Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/521

 464 Primitivk Gkeeck: Mycknian Art. Homeric ** tales," is characterized by features that recur in the pre- Homeric world, a world which, at the voice of Schliemann, awoke and came out of the grave where it had so long lain asleep. The most curious fact about Schliemann's excavations is that they invariably confirm the power and splendour of every great city mentioned in the Iliad : where, too, the eye of the modern traveller was attracted by stupendous and imposing remains of an architecture to which the Hellenes themselves ascribed a high antiquity. From the sub-soil of these structures, products of the most varied kind have revealed a style and industry unknown to the world up to that time. That piece of coast in the north-west corner of Asia Minor coincides far better than any other ancient site with the topographic data to be gleaned in the Iliad, Here have been exhumed the massive walls of a fortified village, the house foundations, tools, and weapons of its former inhabitants. Although the circuit-wall enclosed an area of no great extent, its commanding position over the surrounding plain and the entrance to the Hellespont made it a place of paramount importance. Hence we may safely infer its having been a frequented mart, and the head-centre of folk that had grown rich by husbandry, traffic, and piracy, a stronghold where their hereditary chiefs defied the enemy whose reprisals they had justly provoked. In it we may boldly recognize Homeric Troy. One can easily grasp that conflicting interests should have led to sharp contests between a city holding the key of the Straits and the tribes of Eastern Hellas, whose coasting trade was constantly menaced by Trojan pirates. According to Homer, the commander-in-chief of the host which sacked Troy is Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, the head of an influential house, who, jointly with Menelaus, also holds sway over Laconia. And in his capital, Mycenai, and its nearest neighbour Tiryns, are found the most impressive of those erections held by the Greeks to have been raised by the Cyclopes. Thence, too, has come a greater abundance of artistic and industrial products, to describe which the terms of '' Mycenian civilization " and ** Mycenian art" have been found. Modern research, then, is agreed with Homer when the latter assigns a pre-eminent position to Mycenae, and calls it a city abounding in gold (TroXypf^wo-o^ Muxr^vij) ; for of no