1.
Mycenae
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Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 kilometres southwest of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 kilometres to the south, Corinth,48 kilometres to the north, from the hill on which the palace was located, one can see across the Argolid to the Saronic Gulf. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the centres of Greek civilization. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae, at its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares. Although the citadel was built by Greeks, the name Mukanai is thought not to be Greek, legend has it that the name was connected to the Greek word mycēs. Thus, Pausanias ascribes the name to the legendary founder Perseus, the earliest written form of the name is Mykēnē, which is found in Homer. The reconstructed Mycenaean Greek name of the site is Mukānai, which has the form of a plural like Athānai, the change of ā to ē in more recent versions of the name is the result of a well-known sound change in later Attic-Ionic. An EH–MH settlement was discovered near a well on top of the Kalkani hill southwest of the acropolis. The first burials in pits or cist graves manifest in the MH period on the west slope of the acropolis, during the Bronze Age, the pattern of settlement at Mycenae was a fortified hill surrounded by hamlets and estates, in contrast to the dense urbanity on the coast. Richer grave goods mark the burials as possibly regal, mounds over the top contained broken drinking vessels and bones from a repast, testifying to a more than ordinary farewell. A walled enclosure, Grave Circle A, included six more shaft graves, with nine female, eight male, Grave goods were more costly than in Circle B. The presence of engraved and inlaid swords and daggers, with points and arrowheads, leave little doubt that warrior chieftains. Some art objects obtained from the graves are the Silver Siege Rhyton, the Mask of Agamemnon, the Cup of Nestor, Alan Wace divided the nine tholos tombs of Mycenae into three groups of three, each based on architecture. His earliest – the Cyclopean Tomb, Epano Phournos, and the Tomb of Aegisthus – are dated to LHIIA, burial in tholoi is seen as replacing burial in shaft graves. The care taken to preserve the shaft graves testifies that they were by then part of the royal heritage, being more visible, the tholoi all had been plundered either in antiquity, or in later historic times. Within these walls, much of which can still be seen, the final palace, remains of which are currently visible on the acropolis of Mycenae, dates to the start of LHIIIA,2. Earlier palaces must have existed, but they had cleared away or built over. The construction of palaces at that time with an architecture was general throughout southern Greece
2.
Heinrich Schliemann
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Heinrich Schliemann was a German businessman and a pioneer in the field of archaeology. His work lent weight to the idea that Homers Iliad and Virgils Aeneid reflect historical events, along with Arthur Evans, Schliemann was a pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The two men knew of other, Evans having visited Schliemanns sites. Schliemann had planned to excavate at Knossos but died before fulfilling that dream, Evans bought the site and stepped in to take charge of the project, which was then still in its infancy. Schliemann was born in Neubukow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1822 and his father, Ernst Schliemann, was a Lutheran minister. The family moved to Ankershagen in 1823, heinrichs Father was a poor Pastor. His mother, Luise Therese Sophie Schliemann, died in 1831, after his mothers death, his father sent Heinrich to live with his uncle. When he was years old, his father paid for him to enroll in the Gymnasium at Neustrelitz. Schliemann later claimed that at the age of 8, he had declared he would one day excavate the city of Troy. However, Heinrich had to transfer to the Realschule after his father was accused of embezzling funds and had to leave that institution in 1836 when his father was no longer able to pay for it. His familys poverty made a university education impossible, so it was Schliemanns early academic experiences that influenced the course of his education as an adult, in his archaeological career, however, there was often a division between Schliemann and the educated professionals. At age 14, after leaving Realschule, Heinrich became an apprentice at Herr Holtzs grocery in Fürstenberg and he later told that his passion for Homer was born when he heard a drunkard reciting it at the grocers. He laboured for five years, until he was forced to leave because he burst a blood vessel lifting a heavy barrel, in 1841, Schliemann moved to Hamburg and became a cabin boy on the Dorothea, a steamer bound for Venezuela. After twelve days at sea, the ship foundered in a gale, the survivors washed up on the shores of the Netherlands. Schliemann became a messenger, office attendant, and later, a bookkeeper in Amsterdam, on March 1,1844, 22-year-old Schliemann took a position with B. H. Schröder & Co. an import/export firm. In 1846, the firm sent him as a General Agent to St. Petersburg, in time, Schliemann represented a number of companies. By the end of his life, he could converse in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Polish, Italian, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic, and Turkish as well as German. Schliemanns ability with languages was an important part of his career as a businessman in the importing trade, in 1850, he learned of the death of his brother, Ludwig, who had become wealthy as a speculator in the California gold fields
3.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
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The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world, the first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by prime minister of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum and it was renamed to its current name in 1881 by Prime Minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis. In 1887 the important archaeologist Valerios Stais became the museums curator, during World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction and looting. In 1945 exhibits were displayed under the direction of Christos Karouzos. The south wing of the houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953 and 1960 with the designs of Patroklos Karantinos. The museum has an imposing neo-classical design which was popular in Europe at the time and is in accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses. The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was modified by Panagis Kalkos who was the main architect, Armodios Vlachos. At the front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden which is decorated with sculptures, the building has undergone many expansions. These expansions were necessary to accommodate the growing collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum more than 1.5 years to complete. The Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005, on May 2008 the Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the much anticipated collection of Egyptian antiquities and the collection of Eleni and Antonis Stathatos. Today, there is a discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas. A new plan has made for a subterranean expansion at the front of the museum. The museums collections are organised in sections, The prehistoric collection displays objects from the Neolithic era, Early and Mid-Bronze age, objects classified as Cycladic and Mycenaean art. There are ceramic finds from various important Neolithic sites such as Dimini and Sesclo from middle Helladic ceramics from Boeotia, Attica, some objects from Heinrich Schliemann excavations in Troy are also on display. Cycladic collection features the famous marble figurines from the Aegean islands of Delos and Keros including the Lutist, of great interest are the two golden cups from Vafeio showing a scene of the capture of a bull
4.
Death mask
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A death mask is an image, typically in wax or plaster cast made of a persons face following death, often by taking a cast or impression directly from the corpse. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits, in other cultures a death mask may be a funeral mask, an image placed on the face of the deceased before burial rites, and normally buried with them. The best known of these are the used by ancient Egyptians as part of the mummification process, such as Tutankhamuns mask. In some European countries, it was common for death masks to be used as part of the effigy of the deceased, displayed at state funerals, mourning portraits were also painted, showing the subject lying in repose. During the 18th and 19th centuries masks were used to permanently record the features of unknown corpses for purposes of identification. This function was replaced by post-mortem photography. In the cases of people whose faces were damaged by their death, an example of this occurred in the case of Thomas DArcy McGee, the Canadian statesman whose face was shattered by the bullet which assassinated him in 1868. When taken from a subject, such a cast is called a life mask. Proponents of phrenology used both death masks and life masks for pseudoscientific purposes, masks of deceased persons are part of traditions in many countries. A special element of the rite was a mask, put on the face of the deceased. This mask was believed to strengthen the spirit of the mummy, the best known mask is Tutankhamuns mask. Made of gold and gems, the conveys the highly stylized features of the ancient ruler. Such masks were not, however, made from casts of the features, rather, in 1876 the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered in Mycenae six graves, which he was confident belonged to kings and ancient Greek heroes—Agamemnon, Cassandra, Evrimdon and their associates. To his surprise, the skulls were covered with gold masks and it is now thought most unlikely that the masks actually belonged to Agamemnon and other heroes of the Homeric epics, in fact they are several centuries older. The lifelike character of Roman portrait sculptures has been attributed to the earlier Roman use of wax to preserve the features of deceased family members, the wax masks were subsequently reproduced in more durable stone. The use of masks in the cult is also attested in Etruria. Excavations of tombs in the area of the ancient city of Clusium have yielded a number of sheet bronze masks dating from the Etruscan Late Orientalising period. In the 19th century it was thought that they were related to the Mycenaean examples, the most credited hypothesis holds that they were originally fixed to cinerary urns, to give them a human appearance
5.
