Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/163

 128 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. ordinance of its approaches ; its name is clearly derived from the word jwiya^, large, enormous. The heads of the great families, anadce^ were wont to assemble in this room, whether in Corcyra or Ithaca, and spend the day in converse and jollity, enjoying the pleasure, dear to Hellenes, of talking, discussing, or listening to the minstrels tales of adventure or the thrilling narratives of experienced voyagers. Nowhere is the importance of the megaron better seen than in the plan of Tiryns.^ The orientation of the great halls should be noticed; none open on the north. The Trojan megaron faces south-east ; it is turned to the south at Tiryns, and to the west at Mycenae. We have entered at full length upon the materials and pro- cesses employed in the construction of these edifices, the walls of which were composed of ashlar stones, crude brick, and wooden ties.^ At Mycenae the rough masonry is faced in places by slabs alternating with timbers (Fig. 175) ; these are left exposed, so that the decorator could utilize them as he pleased. The Tirynthian ornamentist, on the contrary, had no resource except colour to veil the unlovely appearance of his walls; this he did by first overlaying them with stucco. It is the same with the columns. The part they play in the buildings we have restored needs no further justification. The stone bases found in situ at Tiryns and Mycenae can only have supported wooden pillars.*^ We know the dimensions, on plan, and the position of these missing columns ; we are aware of the very peculiar entasis which the Mycenian architect invariably gave to his shafts, and the members that went to the making of his capitals. In defining these supports, we said how they formed porticoes on the sides of the courts and front of the megaron, and how in the latter they supported the loft ; that if the mode of covering the house might be open to question, there was no doubt as to Mycenian Hellas having had hypostyle halls. From Dr. Dorpfeld's plans and drawings we obtain the situ- ation of the doors (PI. II. and Fig. 116), whilst their exact breadth is given with no less certainty by the space left between the stone blocks which served as plinths to the wooden uprights. The arrangement which Vitruvius calls in antis and prostyle is found at the entrance of all the megarons ; it crops up again in many Greek temples (Fig. 84). This, one of the most distinctive 1 See ante, Vol. I. pp. 280, 281. ^ see ante, ch. iv. §§ i, 2. ^ See ante, ch. iv. § 3, b.