Subjoined are the most important monuments. 1. The “Treasuries” of Atreus and his sons, as Pausanias calls them. They were subterranean buildings of beehive shape, in the side of the hill southwest of the city; one of them is still almost perfect. A sloping passage, δρόμ -os, led to the doorway, with its ornamented columns, at the base of the building. The great circular chamber inside was probably covered with plates of bronze; a door in one side admitted to a second smaller chamber. Such buildings, which are found in other parts of Greece— e.g., Orchomenus, Sparta, Attica, Iolcus, &c.— were undoubtedly the sepulchres of noble families.

2. The graves discovered by Dr Schliemann in 1876 within the city wall. They are enclosed within a circular πeplβoλos with a single entrance, and the place was therefore a holy place in the ancient Mycenaean time; on the other hand the part of the city wall which encloses them is a later addition to the original wall. At some period before 468 b.c. this addition was built; before that time the πeplβoλos was outside the Avail. Some heroes of the race were worshipped here by the ancient inhabitants, but their names are not recorded by any trustworthy authority. In the time of Pausanias, six centuries after Mycenae was destroyed, local legend maintained that these were the graves of Atreus, Agamemnon, Cassandra and her children, and Eurymedon; but it is uncertain whether this was the original legend, or a later tale that grew under the influence of Greek literature.

3. The Lion-Gate. The principal entrance to the city is approached by a δpbμos, flanked on each side by the city wall and leading up to a gateλvay. Over the entrance is placed a triangular slab of stone on which are carved two lions in relief; they are rampant, facing one another, but separated by an upright column. The art of this relief shows no resemblance to archaic Greek art; it is foreign in character, the work of an immigrant race, which brought with it a well-developed civilization.

Greek legend always maintains that the Pelopidae of Mycenae came from Phrygia, and this is corroborated by the evidence of archaeology. The objects found in excavations, and the sculptured ornament on the doorways of the “Treasuries” and over the Lion-Gate, all point to foreign influence and particularly to Asia Minor. The same type of the two lions and the column has been recently found over the entrance to a colossal sepulchre in the rocks near the south-western corner of the Sangarius valley in Phrygia. Legend and remains alike show that a rich and powerful dynasty of foreign origin ruled at Mycenae; the only early remains in the Greek world that equal them in interest are the ruins of ancient Troy. It is precisely these two cities which are described in the Homeric poems as the two great cities of the Greek world.