Patience, brothers. Soon we will reveal the secrets of this painting.
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Wander the remnants of Mycenae, a place that was in ruins even in the time of antiquity.
Herodotos:Welcome, traveler, to the ruins of Mycenae.
("Who are you?")
Herodotos:My name is Herodotos, and I am a traveler from Halikarnassos. I retrace the various events, such as wars and great calamities. I describe what I see and record what I am told — all with the aim of providing a better understanding of why these things occur. Look for me to introduce you to many sites.
("What do you think of this place?")
Herodotos:It is humbling to stand in the remnants of such a great civilization. Looking at these ruins, I am reminded that the past is never as far behind us as we think.
("Let's begin the tour.")
Herodotos:These are the ruins of Mycenae, center of the old Mycenaean civilization. It was home to great warriors and heroes. In many ways, places like Athens and Sparta stand on the shoulders of its accomplishments. This tour will take you through its ruins and introduce you to its most important monuments, revealing its history in the process. I hope you enjoy yourself. I'll be waiting for you at the end of your visit.
Notably, they battled the Hittite allied city of Wilusa in a conflict that was believed to be the inspiration for Homer's Trojan War.
But the Myceanaean people didn't only travel to fight.
They learned much from their neighbors, the Minoans of Krete, such as how to write syllabic script on clay tablets.
Such tablets provide evidence that Mycenaeans spoke an early form of Greek.
They also tell of how great Mycenaean kings ruled over their warriors from opulent palaces in places like Mycenae, Thebes, and Knossos.
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Mycenaean warriors roamed the seas on twenty to fifty-oared galleys. Knowledge about their various ventures abroad can be traced back to many sources, such as cargo from Bronze Age shipwrecks and Egyptian pharaonic artifacts discovered in Mycenaean palaces.
The Lion Gate of Mycenae, the main entrance of the city / 1250 BCE (Mycenaean period)
The entrance to Agamemnon's citadel, or the Lion Gate, is one of the most iconic monuments in Mycenae.
It is impressive for both its height, and for the intimidating rendering on its relief, which depicts two lions standing on either side of a column.
Unfortunately, the lions' heads, which were presumbly made of a precious metal or higher quality stone, have been lost to time.
The gate was most likely meant to greet a triumphant king returning home from successful military campaigns, and to awe foreign visitors.
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The Lion Gate was described by the traveler Pausanias in the 2nd century CE. He stated that the two animals on the relief were lions, but it is unknown if their heads were still in place at the time.
Numerous seals and carved gems from the 13th century BCE depicted similar images of lions, panthers, and griffins. There were also other gates guarded by lions in the Eastern Mediterranean, such as the one in Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire.
Reproduction of the so-called "Death Mask of Agamemnon" by Émile Gilliéron (1851-1924) / 1550-1500 BCE (Mycenaean period)
When these shafts were discovered by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, he believed the six gold-filld graves to be connected with the family of the great King Agamemnon, even going so far as to proclaim a gold mask he found within to be "The Death Mask of Agamemnon".
However, this was refuted by later excavations, which showed that the nineteen bodies buried in the shafts dated back to a few hundred years before Agamemnon was even born.
In fact, at the time of the bodies' burial, the Lion Gate and the citadel walls had not even been built yet.
It's estimated that the people in the graves were members of the first Mycenaean dynasty.
The graves later became a place of worship for Mycenaean kings, who raised walls to protect them.
These walls helped preserve several incredible artifacts, including women's jewelry, death masks, and masterfully crafted weapons.
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The artifacts found in the Grave Circles are noteworthy for their monetary value, but also because some of them feature detailed fighting and hunting scenes that help historians better understand the life of early Mycenaean elites.
Shaft grave burials were eventually abandoned around 1500 BCE and replaced with the more prestigious "tholo" tombs.
The citadel of Mycenae around 1250 BCE, painting by Balage Balogh / Contemporary
By 1250 BCE, Mycenae was at the height of its power, and its living quarters and workshops were numerous.
Houses were built everywhere from the top of the palace's hill near the king's residence, to the slopes and terraces within the walls, -
- to the nearby hills outside the citadel.
At one point, the citadel's walls even had to be enlarged to make room for more quarters.
The people who lived inside the citadel were those with high status in either the military, religious, or administrative sectors of the kingdom.
This is reflected by the ceramic and metal vessels inside the houses, as well as their painted plastered walls.
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Mycenaean houses rarely had windows and would have been rather dark and poorly ventilated.
As a result, most household activities probably took place in the courtyard amd the vestibule, while sacrifices and feasting occured in the megaron hall. Some houses also had basements for storing food, tools, textiles, and other items.
Megaron of Mycenae / 2006
A traveler seeking an audience with the king would have first ascended a steed ramp from the Lion Gate to the citadel's summit.
Here, they would have walked into the palatial complex through a grand entrance called the Propylon.
Once inside, their gaze would immediately be drawn to the palace's main hall: a monumental area known as the Megaron.
The vividly decorated Megaron - which glittered with precious objects and colorful frescoes in its heyday - was where the king would have received the traveler.
If the king was feeling generous, he would have shared with the visitor the palace's most marvelous feature:
Its commanding and majestic view, which stretched from the plain of Argolis to the gleaming Aegean Sea.
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The Megaron Palace was an architectural wonder in its time, especially in regards to the preparation work that had to be done before its construction. The hill the palace was built on was steep and rugged, so some of the buildings had to be placed on artificial terraces supported by walls.
Unfortunately, these preparations did not save the palace from an earthquake around 1200 BCE. The quake destroyed much of the structure, including part of the domos and prodomos. As a result, historians have had to draw comparisons with better-preserved palaces across Greece to fully reconstruct the palace in Mycenae.
The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, oil painting by Gaulli Giovanni Battista (1639-1709) / 17th cent. CE (Modern period)
It was in this palace where a legendary Mycenaean king like Agamemnon would have held court.
According to Homer and other poets, Agamemnon led the Greeks in the sack of Troy.
Stories say that he was a fearsome warrior on par with Achilles, but also an overly-ambitious and arrogant ruler.
He sacrificed his own daughter, Iphigenia, to convince Artemis to grant his ships passage to Troy.
After conquering the city, he returned to Mycenae with mopunds of riches and a Trojan named Cassandra as his concubine.
Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra was not pleased with her husband's sacrifice of their daughter.
She plotted to murder husband out of anger.
The plot was successful, and depending on the version of the story, Agamemnon was either murdered in his bath by Clytemnestra, or killed by his cousin Aigisthos during a banquet.
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While Agamemnon is one of the principal characters in "The Iliad", his development from a harsh, stubborn leader to a wise and confident ruler is mostly overshadowered by the exploits of Achilles.
Despite attempts to link buildings and artifacts from Mycenae with the legendary Agamemnon, there is no conclusive proof of a historical Mycenaean king who could have inspired the Homeric character.
Nevertheless, there are some clues that such a ruler existed. Some Hittie letters mention a Great King of Ahhiyawa, as well as everlasting disputes over the town of Wilusa, which is believed by modern scholars to be the inspiration for Homer's Troy.
Herodotos:You've completed the tour. I trust it was an eye-opening experience. Though it did not last, Mycenae was a sort of precusor to what would eventually become the Greek civilization we know today. It's important we remember them, if only to avoid repeating their mistakes. Now, what else would you like to do?
("I'm ready for the quiz.")
("Take on the next suggested tour.")
("Take me on a random tour.")
([LEAVE] "That's all for now.")
Herodotos:Then I suppose this is farewell, at least for now. Safe travels.
