In the 2nd century BCE, Pausanias wrote that the ruins of Mycenae hid underground chambers where Atreus—Agamemnon's father—and the other kings of Mycenae stored their treasure. He also reported the existence of several graves, Agamemnon's included.
When archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann started excavating at Mycenae in the 1870s, he assumed that the huge buried monuments outside the citadel's walls were the treasuries Pausanias mentioned, dubbing the largest monument the "Treasury of Atreus". He also believed he found Agamenmnon's tomb in Grave Circle A.
Schliemann was later discovered to be incorrect in his assumptions, and for a while after, historians believed the so-called "Treasury of Atreus" was the real tomb of Agamemnon. Unfortunately, this was also proven false when the monument was dated to around 1350-1250 BCE, years before Agamemnon was suspected to have lived.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Entrance corridor of the so-called "Tomb of Agamemnon"
(Behind the Scenes)
The architecture of each city, town, and village reflects both its location's biome and the building materials readily available. For example, Argos, capital of Argolis and known as the 'White City' is constructed from marble. Shown is a variety of concept art by Hugo Puzzuoli, Miguel Bouchard, and Caroline Soucy depicting the types of buildings and structures the Hero will encounter in the game. The variety of heights, sizes, and spacing is important to keep the locations navigable during gameplay. Like most Greek cities there is a clear distinction between rich and poor, with muddy streets and low, ramshackle houses, leading into stone structure, clean roadways and plenty of vegetation.
Black and white line sketches by Miguel Bouchard of multiple temples amd residential villas show the raised steps and intricate walkaways between buildings, as well as the ruins of an older temple.
The region of Argolis was a major center of civilization beginning in the Mycenaean period. In the archaic and Classical period, the entire region was under the control of Argos.
The banner depicts a wolf's head, the main conage of Argos. The wolf, "lukos", in ancient Greek, refers to Apollo Lykaios, who had an important sanctuary in his name. In Argos, wolves were offered as sacrifices to Apollo.
The Asklepeia was a religious festival that included contests and athletic competitions.
The musical portion of the festival featured rhapsodists and citharedes (singers) competing to see who could recite the best epics. The musicians were supervised by the priests of Asklepios, who served as judges.
The winner was decided by a jury made up of a priest, the presiding officer of the physicians, and a specially appointed arbiter. The competition's stakes were high, and artists who
forgot to show up received a considerable fine.
The Asklepeia was not specific to Epidauros. There is evidence of the festival occurring in sanctuaries in Aegina, Gortys, Kos, Pergamon, and Trikka. Meanwhile, in Athens, the Asklepeia conincided with another festival called the Dionysia.
Somewhere between 1225 and 1200 BCE, the inhabitants of Mycenae decided to secure a constant supply of fresh water for the citadel in the event of a prolonged siege.
They achieved this goal by building a secret passage to an underground cistern. The water came from a spring on the nearby Mount Profitis Ilias, and travelled to the cistern through underground clay pipes.
As time marched on, the installation drained out. However, during the Hellenistic period, another cistern was constructed on the surface to collect rainwater.
If a trip to the Sanctuary of Asklepios wasn’t possible, sick people could seek help from civic doctors. If Herodotos is to be believed, there was already a system of public doctors in place in Aegina and Athens by the late 6th century BCE.
Some physicians received a retaining fee to reside in the community and treat citizens. However, the doctors could still receive, or in some cases demand, compensation from their patients. While physicians probably treated the poorest citizens for free, it is unlikely they were willing to do the same for the rich, or for non-citizens.
Pausanias writes that Asklepios's first sanctuary was in
Trikka, a Thessalian city-state some mythological accounts name as the god’s birthplace. While no archaeological evidence of this temple exists, 4th century BCE coins depicting Asklepios have been found in the area.
The remains of the sanctuary in Epidauros, meanwhile, date back to the 6th century BCE. This makes the site the earliest evidence of the cult of Asklepios.
