Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/563

 536 Primitive Grekce: Mycenian Art. which was felt by Homer when he describes the palace of Alcinous — Like the rays of the sun and of the moon shone The lofty house of magnanimous Alcinous. Brazen were the walls that ran this way and that, From the threshold to the inmost chamber ; and round them was a frieze of blue glass [Opiyicuc kvdyoio]. Golden doors shut off the well-closed house ; Posts of silver stood on the brazen threshold ; Of silver too was the lintel, and golden the ring which loosed the door [served to unfasten].^ Of course we are in full fairyland ; yet it is clear that the poet was indebted to reality for the details of his picture. Nor Fit;. 243. — Bronze nails from the Treasury of Atrcus. is this the only instance either in the //iad or Odyssey of brazen and golden palaces, e,g, of palaces whose walls are overlaid with one or other of the precious metals.*- Thus, Telemachus, on entering the high resounding house of Menelaus, admires the glimmer of bronze, of gold and electrum, of silver and ivory.* The poet's tale has been brilliantly confirmed by the results of the excavations. The circular chamber of the Tomb of Atreus was picked out, from base to summit, with bronze rosettes. Part of the lining may well have been silver or gold, or both combined. We have sure proofs that gilt nails were used here ; why then should not the noble metals have been introduced, like glass enamel, in the frieze to bring out certain details of the form } Sheets of gold and silver, cunningly pierced, may have been fixed to a wood or other* backing, in a certain class of edifices. ^ Odyssey, - Iliad, ^ Odyssey, a lapsus calami, — Trans.
 * Iron is the word used in the text, but I cannot help thinking its being due to