Lion Gate

Lion Gate
Native name Greek: Πύλη των Λεόντων

Location	Mycenae
Area	Argolis, Greece
Built	1250 BC
Built for	Main entrance of the Mycenae citadel
Architectural style(s)	Conglomerate Ashlar

Lion Gate (Greek: Πύλη των Λεόντων) is the popular modern name for the main entrance of the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae in southern Greece. It was erected during the thirteenth century BC, around 1250 BC, in the northwestern side of the acropolis. In modern times, it was named after the relief sculpture of two lionesses in a heraldic pose that stands above the entrance.^[1]

The gate is the sole surviving monumental piece of Mycenaean sculpture,^[2] as well as the largest surviving sculpture in the prehistoric Aegean.^[3] It is the only monument of Bronze Age Greece to bear an iconographic motif that survived without being buried underground. It is the only relief image that was described in the literature of classical antiquity, such that it was well known prior to modern archaeology.^[4]

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[piano playing] Man: The approach to Mycenae is substantial and if you were not a friend it was going to be tough to get in. Mycenae is one the great citadels of Mycenaean Culture, that is this Bronze Age culture on mainland Greece that traded throughout the Mediterranean and became quite wealthy and quite powerful between the years of about 1600 and 1100 BCE. Girl: Right, and there were several cultures that thrive in this area during this Bronze Age period. One being Cycladic located on the Cycladic Islands. Another being Minoan Culture which was the on the island of Crete. Here on the mainland we refer to Mycenaean Culture named after the most powerful of the Mycenaean City States and that Mycenae. Man: Mycenae is located on the top of a small mountain. It is a very steep approach and so it is naturally defensible. In fact, there are two larger mountains on the back, a huge valley leading down to the Aegean Sea in front. Just a glorious space but also one where enemies approach can be seen at a very great distance. Girl: Walking up this ramp way, we're surrounded by enormous blocks of stones creating very high walls on either side of us. Man: In fact they're so large that they were known as Cyclopean Masonry. That is only the giant Cyclops was large enough to move stones this big. Girl: Right. The Cyclops was a legendary giant from Homer's Odyssey. This became known as Cyclopean because who could imagine moving these massive stones? Man: I have to tell you, I can't imagine. As you said, we're surrounded by these walls on three sides which means that we are completely unprotected. If we were an enemy approaching, it would be easy to rain arrows, spears, anything down on us. Girl: Exactly. I would have felt very safe I think in the Mycenaean citadel. We're looking up at the famous so-called Lion Gate. Man: It is perched above a standard ancient building system of post and lintel. On both sides we have uprights post and spanning it across a horizontal lintel. Girl: The Mycenaean architects wanted to build this wall very high and they used a technique called corbelling. That is, they constructed the stones so that each successive higher layer moved in just slightly and that left this triangular space in the center right over the lintel. Man: The relief above the Lion Gate is the first monumental sculpture that we found on mainland Greece. Since we know what happens in Ancient Greece and Historical Greece much later, we look back to this as art historians and say, "Here is the earliest representation "that we find from Greece. "This is in a sense the great grandfather "of the extraordinary work "that the Greeks will produce." Girl: In sculpture, absolutely. Man: Right, in sculpture and in architecture. Girl: Here we have 2 animals facing one another. Their fore paws seemed to be on 2 altar like tables and between them is a column that seems to get wider as it moves upward. Man: Now, that's opposite to the way we understand Greek architecture at a later period but it is very similar to the way that the Minoan's constructed their architecture. So archaeologists often look at that and say, "This is a Minoan style column." Girl: We know that the Minoan's really influenced Mycenaean culture, so this makes sense. That capital also is reminiscent of Minoan culture. Man: Now, just below the capital archaeologists have hypothesized that the two blocks that the animals have their fore paws on and that the column rest on are two altars. These are also of Minoan form we think. Of course, we have no written records. We really have no solid evidence for any kind of interpretation. But that hasn't stopped archaeologists and art historians from making a lot of very clever guesses about what this might represent. Girl: Well, we do have objects from Mycenae. We have objects that were found in the graves. It does hep us to conjecture what these animals were and what their lost heads looked like. Man: we can guess that the lost heads turned outward because of the way the dowel holes are placed in the stone. Girl: And that they were likely of a different material placed on to the bodies of these animals. Man: And at least one scholar has suggested that they might have been bird heads and that these might have been griffins and that the composite nature of the animal might also be reflected by the composite nature of the materials. Again, these are guesses. Girl: What do the animals mean? What does the column mean? What do the altars mean? Why are they up on their fore paws? You can see all the questions that arise. Man: There is a tradition of having powerful animals standing guard at a gate, and so we might think of these as warding off evil. Also as a terrifying representations that might scare off and terrify enemies. Girl: If they had that kind of supernatural power we might also conjecture that the column has meaning as well. And we know that in some cases columns could represent deities. Now, it also could be that the columns just represent a city or the idea of the king. Man: Well, the column is above the altar so there is that sense of divinity that seems logical. The fact that there are two altars has led some scholars to suggest that perhaps this has to do with becoming together of two cultures. Again, these are all conjectures. Girl: These animals do have leonine bodies, or bodies like lions. Man: Or lionesses. Girl: And they are sculpted with great subtlety. I get a sense of the muscles in legs of the lions and the kind of subtle modelling of the anatomy of these animals. Man: There's something else that's going on here. These are not animals that are represented as animals are naturally. That is they're not on all fore paws. They are standing upright, they are becoming human like. There is nobility. Girl: It's hard not to think that these also speak to the power of the king who resided inside these Cyclopean walls. Man: Here now, at the end of 2013, the sense of power and majesty is clear to me. One can only imagine how this felt to somebody in 1250 BCE. [piano playing]

