Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/56

 General Characteristics of the Domed-Tombs. 35 at Menidi comes very near to that which was so effectual in Egypt. Four great stone beams appear on its fa9ade, between which are voids intended to relieve the lintel of the weight to be placed above it (Fig. 145). But we do not find here the two sloping slabs which meet to form a ridge-like roof, as in the pyramid, where they protect the discharging chambers, and help to throw part of the vertical pressure of the superstructure over the lateral parts of an admirably well jointed masonry. The slovenly and confused style of building at Menidi excludes all idea of a borrowing from Egypt. When the Achaeans began to frequent the Nile valley, the pyramid of Cheops, together with its passages and vaults, had long been closed. The question has been raised whether Egyptian or Phoenician builders may not have been employed by princes of archaic Greece. If it were so, we should surely find traces of that collaboration in the stately Mycenian sepulchres, rather than in the tomb of a petty Attic chief. But at Mycenae, both architecture and the methods it employs are original, and do not betray the influence of foreign models. The resemblance which we have pointed out is the result of mere chance. The builder of either country had the same problem to solve ; one way out of the difficulty was perceived by both, but the Egyptian architect carried it out in a far more masterly fashion. The employment of relieving voids was familiar to the Mycenian constructor. Thus, above the lateral vault at Orchomenos there apparently was a second chamber, whose walls were partly ex- cavated in the living rock, and partly made of sun-dried brick.^ This cell had no direct communication with the vault or the outside, and was only put there to relieve the ceiling of the superincumbent weight of earth placed above it. Thanks to these wise precautions, the roof did not give way until quite recently ; when, through fissures which in the course of time were brought about by the weather, the earth got into the void and put a burden upon the slabs contrary to the constructor's intention. The two treasuries, that of Minyas at Orchomenos and of Atreus at Mycenae (Tomb I.), are the only examples where a side-chamber occurs (Fig. 168 and PI. III.). In both the second chamber, separated from the principal one by a narrow passage, ^ ScHLiEMANN, Orchvmenos,