Mycenaean civilisation ...
Mycenaean civilisation ...
Myth, Legend or Real?
Quote of the week
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
– Greek Proverb
Hello,
We have finally come into a holiday mood. Probably since we reached the southern part of Peloponnese, with its ‘three fingers’ or peninsulas covering this part. It is a tourist area in another way than where we were earlier. Wonderful nature, mountains and serpentine roads (no fun, if you ask me) but giving us a wonderful scenery. In the Mani area we encountered a total different kind of architecture. Most houses looked like medieval castles, but this is the old byzantine style that has been common here for many year. Stone houses, the older ones, glowing with the red of the stones used. The newer ones are more even grey and polished.
The areas are so beautiful as they linger along the coast and the sea, with its different colours. The water is so clear and the temperature is still around 23-25 C/73-77F. We have visited the magic, ruined city of Mystras, the old byzantine village of Monemvasia and two monasteries built into the mountains. But that is for next week, because I wanted to go into the Mycenaean world this week.
Mycenaean civilisation
The Mycenaean civilisation was that last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning from around 1750 - 1050 BC. It is considered the first Greek civilisation with its palatial states, organisation, art and writing system, the Linear B script. The clay tablets found show that they were in contact with the Minoan civilisation on Crete, where the same script has been found.
The most important state was Mycenae, but there are other centers of power, also outside Peloponnese and Greece itself. We have already visited Nestor’s palace, and here, around the city of Náfplio, we visited Mycenae, Midea, Tiryns, and the cemetery of Dendra, which experts think was connected to the city of Midea. The graves are the same style as in Mycenae, but more simple in design. With the end of the Bronze Age the culture disappeared. There are of course many theories on why this happened. Some are: the Dorian invasion, natural disasters and climatic changes (nothing new it seems). Maybe the civilisation’s greatest tribute is what it has given us as the historical setting of ancient Greek literature and mythology, including the epic Trojan war. That leads us to the mythological part of the story. Or, are the people Homer speaks about real?
Mycenae
The city lies on a hill surrounded by mountains and plains with a view that seems to go on until the end of the world. One who believed in Homer’s world was the German archeologist (or he was more of a business man, with money and an interest in archeology) Heinrich Schliemann who was the first to excavate the site. Homer mentions “well-built Mycenae, rich in gold”, and when Schliemann actually found gold it was the news of the day. Anyone interested in the story, he also discovered Troy, I can recommend Irving Stone’s historical fiction The Greek Treasure, telling the story.
The area is well laid out for tourist and it is just to follow the ramp up towards the powerful Lion Gate, and continue inside the walls and all the way up to the citadel. Here we saw the same structure of what seems to be Mycenaean architecture, with the impressive throne room which gave access to the megaron (“architecturally, it was a rectangular hall that was surrounded by four columns, fronted by an open, two-columned portico, and had a central, open hearth that vented though an oculus in the roof. Wikipedia), which we also saw at Nestor’s palace. There the throne room was slightly bigger.
The graves
Going through the Lion Gate, to the right is a Grave Circle A, which Schliemann believed contained the bodies of Agamemnon and his followers. In one of the graves he found a gold mask and said: “I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon.” However, later tests showed that the burial date were three centuries before the Trojan War. Homer’s way of combining several sagas does not exclude that it actually was one king Agamemnon. The finds were definitely magnificent enough to belong to kings.
Before you reach the site of Mycenae, there is the Treasury of Atreus (Atreus being the father of Agamemnon). The grave has, like was common at the time, a beehive-like structure, built without use of mortar. It is quite an impressive build. You enter the tomb by a 15 m corridor, there is the chamber doorway, which lintel is formed by two huge slabs of stone. One of them, 9 metres long is said to weigh 118 tonnes. One wonders how they managed to put it there. Inside is the huge room, whose walls are leaning inside up to the round top in the ceiling.
The Myth
The story behind Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra is long, but you can easily look it up if you are interested. Here in short. Paris abducted (or ran away) with Helen, the wife of Menelaus. His brother Agamemnon, gathered a big army to get her back. At Aulis they are waiting for wind to sail to Troy. In order to get the right wind from the gods, he must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia. While Agamemnon is away, his wife Clytemnestra, and sister of Helen, is ruling Mycenae together with her lover Aegisthus. Aegisthus is the surviving son of the father that was killed by Atreus. When Agamemnon, after ten years of war with Troy, is returning, Clytemnestra is killing him for sacrificing their daughter. Their children Orestes and Elektra killed their mother and her lover. In the end Athena lifted the curse of the dynasty. This is in short the complicated world of the gods, goddesses, humans and mythology.
Midea and Tiryns
Two more Mycenaean states were important at the time. Today they are rather left on their own devices, with overgrown grass covering the excavated stones. Midea sits on a mountain, and the great thing about it is that you can walk around all by yourself. No other tourists around.
Tiryns was at the time a fortress and was situated at the sea. The sea is today a little but further away, but you can still see it. Here you are also alone, and the ramparts and walls are impressive. Built by huge stones, where you, once again, wonder how they managed to build it. Homer mention it as “wall-girt Tiryns”. Although quite in ruins you are able to see the typical throne room and megaron, and the rooms making up the palace. It is quite a magical place to walk around with the huge walls which must have given the people a sense of security.
The Cyclopes
In ancient times people believed that only the Cyclopes had the strength to build, and move, the massive walls surrounding the cities. Their masonry is stonework built with massive limestone boulders, which are roughly fitted together. There is minimal space between the stones, and they were kept together with clay mortar or without any. The Mycenaean walls and those at Tiryns are examples of these Cyclopean walls. They are especially grand at Tiryns, where you walk very close to the huge stone blocks. When you see them, even in a ruinous state, it is difficult to imagine how they could have been moved and put in place. But, if the legend of the Cyclopes is true, I guess it was easy work for them.
That was our journey into the Mycenaean world. With the references to Homer it gives you a sense of reality, although there are no real proofs that any of it really existed, except the cities and buildings left behind. But, a good story is a good story, and without it our literature would be so much poorer.
After Midea, Dendra and Tiryns we went into Náfplio to visit the archeological museum and have lunch. The old city is fantastic with its small alleys, old houses and flowers everywhere. Well worth a visit if you are in the neighbourhood.