Entrance

The greater part of the cyclopean wall in Mycenae, including the gate, was built during the second extension of the citadel that occurred in the Late Helladic period IIIB (thirteenth century BC).^[5] At that time, the extended fortifications also enclosed inside the city wall Grave Circle A, a burial place for royal families during the sixteenth century BC. This grave circle was found east of this gate, where a peribolos wall also was built.^[6] After the expansion, Mycenae could be entered by two gates, a main entrance and a postern,^[7]^[8] while undoubtedly, the most extensive feature was the remodeling of the main entrance to the citadel, now known as the Lion Gate, in the northwestern side built circa 1250 BC.^[9]

The gate was approached by a partly natural, partly engineered ramp on a northwest-southeast axis. The eastern side of the approach is flanked by the steep smooth slope of the earlier enceinte. This was embellished with a new facade of conglomerate. On the western side a rectangular bastion was erected, 14.80 m (49 ft) long and 7.23 m (24 ft) wide, built in pseudo-ashlar style of enormous blocks of conglomerate. The term "Cyclopean" has been applied to the style to imply that the ancient structures had been built by the legendary race of giants whose culture was presumed to have preceded that of the Classical Greeks, as described in their myths. Between the wall and the bastion, the approach narrows to a small open courtyard measuring 15 m × 7.23 m (49 ft × 24 ft), possibly serving to limit the numbers of potential attackers on the gate. The bastion on the right side of the gate facilitated defensive actions against the right hand side of attackers, which would be vulnerable, as normally the attackers would carry their shields on their left arms. At the end of the approach stands the gate.^[8]

Construction

The gate is a massive and imposing construction, standing 3.10 m (10 ft) wide and 2.95 m (10 ft) high at the threshold. It narrows as it rises, measuring 2.78 m (9 ft) below the lintel. The opening was closed by a double door mortised to a vertical beam that acted as a pivot around which the door revolved.^[7]

The gate consists of two great monoliths capped with a huge lintel that measures 4.5×2.0×0.8 m (15×7×3 ft). Above the lintel, the masonry courses form a corbelled arch, leaving an opening that lightens the weight carried by the lintel. This relieving triangle is a great limestone slab on which two confronted lionesses, carved in high relief, stand on either sides of a central pillar. The heads of the animals were fashioned separately and are missing, but their necks are present.^[3] The pillar, specifically, is a Minoan-type column that is located on top of an altar-like platform upon which the lionesses rest their front feet.^[9]

Early imagery of a deity that was found at Knossos presents a goddess flanked clearly by two lionesses, establishing a continuity in religious imagery when later, the deity is represented abstractly by a column. It clearly identifies the species of feline, because of the characteristic tuft at the end of the tail, not present in any other feline species.

