34 ARCHITECTURE. 
supporting a huge block as a lintel. The third was the renowned Gate of 
the Lions (pl. 8, jig. 5, front elevation; fig. 6, section through the middle 
of the gateway), which formed the main entrance to the city. The door 
jambs are about 16 feet high, and the width under the lintel is about 9} feet; 
the lintel itself is one block 14 feet long, 6 feet high, and 4 feet wide. Over 
the entrance is a bas-relief sculptured on one triangular block 10 feet long, 
9 feet high, 54 feet thick, of very hard, fine-grained, grey limestone. It 
represents a half round column, shaped somewhat like the Doric, but thinner 
below than above, and with a capital upon which are placed four rounded 
bodies, apparently supporting a second abacus. On either side of the 
column are erect beasts, considered to be lions, though the tails are unlike 
those of lions, and the heads are wanting. The emblematic import of this 
bas-relief has not yet been determined. Similar allegories are found in Persian 
sculptures and coins, where the column appears to be the altar of the sacred 
fire, attended either by men or lions. The lion was the symbol of the god 
Mithras, and his priests were termed lions. As there undoubtedly existed 
a lively intercourse between the Persians and Spartans, and as the latter in 
remote times worshipped the sun, or its symbol the fire, it may with some 
probability be supposed that the four rounded bodies on the column were 
intended to represent the ends of logs, and the supposed second: abacus the 
side view of another log, thus indicating a sacrificatory fire, whose flame 
must have been destroyed with the heads of the lions. The whole would 
thus have represented the altar of the deity of the sun, which was worshipped 
at Mycene. The Gate of the Lions probably dates from the time when the 
city was rebuilt by Perseus (1400 . c.), and the bas-relief is the oldest known 
ornament of Grecian sculpture, dating from the heroic age before the Trojan 
war. 
The treasury buildings deserve especial mention in this place, as we first 
meet with them im Greece. They served to receive either the public treasure, 
or the wealth of a prince, or the sacred vessels of a temple. Agamedes 
and Trophonius erected such a building for king Hyrieus at Orchomenus, 
where the treasury of Minyas was also located. That of Atreus in Mycenze 
is however the most remarkable (pl. 8, fig. 7, view of the entrance, fig. 8, 
section of the building). The chamber for the treasure is cut in the rock, 
and has a fore-hall of circular form executed in bound masonry, and arched 
like a bee-hive, which is entered by a long passage between two cyclopean 
walls. Its location is not far from the acropolis, surrounded by ruins of 
different buildings, with circular ground-plans and parabolically arched ceil- 
ings. The passage to it is about 19 feet wide and 59 feet long; the entrance 8 
feet in width at the top, and 10 feet at the bottom, by 20 feet in height. The 
entrance is built of regularly cut stone blocks from a breccia quarry in the 
neighborhood. The most remarkable part of the entrance is the lintel, 
which is formed by two huge blocks, the lower of which is 25 feet long, 20 feet 
wide, and 4 feet thick, and extends within the arch. The second block, almost 
completely covered with earth, is probably of thesame dimensions. Blocks 
as large as these have never been found in the walls of buildings, except in 
the ruins*of Baalbek. Over the lintel there is a triangular opening, which 
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