From the 5th century BCE onward, the cult slowly gained popularity, and by the 4th century BCE it had extended across the entire Mediterranean area.
Due to the huge stones found in the walls of places like Mycenae and Tiryns, Classical Greeks believed their ancestors' citadels were constructed by Cyclopes–giant one-eyed builders straight out of mythology.
Nowadays, the term "Cyclopean masonry" is used to describe a variety of walls built with enormous and unworked limestone blocks fitted together without mortar. It was extremely popular in Mycenae, and was employed multiple times in the building and extending of the citadel walls.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Cyclopean wall in Tyrins (sic), picture attributed to Athanasiou Konstantinos (1875-1905)
The exact causes of the decline of Mycenaean civilization remain a mystery to this day. Competing theories include a violent invasion by barbarous Dorians, catastrophic earthquakes, drought and famine, trade disruption, internal revolts, or combinations of two or more of the above.
What is known for sure is that almost all important Mycenaean fortifications in mainland Greece were burned down between 1250 and 1180 BCE, just when Mycenaean civilization had reach its apex. The last clay tablets written in Pylos around 1180 BCE claim a foreign attack was imminent, so it's easy to assume that violent events played a significant role in the civilization's decline.
The fall of Mycenae was not immediate. Instead, it endured a slow, painful decline throughout the 12th and 11th centuries BCE until it was reduced to a rural community.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: General view of Mycenae
There are several legends regarding the founding of Mycenae. The most popular story involves Perseus, the great hero and slayer of Medusa. After Perseus unintentionally killed his grandfather, he exchanged realms with his relative Megapenthes. When he arrived in his new lands, he dropped the cap of his sword scabbard—called "mycēs" in Greek. Interpreting this event as a good omen, Perseus decided to build a city.
In another version of the story, Perseus picked up a mushroom—also called mycēs—and drank from the water that flowed from it. With his thirst quenched, the hero decided that the land from which the mushroom grew was a suitable place to establish his new capital.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Perseus with the head of the Medusa, copy of the marble statue from the Vatican museum made by Antonio Canova between 1804-1806)
(Behind the Scenes)
These detailed frescoes adorn the walls of residential houses, villas, gymnasiums, bath houses, boats, temples, and pretty much any other surface in the game. These sketches by Ubisoft artists show just a tiny selection of the frescoes found in Assassin's Creed ODyssey.
The baths of Epidauros probably had religious and curative uses, and visitors were encouraged to purify their bodies in them before visiting the abaton. However, the baths were also prescribed to treat different ailments.
Ancient Greeks knew the value of a good bath, and Hippokrates himself meticulously classified different bath types according to various ailments and pains. For example, he recommended hot baths to help cure things like lung and kidney disease. No matter what the problem, Hippokrates had a bath for it.
Guest houses were built to host patients during their stay at the sanctuary. One such hostel was a monument called the Katagogeion.
The Katagogeion also hosted theorodokoi. Theorodokoi were men of influence who liaised with the sanctuary’s ambassadors, known as theoroi. It was the theorodokoi’s duty to donate funds to maintain the sanctuary, and to make appearances at religious festivals like the Asklepeia.
Hephaistos was the god of metalworking, and the patron god of blacksmiths, goldsmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, and architects. His workshop was believed to be situated on either Mount Olympos, or on the island of Lemnos. In the latter case, the volcano Moschilos of Lemnos was believed to spew fire from the god's subterranean workshop.
Hephaistos' name was closely associated with fire. For example, during the Trojan War, when the river Skamandros tried to drown the great hero Achilles, Hephaistos burned the riverbanks and the entire nearby plain until the river boiled like a kettle.
Because of his occupation as a coppersmith, Hephaistos was usually depicted as having strong arms fit for wielding hammers and tongs, but weak legs due to his constant standing in front of the anvil. However, other versions of Hephaistos' story state he was born lame.