Agamemnon
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Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was taken to Troy by Paris, upon Agamemnons return from Troy, he was murdered by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or they act together as accomplices, Atreus, Agamemnons father, murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to Thyestes after discovering Thyestes adultery with his wife Aerope. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter, Pelopia, and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus children, Aegisthus successfully murdered Atreus and restored his father to the throne. Aegisthus took possession of the throne of Mycenae and jointly ruled with Thyestes, during this period Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta. There they respectively married Tyndareus daughters Clytemnestra and Helen, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children, one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brothers assistance, drove out Aegisthus and he extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus, until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans, Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. Preparing to depart from Aulis, which was a port in Boeotia, misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevented the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnons daughter Iphigenia and her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology, hesiod said she became the goddess Hecate. Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War, during the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and fifteen other Trojan soldiers. The Iliad tells the story about the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the year of the war. Following one of the Achaean Armys raids, Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, Chryses pleaded with Agamemnon to free his daughter but was met with little success. Chryses then prayed to Apollo for the return of his daughter. After learning from the Prophet Calchas that the plague could be dispelled by returning Chryseis to her father, Agamemnon reluctantly agreed, however, as compensation for his lost prize, Agamemnon demanded a new prize. As a result, Agamemnon stole an attractive slave called Briseis, one of the spoils of war, Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in response to Agamemnons supposedly evil deed and allegedly put the Greek armies at risk of losing the war. Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of kingly authority, as commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle
6.
Iliad
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The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem in dactylic hexameter, traditionally attributed to Homer. Then the epic narrative takes up events prophesied for the future, such as Achilles imminent death and the fall of Troy, although the narrative ends before these events take place. However, as events are prefigured and alluded to more and more vividly. The Iliad is paired with something of a sequel, the Odyssey, along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the 8th century BC. Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution gives a date of 760–710 BC, in the modern vulgate, the Iliad contains 15,693 lines, it is written in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects. Note, Book numbers are in parentheses and come before the synopsis of the book, after an invocation to the Muses, the story launches in medias res towards the end of the Trojan War between the Trojans and the besieging Greeks. Chryses, a Trojan priest of Apollo, offers the Greeks wealth for the return of his daughter Chryseis, held captive of Agamemnon, although most of the Greek army is in favour of the offer, Agamemnon refuses. Chryses prays for Apollos help, and Apollo causes a plague to afflict the Greek army, after nine days of plague, Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidon contingent, calls an assembly to deal with the problem. Under pressure, Agamemnon agrees to return Chryseis to her father, angered, Achilles declares that he and his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon but will go home. Odysseus takes a ship and returns Chryseis to her father, whereupon Apollo ends the plague, in the meantime, Agamemnons messengers take Briseis away. Achilles becomes very upset, sits by the seashore, and prays to his mother, Achilles asks his mother to ask Zeus to bring the Greeks to the breaking point by the Trojans, so Agamemnon will realize how much the Greeks need Achilles. Thetis does so, and Zeus agrees, Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon, urging him to attack Troy. Agamemnon heeds the dream but decides to first test the Greek armys morale, the plan backfires, and only the intervention of Odysseus, inspired by Athena, stops a rout. Odysseus confronts and beats Thersites, a soldier who voices discontent about fighting Agamemnons war. After a meal, the Greeks deploy in companies upon the Trojan plain, the poet takes the opportunity to describe the provenance of each Greek contingent. When news of the Greek deployment reaches King Priam, the Trojans too sortie upon the plain, in a list similar to that for the Greeks, the poet describes the Trojans and their allies. The armies approach each other, but before they meet, Paris offers to end the war by fighting a duel with Menelaus, urged by his brother and head of the Trojan army, Hector. While Helen tells Priam about the Greek commanders from the walls of Troy, Paris is beaten, but Aphrodite rescues him and leads him to bed with Helen before Menelaus can kill him
7.
Trojan War
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In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homers Iliad. The Iliad relates four days in the year of the decade-long siege of Troy. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the fairest, in exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helens husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris insult. After the deaths of heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods wrath, few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, in 1868, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was a real city at what is now Hissarlik in Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars, whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. The events of the Trojan War are found in works of Greek literature. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, the most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed sometime between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. Each poem narrates only a part of the war, the Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey concerns Odysseuss return to his home island of Ithaca, following the sack of Troy. Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics, the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony. Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from an included in Proclus Chrestomathy. The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain, both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems
8.
Grave Circle A, Mycenae
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Grave Circle A in Mycenae is a 16th-century BC royal cemetery situated to the south of the Lion Gate, the main entrance of the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae, southern Greece. Grave Circle A and Grave Circle B, the latter found outside the walls of Mycenae, the circle has a diameter of 27.5 m and contains six shaft graves, where a total of nineteen bodies were buried. It has been suggested that a mound was constructed over each grave, among the objects found were a series of gold death masks, additionally beside the deceased were full sets of weapons, ornate staffs as well as gold and silver cups. The site was excavated by the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, following the descriptions of Homer, one of the gold masks he unearthed became known as the The Death Mask of Agamemnon, ruler of Mycenae according to Greek mythology. However, it has proved that the burials date circa three centuries earlier, before Agamemnon is supposed to have lived. The valuable objects found in the graves suggest that powerful rulers were buried in this site, although Agamemnon was supposed to have lived centuries later, these graves might have belonged to the former ruling dynasty of Mycenae – according to Greek mythology, the Perseides. These Bronze Age people were equipped with horses, surrounded themselves with luxury goods, the Shaft Graves found in Mycenae signified the elevation of a new Greek-speaking royal dynasty whose economic power depended on long-distance sea trade. Grave Circles A and B, the latter found outside the walls of Mycenae, the Grave Circle A site was part of a larger funeral place from the Middle Helladic period. At the time it was built, during the Late Helladic I, there was probably a small unfortified palace on Mycenae, there is no evidence of a circular wall around the site during the period of the burials. The last interment took place circa 1500 BC, immediately after the last interment, the local rulers abandoned the shaft graves in favour of a new and more imposing form of tomb already developing in Messenia, south Peloponessus, the tholos. Around 1250 BC, when the fortifications of Mycenae were extended, a double ring peribolos wall was also built around the area. It appears that the site became a temenos, while a circular construction, the burial site had been replanned as a monument, an attempt by the 13th century BC Mycenean rulers to appropriate the possible heroic past of the older ruling dynasty. Under this context, the surface was built up to make a level precinct for ceremonies. A new entrance, the Lion Gate, was constructed near the site, Grave Circle A, with a diameter of 27.5 m, is situated on the acropolis of Mycenae southeast of the Lion Gate. The site is surrounded by two rows of slabs, while the space between the rows was filled with earth and roofed with slabs. The Grave Circle contains six shaft graves, the smallest of which is measured at 3.0 m by 3.5 m, over each grave a mound was constructed and stelae were erected. These stelae had been erected in memory of the Mycenaean rulers buried there. A total of nineteen bodies – eight men, nine women, among the findings, boars tusks were found in Grave IV, as well as five golden masks in Graves IV and V
9.