Reconstruction of how the citadel and its gate might have appeared in 1250 BC

The imposing gate of the citadel with the representation of the lionesses was an emblem of the Mycenaean kings and a symbol of their power to both subjects and foreigners.^[9] It also has been argued that the lionesses are a symbol of the goddess Hera.^[10]

This gate may be compared to the gates of the Hittite Bronze Age citadel of Hattusa, in Asia Minor.^[9]^[11] Since the heads of the animals were of a different material from their bodies and originally were fashioned to look toward those approaching below,^[12] a number of scholars have speculated that these might have been composite beasts, probably sphinxes, in the typical Middle Eastern tradition.^[3]

On the top of the pillar is a row of four discs, apparently representing rafters supporting a further piece of sculpture that has since been lost.^[13] Another view proposes: above the head of the column and what is probably a slab supporting an architrave is a row of discs (ends of transverse beams) and another slab the same size as the slab on top of the column. The beams and the block above them represent a more extended superstructure shortened here because of the diminishing space in the triangle.^[14] Thus, this author proposes that no further piece of sculpture has been lost.

The design of the gate had precedents in other surviving artworks of the time; a similar design was depicted on fifteenth-century BC Minoan seals and a gem found at Mycenae. On a pithos from Knossos, the same imagery exists depicting a goddess flanked by two lionesses. Many other pieces of Mycenaean artwork share the same basic motif of two opposed animals separated by a vertical divider, such as two lambs facing a column and two sphinxes facing a sacred tree representing a deity.^[13] The architectural design in the gate relief may reflect an entrance of a type characterized by a central support, commonly a single column. More specifically, the gate relief may allude to the propylon (structure forming the entrance) that provides the main direct access to the palace. The lions acted as guardians to the entrance of the palace. If so, the symbol of a sanctified palace entrance would have appeared above the gate of the fortifications: a double blessing.^[14]

Beyond the gate and inside the citadel was a covered court with a small chamber, which probably functioned as a guard post. On the right, adjacent to the wall, was a building that has been identified as a granary because of the pithoi found there containing carbonized wheat.^[9]

Excavations

External videos

Lion Gate, Mycenae, c. 1300-1250 B.C.E., Smarthistory

The gate stood in full view of visitors to Mycenae for centuries. It was mentioned by the ancient geographer Pausanias in the second century AD.^[15] The first correct identification of the gate in modern literature was during a survey conducted by Francesco Grimani, commissioned by the Provveditore Generale of the Kingdom of the Morea in 1700,^[16] who used Pausanias's description of the gate to identify the ruins of Mycenae.^[17]^[18]^[19]

In 1840, the Greek Archaeological Society undertook the initial clearing of the site from debris and soil that had accumulated to bury it, and in 1876 Heinrich Schliemann, guided by Pausanias's accounts, excavated the area south of the gate.^[15]

