Mycenae Sentence Examples

In Crete, in the later period, when the rulers could trust to the " wooden walls " of the Minoan navy, there is no parallel for the massive fortifications that we see at Tiryns or Mycenae.

Subsequent discoveries, however, have made it clear that Mycenae was not its chief centre in its earlier stages, or, perhaps, at any period; and, accordingly, it is more usual now to adopt a wider geographical title.

As soon as Schliemann came on the Mycenae graves three years later, light poured from all sides on the prehistoric period of Greece.

From 1886 dates the finding of Mycenaean sepulchres outside the Argolid, from which, and from the continuation of Tsountas's exploration of the buildings and lesser graves at Mycenae, a large treasure, independent of Schliemann's princely gift, has been gathered into the National Museum at Athens.

The American explorations of the Argive Heraeum, concluded in 1895, also failed to prove that site to have been important in the prehistoric time, though, as was to be expected from its neighbourhood to Mycenae itself, there were traces of occupation in the later Aegean periods.

The shaft-graves in the Mycenae circle are also a late type, paralleled in the later Cnossian cemetery.

In the Mycenae circle an altar seems to have been erected over the graves, and perhaps slaves were killed to bear the dead chiefs company.

The magnificent gold work of the later period, preserved to us at Mycenae and Vaphio, needs only to be mentioned.

The fresco-paintings, ceramic motives, reliefs, free sculpture and toreutic handiwork of Crete have supplied the clearest proof of it, confirming the impression already created by the goldsmiths' and painters' work of the Greek mainland (Mycenae, Vaphio, Tiryns).

Now the second type, the "megaron" arrangement, characterizes peculiarly the palaces discovered in the north of the Aegean area, at Mycenae, Tiryns and Hissarlik, where up to the present no signs of the first type, so characteristic of Crete, have been observed.

To this wave were owed in all probability the Nilotic scenes depicted on the Mycenae daggers, on frescoes of Hagia Triada and Cnossus, on pottery of Zakro, on the shell-relief of Phaestus, &c.; and also many forms and fabrics, e.g.

Some change seems to have come from the north; and there are those who go so far as to say that the centre henceforward was the Argolid, and especially "golden" Mycenae, whose lords imposed a new type of palace and a modification of Aegean art on all other Aegean lands.

The golden treasure of the Mycenae graves, these critics urge, is not more splendid than would have been found at Cnossus had royal burials been spared by plunderers, or been happened upon intact by modern explorers.

Atreus was murdered by Aegisthus, who took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled jointly with his father Thyestes.

His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae.

The brother and sister returned to Mycenae; Iphigeneia deposited the image in the deme of Brauron in Attica, where she remained as priestess of Artemis Brauronia.

The situation of the Acropolis, dominating the surrounding plain and possessing easy communication with the sea, favoured the formation of a relatively powerful state - inferior, however, to Tiryns and Mycenae; the myths of Cecrops, Erechtheus and Theseus bear witness to the might of the princes who ruled in the Athenian citadel, and here we may naturally expect to find traces of massive fortifications resembling in some degree those of the great Argolid cities.

It also possesses the famous collection of prehistoric antiquities found by Schliemann at Tiryns and Mycenae, other " Mycenaean " objects discovered at Nauplia and in Attica, as well as the still earlier remains excavated by Tsountas in the Cyclades and by the British School at Phylakopi in Melos; terra-cottas from Tanagra and Asia immense building, however, which was restored in 1896 and the following years, was that constructed in Pentelic marble about A.D.

Other forms of head-dress are seen on the great signet from Mycenae.

Having accidentally killed his uncle Electryon, king of Mycenae, he was driven out by another uncle, Sthenelus.

In the Homeric poems Corinth is a mere dependency of Mycenae; nor does it figure prominently in the tradition of the Dorian migrations.

It remained for the more robust faith of a Schliemann to show that such scepticism was all too faint-hearted, by proving that at such sites as Tiryns, Mycenae and Hissarlik evidences of a very early period of Greek civilization awaited the spade of the excavator.