Gold leaf
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Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-karat yellow gold, Gold leaf is a type of metal leaf, but the term is rarely used when referring to gold leaf. The term metal leaf is used for thin sheets of metal of any color that do not contain any real gold. Real yellow gold leaf is about 91. 7% pure gold, silver colored white gold is approximately 50% pure gold. Layering gold leaf over a surface is called gold leafing or gilding, traditional water gilding is the most difficult and highly regarded form of gold leafing. It has remained unchanged for hundreds of years and is still done by hand. Gold leaf is used in art in a raw state. It has been used in jewellery in various periods, often as small pieces hanging freely. Gold glass is gold leaf held between two pieces of glass, and was used for decorated Ancient Roman vessels, where some of the gold was scraped off to form an image, Gold leaf is also used in Buddhist art to decorate statues and symbols. Gold leafing can also be seen on domes in religious and public architecture, from the ancient temples to modern day buildings, gold leaf has been an integral component of architecture to designate important structures since the dawn of humankind. Due to gold’s resilience, golden-domed buildings can stand up to weather, deterioration and even modern pollution, Gold in architecture became an integral component of Byzantine and Roman churches and basilicas in 400 AD, most notably Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The church was built by Pope Sixtus III and is one of the earliest examples of gold mosaics, the mosaics were made of stone, tile or glass backed on gold leaf walls, giving the church a beautifully intricate backdrop. The 14th century campanile, or bell tower, is the highest in Rome, the apse mosaic, the Coronation of the Virgin, is from 1295, signed by the Franciscan friar, Jacopo Torriti. It is also the location of ceremonial spaces, such as the Hall of Honour, the Memorial Chamber. Capping the room is a ceiling with deep octagonal coffers, each filled with heraldic symbols, including maple leaves, fleur-de-lis, lions rampant, clàrsach, Welsh Dragons. This plane rests on six pairs and four pilasters, each of which is capped by a caryatid. Below the windows is an architrave, broken only by baldachins at the base of each of the above pilasters
10.
Troy
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The present-day location is known as Hisarlik. It was the setting of the Trojan War described in the Greek Epic Cycle, in particular in the Iliad, a new capital called Ilium was founded on the site in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. It flourished until the establishment of Constantinople and declined gradually in the Byzantine era and these excavations revealed several cities built in succession. Troy VII has been identified with the city that the Hittites called Wilusa, the origin of the Greek Ἴλιον. Today, the hill at Hisarlık has given its name to a village near the ruins. It lies within the province of Çanakkale, some 30 km south-west of the provincial capital, the map here shows the adapted Scamander estuary with Ilium a little way inland across the Homeric plain. Troy was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998, Ancient Greek historians variously placed the Trojan War in the 12th, 13th, or 14th centuries BC, Eratosthenes to 1184 BC, Herodotus to 1250 BC, Duris of Samos to 1334 BC. Modern archaeologists associate Homeric Troy with archaeological Troy VII, in the Iliad, the Achaeans set up their camp near the mouth of the River Scamander, where they had beached their ships. The city of Troy itself stood on a hill, across the plain of Scamander, recent geological findings have permitted the identification of the ancient Trojan coastline, and the results largely confirm the accuracy of the Homeric geography of Troy. In November 2001, the geologist John C, kraft from the University of Delaware and the classicist John V. Luce from Trinity College, Dublin, presented the results of investigations, begun in 1977, into the geology of the region. Besides the Iliad, there are references to Troy in the major work attributed to Homer. The Homeric legend of Troy was elaborated by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid, the Greeks and Romans took for a fact the historicity of the Trojan War and the identity of Homeric Troy with the site in Anatolia. Alexander the Great, for example, visited the site in 334 BC and there made sacrifices at tombs associated with the Homeric heroes Achilles and Patroclus. After the 1995 find of a Luwian biconvex seal at Troy VII, with the rise of critical history, Troy and the Trojan War were, for a long time, consigned to the realms of legend. However, the location of ancient Troy had from classical times remained the subject of interest. The Troad peninsula was anticipated to be the location, leChavaliers location, published in his Voyage de la Troade, was the most commonly accepted theory for almost a century. In 1822, the Scottish journalist Charles Maclaren was the first to identify with confidence the position of the city as it is now known, the hill, near the city of Çanakkale, was known as Hisarlık. In 1868, Heinrich Schliemann visited Calvert and secured permission to excavate Hisarlık, in 1871–73 and 1878–79, he excavated the hill and discovered the ruins of a series of ancient cities dating from the Bronze Age to the Roman period
11.
Mycenaean Greece
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Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece. It represents the first advanced civilization in mainland Greece, with its states, urban organization, works of art. Among the centers of power emerged, the most notable were those of Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece. The most prominent site was Mycenae, in Argolid, to which the culture of this era owes its name. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus and Italy. Their syllabic script, the Linear B, offers the first written records of the Greek language, Mycenaean Greece was dominated by a warrior elite society and consisted of a network of palace states that developed rigid hierarchical, political, social and economic systems. At the head of society was the king, known as wanax. Various theories have proposed for the end of this civilization. Additional theories such as natural disasters and climatic changes have also suggested. The Mycenaean period became the setting of much ancient Greek literature and mythology. The Bronze Age in mainland Greece is generally termed as the Helladic period by modern archaeologists, after Hellas, the Greek name for Greece. This period is divided into three subperiods, The Early Helladic period was a time of prosperity with the use of metals, the Middle Helladic period faced a slower pace of development, as well as the evolution of megaron-type dwellings and cist grave burials. Finally, the Late Helladic period roughly coincides with Mycenaean Greece, the transition period from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in Greece is known as Sub-Mycenaean. Moreover, it revealed that the bearers of Mycenaean culture were ethnically connected with the populations that resided in the Greek peninsula after the end of this cultural period. Various collective terms for the inhabitants of Mycenaean Greece were used by Homer in his 8th century BC epic, the Iliad, in reference to the Trojan War. The latter was supposed to have happened in the late 13th – early 12th century BC, Homer used the ethnonyms Achaeans, Danaans and Argives, to refer to the besiegers. These names appear to have passed down from the time they were in use to the time when Homer applied them as terms in his Iliad. There is an reference to a-ka-wi-ja-de in the Linear B records in Knossos, Crete dated to c.1400 BC
12.
