9 March 2010 (Tuesday #4) – Argolis day, Mycenae

Argolis tour - Mycenae: Treasury of Atreus

Before I show photos from Mycenae, it’s time for a . . .

Mycenae History Lesson!

• Mycenae was one of the major centers of Greek civilization from 1600 - 1200 BC. It’s now a major archaeological site.
• The Greek poet Homer told of “well-built Mycenae, rich in gold” in his epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. (The Iliad is the story of a quarrel between King Agamemnon of Mycenae and the warrior Achilles during the final year of the 10-year Trojan War. The Odyssey is the story of the Greek hero Odysseus' 10-year journey to reach his home in Ithaca after the Trojan War.) Until the 19th century these stories were thought to be legends.
• In the 1870s amateur archeologist Heinrich Schliemann “struck gold” at Troy (focus of the Trojan War) and at Mycenae, proving the existence of the ancient Mycenaean civilization and the historicity of the Homeric epics.
• Ancient kingdoms in the Peloponnese (including Corinth) are now known as the Mycenaean civilization because Mycenae was the most powerful of the kingdoms in the area at that time.

Our first stop in Mycenae was at what was believed to be the Tomb of Agamemnon, who was a principal character in the Iliad. He was king of Mycenae and commander-in-chief of the Greeks in the Trojan War. However, the tomb predates the Trojan War by 100 years. It is now called the Treasury of Atreus, after another Mycenaean king who took his weapons and enough food and drink with him in death for his journey to the Underworld. No one knows who was actually buried there.

Here’s the entrance to the tomb/treasury:

A closer look at the entrance:

That's our tour guide in the pink to the left. From this point on, she spent most of her time on the phone. We suspected she was making alternate plans for Thursday when a national riot was planned in Greece. We were right.

A closer look at the top of the entrance:

The lintel (horizontal base of stone in the triangle above the doorway) weighs about 120 tons. Now, how in the heck did they get that up there??

A look at the back side of the entrance from inside the tomb:

This tomb is the most impressive of the nine tholoi (or shaft graves) in Mycenae. A tholos or shaft grave is a semi-subterranean, circular room in the shape of a beehive.

Here’s the (very dirty) top of the beehive, which is about 45 feet high:

Here’s another look inside the tomb:

There’s a reason for the white dots on the photos taken inside the tomb, but I can’t remember it right now.

Conrad inside the tomb, standing next to the tomb's second chamber:

Only two of the nine tholoi in Mycenae have a second chamber.

This tomb and the Acropolis of Mycenae (next stop on our tour) both feature the Cyclopean masonry for which Mycenaean architecture is famous. Cyclopean masonry is a type of stonework, where huge limestone boulders are fit together without mortar. The term is from the Classical Greeks’ belief that only the mythical Cyclopes had the strength to move the enormous boulders. (I believe it!)

Example of a Cyclopean wall:

(Maybe not the best example, because this wall has some herkin’ gaps.) The above wall was part of the right side of the stomion (or entrance way) of the Treasury of Atreus.

Views from outside the Treasury of Atreus:

Greece is so pretty.

This was our tour bus for the day:

By the way, it’s a good idea to take a good look at your tour bus when you get off at a stop so that later you’ll be able to get back on the correct bus. (I might have gotten on the wrong bus. Twice.)

Back on the road to main part of the Mycenaean ruins:

(Is that a tourist-induced forest fire in the distance?)