Top Greek Travel Destinations Mycenae:
The Citadel of Agamemnon

Ancient Mycenae, like most Greek site names, can be spelled, as you may have noticed, several different ways. Mykines, Mycene, Mycenaea, Mycini, Mycenne, Mykhnai are but a few. Click map left to see larger. As you will see there are many ancient classical sites in close proximity.

But however you spell it, this is a site worth visiting. In fact, it is definitely in the list of top ten if not top five ancient sites to visit in Greece which include the classical Acropolis of Athens, The Hephaistion of Athens ( the best preserved temple in Greece), Delphi, Olympia, Cape Sounion and Epidavros (the best preserved theater in Greece). Mycenaea pre dates classical Greece.
Mycenaea's near by neighbor Tyhrins should not be missed either.

Ways to Visit Mycenaea

Most of you will visit Mycenaea by tour bus which is a good choice since a guide is provided, you will be picked up and returned to your hotel and you cant get lost. Tours don't cost very much either. There are a variety of tours available in several different languages with English being the most common.

You could easily rent a car however, as its only about 80 km from Athens, or an easy 2 hour drive, and the Peloponnese has much to offer in the way of antiquities and natural beauty.

If I were to plan such an excursion I would definitely try to find a hotel in Naufplion as its the nicest town by far in the Peloponnese and has a lot to offer itself! Monemvasia is a close second but further south. Naufplion however, doesn't have a lot of hotels and the hotels it does have fill up so; Tolo, the near by resort, is a great alternative and has a nice beach to boot!

I have driven to Naufplion and from there to Mycenae numerous times and its not as hard to find as is Ancient Olympia which was annoying, plus a lot farther. I take the old 2 lane road, which you turn onto just before entering Corinth from Athens, instead of the new toll highway, as its much more scenic, has less traffic and all you have to watch out for are the occasional herd of sheep or goats blocking the winding road. You also get to drive through the Greek wine producing region of Nemea, so be sure to stop at the roadside stands for some wine to take along but not to drink and drive with. Locals in Datsun or Mazda pick-up trucks breeze through the stop signs at RR crossings but I at least slow down to save my suspension. Trains are rare but do ply the route. Public KTEL Bus will work too but not to the site of Mycenae itself.

Wear your sensible shoes for all these ancient sites. Its rocky!! I actually saw one girl at Mycenae with teenie backless sandals crawl all over the site with no problem but she was a regular Maenad. My sneakers were fine. But bring a sweater too, as being in the gully between high hills, and early in the morning when you might arrive, the sun wont warm you much in the wind at the top of the acropolis!

Once you get to Mycenaea the first thing you will see is:

The Lions Gate

The Lions Gate is a vaulted corbel which moves weight to the sides so the lintel wont break under it. The relief carved on the slab is the oldest really monumental sculpture of our western world.

The Acropolis, which is where you will go, is on a hill with 2 deep ravines and a long narrow ridge providing it with natural protection.

Evidence shows that this site was occupied before the Acropolis was built from 6000 bc to 2000 bc by Neolithic and early Helladic peoples. Later a smaller section of the Acropolis was fortified. About 1600 BC commenced the building of the present day ruins and most of the Tholic tombs dug for the Aristocracy.

This citadel-palace was the administrative center of Mycenaean civilization and its situated 15 km from the sea in a mountain glen that's fairly concealed. It controls the natural roads to Corinth and the Isthmus leading to Attika and Northern Greece. In its hey-day there were settlements outside the walls where common folk dwelt.

There is only one shaft grave within the critical, eg. grave circle A. There are 9 or so in total but all kinds of other graves and tombs in the surrounding country side for the lesser folk, some of which are impressive but most have been looted in antiquity.

The Mycenaean culture reached its apogee about 1400 bc. And it was here that the first evidence of Greek writing was discovered: Linear B script written on clay tablets and probably accounts. So the worlds second oldest profession is accounting? Maybe so!

Treasury of Atreus & Grave Circle B

Schlieman excavates Mycenae: Those that can: Do!

Mycenae's most dramatic discoveries were made by the German archeologist Heinrich Schlieman in 1874-76. The Greek Archeological Society of the time, among other learned academicians in England, Germany and France, thought he was a crazy, rich amateur. Boy did he prove them to be the pendant ic, stuffed shirts that they were. He also discovered Troy.

Schlieman is considered to be the father of modern archeology and as a child was fascinated by Homer. He was self educated, made a few million supplying the British with supplies during the Crimean war and used it to pursue his hobby: archeology. He married a Greek girl, Sophia, who was a huge help to him as well! If you want to read a good book about Schlieman try The Greek Treasure by Irving Stone.