Van Dyke beard
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A Van Dyke is a style of facial hair named after 17th-century Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck. A Van Dyke specifically consists of any growth of both a moustache and goatee with all hair on the cheeks shaven, even this particular style, though, has many variants, including a curled moustache versus a non-curled one and a soul patch versus none. This style of beard was popular in Europe in the 17th century and it died out in Britain with the Restoration, when French styles and wigs became popular. For some time after, however, some men, known as vow-beards, continued to wear them and it became popular in the United States in the 19th century. Chicago Chronicle columnist Edith Sessions Tupper condemned this style, along with the goatee, as indicative of a man who was selfish, sinister, the style is sometimes called a Charlie after King Charles I of England, who was painted by Van Dyck with this type of beard. The style was worn by Van Dyke himself, and by many of the sitters for his portraits, the Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin also wore a Van Dyke. The Van Dyke had a revival in the 19th century and was worn by several well-known figures including General Custer, colonel Sanders would also qualify as having a Van Dyke. The word pickedevant is a synonym for a Van Dyke beard. Media related to Van Dyke beards at Wikimedia Commons
13.
Rhyton
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A rhyton is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table. They are typically formed in the shape of an animals head, the English word rhyton originates in the ancient Greek word ῥυτόν. The conical rhyton form has been known in the Aegean region since the Bronze Age, however, it was by no means confined to that region. Similar in form to, and perhaps originating from, the drinking horn, liddell and Scott give a standard derivation from Greek rhein, to flow, which, according to Julius Pokorny, is from Indo-European *sreu-, flow. As rhutos is stream, the neuter, rhuton, would be sort of object associated with pouring. Many vessels considered rhytons featured a mouth at the top. Smith points out that use is testified in classical paintings and accepts Athenaeuss etymology that it was named ἀπὸ τῆς ῥύσεως. Smith also categorized the name as having been a recent form of a vessel called the keras, horn. The word rhyton is not present in what is known about Mycenaean Greek, however, the bulls head rhyton, of which many examples survive, is mentioned as ke-ra-a on tablet KN K872, an inventory of vessels at Knossos, it is shown with the bull ideogram. Ventris and Chadwick restored the word as the adjective *keraa, with a Mycenaean intervocalic h, rhyta shaped after bulls are filled through the large opening and emptied through the secondary, smaller one. This means that two hands are required, one to close the opening and one to fill the rhyton. This has led scholars to believe that rhytons were typically filled with the help of two people or with the help of a chain or a rope that would be passed through a handle. Rhytons modeled after animals were designed to make it look like the animal was drinking when the vessel was being filled, a bull rhyton weighed about three kilograms when empty and up to six kilograms when full. Other rhytons with animal themes were modeled after boars, lions, some shapes, such as lioness rhyta, could be filled through simple submersion, thanks to the vessel’s shape and buoyancy. Horizontally designed rhyta, like those modeled after lionesses, could be filled by being lowered into a fluid, vertically designed rhyta, like those modeled after boars, required another hand to cover the primary opening and to prevent the liquid from spilling as the vessel was filled. Rhyta were often used to strain liquids such as wine, beer, some rhyta were used in blood rituals and animal sacrifice. In these cases, the blood may have been thinned with wine, some vessels were modeled after the animal with which they were intended to be used during ritual, but this was not always the case. It cannot be supposed that every drinking horn or libation vessel was pierced at the bottom, the scoop function would have come first
14.
Feud
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Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another. Intense feelings of resentment trigger the initial retribution, which causes the party to feel equally aggrieved. The dispute is subsequently fuelled by a cycle of retaliatory violence. This continual cycle of provocation and retaliation makes it difficult to end the feud peacefully. Feuds frequently involve the original family members and/or associates, can last for generations. They can be interpreted as an outgrowth of social relations based in family honor. Until the early period, feuds were considered legitimate legal instruments and were regulated to some degree. For example, Serb culture calls this krvna osveta, meaning blood revenge, in the English-speaking world, vendetta is sometimes extended to mean any other long-standing feud, not necessarily involving bloodshed. Sometimes, it is not mutual, but rather refers to a series of hostile acts waged by one person against another without reciprocation. Blood feuds were common in societies with a rule of law. An entire family is considered responsible for any one of them has done. Sometimes two separate branches of the family have even come to blows, or worse, over some dispute. The practice has mostly disappeared with more centralized societies where law enforcement, in Homeric ancient Greece, the practice of personal vengeance against wrongdoers was considered natural and customary, Embedded in the Greek morality of retaliation is the right of vengeance. Feud is a war, just as war is a series of revenges. In the ancient Hebraic context, it was considered the duty of the individual, the executor of the law of blood-revenge who personally put the initial killer to death was given a special designation, goel haddam, the blood-avenger or blood-redeemer. Six Cities of Refuge were established to provide protection and due process for any unintentional manslayers, the avenger was forbidden from harming the unintentional killer if the killer took refuge in one of these cities. According to historian Marc Bloch, The Middle Ages, from beginning to end, the onus, of course, lay above all on the wronged individual, vengeance was imposed on him as the most sacred of duties. The solitary individual, however, could do but little, moreover, it was most commonly a death that had to be avenged
15.
Achaeans (Homer)
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The Achaeans constitute one of the collective names for the Greeks in Homers Iliad and Odyssey. In the historical period, the Achaeans were the inhabitants of the region of Achaea, the city-states of this region later formed a confederation known as the Achaean League, which was influential during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. The Homeric long-haired Achaeans would have been a part of the Mycenaean civilization that dominated Greece from circa 1600 BC until 1100 BC, later, by the Archaic and Classical periods, the term Achaeans referred to inhabitants of the much smaller region of Achaea. Herodotus identified the Achaeans of the northern Peloponnese as descendants of the earlier, according to Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century CE, the term Achaean was originally given to those Greeks inhabiting the Argolis and Laconia. Pausanias and Herodotus both recount the legend that the Achaeans were forced from their homelands by the Dorians, during the legendary Dorian invasion of the Peloponnese and they then moved into the region later called Achaea. A scholarly consensus has not yet been reached on the origin of the historic Achaeans relative to the Homeric Achaeans and is hotly debated. Karl Beloch suggested there was no Dorian invasion, but rather that the Peloponnesian Dorians were the Achaeans, eduard Meyer, disagreeing with Beloch, instead put forth the suggestion that the real-life Achaeans were mainland pre-Dorian Greeks. His conclusion is based on his research on the similarity between the languages of the Achaeans and pre-historic Arcadians and his conclusions at the time were challenged by other Hittitologists, as well as by Ferdinand Sommer, who published his Die Ahhijava-Urkunden in 1932. Some Hittite texts mention a nation lying to the west called Ahhiyawa, in the earliest reference to this land, a letter outlining the treaty violations of the Hittite vassal Madduwatta, it is called Ahhiya. It also refers to an earlier Wilusa episode involving hostility on the part of Ahhiyawa, Ahhiya has been identified with the Achaeans of the Trojan War and the city of Wilusa with the legendary city of Troy. It has been proposed that Ekwesh of the Egyptian records may relate to Achaea, whereas Denyen, Tanaju is also listed in an inscription at the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III. The latter ruled Egypt in circa 1382–1344 BC, moreover, a list of the cities and regions of the Tanaju is also mentioned in this inscription, among the cities listed are Mycenae, Nauplion, Kythera, Messenia and the Thebaid. During the 5th year of Pharaoh Merneptah, a confederation of Libyan, included amongst the ethnic names of the repulsed invaders is the Ekwesh or Eqwesh, whom some have seen as Achaeans, although Egyptian texts specifically mention these Ekwesh to be circumcised. Homer mentions an Achaean attack upon the delta, and Menelaus speaks of the same in Book IV of the Odyssey to Telemachus when he recounts his own home from the Trojan War. Later Greek myths also say Helen had spent the time of the Trojan War in Egypt, and not at Troy, cadmus from Phoenicia, Danaus from Egypt, and Pelops from Anatolia each gained a foothold in mainland Greece and were assimilated and Hellenized. Sons of Hellen and the nymph Orseis were Dorus, Xuthos, sons of Xuthos and Kreousa, daughter of Erechthea, were Ion and Achaeus. According to Hyginus,22 Achaeans killed 362 Trojans during their ten years at Troy, according to Margalit Finkelberg, the name Ἀχαιοί/Ἀχαιϝοί is derived from Hittite Aḫḫiyawā. However, Robert S. P. Beekes doubted the validity of this derivation, the etymology of Danaoi is uncertain, according to Beekes the name is certainly Pre-Greek
16.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
17.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
18.
