Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/396

 Mycen.e. 369 wherefore so great and needless a defensive display on this elevated top ? An enemy before the gates of Mycenae might well leave the force entrenched on that barren rock to starve or surrender of its own accord. No more satisfactory explana- tion can be given, except that in their love of building, the garrison, finding an abundance of boulders to their hand, amused themselves, for want of any other pastime, in heaping them upon one another. On the other hand, no better spot could well have been picked out for a post of observation. From the summit the eye sweeps over the heights of Argolis far and near ; starting from the Saronic Gulf round to the Argian Bay, it follows the windings in and out of the valleys from which a hostile force would be seen to emerge on its way to Mycenae. In the Agamemnon of iEschylus, Clytemnestra informs the Chorus that the longed-for news, which from signal to signal was to announce the fall of Troy, has reached the palace in one day, the night- watcher having seen it on Arachnaion, the last and next station to the town.^ The poet, however, is mistaken as to the precise spot. Had the fire which gladdened the old man's eyes, aweary with long watching, been lit on Mount Arachnaion. the mass of the Zara, interposing between it and Mycenae, would have effectually prevented its being seen by the night- watcher ; the last signal-post, therefore, must have been placed on Mount Elias, whence alone it could be perceived by the whole town ; that is to say, were it possible to believe the testimony of i^2schylus, and that optical telegraphy was known at that remote period. Attic tragedians, with the exception perhaps of Euri- pides, had no personal knowledge of Mycenae.^ The latter is the only one who gives the impression of having seen its im- posing ruins, for he repeatedly mentions that its stupendous walls were built by the Cyclopes.^ Thus his Hercules exclaims : ** I am going to Mycenie, whither I must take levers and spades, recurved iron implements ^ i^scHYLUS, Agamemnon — 2 Strabo remarks on the lame topographical knowledge of the Tragedians, their l)crpetually confounding Argos with Mycenae. ^ Euripides. VOL. I. B '»
 * Apayaioy aTiroc, dmvyiiroyaQ (TKOirug.