MILITARY ARCHITECTURE OF GREECE. 



317 



might be rendered more solid and secure. The walls of Mycenas 

 and Tiryns are constructed in this manner ; the latter seem to be 

 the most ancient ; because at Mycenas the sides of the stones are 

 in some degree squared and adapted to each other. Many may 

 be found in both these fortresses, equalling a cube of six feet in their 

 bulk. * The walls of Tiryns are twenty-seven feet in thickness ; 

 Homer alludes to them in the word rei^toevru ; and this circumstance 

 alone might lead us to some estimate concerning their antiquity. 

 The walls of Mycenae could not be destroyed by the Argives ; they 

 are as well as those of Tiryns j" a prodigious work, resembling the 

 labours of giants rather than of men. They are of the class usually 

 called Cyclopic ; by which nothing more is meant than that they 

 are constructed of large masses, in reference to the mythological 

 accounts of the Cyclops j:, who were said to hurl rocks instead of 

 stones. 



2. The most ordinary mode of building in the Greek fortresses 

 which now exist, is that, wherein stones were used of a very irregular 

 size and figure, differing from each other, but grooved and adapted 

 with the most scrupulous nicety ; sometimes they were of seven, 



* See Mr. Hamilton's Memoir on the Greek fortresses, in the Archaeol. vol. xv. 



f See the representation of them in Sir W. GelPs Argolis. One of the earliest travellers 

 in Greece Des Mouceaux, in 1668, thus mentions them; Les murailles ont 21 pieds 

 d'epaisseur ; les materiaux ressemblent plus a des Rochers qu' a des Pierres ; elles ne sont 

 point taillees ; mais mises en ceuvre comme elles se sont recontrees ; les joints sont remplis 

 d'autres Pierres plus petites. Tom. v. Le Bruyn. 



X The remains of what has been called Cyclopic or Pelasgic architecture may be seen 

 in various parts of the Peloponnesus, as well as beyond the Isthmus. The Polyhedrous 

 style of building is also observable in the islands of Candia, Cerigo, and Melos ; on Mount 

 Sipylus, near Smyrna ; in Paphlagonia, near Sinope and Amisus. It was employed occa- 

 sionally by the Romans at a late period. (See the remarks of Sickler, Petit Radel, and 

 Dodwell in the Magasin. Encyclop. Oct. 1809, 1810, and April 1811.) — The inscription 

 at Ferentino proves that the Cyclopic or Polygon style of building was used by the 

 Romans in the time of Augustus. V. Gruter. 165. 3. 166. 1. — Ed. 



The Dactyli or Idean Curetes introduced various arts into Greece (Strabo, lib. x.); he 

 considers them as the same with the Cyclops of Argolis, whose works were shewn at Tiryns, 

 and in other parts of Greece. (Lib. viii.) 