On the other hand, the absence of letters from Mycenae among the tablets of Tel el-Amarna must be regarded as at least suggestive.

Examples have been found at Tiryns and Mycenae, and references are made to it in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

The walls of Mycenae are the greatest monument that remains of the Heroic age in Greece; part of them is similar in style and doubtless contemporary in date with the walls of the neighbouring town Tiryns.

There can therefore be little doubt that the two towns were the strongholds of a single race, Tiryns commanding the sea-coast and Mycenae the inner country.

The Mycenaeans, who had temporarily regained their independence with the help of Sparta, fought on the Greek side at Plataea in 479 B.C. The long warfare between the two cities lasted till 468 B.C., when Mycenae was dismantled and its inhabitants dispersed.

For the character of Mycenaean art and of the antiquities found at Mycenae see Aegean Civilization.

The extant remains of the town of Mycenae are spread over the hill between the village of Charvati and the Acropolis.

Numerous graves have been found in the slopes of the hills adjoining the town of Mycenae.

There are eight of them at Mycenae itself, and others in the neighbourhood.

A further interest in Greek archaeology has been awakened in all civilized lands by the excavations of Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns, Epidaurus, Sparta, Olympia, Dodona, Delphi, Delos and of important sites in Crete.

There is no doubt that there is a considerable historical element in the legend; recent discoveries in Crete (q.v.) prove the existence of a civilization such as the legends imply, and render it probable that not only Athens, but Mycenae itself, was once subject to the kings of Cnossus, of whom Minos was greatest.

His uncle Atreus, who had married Pelopia, took him to Mycenae, and brought him up as his own son.

When he grew up Aegisthus slew Atreus, and ruled jointly with his father over Mycenae, until they were deposed by Agamemnon on his return from exile.

Of Greece proper he saw but little; it is by no means certain that he even visited Athens, and though he describes Corinth as an eyewitness, it is clear that he was never at Delphi, and was not aware that the ruins of Mycenae still existed.

In the meantime Aletes, the son of Aegisthus, seized the throne of Mycenae.

The only important gateway, which was on the east side, away from the sea, probably resembled the "lion gate" at Mycenae.

The case is somewhat altered by the discovery of several other early houses, of similar character, but not identical in plan; at Mycenae and elsewhere in Greece; these do not, for example, show the duplication of the essential parts of the house found at Tiryns.

Having murdered his stepbrother Chrysippus, Atreus fled with Thyestes to Mycenae, where he succeeded Eurystheus in the sovereignty.

His wife Aerope was seduced by Thyestes, who was driven from Mycenae.

After this Atreus, apparently reconciled to his brother, recalled him to Mycenae and invited him to a banquet to eat of his son, whom Atreus had slain.

Thyestes was found by Agamemnon and Menelaus, the sons of Atreus, and imprisoned at Mycenae.

In Argolis Proetus built Tiryns, but later, under Perseus, Mycenae took the lead until the Achaean conquest.

The pyramids of Egypt, the mausolea of the Lydian kings, the circular, chambered sepulchres of Mycenae, and the Etruscan tombs at Caere and Vold, are lineally descended from the chambered barrows of prehistoric times, modified in construction according to the advancement of architectural art at the period of their erection.

Sites have also been explored in Phocis (Hagia Marina) and Boeotia, in AetoIia (Thermon) and the Ionian Islands, in Attica, at Argos, Mycenae and Tiryns, in the neighbourhood of Corinth, and in the islands of Aegina, Cythera, Euboea, Melos, Paros, and Rhodes.

Tiryns was dug again by the German Institute (until 1914), Phylakopi in Melos (1912) and the Kamares Cave in Crete (1913) by the British School at Athens, who also began in 1920 a further excavation on the acropolis of Mycenae.

What is chiefly sought by such revision is better evidence for the chronology and inter-relation of the different cultures, but much new information has been gained in regard to plan and structure of the palaces and fortifications of Mycenae and Tiryns.

