DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0263
212 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
into battle nude, so the Celts often fling away their clothes
and rush naked on the enemy's lines. So, too, in later
times certain of the Goths (Procopius informs us) fight
even without cloak or tunic, save for a fragment round the
hips and loins.
Fortunately, now, we have recovered at least one My-
cenaean battle-picture, fragmentary, indeed, but so far as it
The Siege &oes throbbing with life and reality. The scene
Seeae — a fenced city on a mountain-side beleaguered
by a hostile force — was rendered on the body of a great
vase, a considerable fragment of which, with several smaller
ones, was found in Grave IV. But the metal was so
thickly crusted with oxide that it lay for years in the Mu-
seum at Athens like the sword-blades with its story untold.
At last it was carefully cleaned by Mr. Koumanoudes and
first published by Dr. Tsountas.1
The vase, of which the large fragment is here repro-
duced (Fig. 95), was a wide-mouthed vessel of solid silver,
save that the rim is plated with gold and the notched
shield, riveted under the rim, is also of gold.2 The relief
(as on the Vaphio cups) doubtless covered the entire sur-
face, and might have afforded a complete profile of the
hill-fort, with the entire array of its defenders and assail-
ants. As it is, there remains enough to give us a most
vivid conception of primitive warfare. Out of the rocky
slope — very much as we see it at Mycenae — springs the
fortress wall, and behind rise other squared structures
which may stand for towers, or for houses in the citadel;
before the wall grow trees which we take for wild olives.
Upon the wall are five women — with a sixth indicated by
1 EpTiemeris Archaiologike, 1891, p. 19.
2 This golden shield, seeming to take the place of a handle, is one of two or
more originally running around the vase. A second, precisely like it, is among
the fragments in the Museum. Cf. Reichel, Homeriscke Waffen, p. 142.
into battle nude, so the Celts often fling away their clothes
and rush naked on the enemy's lines. So, too, in later
times certain of the Goths (Procopius informs us) fight
even without cloak or tunic, save for a fragment round the
hips and loins.
Fortunately, now, we have recovered at least one My-
cenaean battle-picture, fragmentary, indeed, but so far as it
The Siege &oes throbbing with life and reality. The scene
Seeae — a fenced city on a mountain-side beleaguered
by a hostile force — was rendered on the body of a great
vase, a considerable fragment of which, with several smaller
ones, was found in Grave IV. But the metal was so
thickly crusted with oxide that it lay for years in the Mu-
seum at Athens like the sword-blades with its story untold.
At last it was carefully cleaned by Mr. Koumanoudes and
first published by Dr. Tsountas.1
The vase, of which the large fragment is here repro-
duced (Fig. 95), was a wide-mouthed vessel of solid silver,
save that the rim is plated with gold and the notched
shield, riveted under the rim, is also of gold.2 The relief
(as on the Vaphio cups) doubtless covered the entire sur-
face, and might have afforded a complete profile of the
hill-fort, with the entire array of its defenders and assail-
ants. As it is, there remains enough to give us a most
vivid conception of primitive warfare. Out of the rocky
slope — very much as we see it at Mycenae — springs the
fortress wall, and behind rise other squared structures
which may stand for towers, or for houses in the citadel;
before the wall grow trees which we take for wild olives.
Upon the wall are five women — with a sixth indicated by
1 EpTiemeris Archaiologike, 1891, p. 19.
2 This golden shield, seeming to take the place of a handle, is one of two or
more originally running around the vase. A second, precisely like it, is among
the fragments in the Museum. Cf. Reichel, Homeriscke Waffen, p. 142.