Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/293

 ARCHITECTURE. 277 FIG. 186. Third chamber, s , section through a, d. Weber, Plate I. Fig. 6. But we may remark that regular courses are the rule about the walls of the tumuli at Bin Tepe ; whilst tall and low courses, which are pointed out as characteristic of Hellenic masonry, are seen in the Tantaleis tomb (Figs. 16, 1 7). The method is identical in both ; and if in this solitary instance the execution is better, the fact may be due to its having been erected at greater leisure. It is just possible, therefore, that the tomb under discussion may be anterior to the Persian rule ; as it is quite as likely to have been constructed at a later age, for a wealthy Lydian, a tyrant of Ephesus, in imitation of the old royal tombs. This type of burial is very similar to that of the tu- muli of the Troad, within which Achilles and Ajax were supposed to rest ; it brought to mind the heroes of the Iliad, along with the kings of the old local dynasties, Gyges and Croesus, whose names stirred and filled the imagination of men with legends no less remarkable, than those connected with the epos. The effect of these remi- niscences and the ideas they brought in their train was seen in the funereal architecture, which here and there harked back to ancestral models, as late as the third century of our era, 1 in the full swing of Alexandrian culture. About the Belevi monument, however, are data that make it unnecessary, nay forbid, our travelling so far down ; instanced in the awkward expedients resorted to for covering the two main chambers, which betray the gropings of inexpe- rience and unskilfulness. What seems most probable is that the tomb is not much later than those around Sardes, and that, like them, it was allied to the traditions still current in the country at the time of its erection. Hence we shall not greatly err in ascribing it to the latter half of the sixth century B.C. This it is that has led us to put it to the account of Lydian art. 1 See Beitraege zur Geschichte und Topographic Kleinasiens, Curtius, p. 53, note by Adler ; Klaessische Baudenkmaeler zu Pergainon, pp. 55, 56, with drawings from Plate III. FlG. 187. Third chamber, s ; section through c, d.