Ancient Greece Odyssey: The Citadel of Mycenae

The drive from sacred Delphi to worldly Nauplion [map of route] on the far side of the Isthmus of Corinth was long and sleepy. Haunting music in an ancient mode played over the bus' speakers as we dozed. It was a modern recording of a hymn to Apollo whose notes are inscribed on a stone from the Treasury of Athens.

The winding mountain road threaded olive groves and lonely towns, hugging steep, bleak hillsides cropped by sheep and brown goats. Hazy blue mountains slanted down to the sea. After a few hours we crossed an incredibly long suspension bridge spanning the Gulf of Corinth from northern to southern Greece (the Peloponnese). Halfway across, we gazed westward across the Ionian Sea towards Italy. One of the islands out there was rocky Ithaka, home of Odysseus.

On the Peloponnesian side of the Gulf, behind the blue peaks of the closest mountains, rose a long, snowy spine running parallel to the coast: Mt. Chelmos, called Aroania in ancient times. According to our guide Anna, the headwaters of the legendary Styx are hidden on its bleak slopes.

Turning east, we hugged the opposite side of the Gulf for many hours, stopping at lunch to marvel at the canal now cutting through the isthmus of Corinth. Eventually we passed the site of Corinth itself on a high knob of land overlooking the sea. In ancient times Aphrodite's priestesses serviced sailors there, but later it became a bastion of Ares, a military outpost for whichever forces occupied this part of the world.

In late afternoon we reached the medieval city of Nauplion, with fashionable shopping, a modern hotel (meaning c. 1950), and a postcard view of the bay with its little medieval fort in the harbor built by Venetians guarding their trade routes. The gusty sea breezes blowing into our hotel balcony (left) are delicious.

The Lion Gate of Mycenae

Then the goddess the ox-eyed lady Hera answered:
"Of all cities there are three that are dearest to my own heart:
Argos and Sparta and Mykenai of the wide ways."

Iliad 4.50-52, Lattimore translation

In Ancient Greece Odyssey Part II, I showed you the treasures Heinrich Schliemann found there, which now reside in the Athens National Museum. Now let me show you where they came from. Excerpt from my travel diary:

Today we pay our respects to the stern bastion of Mycenae, a short drive inland from the bay of Nafplion. We head into the surrounding farm country fenced by low hills, punctuated with knobby outcroppings. Orange groves scent the air just outside the city outskirts. As always, the profusion of flowers on banks and meadows is breathtaking, spilling into groves of dusty gray-green olive trees and stands of tall, dark cypress. Soon we take a road leading up into the hills.

Our first stop is the so-called Treasury of Atreus, an empty beehive-shaped tomb that Schliemann, ever the romantic, named for King Agamemnon's legendary father. It's a huge hollow structure covered over with earth and thick grassy turf. The interior is 48' across, 40' tall, not counting a side chamber closed to the public (to my frustration). Massive stones -- the lintel over 1,000 tons -- are a testament to ancient engineering.

They had not come up with arches yet, but relieved the stress on the lintel with a clever trick: a hollow space called a relieving triangle above the door, camouflaged by a thin facade of elaborate stone relief. Archaeologists have found fragments of the facade with its carved decoration: empty bands alternating with stripes of running spirals like those on the stelae of Grave Circle A, plus palmettes. There were also stacked sets of elaborately-decorated half-columns of colored stone, doweled into the doorframe (you can see the holes). Their shaped matched the column on the royal coat of arms seen on the Lion Gate of the main citadel (above).

(Click for larger sized photo)

The colorful facade is long gone, and bees swim in and out through the triangular opening; there are plenty of flowers outside. The tomb is truly a beehive now. It resonates to their humming when the tourists file out, and I can feel the buzzing in my bones.

Before ascending Agamemnon's citadel, we stopped by the museum set discreetly in the slopes below the main site. Those who have not studied pre-Greek civilizations might be surprised by the simple artifacts from the age of Homer's heroes. That's partly due to looting and loss, but also, a close reading of Homer shows that the heroes of the Trojan war prized pots, livestock, pot-stands, cloaks and spears, and gave these as rich gifts. Those were simple times! We also read of King Odysseus leaving his men at the shore on Circe's island and heading into the woods to hunt down a stag to feed them (Od. 10.156). These ancient kings were more like Robin Hood than King Arthur.

On the other hand, many rich grave goods were hauled off by the early excavator of Mycenae, Heinrich Schliemann, and are on display at the Athens National Museum which I explored in Ancient Greece Odyssey Part III.

The Mycenae Museum displays artifacts found in more recent excavations of the citadel and its surroundings: pottery, stone weights once used to anchor the warp-threads of a hanging loom, stylize clay figures of farmers ploughing behind oxen, female figurines (goddesses, worshippers or dolls?) and unusual terracotta snakes. Both snakes and figurines were found in a small cluster of religious buildings within the citadel of Mycenae.

What did these serpents mean? We can only speculate. The Minoan snake-goddesses on Crete, a few centuries earlier, may be connected somehow, but the Mycenaeans weren't the same people; they were mainlanders who conquered the Minoan islanders and adopted some of their art styles and religious practices. The Mycenaeans were the ancestors of classical Greeks, and a few inscriptions naming Mycenaean goddesses have been matched to later Greek goddesses. Athena may be one of them. Beyond that, we can't say much, except to admire these curious offerings.

Likewise, this fragmentary fresco is both familiar and intriguing. Many details are borrowings from the older Minoan civilization's art style, while others are uniquely Mycenaean. The most curious item is the long bronze (?) sword, point-downwards, which one of the two large female figures seems to be holding. The lady facing her is holding a staff -- or spear? The small male figures between them suggest the women are goddesses. Could one goddess be Athena? Is the other goddess a prototype of Demeter, called "the lady of the golden sword" in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter? But Demeter's name hasn't been found in Mycenaean inscriptions, and Athena's isn't certain. They could be other early goddesses who did not survive (or were much changed) in the classical period.

Towering over the plain, the citadel itself commands a wide view. Cyclopean walls-- believed in antiquity to be built by giants-- still incite wonder. There is a veritable maze of lesser walls. Such a jumbled of scattered stones, strange little rooms; yet one believes that history happened here. Looking out beyond the walls, one imagines chariots struggling up a beaten track, beneath the lions' frowning gaze.

"Grave Circle A" stands inside the gate, a broad circle of stones with a deep shaft. There Schliemann found the Mask of Agamemnon and many treasures now lying in the Athens National Museum. At the back of the citadel, a deep stone tunnels burrows down into the hill. At the bottom is a cistern to which water was piped from a nearby spring. So they were secure against siege, at least for a while. It is too dark to go all the way in without a light.

Winds gust over the hilltop, rattling the leaves of pistachio trees and ruffling the poppies. It is not a huge mountain, but high enough to slow ancient armies. Behind the citadel, the mountainside rings now and again with the distant bleats of a lost goat.

Up next: The Bronze Age Palace of Tiryns!

Complete Index of Ancient Greece Odyssey:

• Part One: Arrival
• Part Two: The Acropolis of Athens
  
• Part Two B: Museums of Athens
  
• Part Three: Eleusis, Demeter and Persephone
  
• Part Four: The Temple of Apollo at Delphi
  
• Part Five: The Citadel of Mycenae
  
• Part Six: The Palace of Tiryns
  
• Part Seven: The Sanctuary of Epidaurus
  
• Ancient Greece Odyssey Updates Blog