References

Notes

^ Gates 2003, pp. 136–137.
^ Hampe & Simon 1981, p. 49: "The lions, who looked out over the land, served to protect the gate and the city. They also show that the city, and the king who ruled it, stood under the protection of the goddess Hera. The Lion relief is the sole monumental piece of Mycenaean sculpture which has come down to us."
^ ^a ^b ^c Kleiner 2009, pp. 91–92.
^ Blakolmer 2010, p. 49: "The Lion Gate and its relief block are particularly prominent and stand out amongst all other well-known monuments of Bronze Age Greece for several reasons. It is the only monument of this period bearing an iconographic motif which, since its construction in the 13th century b.C. was never buried underground, but stood continuously in the open and could be seen by visitors. Therefore, it neither had to be discovered nor unearthed and thus cannot be connected to any famous discoverer's name such as Heinrich Schliemann, Christos Tsountas, Alan Wace or other excavators at Mycenae. Furthermore, the triangular stone block above the door lintel represents the most monumental sculpture known to date from the Aegean Bronze Age, with a base line of 3.60 m and a height of more than 3 m. There probably never existed any larger sculpture in prehistoric Greece. Moreover, this monument presents the only relief image of Bronze Age Greece which is described in the literature of classical antiquity. It is a reasonable assumption that Homer had this image in mind when he described the entrance to the Phaeacian palace of Alkinoos as flanked by golden and silver guardian dogs, a work created by the god Hephaistos. More accurate are the references to this gate and its relief decoration made by Pausanias and others ascribing to them a workmanship by the Cyclopes. On the contrary, Strabo erroneously stated that no traces of the capital of the Mycenaeans survived."
^ Mylonas 1957, pp. 33–34.
^ Mylonas 1957, p. 114.
^ ^a ^b Mylonas 1957, p. 24.
^ ^a ^b Iakovidis 1983, p. 30.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "The Bronze Age on the Greek Mainland: Mycenaean Greece – Mycenae". Foundation of the Hellenic World. 1999–2000. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
^ O'Brien 1993, p. 125: "Finally, there is Mycenae where the famous Lion Gate may have been inspired by a Heraian symbol and where the iconography provides evidence consistent with the view that "Hera" had cultic hegemony there."
^ Neer 2012, pp. 57–58.
^ Younger 1978, p. 15.
^ ^a ^b Castleden 2005, pp. 126–127.
^ ^a ^b Shaw, Maria C. (1986). "The Lion Gate Relief at Mycenae Reconsidered" (PDF). TSpace (University of Toronto). Archaeological Society of Athens, Greece. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
^ ^a ^b Mylonas 1957, p. 8.
^ Beaudouin 1880, pp. 206–210.
^ Pausanias. Description of Greece, 2.16.5.
^ Blakolmer 2010, p. 50: "Thus it is no wonder that the Lion Gate attracted the attention of European scholars who visited this prominent city-gate in the Argolid - a region constituting not only a focal point of antiquity but also the heart-land of early modern Greece and thus presenting good preconditions for foreign travellers and scholars in the 19th century. Mycenae's first identification by a European traveller was by M. de Monceaux in 1669, while the first mention of the Lion Gate is due to the Venetian engineer Francesco Vandeyk in 1700." [Note: The interpretation of the 1669 visit is contradicted by Moore, Rowlands & Karadimas 2014 where de Monceaux had not visited Mycenae, having mistakenly identified an acropolis as Mycenae on his travels to Tiryns.]
^ Moore, Rowlands & Karadimas 2014, p. 4: "The first modern, correct, identification of Mycenae seems to have been made in 1700, when the government of Venice ordered Francesco Grimani, Proveditor General of the Armies in Morea, to register all their properties in the Peloponnese. The record was completed under the direction of the engineer, Francesco Vandeyk, who not only made detailed plans for each village, but also studied and described ancient monuments. Among them was the ancient site of Mycenae which he was able to identify on the basis of Pausanias' description. Vandeyk reported a monumental entrance where a triangular relief was sculpted with two lions disposed heraldically against a column. He noted that these lions stepped their forepaws on two altars and, as a result, the entrance is known today as the Lion Gate. Indeed, Pausanias' own description of the Lion Gate was so accurate that it did not leave any doubt that the monumental acropolis, close to the moderm village of Charvati, was the site identified by the ancient author as Agamemnon's citadel."

Sources

Beaudouin, Mondry (1880). "Fragments d'une description de l'Argolide faite en 1700 par un ingénieur italien". Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. 4: 206–210. doi:10.3406/bch.1880.4318.
Blakolmer, Fritz (2010). "Images and Perceptions of the Lion Gate Relief at Mycenae during the 19th Century". In F. Buscemi (ed.). The Representation of Ancient Architecture in the XIXth Century. Cogitata. pp. 49–66.
Castleden, Rodney (2005). Mycenaeans. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-24923-2.
Gates, Charles (2003). Ancient Cities: The Archaeology of Urban Life in the Ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome. New York, New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-12182-5.
Hampe, Roland; Simon, Erika (1981). The Birth of Greek Art: From the Mycenaean to the Archaic Period. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-520226-7.
Iakovidis, Spyros E. (1983). Late Helladic Citadels on Mainland Greece. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill. ISBN 90-04-06571-7.
Kleiner, Fred S. (2009). Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History. Cengage Learning Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-495-11549-6.
Moore, Dudley; Rowlands, Edward; Karadimas, Nektarios (2014). In Search of Agamemnon: Early Travellers to Mycenae. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-5776-5.
Mylonas, George Emmanuel (1957). Ancient Mycenae: The Capital City of Agamemnon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Mylonas, George Emmanuel (1966). Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691035239.
Neer, Richard T. (2012). Greek Art and Archaeology: A New History, c. 2500–c. 150 BCE. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500288771. OCLC 745332893.
O'Brien, Joan V. (1993). The Transformation of Hera: A Study of Ritual, Hero, and the Goddess in the Iliad. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-8476-7808-2.
Younger, John G. (1978). "The Mycenae-Vapheio Lion Group". American Journal of Archaeology. Archaeological Institute of America. 82 (3): 285–299. doi:10.2307/504459. hdl:1808/5292. JSTOR 504459. S2CID 192635999.

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