THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

THE HOMERIC AGE. 315
from under their shirts of mail. On the left a
protruding
woman watches them depart. The equipment of these men is
exactly that of the Homeric worthies. If then this fragment
had been foimd in one of the acropolis graves, its striking
resemblance to the Homeric descriptions
of men armed for
battle would have been of the greatest importance. But, as
soon as we realize its provenance,
its value as a means of
identifying the Mycenean and Homeric periods vanishes, though
it derives a new importance, which we shall presently refer to.
This oft-cited vase was found in the remains of the ruins of
the houses south of the enclosure, which had been built over
old tombs when the acropolis was enlarged. In these ruins we
may still see some oblong pits hollowed in the soft rock, but of
little depth. One of these is clearly older than the houses,
since a house-wall is built over part of it. These houses
316 THE HOMERIC AGE,
style, which had been plastered over at a later date, is sufficient
to prove that it is of a late epoch.
Finally, at Tiryns, besides the Mycenean and Dipylon vases,
there were discovered some fragments of a style of pottery not
hitherto found elsewhere.
" They represent the transition between
the Mycenean and the Dipylon vases." On one of these (Fig. 61),
besides a horse and dog, both of very wooden appearance, the
former with a bridle, the latter with his tail curled up into a
spiral,
there are two men both with the left hand raised and
holding a small round shield, whilst the right grasps the spear
ready to be hurled ^ Their legs are very thin, their waists are
very much drawn up, but not of the shape seen on the Dipylon
therefore belong to a later period'.
Warriors equipped in similar fashion
have been discovered
on a stele (Fig. 60) found in recent years outside the acropolis
of Mycenae, not in its original position, but serving with other
stones to wall up a grave hewn in the side of a circular
sepulchral chamber'-. Originally it was a sculptured tombstone,
it was afterwards plastered over and painted in fresco. Where
the coating of plaster is broken away at the top, a part of the
old chisel design is visible. It comprises tw(^ bands of circles
connected by double parallel
lines. The fresco is in three
horizontal zones, of which the up2)erni()st is nearly all gone,
whilst the othei- two are in fair preservation.
The lower panel
is filled by four deer and a hedgehog. The top was probably
occupied by three seated figures, one of which can be tolerably
well made out. The middle zone is filled with five warriors in
the act of hurling spears. In arms, dress, attitude and drawing
the design repeats exactly that on the wui-rioi- vase. Thi' fact
that this ])ainting is on an ancient stone carved in true Mycenean
According to .^[. rotticr, lu-r. Arrli. ;hd Series, '28 (18'.)()), pp. 17 -'-'>, this
'
vase has nothing to do witli the Mycenean time, hut helongs to the chiss of
Attic vase.s of the seventh cent. li.c.
-
Tsountas, Kpheiiicri.-< ArrlKtialoijiki', iH'.Mj (IMl.
i. and ii.). Tsountas and
Manatt, 02>. cit., i>.
!',-)
tJ.
Fig. ()!. Fragment of jiotterv, Tiiyus.
vases-. The scene is
painted in brown lustrous paint on a
liglit yellow ground, but above the varnish white body-colour
has been lavishly used for inner markings and dottings. The
drawing comes very near the Dipylon vases^.
Now we saw above (p. 192) that the oldest Greek pottery as
yet found on the sites occupied by the Ionian settlers in Asia
Minor was of the Dipylon style.
From that I inferred that the
period
of decadence had set in and was well advanced under the
Achean dynasties and before the J)()rian invasion. Accordingly
'
p. :^'.t).
-
(
/. warrior from 01yiiii>ia witli round bossed shield (Furtwiingler, llroiiz.,
Schliemiinn, Tiryns, pi. xiv. ^
Schuchhardt, oj). cit., jip. 131 ;5.