According to the Ancients Greeks, honey was thought to have supernatural characteristics, since it wasn’t fully understood how it was formed. To them, it was a hidden treasure approaching the divine world, and was highly symbolic. The bee and honey were thus part of the daily life of the Greeks. Poets celebrated the sweetness of it, its purity and aroma, and naturalists like Aristotle and Pliny the Elder described the manners of bees.
It's known that Minoan Greece produced honey, so the knowledge of honey goes back to early Greek antiquity. It was popular for bees carrying pollen to be represented on jewelry. Hesiod and Homer mention honey, bees, and beehives in their works. Virgil consecrated an ode to beekeeping in his Georgics, describing honey to be a sweet present from the heavens.
Raising bees was also a job, and the products that came out of it could even be used as trading currency. For example, Korsika paid a tribute in wax and honey to the Etruscans. With the production of honey, the Greeks developed new culinary dishes and pharmacopoeia.
Herakles' second labor was to kill the Lernaian Hydra, a water monster with numerous poison heads that lived in Lake Lerna of Argolis. One of the heads was immortal, and for each head that was chopped off, two more would generate in its place. The number of the heads was reportedly between six and fifty.
In order to kill the Hydra, Herakles needed the help of his nephew, Iolaos. As Herakles cut off its heads, Iolaos cauterized the wounds to prevent them from growing again. To cut off the immortal head, Herakles used a golden sword given to him by Athena.
After his victory, he dipped his arrows in the Hydra's poisonous blood, having the instinct that they could come in handy for his upcoming labors.
Herakles, the son of Zeus and Alkmene, was both a hero and god. He was renowned for accomplishing the twelve years at the service of his cousin Eurystheas, king of Mycenae.
The first labor was to slay the Nemean Lion, who terrorized the inhabitants of Nemea and took its women as hostages.
Herakles arrived at Kleonai, found the lion, and tried to use his bow against. However, the lion's golden fur was impenetrable, and resisted every arrow shot at it. Herakles found a way to trap the lion in its cave, and then used his club to stun the beast. As it lay immobile, he was able to kill it with his bare hands. Thereafter, Herakles wore the lion's skin to show his victory; This was how he was normally represented in Greek art.
After their healing, patients and worshippers of Asklepios would leave an ex-voto in the sanctuary as an offering of thanks. The ex-voto could be a bandage, crutches or medical tools, a confession stele describing their experience, or a statuette.
Some ex-voto were especially extravagant. For example, Hermodikos of Lampsakos was instructed by Asklepios to find the largest stone he could, then leave it in the sanctuary as an offering. Hermodikos did as he was told, and the stone he offered exists to this day, his inscription still on it:
"In recognition of your power, Asklepios, I dedicated this stone I raised, to prove your art is evident for all to see."
Pilgrims came to Epidauros from all over Greece. However, the influx of visitors increased dramatically after a plague devastated Athens from 430-426 BCE.
According to Thucydides, people were desperate for healthcare, and traditional physicians didn't know how to cope with the new disease. These factors led to masses of people making the journey to the sanctuary in the hopes that Asklepios would heal them.
Later, in 421 BCE, the Athenians were able to bring Asklepios to them during a break in the Peloponnesian War. The god arrived in the form of a wooden statue. It was placed—along with a statue of Hygieia—in a sanctuary on the south side of the Akropolis
Coming to Asklepios’s sanctuary was a process of purification. From a religious perspective, illness was a pollution the gods could help eliminate. Even Hippokratic authors recommended
visits to the sanctuary, especially when the only alternative was a bad or inexperienced healer.
Pilgrims visiting the sanctuary at Epidauros had to purify themselves before they could enter. Fortunately, there were nearby sacred springs and baths for exactly that purpose. The springs purified the pilgrims spiritually, but they also made them clean, which was another quality needed to visit the sanctuary.
The Ancient Greeks and Romans had a long history of making bronze statuary. Images of gods and heroes, victorious athletes, statesmen, philosophers were prevalent throughout antiquity, appearing everywhere from temples and sanctuaries to public spaces.