Old legends represent him as having exterminated the Picts to the last man; and the Picts become, hi popular tradition, a mythical folk, hardly human, to whom great feats, including the building of Glasgow cathedral, are attributed, as the walls of Tiryns and Mycenae in Greece were traditionally assigned to the energy of the Cyclopes.

The heraldic type of the two lions is the device over the principal gateway of Mycenae, and stamps this, the oldest great monument on Greek soil, with a distinctly Phrygian character.

Mycenae was the city of the Pelopidae, whom Greek tradition unhesitatingly declares to be Phrygian immigrants.

A study of the topo graphy of the Argive plain suggests the conclusion that Mycenae, ' Published in Journ.

Midea appears to be the city of Midas, and the name is one more link in the chain that binds Mycenae to Phrygia.

Though eclipsed in the Homeric age, when it appears as the seat of Diomedes, by the later foundation of Mycenae, it regained its predominance after the invasion of the Dorians, who seem to have occupied this site in considerable force.

Pausanias tells us that the Heraeum is 15 stadia from Mycenae.

Strabo, on the other hand, says that the Heraeum was 40 stadia from Argos and 10 from Mycenae.

Both authors underestimate the distance from Mycenae, which is about 25 stadia, or a little more than 3 m., while the distance from Argos is 45 stadia, or a little more than 5 m.

The distance from the Heraeum to the ancient Midea is slightly greater than to Mycenae, while that from the Heraeum to Tiryns is about 6 m.

In fact, whereas the site of Hissarlik, the ancient Troy, is not in Greece proper, but in Asia Minor, and can thus not furnish the most direct evidence for the earliest Hellenic civilization as such; and whereas Tiryns, Mycenae, and the city of Argos, each represent only one definite period in the successive stages of civilization, the Argive Heraeum, holding the central site of early civilization in Greece proper, not only retained its importance during the three periods marked by the supremacy of Tiryns, Mycenae and the city of Argos, but in all probability antedated them as a centre of civilized Argive life.

When Mycenae was built under the Perseids it was still the chief sanctuary for that centre, which superseded Tiryns in its dominance over the district, and which this temple clearly antedated in construction.

We learn from Strabo that the Heraeum was the joint sanctuary for Mycenae and Argos.

While the buildings give archaeological evidence for every period of Greek life and history from the pre-Mycenaean period down to Roman times, the topography itself shows that the Heraeum must have been constructed before Mycenae and without any regard to it.

It could not have been built as the sanctuary of Mycenae, which was placed farther up towards the north-west in the hills, and could not be seen from the Heraeum, its inhabitants again not being able to see their sanctuary.

The west building, the traces of bridges and roads, show that at one time it did hold some relation to Mycenae; but this was long after its foundation or the building of the huge Cyclopean supporting wall which is coeval with the walls of Tiryns, these again being earlier than those of Mycenae.

Bearing out the evidence of tradition as well as architecture, the numerous finds of individual objects in terra-cotta figurines, vases, bronzes, engraved stones, &c., point to organized civilized life on this site many generations before Mycenae was built, a fortiori before the life as depicted by Homer flourished - nay, before, as tradition has it, under Proetus the walls of Tiryns were erected.

Heracles, whom Zeus had originally intended to be ruler of Argos, Lacedaemon and Messenian Pylos, had been supplanted by the cunning of Hera, and his intended possessions had fallen into the hands of Eurystheus, king of Mycenae.

At the dawn of Greek history Mycenae is no longer the seat of empire; new empires, polities and civilizations have grown up - Sparta with its military discipline, Delphi with its religious supremacy, Miletus with its commerce and numberless colonies, Aeolis and Ionia, Sicily and Magna Graecia.

While the political centre of Homeric Greece is at Mycenae, the real centre is rather to be found in Boeotia.

The king's palace, if we may judge from Tiryns and Mycenae, was usually in a strong situation on an " acropolis."

