MYCEN.E. 511 
the pillar, exactly resemble the supporters used 
in heraldry for an armorial ensign 1 . The di- 
mensions of this alto-relievo are as follow: the 
height, nine feet eight inches; the width, in the 
broadest part towards the base of the triangle, 
eleven feet nine inches ; the thickness of the 
slab, one foot ten inches. The stone itself 
exhibits, upon one side of it, evident marks of 
a saw; but it is in other respects extremely 
rude. As it has been fortunately preserved in 
its pristine situation, it serves to explain the 
nature of the triangular cavities above the doors 
in the tomb we have so lately described; proving 
that they were each similarly occupied by a 
sacred tablet of the same pyramidal or triangular 
form. We have before seen that the whole 
inclosure of the Acropolis of Athens was one 
vast shrine or consecrated peribolus ; and the 
Citadel of Mycente upon a smaller scale was 
probably of the same nature. These tablets, 
crated 
therefore, were the Hiera, at the Gates of the holy Gates. 
places before which the people worshipped. Of 
the homage so rendered at the entering in of 
sanctuaries, we find frequent allusion in the 
Scriptures. It is said in Ezeldel*, that "THE 
(1) See tlie f'ignette to this Chapter. 
(2) Ezekiel xlvi. 3. 
