Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Mycenae





It was from this room (above), the throne room or megaron, at the Mycenean Acropolis, that the entire Mycenean empire was managed. The megaron and the attached residence was occupied by the families of the Kings (Atreus, Agamemnon, and many before, fewer after) over the years between 1600 BC until the culture collapsed in about 1300 BC.  It is thought that the entire culture collapsed at the same time, and may have been caused by earthquake or the "Sea People" also described in Egyptian history of the same period.

The water you see at the top left, close to Nafplio, could possibly have been where the Greek forces under Agamemnon launched against Troy.  Alas, they were not quite Greek yet, were they?  They were Achean of the Mycenean culture (if I'm reading this correctly) and had to wait until the Greek Dark Ages were over (about 900 or 800 BC) before the flowering of Greek civilization began.


Lion Gate: the possibly solid gold lion heads are missing and are thought to be in the hands of rich Republicans.

(from Princeton Univ:
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαμέμνων; modern Greek: Αγαμέμνονας, "leader of the assembly") was the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope; the brother of Menelaus and the husband of Clytemnestra; mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was abducted by Paris of Troy, Agamemnon was the commander of the Achaeans in the ensuing Trojan War.
Agamemnon - this original is in the Nat.
Archaeological Museum in Athens

Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy he was murdered (according to the fullest version of the oldest surviving account, Odyssey Book 11, l.409f.) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. In old versions of the story: "The scene of the murder, when it is specified, is usually the house of Aegisthus, who has not taken up residence in Agamemnon's palace, and it involves an ambush and the deaths of Agamemnon's followers too".[1] In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or they do it together, in his own home.)

3 comments:

  1. Glad to see you are still on board with this. I’ve read through this entire Blog and enjoy the reminisce. Truly an adventure.

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  2. Read again through this which along with the 2019 Swanky Tank solo journey blog from California to Weld and back I consider to be one of my 2 best efforts at travel blogging: https://swanky-tank.blogspot.com/2019/07/upta-camp-at-webb-lake.html

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