Antikythera Ephebe
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The wreck site, which is dated about 70–60 BC, also yielded the Antikythera Mechanism, an astronomical calculating device, a characterful head of a Stoic philosopher, and a hoard of coins. The Ephebe, which measures 1.94 meters, slightly over lifesize, was retrieved in numerous fragments, the Ephebe does not correspond to any familiar iconographic model, and there are no known copies of the type. It has also suggested that the youth is a depiction of Perseus holding the head of the slain Gorgon. It is, perhaps, the work of the famous sculptor Euphranor, trained in the Polyclitan tradition and this work is specially admired, because the eye can detect in it at once the judge of the goddesses, the lover of Helen, and yet the slayer of Achilles. The Antikythera Ephebe is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, die Skulpturen des Schiffsfundes von Antikythera. Fraser, A. D.1928. The Antikythera Bronze Youth, a Roman therm head of similar type, bibliography of early publications. National Archaeological Museum Collection of Sculpture, A Catalogue, the Antikythera Youth in its context Masters thesis, Louisiana State University. Stais, V. Tsountas, C. and Kourouniotis, K.1902, Τὰ εὑρήματα τοῦ ναυαγίου τῶν Ἀντικυθήρων, Archaiologike Ephemeris, 145-148. Τὸ ἐν Ἀθήναις Ἐθνικὸν Μουσεῖον, vol, illustration of the Ephebe Bronzes at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens
19.
Antikythera mechanism
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Found housed in a 340 millimetres ×180 millimetres ×90 millimetres wooden box, the device is a complex clockwork mechanism composed of at least 30 meshing bronze gears. Its remains were found as one lump, later separated in three fragments, which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation works. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others, the largest gear is approximately 140 millimetres in diameter and originally had 223 teeth. The artefact was recovered probably in July 1901 from the Antikythera shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. Believed to have designed and constructed by Greek scientists, the instrument has been dated either between 150 and 100 BC, or, according to a more recent view, in 205 BC. All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are kept at the National Archaeological Museum, in Athens, the Antikythera mechanism was discovered in 45 metres of water in the Antikythera shipwreck off Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of Antikythera. All were transferred to the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens for storage, merely a lump of corroded bronze and wood at the time, the mechanism went unnoticed for two years while museum staff worked on piecing together more obvious statues. On 17 May 1902, archaeologist Valerios Stais was examining the finds, investigations into the object were soon dropped until British science historian and Yale University professor, Derek J. de Solla Price became interested in it in 1951. In 1971, both Price and Greek nuclear physicist Charalampos Karakalos made X-ray and gamma-ray images of the 82 fragments, Price published an extensive 70-page paper on their findings in 1974. Generally referred to as the first known computer, the quality and complexity of the mechanisms manufacture suggests it has undiscovered predecessors made during the Hellenistic period. Its construction relied upon theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers, in 1974, Derek de Solla Price concluded from gear settings and inscriptions on the mechanisms faces that it was made about 87 BC and lost only a few years later. Jacques Cousteau and associates visited the wreck in 1976 and recovered coins dated to between 76 and 67 BC, though its advanced state of corrosion has made it impossible to perform an accurate compositional analysis, it is believed the device was made of a low-tin bronze alloy. All its instructions are written in Koine Greek, and the consensus among scholars is that the mechanism was made in the Greek-speaking world, syracuse was a colony of Corinth and the home of Archimedes, which might imply a connection with the school of Archimedes. With its many scrolls of art and science, it was second in only to the Library of Alexandria during the Hellenistic period. A busy trading port in antiquity, Rhodes was also a centre of astronomy and mechanical engineering, home to the astronomer Hipparchus and that the mechanism uses Hipparchuss theory for the motion of the moon suggests the possibility he may have designed, or at least worked on it. He regarded the Antikythera mechanism as more valuable than the Mona Lisa, in 2014, a study by Carman and Evans argued for a new dating of approximately 200 BC. Moreover, according to Carman and Evans, the Babylonian arithmetic style of prediction fits much better with the devices predictive models than the traditional Greek trigonometric style, further dives are being undertaken in the hope of discovering more of the mechanism. The original mechanism apparently came out of the Mediterranean as a single encrusted piece, soon afterward it fractured into three major pieces
20.
Artemision Bronze
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The Artemision Bronze is an ancient Greek sculpture that was recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea. It represents either Zeus or Poseidon, is slightly over lifesize at 209 cm, the empty eye-sockets were originally inset, probably with bone, as well as the eyebrows, the lips, and the nipples. The Poseidon/Zeus is a highlight of the collections in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the debate over whether the statue represents Poseidon or Zeus hinges on the lost attribute held in the figures right hand. As Caroline Houser writes, Sometimes the Artemision protector is called Poseidon and those who would do so have been known to argue that the image must be that of the great sea god since the statue was found in the Mediterranean. But like other statues of different subjects, this one went into the sea simply because it was on board a ship that sank. Iconographic parallels with coins and vase painting from the time period show that this obscuring pose is extremely unlikely. However, the trident may have unusually short, avoiding the problem. On the basis of this and other parallels with vase-painting. It is a work of great strength in the Severe style that preceded the fifth-century classical style. A comparison can be made with the Charioteer of Delphi, a roughly contemporaneous bronze, the sculpture has also been associated with Onatas or Myron and also Kritios and Nesiotes but there is no way of knowing for certain who created the work. The sculpture was first discovered in 1926 and further excavated in 1928, unfortunately, not much is known about the wreck because exploration was abandoned when a diver died, in 1928, and was never resumed. Many such shipwrecks are of Roman date and were of vessels looting Greek art to Italy, the sculptures head, now an icon of Hellenic culture, formed the subject of a Greek 500 drachma postage stamp and a 1000 drachma banknote. References Sources F. Noack in Die Antike 5, pp Mylonas in American Journal of Archeology 48 pp 143ff, a case for the subject as Zeus. Mattusch, Greek Bronze Statuary, From the Beginnings Through the Fifth Century B. C, (Ithaca, Cornell University Press 1988, pp. 150–153. Franz Gnaedinger, Poseidon from Cape Artemision, The Geometry of a Greek Masterwork National Archaeological Museum of Athens, highlights Illustration of the complete sculpture
21.
