Mycenae

Mycenae is an ancient Greek city, the birthplace of King Agamemnon, who became famous during his campaign against Troy. The fortress of this ruler in the city of Mycenae can rightfully be called a legendary object. The discovery of the Agamemnon fortress belongs to the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered it in 1874.

It was certainly the most magnificent discovery of that time. The archaeologist managed to unearth the most ancient historically important things, which include incredibly expensive gold products. Burials have also been discovered here, which confirm Homeric and Aeschylian works. It is from their writings that we become aware of the tragic events in the Mycenaean Castle, which date back to 1550 – 1200 BC.

As you know, from historical works, there was a curse on the Atreides family, which was accompanied by a number of murders. Thus, King Agamemnon died at the hands of his own wife and her lover, but the tragic ring was completed by the son of King Orestes, who killed his own mother, the murderer of Agamemnon.

For a long time, Orestes was watched by the Erinii, but the goddess Athena took everything into her own hands, asking for his forgiveness and removing the ancestral curse.

The Mycenaean fortress is presented as a historical site, which consists of huge walls, the material for which were large stone blocks, about six meters thick. The name of such walls is known as "cyclopean", since the Greeks were sure that only fabulous creatures, not excluding cyclopes, could build such a structure. You can enter the territory of the fortress only by passing through the Lion Gate, which is a direct decoration of the entire castle. The archaeologist also found burials on the territory of the fortress, which acquired the name Funeral Circle. When opening another grave, Schliemann was lucky enough to find a golden mask, upon seeing which, he thought that this was Agamemnon himself. But upon a detailed study of the tomb, it was found out that this burial took place a long time before the Trojan War, which was led by King Agamemnon. Approximately 400 meters away, the Grave of Agamemnon itself was discovered, which resembles a beehive due to its design. It was in such structures that the burials of the most recent kings of Mycenae took place. This find is certainly of great value to the entire Mycenaean culture. Outside the fortress walls, on the territory where the houses of ordinary residents were located, the burials of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, who killed the king, were found.

Only kings could live within the walls of the Mycenaean fortress, but outside it, just below, there was a town where ordinary people settled. They were mainly engaged in the trade of olive oil and wine, as evidenced by the discovered tablets, which describe entire recipes for flavoring olive oil with spices. A fairly large number of different clay dishes were found here, according to the appearance of which, it can be concluded that the inhabitants of Mycenae had great trade relations. All the finds give the right to assume that the most ancient Greek settlements had a sufficiently high level of culture. Judging from the discovered and deciphered inscriptions, it can be said that not only the royal scribes possessed writing skills. Perhaps the surroundings of the royal fortress were the prosperous and civilized city of Mycenae.