Towards the end of the Turkish occupation of Greece, around the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Centuries the site became an object of note by a number of early travelers and became the object of pilfering by art collectors and purveyors such as English Lord Elgin and Veli, The Pashsa of Naufplion and others.

The bulk of the known treasures of Mycenae were discovered by Schlieman in Grave Circle A, within the citadel itself, and are on display in the National Archeology Museum in Athens. Grave circles were reserved for the nobility and often had several occupants.

Unlike Troy, all of Mycenae was never totally buried under tons of earth. Homer kept the idea of Mycenae alive throughout the ages too. Parts of it were buried but everyone knew it was there as the Lions Gate was always visible. Back in 1849 the Greek Archeological Society of Athens started the clearing of the court just outside the Lions Gate. They didn't find much and gave up or ran out of money or both. At the time, no one but Schlieman really believed in Troy or many of the things that Homer wrote about. Especially the Greek Archeological Society.

So when Schlieman came along they thought he had more money than sense and in general, pooh-pooh 'd and gave him a hard time with permits and so on. His first dig was in 1874, only lasted 5 days and yielded remains not considered important by the explorer. (That quotation was written by a Greek archeologist and typically calls him an explorer rather than an archeologist, most of whom are grave robbers or thieves anyway when you think about it.) There was another big scandal here in Greece not too long ago concerning the embezzlement of ticket receipts from ancient sites too. But I digress. The Greek government should have several statues of Schlieman but being aharistee (ungrateful) don't. Perhaps because it would make them look even stupider.

Heinrich came back however, two years later, in 1876, and better equipped, in only 14 weeks, discovered the Grave Circles or shaft graves of the royal families of Mycenae containing objects of gold, silver, terra-cotta and rock crystal. In fact he discovered more gold at this one site than has ever been discovered throughout all Greece in total! 14 KG of it!

Pictured above is what Schlieman called the Golden Death Mask of Agamemnon but turns out to be 300 years younger than the Trojan War epoch and is of an unknown noble of Mycenae.

The Curse of the House of Atreus

Sons of Pelops, after whom the Peloponnese is called, Atreus and his brother Thyestes, were refugees when they came to the court King Eurystheus of Mycenae who had married their sister. The brothers jealousy reached its height when Atreus discovered Thyestes was having an affair with his wife. He killed the two children of Thyestes and served them up in a banquet. After he had eaten an been informed Thyestes called a curse not upon Atreus but upon his children and his children's' children.

Thyestes had a surviving daughter named Pelopia with whom he (Thyestes) fornicated and by whom she conceived a son, Aigisthos.

When Aigisthos grew up he turned around and murdered the now King Atreus and placed his father-grand-father Thyestes on the throne of Mycenae. But he stupidly didn't kill Atreus' other son, Agamemnon, who seized power at the first opportunity. Plus if he had it would have ruined a perfectly good story.

Now Agamemnon, who no doubt suffered from an overabundance of testosterone and after all, came from a dysfunctional home, wasn't a totally bad guy. He was just cursed. As I am sure you all recall, at the advice of his imported Trojan seer, but against his own desires, he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia, to obtain favorable winds for his war fleet against Troy. He did it for the greater good. Plus Iphigenia was a colicky child.

The fleet had been beached at its assembly point on the coast of Evvia for several months waiting for the winds to change and time was wasting. There were mouths to feed and squabbles to avoid between the armed to the teeth tribes of Greece.

The sacrifice of Iphigenia, which worked by the way, was the straw that broke his wife Klytemnestra's back, as when capturing her as booty, in a previous conquest, he had already dashed to death her first born by her previous husband whom he also killed before her eyes. While Agamemnon had been away Klytemnestra had given him horns by her unfaithfulness with, you guessed it: Aigisthos and upon his triumphant return, they both killed him in his bath. Agamemnon had appointed Aigisthos regent in his absence too.

Here she is, left, after just completing the deed, axe in hand! She had 8 years to look self righteous before Oresties and Electra, Agamemnon's children revenged themselves upon them both.

Greece Travelers may take a luxury coach tour, rent a car or empower themselves with a private Oracle tour of their own design. Consider these other popular Greece travel destinations. If its on the Greek mainland Oracle can take you there in air conditioned & non-smoking security!

Athens, Cape Sounion, Ancient Corinth, Delphi & Ossios Lukas, Drama, Florina, Greneva, Chalkidiki, Imathia, Kastoria, Kavala, Kozani, Meteora, Mt. Athos, Mycenaea, Naufplion, Olympia, Pella and Vergina, Phillipi & Kavala, Dion & Mt Olympus, Sparta & Mystras, The Mani and Monemvasia, Thessaloniki,
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