sive stones that form the walls and gate. Similar groups appear in
miniature on Cretan seals, but the idea of placing monstrous guardian
figures at the entrances to palaces, tombs, and sacred places has its ori-
gin in the Near East and Egypt (FIGS. 2-18, 2-21,and 3-11). At Myce-
nae the animals’ heads were fashioned separately and are lost. Some
scholars have suggested that the “lions” were actually composite beasts
in the Eastern tradition, possibly sphinxes.
TREASURY OF ATREUSThe Lion Gate at Mycenae and the
towering fortification wall circuit of which it formed a part were
constructed a few generations before the presumed date of the Tro-
jan War. At that time, wealthy Mycenaeans were laid to rest outside
the citadel walls in beehive-shaped tombs covered by enormous
earthen mounds. Nine are preserved at Mycenae and scores more at
other sites. The best-preserved of these tholos tombs is Mycenae’s so-
called Treasury of Atreus (FIG. 4-20), which already in antiquity was
mistakenly believed to be the repository of the treasure of Atreus,
father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Approached by a long passage-
way (dromos), the tomb chamber was entered through a doorway
surmounted by a relieving triangle similar to that employed in the
roughly contemporary Lion Gate. (As in the Lion Gate, the open tri-
angle was originally covered. Both the doorway and the relieving
triangle also once had engaged columns on each side, preserved in
fragments today.) The tholos(FIG. 4-21) is composed of a series of
Mycenaean Art 934-20Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece, ca. 1300–1250 bce.
The best-preserved Mycenaean tholos tomb is named for Homer’s
King Atreus. An earthen mound covers the burial chamber, which is
accessed through a doorway at the end of a long passageway.
4-21Vault of the tholos of the Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece,
ca. 1300–1250 bce.
The beehive-shaped tholos of the Treasury of Atreus is composed of
corbeled courses of stone blocks laid on a circular base. The 43-foot-
high dome was the largest in the world for almost 1,500 years.