Lion Gate - Construction

Construction

The Lion 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.

The gate itself consists of two great monoliths capped with a huge lintel that measures 4.5×2.0×0.8 m (15×6.6×2.6 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. The pillar with circular motifs on its top is placed on an altar-like platform on which the lionesses rest their forepaws. A number of archaeologists suggested that the pillar was a sacred object and a symbol of power for the Mycenaeans, and that the pillar represented their goddess.

The imposing gate of the citadel with the representation of the lionesses may have been an emblem of the Mycenaean kings and a symbol of their power. It also has been argued that the lionesses are a symbol of the goddess Hera. The Lion Gate may be compared to the gates of the Hittite Bronze Age citadel of Hattusa, in Asia Minor. Since the heads of the animals were of a different material from their bodies and originally were fashioned to look toward those approaching below, a number of scholars have suggested that they were composite beasts, probably sphinxes, in the typical Middle Eastern tradition. 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.

The design of the gate had precedents in other surviving artworks of the time; a similar design was depicted on 15th-century Minoan seals and a gem found at Mycenae. Many other pieces of Mycenaean artwork share the same basic pattern 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.

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.