibule, the prodomos or antechamber, and the ha" or two
megaron or hall proper. It is true that Homer's aithousa
and prodomos, instead of denoting two distinct apart-
ments, are ordinarily (if not always) used of one and the
same, which is properly styled aithousa as being open to
the sun, and prodomos from its relation to the Great Hall.
On the other hand, while the great halls at Tiryns and
Mycenae are distinguished by the statelier arrangement, we
find the simpler single vestibule to the women's hall at
Tiryns and in a private house (to be described further on)
at Mycenae. More important still is the fact that in the
recently discovered palace at Ame (or Gha in Lake Copais)
there is no room with more than a single vestibule. Again
the interior of the great hall, in Homeric times still
centering in itself the life of the whole house, is pictured
by the poet very much as we can actually see or reasonably
restore it in these Mycenaean palaces to-day. Around the
In the actual halls we still see the great circular
hearth with the four pillars about it, just as we have always
known it in the vivid Homeric picture of the Phaeacian