Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/357

 332 Pkimitive Greece : Mycenian Art. — ... 1 these should not appear without a retinue in the ghostly worlt Let us remember that bloody sacrifices were still known t[ Homer, who describes the Trojan captives immolated over thi pyre of Patroclus. These graves are centuries older than th( Epic, and date back from a time when the beliefs which com- manded these cruel and revolting rites were potent enough tO[ " sway prince and peasant alike. The cemetery could not well extend beyond its boundaries jt the space it occupies is fenced in by the hill on the one sidel and the circuit- wall on the other ; over it the rock falls away ^ precipitously, between the Lions Gate and the group of houses < lying south of the acropolis. The final closing of the cemetery 'J. likely enough coincides with a dynastic change; but the chiefs who were interred here had played too important a part among I their people to pass easily out of their memory or regard ; even _ though the soil and ruin, largely made up of chips from broken stelae, bones, and refuse, ** presenting the aspect of a charnel- house, went on increasing in depth over their graves, now closed for all time, and above the fast-disappearing altar and stelae." ^ A time came when religious scruples counselled the improvement of that corner of the acropolis. The sacredness of the altar saved it from destruction ; but it had to be buried out of sight with imported earth, in order to obtain a level surface some five or six metres above the graves, which they [ enclosed with two rings of slabs, old and new. The only ^ ingress to the enclosure was found on the north side ; both stelEe and surrounding slabs are of limestone. As far as can be gleaned from Schliemann's confused account, sculptured stelae representing hunting or war- scenes belonged to the mens graves, whilst those of the women were quite plain.* Apparently about the same time, the circular wall was moved backwards, so as to provide a strip of land between it and the stone circle for a path which led from the Lions Gate to the acropolis. In this way the circle became a kind of sanctuary, or temenos, a sacred memorial to glorious ancestors, the founders and tutelary heroes of the city. That the temenos was con- stituted during the Mycenian period is shown from the elements composing it ; had it been set up when plastic art had rid itself ^ SCHLIEMANN. 2 The observation comes from Schuchardt, SchliemanfCs Ausgrabungen.