Daidala
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The legends about Daedalus recognize him both as a man and as a mythical embodiment. He was the inventor of agalmata, statues of the gods which had open eyes and moveable limbs. These statues were so lifelike that Plato remarked upon their amazing and disconcerting mobility, the writer Pausanias thought that wooden images were referred to as daidala even before Daedalus’s time. Daidala were the implements of early society, defensive works, arms, furniture, Daedalic sculpture reveals Eastern influences, known as Orientalizing Period in Greek art. The female body is rather flatly geometric, with high waist, early sculpture exhibiting these attributes is known as Daedalic, it was used for figurines, on clay plaques, and in relief decorations on vases. It seems to have had an influence in the Peloponnese, Dorian Crete. Its style is based on a formula which remained dominant, though with evolutionary modifications. Sarah P. Morris, Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art, Princeton,1992
22.
Diadumenos
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The figure stands in contrapposto with his weight on his right foot, his left knee slightly bent and his head inclined slightly to the right, self-contained, seeming to be lost in thought. Phidias was credited with a statue of a victor at Olympia in the act of tying the fillet around his head, besides Polyclitus, his successors Lysippos and Scopas also created figures of this kind. Pliny recorded that the Polyclitan original fetched at auction the extraordinary price of a hundred talents, another version in the British Museum, slightly damaged but in otherwise reasonable condition, is from Vaison in France. Freer versions were executed in reduced scale as bronze statuettes, ausstellung im Liebieghaus-Museum Alter Plastik Frankfurt am Main. Von Zabern, Mainz 1990 ISBN 3-8053-1175-3 Detlev Kreikenbom, Bildwerke nach Polyklet, kopienkritische Untersuchungen zu den männlichen statuarischen Typen nach polykletischen Vorbildern
23.
Dipylon Inscription
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The Dipylon inscription is a short text written on an ancient Greek pottery vessel dated to ca.740 BC. It is famous for being the oldest known samples of the use of the Greek alphabet, the jug is attributed to the Late Geometrical Period. It is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the text is written in an archaic form of the Greek alphabet, with some letter shapes still resembling those of the original Phoenician alphabet. It is written right to left, with the individual letters mirror-shaped in comparison with the modern forms. It is placed in a circle around the shoulder of the vessel, the text consists of 46 characters, of which the first 35 can easily be read as an hexametric verse in Greek. The fragmentary rest is believed to have been the beginning of the verse of a distichon. The text marks the vessel as a prize in a dancing competition and it is translated as, whoever of the dancers now dances most lightly. And the second line is conjectured to have something to the effect of. He shall get me as his prize, literal translation, Whoever of all these dancers now plays most delicately, to him this. It is believed that either the Dipylon inscription or the so-called Nestor Cup is the oldest known alphabetic Greek inscription, the Nestor Cup, which also bears a verse inscription, was found in an excavation at the ancient Greek colony of Pithekoussai on the island of Ischia in Italy. It is thought to be of age with the Dipylon inscription or slightly younger. History of the Greek alphabet Pottery of Ancient Greece Powell, B, the Dipylon Oinochoe Inscription and the Spread of Literacy in 8th Century Athens, Kadmos,27, 65–86. Η γραφή, in Kopidakis, M. Z. Ιστορία της ελληνικης γλώσσας, Athens, Elliniko Logotechniko kai Istoriko Archeio, bibliotheca Augustana corpus, Online text and image Epigraphical database, Online text
24.
Funerary naiskos of Aristonautes
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The Funerary naiskos of Aristonautes is a funerary monument dating to around 320 BC, on display in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens with the inventory number 738. The funerary monument takes the form of a naiskos with a statue inside it and stood near the Dipylon Gate in the Kerameikos and it was made from Pentelic marble and had a total height of 2.48 m - the statue had a height of 1.55 m. Both forearms are largely missing, including the hands, the man in the naiskos wears the armour of a hoplite and is named by an inscription on the architrave. He is Aristonautes, son of Archenautes, from the deme of Halai, Aristonautes stands with his legs apart, taking up the majority of the ground within the naiskos, with his right foot and face turned towards the viewer. The rest of his body is turned to the left, giving the impression of movement and he is about to attack an opponent. Aristonautes wears a chiton, a breastplate, a chlamys. His right arm bears a shield and it is probable that there was a sword in his left hand, the funerary monument is a work of significance for cultural history. It stands at the transition between classical and Hellenistic art, scholars are not entirely in agreement about its date, placing it between 350 and 310 BC. Nikolaos Kaltsas, Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2002 ISBN 0-89236-686-9, pp. 204–205
25.
Jockey of Artemision
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The Jockey of Artemision is a large Hellenistic bronze statue of a young boy riding a horse, dated to around 150–140 BC. It is a rare surviving original bronze statue from Ancient Greece and it may have been dedicated to the gods by a wealthy person to honour victories in horse races, probably in the single-horse race. The statue was found in a shipwreck off Cape Artemision, in north Euboea, also found in the wreck were parts of the Artemision Bronze. The first parts of the statue were recovered in 1928. The statue was reassembled, after restoration of the tail and body. The equestrian statue is approximately life-size, with a length of 2.9 metres and 2.1 metres high and it was cast in pieces using an indirect lost wax process and then assembled with flow welding. Some parts are missing, such as the whip and reins. The horse and its rider are rendered realistically, as if captured as the horse springs away in mid-gallop, with its feet on the ground. The bronze of the legs is thicker, indicating that they were the statues primary means of support. The image of the goddess Nike is engraved on the right thigh, holding a wreath in raised hands. The horse dwarfs its jockey, a boy only 84 centimetres tall and perhaps 10 years old, possibly from Africa based on his physiognomy and his hairstyle, however, is Greek, suggesting a mixed heritage. He rides bareback without a saddle and he wears sandals and a short chiton, and looks back over his left shoulder. Charioteer of Delphi - a 5th-century bronze Hemingway, Seán, the Horse and Jockey from Artemision, A Bronze Equestrian Monument of the Hellenistic Period
26.
Kroisos Kouros
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The Kroisos Kouros is a marble kouros from Anavyssos in Attica which functioned as a grave marker for a fallen young warrior named Kroîsos. The free-standing sculpture strides forward with the archaic smile playing slightly on his face, the sculpture is dated to c. 540–515 BC and stands 1.95 meters high and it is now situated in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The inscription on the base of the reads, στε̑θι ∶ καὶ οἴκτιρον ∶ Κροίσο παρὰ σε̑μα θανόντος ∶ / ℎόν ποτ’ ἐνὶ προμάχοις ∶ ὄλεσε θο̑ρος ∶ Ἄρες. Stop and show pity beside the marker of Kroisos, dead, whom, nikolaos Kaltsas, Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2002, ISBN 0-89236-686-9, p. 58–59. Media related to Kroisos Kouros at Wikimedia Commons Anavyssos Kouros
27.
