DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1004#0390
MYCEN.E AND THE ILIAD CONTEMPORARY. 341
It was entered by two gates, one on the north-east, the other on the north-
west, and by two only. In an ancient city, gates seem to have been regarded
as necessary evils, which it was
unsafe to multiply, and a large
number of them was considered
honourable, as proving the con-
: fidence of the citizens in their
own strength and courage to de-
fend them. Hence the epithets
applied to Thebes and other sim-
ilar cities. Nor was the line
of the walls of the citadel of
Mycenae varied by projecting towers; only two approximations to a tower-
like structure occur in their whole circuit. These are placed to guard the
two entrances of which we have spoken, and project in such a manner on
the right-hand side of each gate that the sword-arm of an assailant was
exposed to missiles hurled upon him by the besieged from the tower.
Both these points are worthy of notice; the connexion of the gate and
the tower, and the projection of the latter with a view to defence; and in
both these respects the construction of the citadel before us supplies an
interesting commentary upon the military architecture presented to our
notice in the Iliad of Homer. That poem and the walls of Mycenaj seem
to belong to the same age. In the Iliad, when a tower is mentioned, a
gate is, we believe, always to be supposed as contiguous to it. Helen,
for instance, is conducted to a tower that she may view from its flat
summit the Grecian leaders on the plain of Troy. She is welcomed there
by Priam and the Trojan Elders, who are described as sitting at the Seaman
Gate. Andromache, in another passage, ascends a tower for a similar
purpose; Hector goes in quest of her, and they meet, we learn, at the
Sctean Gate. The usual contiguity of Gate and Tower is assumed to be
well known to the hearers of the poem in these and in other places. But
in cities more recent than MycenEe, and in poems more recent than those of
Homer, although the gate never exists without a tower, yet a tower does
not necessarily involve the presence of a gate near it.
The principal, or north-western of the two gates at Mycenae exhibits above
its lintel the most ancient monument of sculpture in Greece. These two lions,
It was entered by two gates, one on the north-east, the other on the north-
west, and by two only. In an ancient city, gates seem to have been regarded
as necessary evils, which it was
unsafe to multiply, and a large
number of them was considered
honourable, as proving the con-
: fidence of the citizens in their
own strength and courage to de-
fend them. Hence the epithets
applied to Thebes and other sim-
ilar cities. Nor was the line
of the walls of the citadel of
Mycenae varied by projecting towers; only two approximations to a tower-
like structure occur in their whole circuit. These are placed to guard the
two entrances of which we have spoken, and project in such a manner on
the right-hand side of each gate that the sword-arm of an assailant was
exposed to missiles hurled upon him by the besieged from the tower.
Both these points are worthy of notice; the connexion of the gate and
the tower, and the projection of the latter with a view to defence; and in
both these respects the construction of the citadel before us supplies an
interesting commentary upon the military architecture presented to our
notice in the Iliad of Homer. That poem and the walls of Mycenaj seem
to belong to the same age. In the Iliad, when a tower is mentioned, a
gate is, we believe, always to be supposed as contiguous to it. Helen,
for instance, is conducted to a tower that she may view from its flat
summit the Grecian leaders on the plain of Troy. She is welcomed there
by Priam and the Trojan Elders, who are described as sitting at the Seaman
Gate. Andromache, in another passage, ascends a tower for a similar
purpose; Hector goes in quest of her, and they meet, we learn, at the
Sctean Gate. The usual contiguity of Gate and Tower is assumed to be
well known to the hearers of the poem in these and in other places. But
in cities more recent than MycenEe, and in poems more recent than those of
Homer, although the gate never exists without a tower, yet a tower does
not necessarily involve the presence of a gate near it.
The principal, or north-western of the two gates at Mycenae exhibits above
its lintel the most ancient monument of sculpture in Greece. These two lions,