Mycenaean Palaces and the Heroes of Myth

1
Mycenaean Palaces and the Heroes of Myth
2
Palace Sites ofPrehistoric Greece
3
Homes of the Homeric Heroes
4
Megara of the Aegean

• ???????
• ??????
• Homeric megaron
• suite of rooms?
• main room?
• NO double porch

5
Megaron

• Tripartite division
• porch, vestibule, throne room
• Large circular hearth, centrally located in
  throne room
• 4 columns arranged in a square around hearth
• throne against middle of right-hand wall in
  throne room (P, T, maybe M)
• Plastered, painted floors (Pylos, Mycenae, and
  Tiryns)
• Access to throne room only from vestibule,
  through axially placed doorway
• 2 columns between antae in porch (h) Rich
  decoration of the walls throughout the unit by
  means of frescoes.

6
Tiryns

• Schliemann Wilhelm Dörpfeld

7
Tiryns Megaron Plan
8
The 1st Heroic Age of Tiryns Perseus
9
Acrisius, the Jealous Father, Danaes Golden
Shower
10
Perseus

• The Gorgon Medusa
• The Cracken
• Andromeda
• Pegasus

11
Trouble with the In-laws Uncle Phineus
12
Tiryns the 1st Heroic Age

• Herakles, Eurystheus the 12 labors

13
Herakles heroic weaknesses
14
Tiryns the 2nd Heroic Age Diomedes
15
Diomedes aristeia
16
Messenia
17
Good Old Nestor Warrior Councillor
18
Pylos the Palace of Nestor
19
Palace of Nestor

• A megaron
• D, M courts
• E propylon
• F columned porch
• K bathroom
• L queen's megaron
• W wine cellar

20
Pylos Megaron Magazines
21
Cleanliness is next to Mycenaean-ness
22
The Argolid
23
Mycenae

• Christos Tsountas

24
Mycenae Megaron Reconstruction
25
The Palace of Agamemnon

• Welcome home, honey
• Clytemnestra Aegisthus

26
Lakonia
27
The Menelaion

• Earliest Palatial Building
• LHIIB
• Destroyed in LHIIIA1

28
Manly Menelaos
29
Menelaos Unmanned/Unarmed
30
Why does Menelaos spare Helen?
31
Well, he seems happy
32
(No Transcript)