Lemnos stele
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The Lemnian language was a language spoken on the island of Lemnos in the 6th century BC. It is mainly attested by an inscription found on a stele, termed the Lemnos stele. Fragments of inscriptions on pottery show that it was spoken there by a community. In 2009, a newly discovered inscription from Efestia was reported, Lemnian is largely accepted as being closely related to Etruscan. After the Athenians conquered the island in the half of the 6th century. The inscriptions are in a similar to that used to write the Etruscan language. A relationship between Lemnian, and Etruscan as a Tyrsenian language family has been suggested due to connections in vocabulary. For example, both Etruscan and Lemnian share two unique dative cases, type-I *-si and type-II *-ale, shown both on the Lemnos Stele and in written in Etruscan. They also share the genitive in *-s and a simple past tense in *-a-i, like Etruscan, the Lemnian language appears to have had a four-vowel system, consisting of i, e, a and u. Other languages in the neighbourhood of the Lemnian area, namely Hittite and Akkadian, had similar four-vowel systems, the stele was found built into a church wall in Kaminia and is now at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The 6th century date is based on the fact that in 510 BC the Athenian Miltiades invaded Lemnos, the stele bears a low-relief bust of a helmeted man and is inscribed in an alphabet similar to the western Greek alphabet. The inscription consists of 198 characters forming 33 to 40 words, the text consists of three parts, two written vertically and one horizontally. Comprehensible is the phrase aviš sialχviš, reminiscent of Etruscan avils maχs śealχisc, šivai, aviš, sialχviš, marašm, aviš, aumai Another Lemnian inscription has been found during excavations at Efestia on the island of Lemnos. The inscription consists of 26 letters arranged in two lines of boustrophedonic script, transcription, upper line, hktaonosi, heloke lower line, soromš, aslaš Aegean languages Bonfante, Larissa. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, la nuova iscrizione tirsenica di Efestia. Steinbauer, Dieter H. Neues Handbuch des Etruskischen, development of the Etruscan Alphabet A Gloss of the Lemnian Inscription New Lemnian Inscription at R. Wallace Rasenna blog History of Etruria Etruscan Grammar The Etruscan Texts Project
28.
Marathon Boy
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The Marathon Boy or Ephebe of Marathon is a Greek bronze sculpture found in the Aegean Sea in the bay of Marathon in 1925. It is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens where it is dated to around 340–330 BC, the Museum suggests that the subject is the winner of an athletic competition. With its soft musculature and exaggerated contrapposto, its style is associated with the school of Praxiteles, the upraised arm and the distribution of weight indicate that in his original context, this ephebe was leaning against a vertical support, such as a column. Before the advent of scuba diving, its chance recovery suggested the possibility that artistic as well as archaeological treasures had been preserved from destruction in underwater sites. The Marathon Boy and the Satyr Comparable Roman marbles of a Satyr pouring wine
29.
Myrtis
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The name was chosen from common ancient Greek names. The analysis showed that Myrtis and two bodies in the mass grave had died of typhoid fever during the Plague of Athens in 430 BCE. The United Nations Regional Information Centre made Myrtis a friend of the Millennium Development Goals, human skeletal evidence from Classical Greece is scarce, as most burials at that time were preceded by cremation. Before Myrtis, no attempt to reconstruct an Ancient Greek laypersons face has been recorded, Myrtis skull was in an unusually good condition and Greek orthodontics professor Manolis Papagrigorakis requested help from Swedish specialists to recreate her facial features. A special scanner was employed for the acquisition of high-resolution anatomic data of Myrtis skull. The volume of the skull was determined at 446 cm3, following scanning, an exact replica of her skull was created, which became the basis for subsequent forensic facial reconstruction. The reconstruction process followed the so-called Manchester method, the tissues were laid from the skull surface outward by using depth marker pegs to determine thickness. The shape, size and position of the eyes, ears, nose, the thickness of the facial tissues were evaluated according to average values taken from corresponding reference tables for age, gender and race. The mouth width and the lip thickness were estimated by the pattern, Myrtis reconstructed face was given brown eyes and brown hair, but the true colors of these can only be determined by DNA analysis. The hairstyle she was given follows the fashion of the time, a class II skeletal and dental malocclusion was observed in Myrtis remains. Women in Classical Athens News footage of Myrtis facial reconstruction Dental condition report on Myrtis
30.
Nestor's Cup
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The term Cup of Nestor or Nestors Cup can refer to, A golden mixing cup, described in Homers Iliad, belonging to Nestor, the king of Pylos. A golden goblet, found at Mycenae, which the excavator, Heinrich Schliemann, a clay drinking vessel of the 8th century BC found at Pithekoussai, Ischia, which bears a famous inscription calling itself Nestors cup. The Iliad of Homer describes a magnificent golden cup that belongs to Nestor, the king of Pylos, Beside these she set a cup, there were four handles on it, around each one a pair of golden doves was feeding. When that cup was full, another man could lift it from the table. In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann excavated Grave Circle A at Mycenae, Shaft Grave IV yielded the richest finds, and among these Schliemann found a golden vessel which he identified as the Cup of Nestor as described in the Iliad. Schliemann believed that the graves dated to the time of the Trojan War. However, Schliemanns identification of the graves with Homeric heroes was not accepted by many archaeologists in his own day. The shaft graves are dated to ca. 1600-1500 BC, some three centuries before the date of the Trojan War, thus the Cup of Nestor from Mycenae would have been buried hundreds of years before Nestor supposedly made use of it at Troy. The cup found at Mycenae differs from Homers description in several respects, the cup from Mycenae has two handles, whereas Homers cup has four. This cup is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Pithekoussai was one of the earliest Greek colonies in the West. The cup is dated to the Geometric Period and is believed to have been manufactured in Rhodes. It is now kept in the Villa Arbusto museum in the village of Lacco Ameno on the island of Ischia, the cup bears a three-line inscription that was scratched on its side at a later time, and it was later used as a burial gift for a young boy. The inscription is now famous as being one of the oldest known examples of writing in the Greek alphabet, both inscriptions are dated to c. 740-720 BC and have been linked to early writing in the island of Euboea. The inscription is fragmented, as some shards of the cup are lost and it is written in the early Euboean form of the Western Greek alphabet, written from right to left in three separate lines. Nestor’s cup, good to drink from, whoever drinks from this cup, him straightaway the desire of beautiful-crowned Aphrodite will seize. At the beginning, many scholars propose the restitution I am, the second and third lines form a hexameter verse each, with a perfect regular scansion. Modern scholars agree that the text is meant as a humorous contrast between the richness of the legendary Cup of Nestor and the simplicity of the drinking cup
31.
Ninnion Tablet
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The Ninnion Tablet, dated to approximately 370 BC, is a red clay tablet depicting the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries. It was rediscovered in Eleusis, Attica in 1895, and is kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the tablet depicts Iacchus leading a procession of initiates into the Mysteries. Receiving this group are the deities Demeter and Persephone, above the artifacts main scene are multiple representations of the moon. The Ninnion Tablet is the only known representation of the Mysteries initiation rites. Chapter 22, The Mysteries of Demeter and Kore, blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Eleusis, Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, volume 4 of Archetypal Images in Greek Religion
32.
