30 THE MYCENAEAN AGE

long by 7 wide and 3 2 thick — could hardly have supported
the superincumbent weight of a solid Cyclopean wall. The
pressure thus relieved, the space is closed by a single slab 10
feet high7 12 feet long at the base, and only 2 feet thick.
This was a favorite device with the Mycenaean builder, and
we shall meet with it again in the great vaulted tombs.

The triangular slab is of native limestone and bears the
famous relief which gives the gate its name. It represents
The Lion *w0 ^ons standing heraldically opposed, each with
Relief ^e fore paws planted on an altar-like pedestal.

The lions are parted by a column with the upward swell
peculiar to Mycenaean architecture, and crowned with a
curious capital and entablature. Over the abacus runs a
row of four disks surmounted by a second plate like the
abacus. The disks obviously represent the ends of timbers
laid close together on a beam (the abacus) and then covered
over with cross-planks. Thus we have the section of a
timber roof or ceiling translated into stone. The heads
of the lions (now missing) were not of a piece with the
bodies, but wrought separately, as is clear from the dowel
holes in the necks, where they were bolted on. They
must have been turned so as to face the visitor, friend or
foe, as he approached from without: the space hardly ad-
mits of any other treatment. Colors may have been applied
to accentuate certain parts of the body and to indicate the
mane, as well as to relieve the column which in its present
simplicity offers a marked contrast to the ornate pillar
of the period as known to us in other examples. Until
recently the lion relief was regarded as the oldest work of
sculpture on Greek soil: while it can no longer claim this
priority, it is still perhaps the most remarkable of its kind
and age. But of its place in the history of art we shall
have occasion to speak later. Here we are concerned only