However, bronze statues had a high material value, and it is estimated that even a small-scale bronze value would have cost around 150-200 drachmae in the 4th century BCE. As a result, only the prosperous could afford to dedicate bronze statues to sanctuaries, while poorer pilgrims could only offer clay vases and statuettes.
The Asklepian Games occurred every four years during the Asklepeia festival. They were comprised of artistic and athletic contests, the latter of which took place in a formal stadium.
Probably built in the 3rd century BCE, the stadium featured stone seating from where the audience could watch footraces on the racetrack below. Further archeological excavation has
revealed a stone starting line called a balbis, and a starting mechanism called a hysplex, which helped prevent false starts.
The Temple of Asklepios was the main building of the sanctuary. Built around 375 BCE, it replaced an earlier building located further southeast.
The temple was constructed over the course of four years. According to Pausanias, the interior contained a chryselephantine [ivory and gold) statue of Asklepios. The statue was made by the sculptor Thrasymedes of Paros, and depicted the god sitting on a throne, holding a staff in one hand and a snake's head in the other. A dog rested by Asklepios' side to keep him company.
The famous theater of Epidauros was built on the slope of Mount Kynortion. It is considered the most perfect theater structure in all of antiquity, due to the harmony of its proportions and its exceptional acoustics.
The auditorium, still virtually intact, was built in the second half of the 4th century BCE. The stage building, however, is in ruins, though its basic arrangement is clear enough.
The theater housed musical contests held during the Asklepeia, and rocrds show that Greeks used the building as far back as the late 5th century BCE.
Legend told of a beekeeper nymph, Melissa. According to myth, she was the very first to harvest honey. Along with her sister Adrasteia, Melissa took care of a young Zeus on Mount Ida. The grateful Zeus gave unto bees a golden-bronze color, and made them resistant to the weather. Melissa was also initiated to the mysteries of Demeter by the goddess herself. Unfortunately for Melissa, she was killed for refusing to reveal their secrets. Demeter's resulting anger was so great, it provoked an epidemic that made clouds of bees from Melissa's body.
The priestesses of the mystery cults in the Greek religion were often compared to bees, and were called Melissai. In these mystery cults, the most revered goddesses were Demeter and her daughter Persephone, Chthonian goddesses symbolizing the return of the seasons. Many honey offerings were presented to these so-called Chthonian divinities.
The priestesses of the Artemis of Ephesus were also called Melissai.
The so-called "Treasury of Atreus" or "Agamemnon's Tomb" is the largest of nine tholos tombs outside the citadel walls of Mycenae.
The name "tholos" refers to the tombs' round shape. Given their size, it's possible that members of the same family were often buried in the tombs together, along with their riches. The tombs' walls were decorated with bronze sheets attached with nails, and some of the nails are still in place today.
Unfortunately, the precautions the people of Mycenae took to seal the tombs—such as walling in the doors and passageways—did little to protect them from ancient and modern treasure hunters, who emptied the tombs of much of their riches.
Also known as the Thymele, the sanctuary’s tholos (round building) housed the cult of Asklepios. It was the most beautiful building in the sanctuary, and its size and splendor emphasized its importance.
An opening in the center of the floor gave access to a circular pit. From there, it was possible to enter the building's foundation: a subterranean maze that may have housed
sacred snakes.
Snakes were considered to be Asklepios' emblem. As such, whenever the god's cult integrated into a new city, they brought a pack of sacred snakes with them.
One medical stele relates how a pilgrim was supposedly healed by one of the sanctuary's snakes:
"A man’s toe was healed by a snake. He was suffering terribly from a difficult wound on his toe, and during the day was carried outside by servants and was sitting on some seat. When sleep overtook him, a snake came out of the abaton and healed his toe with its tongue; after it had done this, it returned to the abaton. When the man awoke. he was healthy and said that he had seen a vision: a handsome young man seemed to have sprinkled a drug over his toe."
_render.png)
