Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and TirynsSchliemann, Heinrich
History
Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and Tiryns
Schliemann, Heinrich
Mycenae (Extinct city); Tiryns (Extinct city)
With the three bodies of the third sepulchre were also found the gold
goblet (No. 317) and the gold box (No. 318). The goblet has only one
handle, and its outside is divided, by a band in relief of three stripes,
into an upper and a lower compartment, and both are ornamented with
_repoussé_ work of fish, which are very faithful to nature. Very curious
is the gold box (No. 318), with a well-fitting lid, which was fastened
on it with two gold wires, by means of four perforations, one wire being
on either side of the lid, and one on either side of the rim of the box.
A similar contrivance is found in the box which Arêtê, wife of King
Alcinoüs, fills with presents for Ulysses, for she recommends to him:--
"Look now thyself to the lid and tie quickly a knot on it, lest
any one should rob thee on the way, when thou reposest again in
sweet slumber, going in the black ship."[298]
[Illustration: Nos. 317, 318. A Goblet and a Box of Gold. Sepulchre III.
Size 3:8, about.]
Homer says in the verses immediately following:--
"But as soon as the much-enduring, divine Ulysses heard this, he
forthwith fitted on the lid, and quickly put upon it a manifold
knot, which venerable Circe had once prudently taught him."[299]
These passages can leave no doubt that chests and boxes with a similar
contrivance were in general use in the time of Homer. They were also in
general use at Troy, for I collected there hundreds of terra-cotta vases,
and also a box, which shows the same principle.[300] Similar terra-cotta
vases are also to be seen in the small collection of prehistoric pottery
in the French school at Athens. They were found in a prehistoric city on
the island of Thera, below a layer of pumice-stone and volcanic ashes, 60
ft. deep, thrown out by that great central volcano, which, in the opinion
of competent geologists, must have sunk into the sea and disappeared
about 1700-1800 B.C.
[Illustration: No. 319.
Golden Vase, with lid attached by a golden wire. Sepulchre III. Size
7:10.]
Chests and boxes fashioned in the same way, namely, with perforations
in the rim and in the lid through which they were fastened by means of
a string, must have been in general use in Mycenæ, because all the gold
vessels with lids found here show exactly the same contrivance. The box
before us has no ornamentation.
[Sidenote: GOLD VESSELS WITH LIDS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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