PapaMarshall

Day 10 – 1/21/2020 – Mycenae

If you’ve read (and/or remember) the Iliad you recall that the people attacking Troy were “Greeks” from Mycenae. Today we visited their main city/fortress. We did other stuff too, but we’ll get to that later.

This was our first view of the complex. As you can tell they designed it to blend in with their surroundings.
But before we got to the actual site we stopped at the so-called Treasury of Atreus. This is a “beehive tomb” dating to somewhere around 1250 BC.
Some of the blocks used in this structure were massive.
The lintel stone weighs 120 ton. The opening above is designed to take the weight off the center of the lintel stone – as if it needed it.

After ooing and ahhing over the tomb we proceeded to the site’s museum. They’ve got a good collection of artifacts (and copies of some that are on display in the museum in Athens – Remember the “mask of Agamemnon” you saw on Friday? It came from this site.).

Bowl, 650-700 BC
Oil lamps; 1250-1300 BC
Toy from child’s grave; 1250-1300 BC
Pot shard with warriors; 1180-1050 BC
Comb; 1250-1300 BC
Sketch of gate showing a Minoan bull dancer in the upper right corner.
Fresco showing Mycenaean woman dressed in a Minoan style.

Following the museum we headed out to the actual site.

The first thing we encountered was the so-called “Lion’s Gate.”

This main gate to the complex is in the typical Mycenaean style…
Except that instead of an opening, the space above the lintel stone is filled with a stone with relief carvings – presumably lions but could be griffins. One theory is that the heads were originally of some other material – possibly ivory or silver.
It looked a lot like other sites – this is the “craftsman’s quarters.”
They have identified what they believe is the ante-room where petitioners would wait for an audience with the king.
And the two-chambered throne room next door.
Of course there’s a water source – 60 meters downstairs
And a postern gate – in case you need to leave in a hurry.
One more literary reference. The play Agamemnon starts with a signal fire announcing the victory over Troy. The fire would have been seen from the peak in the distance.
Also within the complex are a couple of other beehive tombs. This one was interesting because the plants growing along the left-hand wall are mint.

Then it was time for lunch.

After Lunch we visited the ruins of Asklepion – a Roman era healing center.

Of Course they have a small museum. I won’t bore you (much) but note the painting on one of these temple finals.
Here are three finals from a temple of Artimus
This is a statue of Hygea – daughter of Asclepius (god of medicine) responsible for (you guessed it) hygiene.

Also connected with the site is the 4th century BC theatre of Epidaurus.

Wanting to witness the acoustics I climbed to the top.
This is my view from the top of this 14,000 seat theatre. I could clearly hear the people talking and singing from the stage. One of our students dropped a coin. Yep. Another person tore a piece of paper. Yep. Amazing.

Then it was time to head back to Nafplion for a rest, dinner, blogging/reading, and packing. Tomorrow we head for Olympia.

See ya, bye.

R

3 Comments

  1. Those acoustics are incredible! So glad you got to experience that! And no need for the gym yesterday, just do those steps twice and you’re good!

  3. We agree- best part of this story is the acoustics. So cool. Now- what have you guys been eating??? I need more pics of food. 😉

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