Phrasikleia Kore
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The Phrasikleia Kore is an Archaic Greek statue by the artist Aristion of Paros created between 550 and 540 B. C. It was found on a tomb in the ancient city of Myrrhinus in Attica, due to its exceptional state of preservation, it is one of the most important works of Archaic art. Michel Fourmont, who visited Greece in the years 1729–1730, described a block of marble with an inscription that was found in the church of Panagia of Merenda, the inscription had been rendered illegible before being used in the church, but it was able to be reconstructed. In 1968, the block was removed and placed in the Epigraphical Museum of Athens, four years later, the archaeologist Efthymios Mastrokostas discovered two marble statues in the tombs at Myrrhinus, a kouros and a kore, which obviously belonged with the same inscription. They immediately remembered the base with the inscription that had found by itself 200 metres away. In the lower part of the statues were found pieces of lead that had once attached them to their base, based on this mass of lead, which exactly fit the marble block with the inscription, the fact that they belonged together was clearly demonstrated. Although the name of Aristion had been known from being mentioned in inscriptions, the inscription may be the earliest known example of stoichedon, in which evenly spaced letters are aligned both horizontally and vertically. The statue is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and is displayed in Room 11, the statue, of Parian marble, is 211 centimetres high and rises on a pedestal 26 centimetres high. As the inscription suggests, it depicts a woman who died unmarried. She is standing erect and wearing a peplos, decorated with flowers and meanders. Around her waist she wears a girdle, the foreparts of her feet and sandals are visible. Her right arm hangs down and firmly holds onto her peplos and her left arm is bent in front of her body and holds a still-unopened lotus flower. On her head she wears a garland of flowers, round about her neck a necklace and it is possible to see traces of the original polychrome. In the Gods in Color exhibit, a reconstruction of the coloring is presented, Phrasikleia, an anthropology of reading in ancient Greece. Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1993, ISBN 0-8014-9752-3, vinzenz Brinkmann, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, Heinrich Piening. The Funerary Monument to Phrasikleia, in, Circumlitio, the Polychromy of Antique and Mediaeval Sculpture, Akten des Kolloquium Liebieghaus Frankfurt 2008,2010, p. 188-217
33.
Pitsa panels
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The Pitsa panels or Pitsa tablets are a group of painted wooden tablets found near Pitsa, Corinthia. They are the earliest surviving examples of Greek panel painting, the four panels, two of them highly fragmentary, were discovered during the 1930s in a cave near the village of Pitsa, in the vicinity of Sicyon. They can be dated to circa 540–530 BC, i. e. to the Archaic period of Greek art. The tablets are thin wooden boards or panels, covered with stucco and their bright colours are surprisingly well preserved. Only eight colours are used, with no shading or gradation of any sort, probably, the black contour outlines were drawn first and then filled in with colours. The tablets depict religious scenes connected with the cult of the nymphs, one of the two near-complete examples shows a sacrifice to the nymphs. Three or more females, dressed in chiton and peplos, are approaching an altar to the right and they are accompanied by musicians playing the lyra and aulos. The person nearest the altar appears to be pouring a libation from a jug, a small figure behind her, perhaps a slave, is leading a lamb, the sacrificial victim. An inscription in the Corinthian alphabet names two woman dedicators, Euthydika and Eucholis and states that the tablet, or the offering, is dedicated to the nymphs. The second well-preserved tablet also has a dedication to the nymphs. The tablets are votive offerings, connected with the cult of the nymphs. Stylistically and technically, they represent rather low quality panel paintings of their time. Most ancient paintings that survived are either frescoes or vase paintings and it is known that panel paintings were held in much higher regard, but very few of them have survived. The best known examples of ancient panel painting, the Fayum mummy portraits, the Pitsa panels, probably preserved due to the unusual climatic conditions inside the cave, are by far the earliest examples of this technique to survive. As the only pre-Roman specimens, they represent virtually all the evidence for a style of art. Incidentally, the ancient Greeks believed that painting was invented in Sicyon. Panel painting Archaic Greece Art in ancient Greece Ancient Greek religion Larson, J. Greek Nymphs — Myth, Cult, oxford University Press,2001, pp. 232–233. Page about Pitsa on a dedicated to ancient Sicyon Pitsa panels on Foundation for the Hellenic World website
34.
Sounion Kouros
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The Sounion Kouros is an early archaic Greek statue of a naked young man or kouros. Larger than life size, the statue was carved in marble from Naxos in around 600BC and it has similarities with Egyptian statues but the kouros is naked with no skirt. The head is large and square, with an archaic smile, some red colouring remains in the strands of braided hair, which are held by a ribbon tied by in a Heracles knot, and with curls on the forehead. Anatomical features are suggested by surface marks, including eight compartments to the abdomen, some details are abstracted, it has large volute earlobes, over large almond-shaped eyes, and the proportions are elongated. Restored to a height of 3.05 metres, it is now held by the National Archaeological Museum of Athens
35.
Theseus Ring
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The Theseus Ring is a gold signet ring that dates back to the Mycenaean period. The ring is gold and measures 2.7 x 1.8 cm, on the ring is a depiction of a bull-leaping scene, which includes a lion to the left and what may be a tree on the right. It dates to the Minoan period of Greece and comes from the area of Anafiotika in the Plaka, the antiquity of the Theseus Ring has been debated ever since its discovery in the Plaka district of Athens in the 1950s. For a while it was dismissed as a fake, but as of August 2,2006, the ring has been identified as an authentic 15th century BC artifact. The Greek press had reported the discovery of a signet ring. After an examination by a panel of experts at the Cultural Ministry, the ring was named the Theseus Ring because of an ancient Greek myth about Theseus. According to this story, there was a dispute between Minos and Theseus over the parentage of Theseus, in Crete, Minos molested one of the maidens and Theseus became angry and challenged him, boasting of his parentage by Poseidon. Minos, being the son of Zeus, did not believe that Theseus did indeed have divine parentage, Minos believed that if Theseus father was in fact Poseidon, Theseus would have no difficulty reaching the bottom of the ocean. Minos threw a ring overboard and challenged Theseus to dive in, the fishes of the sea then took Theseus upon their backs and conveyed him to the palace of Amphitrite, Poseidons wife. She handed Theseus the ring that had landed at the bottom of the floor and also gave him a jeweled crown. Greek archaeologists confirm authenticity of Theseus Ring Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology, Theseus Rings in Mythology Theseus and the Ring
36.
Warrior Vase
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The Mycenaean Warrior Vase, found by Heinrich Schliemann on the acropolis of Mycenae, is one of the prominent treasures of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. The Warrior Vase, dated to the 13th century BCE, is probably the piece of Late Helladic pottery. It is a krater, a bowl used for the dilution of wine with water. The broad frieze of armed soldiers on the vase, which is incomplete, the warriors are clad in short chitons, breastplates, helmets and greaves, they are armed with spears and carry shields. The bulls head handles for long encouraged scholars to date the piece later, many Scholars observe that the style of the figures and the bull head handles of this thirteenth century BCE vase are very similar to eighth century BCE pottery. Similar spearmen are also depicted in eighth century BCE pottery which introduces a curious 500 year gap in styles and this vase also leads to clues about post-palatial Mycenaean warriors. The knapsacks the warriors carry suggest that they may have to long distances to battle. Figures on one side of the vase wear helmets with horns, the other side depicts warriors in hedgehog style helmets. The latter is equipped with spears that are shorter than general spears depicted of the time, the warriors on both sides have shields, tunics, and leg protection. The warriors on either side appear to be uniform suggesting the army as a whole and not representing individual warriors
