DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0402
348 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
of so many moments in their existence, indeed, that an
orderly series of them would go far to make a compendious
chronicle of the time. Thus we follow the Mycenaean
through life, nor at death does the light go out. Rather
it is the tomb in which we find the luminous centre of the
age. The habitations of the living with their belongings
have been largely swept away by the shock of war or the
wasting hand of time; but kindly earth has sheltered the
dwellings of the dead. The phrase is used here and else-
where in no figurative sense, but because it exactly expresses
the ancient view. Death was but removal from the house
aboveground to the house underground, both originally
constructed on the same plan, although innovation in the
one case and religious conservatism in the other issued in
parting them widely. And it was not in nakedness and
solitary that man removed from the old house to the new;
he went in his best and bravest array, and the new house
was furnished, not unlike the old, with all that could main-
tain his dignity and minister to his comfort. From time
to time he was joined there by his kin, each, bringing Iris
goods with him, until the whole household was reunited in
the lower mansion, which thus became a storehouse of
accumulated treasure. From the tombs, therefore, has
broken forth new light not only upon primitive religion,
but upon well-nigh the whole field of primitive life in
Greece j and of this light we have tried to make the most
in our sketch of Mycenaean culture.
So far as they rest upon these tangible monuments and
upon sound interpretation, our results may claim a positive
character; but the case is different when we undertake to
assign a date to the monuments themselves and to give a
name to the people who produced them. There, of neces-
sity, we go beyond these positive criteria and have recourse
of so many moments in their existence, indeed, that an
orderly series of them would go far to make a compendious
chronicle of the time. Thus we follow the Mycenaean
through life, nor at death does the light go out. Rather
it is the tomb in which we find the luminous centre of the
age. The habitations of the living with their belongings
have been largely swept away by the shock of war or the
wasting hand of time; but kindly earth has sheltered the
dwellings of the dead. The phrase is used here and else-
where in no figurative sense, but because it exactly expresses
the ancient view. Death was but removal from the house
aboveground to the house underground, both originally
constructed on the same plan, although innovation in the
one case and religious conservatism in the other issued in
parting them widely. And it was not in nakedness and
solitary that man removed from the old house to the new;
he went in his best and bravest array, and the new house
was furnished, not unlike the old, with all that could main-
tain his dignity and minister to his comfort. From time
to time he was joined there by his kin, each, bringing Iris
goods with him, until the whole household was reunited in
the lower mansion, which thus became a storehouse of
accumulated treasure. From the tombs, therefore, has
broken forth new light not only upon primitive religion,
but upon well-nigh the whole field of primitive life in
Greece j and of this light we have tried to make the most
in our sketch of Mycenaean culture.
So far as they rest upon these tangible monuments and
upon sound interpretation, our results may claim a positive
character; but the case is different when we undertake to
assign a date to the monuments themselves and to give a
name to the people who produced them. There, of neces-
sity, we go beyond these positive criteria and have recourse