Trip to Greece, Day 4

Trip to Greece

Mycenae, Wednesday, April 7

Of the sights I wanted to see on this visit to Greece, Mycenae definitely topped the list. My mother felt the same way. The proximity of Mycenae to Nafplio/Tolo was one of the primary reasons we wound up choosing to rent a villa there rather than in Kalamata.

Mycenae (Mykene in Greek) was the center of Mycenaean civilization from 1400-1200 BC and figures prominently in both The Iliad and Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy.

Ruins of the citadel at Mycenae, seen from the main entry

Julian stands below the Lion Gate

According to legend, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, was the supreme leader of the Greek invasion of Troy. Menelaus, his brother, was Helen's cuckolded husband. On the way to Troy, the gods commanded that Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, at Aulis to allow the Greek fleet to sail to Troy. In retribution, his wife Clytemnestra (sister of Helen) with the help of her lover, Aegisthus, murdered Agamemnon in his bath after he returned to Mycenae. In turn, Orestes--son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra--killed Aegisthus and his mother, partly due to prompting by his sister, Elektra, who so adored her father that she wasFreud's namesake for the "Electra Complex" (the female counterpart to the Oedipus Complex). Whether any of these people ever lived or any of this is remotely true is uncertain, but it sure makes a great story!

The ruins are famous primarily for the Lion Gate, erected around 1250 BC, and the tholos (an underground beehive-like structure) tombs found there. The Lion Gate is particularly impressive, not merely because of the sculptures but because of the truly monumental size of the blocks used to construct it. You can get a sense of this in the photo on the left: notice, in particular, the size of lintel block that supports the lion sculptures. The style of construction seen at Mycenae and other contemporary ruins is called Cyclopean. The ancients said these structures were built by the Cyclopes, probably because they thought mere humans would not have been large enough or strong enough to move the blocks.

One thing that may not be readily apparent from the photos is just how steep this site is. It was quite a hike getting to the top where the throne room is, and the paving rocks were a bit slippery from wear, so coming back down was a bit thrilling!

Just inside and to the right of the Lion Gate is Grave Circle A, a group of shaft graves dating to roughly 1500BC. It was from these graves that Heinrich Schliemann excavated the now-famous "treasure of Mycenae," including the gold death mask which he pronounced to be the "face of Agamemnon". (Even if Agamemnon did exist, the mask did not belong to him, since the shaft graves predate the Trojan War by several hundred years. To see photos of the treasure, go to http://home.att.net/~a.a.major/mycenae.htm.)

This grave circle was outside the original walls of the citadel, but was incorporated within them at the time the Lion Gate was erected, presumably because the people living in the citadel were engaged in some form of ancestor worship. Another set of shaft graves, Grave Circle B, is found further down the hill and predates Grave Circle A.

Past the grave circle is a ramp that leads to the palace complex at the top of the hill. Not much is left but the main processional walkway and the foundations of the buildings, but you can still get a sense of the grandeur and scale of the original construction. And the views are phenomenal!

Michael and Vernon take a break.

Grave Circle A

In the treshhold of the Lion Gate.

Looking towards Nafplio from the top.

Julian in the Throne Room.

View to the southwest from below the museum.

One of the most pleasant surprises at Mycenae is the museum. Aside from having a great collection of artifacts from the site, the museum itself is a real work of art, with wonderful walkways and big windows looking out on the countryside. We were all very impressed by it, though we don't have any pictures of the interior to show here.

Of course, museums are also the place where the downsides of travelling with children become most apparent. They just don't have the patience to stand by quietly while the parental (and grandparental) units look at artifacts and read complicated descriptions of them. We were constantly having to admonish Aurora and Vernon not to run up and down the walkway hollering (there was a rather lovely echo, though).

South side of the museum and view.	After our somewhat proscribed tour of the museum, we went to see the tholos tombs. The largest and most famous of these is commmonly called the Treasury of Atreus (Atreus was the father of Agamemnon). The so-called Tomb of Clytemnestra is also well-preserved. Again, these are very impressive structures, especially for the period. The fact that the roofs of two tombs are still intact attests to the ingenuity of their design, which incorporated a "relieving triangle" as a way to relieve the downward pressure of the structure and prevent collapse. The existence of these tombs was known in ancient times, and they were looted before modern times. The kids sure enjoyed these tombs, though: talk about a great echo!	Entry with relieving triangle.
Inside one of the tholos tombs.	Looking back out the door.	Roof of a tholos tomb.

The walkway from the Tomb of Clytemnestra.	The kids were really beat after we were done with the tholos tombs, not to mention hungry (though we did have a snack before tackling the Treasury of Atreus--ice cream bars, and let me tell you, you can get the world's best ice cream bars in Greece!), so we headed back for Nafplio for dinner. In Nafplio, we walked to the Syntagma Square (there seems to be a Syntagma Square in just about every town in Greece!) and let the kids burn off some steam running around. We had dinner in a restaurant that we later discovered was an Italian place, which explains why they had so many pasta dishes on the menu (though I think all of the dishes the adults ordered were more Greek than Italian).
Running in Nafplio's Syntagma Square.	Restaurants on the square.
Go to Thursday, April 8