Thessaly, Boeotia and Mycenae have equal claims. It seems clearer that when once this local variety of Achaean had been used by poets of eminence as their vehicle for national history, it established its right to be considered the one poetical language of Hellas.

The description of Pausanias was written at a time when the lower city was deserted, and only the temples and the gates left; and the references to Thebes in the Attic dramatists are, like those to Mycenae and Argos, of little or no topographical value.

According to the Homeric story he was absent from Mycenae when his father returned from the Trojan War and was murdered by Aegisthus.

After his return to Greece, Orestes took possession of his father's kingdom of Mycenae, to which were added Argos and Laconia.

At a very early time, however, it seems to have been of greater note, being the seaport of the plain in which Argos and Mycenae are situated, and several tombs of the Mycenaean age have been found.

During the delay he issued his Troy and its Remains (1875), and betook himself to Mycenae.

The immense treasure of gold, silver, bronze, fine stone and ivory objects, which was buried with the sixteen corpses in this circle, is worth intrinsically more than any treasure-trove known to have been found in any land, and it revealed once for all the character of a great civilization preceding the Hellenic. The find was deposited at Athens, and gradually cleaned and arranged in the Polytechnic; and the discoverer, publishing his Mycenae in English in 1877, had his full share of honours and fame.

While Tsountas, for the Greek Archaeological Society, picked up his work at Mycenae in 1886, and gradually cleared the Acropolis, with notable results, Schliemann tried for traces of the Caesareum at Alexandria, of the Palace of Minos at Knossos, in Crete, and of the Aphrodite temple at Cythera (1888); but he was not successful, meeting in the two former enterprises with a local opposition which his wealth was unable to bear down.

His great wealth was left mainly to the two families that he had in Russia and Greece; but a sum was reserved for Hissarlik, where Dorpfeld in 1891 and 1892, by clearing away the debris of the former excavations, exposed the great walls of the sixth stratum which Schliemann had called Lydian, and proved their synchronism with Mycenae, and identity with Mycenaean remains; that is to say, with Homer's Troy, if Troy ever was.

With regard to Greece proper, in the third tomb on the acropolis of Mycenae were found six small golden sphinxes; they are beardless, but the sex is doubtful.

In the ancient tomb discovered in 1877 at Spata near Athens (which represents a kindred but somewhat later art than the tombs at Mycenae) were found female winged sphinxes carved in ivory or bone.

It had been held till lately that the great civilization of prehistoric Greece, as first revealed to us by Schliemann's discoveries at Mycenae, was not possessed of the art of writing.

Turning to the mainland of Greece we see that the astonishing remains of a highly developed prehistoric civilization, which Schliemann first brought to light in 1876 at Mycenae, Minoan and which from those discoveries received the general influence on main= name of " Mycenaean," in the main represent a trans land of marine offshoot from the Minoan stock.

It was not till Schliemann exposed the contents of the graves which lay just inside the gate (see Mycenae), that scholars recognized the advanced stage of art to which prehistoric dwellers in the Mycenaean citadel had attained.

It is not until the latest Mycenaean period that we find brooches, such as were used in historical Greece, to fasten woollen garments, and their presence in the tombs of the lower city of Mycenae indicates the coming of a northern race.

Electra in her rage seized a burning brand from the altar, intending to blind her sister; but at the critical moment Orestes appeared, recognition took place, and the brother and sister returned to Mycenae.

The Hallstatt culture is that of the Homeric Achaeans (see Achaeans), but as the brooch (along with iron, cremation of the dead, the round shield and the geometric ornament) passed down into Greece from central Europe, and as brooches are found in the lower town at Mycenae, 1350 B.C., they must have been invented long before that date in central Europe.

These latter, as in the well-known case of the Lion's Gate at Mycenae, often appear with guardian animals as their supporters.

Important researches at Epidaurus, Eleusis, Mycenae, Amyclae and Rhamnus may be numbered among its principal undertakings, in addition to the complete exploration of the Acropolis and a series of investigations in Athens and Attica.