The Hellenic Writers' Group of Washington D.C. is proud to present Stella Lagakos's article from her recent trip to Greece. We will present Part I today, and more is to come.
Discovering My Ancient Greek Roots
Stella Lagakos
Part I
This trip has expanded our imagination
With fondness and admiration
My husband and I traveled to Greece this past March for two weeks. This trip was different because we decided to stop for a night in Nafplio on our way to our home town Gythio in order to visit Mycenae the next day. Nafplio is a beautiful town that has expanded up the hillside near the North end of the Argolic Gulf. It is one of the most beautiful towns in the area of Argolis in the eastern Peloponnesus. It is a very romantic city in Greece.
Our hotel was close to the beach and under the famous Palamidi, where Theodore Kolokotronis was imprisoned in a very tiny cell. According to mythology, the town was founded by Nafplios, the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Danaus. The town’s history traces back to Prehistoric times when soldiers from Nafplio participated in the Argonautic expedition in the Trojan war which took place at the end of the year 1300 B.C.
The town declined during the Roman period, but flourished again during the Byzantine times. The Venetians and Turkish Conquerors left their mark on the town and strongly influenced its culture, architect, and traditions during the centuries. Ancient walls, medieval castles, monuments, Ottoman fountains and Venetia of Neoclassical buildings mesmerize the visitor with their unique architecture and beauty. It was the first capital of Greece from 1823 to 1834.
Our journey though, was to visit Mycenae, the ancient kingdom of Perseus.
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Everyone admires Mycenae arts and crafts,
Especially those who studied Greek civilization
And Art
To our delight, there were 300 college students from all over the world visiting at the same time. One group was from the University of Baltimore. Their instructor was not Greek, but he admired the Greek civilization and he told us his wife is Greek. He studied Greek civilization and theater. He asked us where we came from and then he introduced us to his group as ‘Our friends from Silver Spring.’
Other groups told us they were from different countries like Italy, France, England, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Holland. Greek groups were missing that day, hopefully they emphasize such a splendid civilization in the Greek schools to date, as they did back when we were students.
First we saw the museum, a beautiful building with several big windows where we could see different views of the hills around it. The day was extraordinarily beautiful with lots of sunshine and very low humidity. It was such a delight to walk this ancient kingdom with such nice weather. It was March 20th, the first day of spring, and the hills were at their best. Wild flowers covered their sides with such a variety of colors, red, white, yellow, blue and purple, pink, and mauve. I wanted to be out there, picking these flowers, and smelling their wonderful aromas. My attention was drawn away from gazing outside and shifted towards the glass showcases, where ancient vases, solid gold pieces of jewelry, sculpture, and a magnificent civilization came before my eyes. I could not resist the beauty of all of these figures and I was astonished how remarkable the art of that civilization was, considering that these people did not have the facilities we have today.
For a moment I wanted to be there in their position to envision and to be part of this unbelievable civilization, to spend time getting involved and to craft such miracles. Were these people original people or part of the Mycenae Legend, which according to tradition, were founded by Perseus, son of God of Dias and Danais daughter of Acrisios, King of Argos?
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Perseus built Mycenae
The most war oriented place of all
According to the prophesy, Perseus was to kill his grandfather Acrisios without knowing that he was his grandfather, to exchange his Kingdom of Argos with Tirintha. Perseus built Mycenae, which was the most important center of the Mycenaic period (1600-1100 before Christ) among others, such as Pylos in Peloponnesus, Acropolis in Athens, Elefsina, Acropolis of Theva, Tirintha and many others. In order to protect his city Mycenae, he hired the mythical Cyclopes to build the walls around his Kingdom with huge blocks of stones and he named it Acropolis, and the walls Kyclopeia.
I wondered how these people could handle such huge blocks of stones without the equipment we have today? Cyclopes were giants in body and had only one eye, and extraordinary strength. Did these giants really exist or was it a myth? According to Pafsanias, an ancient historian, Perseas named the city after his sword pommel, which was shaped like an actual mushroom (myke) and which he dropped there. Another theory is from an actual mushroom, which he picked up to use as a cup when thirsty, and that caused a spring to appear under it. Homer believed the name came from Mycenae, a nymph of great beauty, but uncertain origin. In my opinion, the word Mycenae is two words
Myce or mushroom, and
nae, which means something holy, like a church. The Perseid dynasty ruled over Mycenae and its territory for at least three generations. Eurystheus, the last king, was the one when Hercules performed his famous twelve labors on.
Hercules was famous for his strength. The people of Mycenae next chose Altreus, the son of Pelops, to be the king after Eurystheus was killed in a battle against the Athenians and the sons of Hercules. Altreus ruled Mycenae, but his hate against his brother Thyestes led him to give, to eat the flesh of his own children, (the so called Thyestean feast). The dead brought upon Altreus and all his ascendants the wrath of the Gods and Thyestes’s curse.
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Homer’s Iliad magnificently explains the Trojan War
And is the main source for these events
Altreus’s son and heir, Agamemnon, is the one who assumed the leadership of the Greeks in their expedition against Troy. Agamemnon was the chief of the Greek Army at that time and his brother was Meneleos, the king of Sparti. He wanted badly to win Troy for its excellent strategic position at that time. The real reasons and the duration of the Trojan war cannot be exactly determined, but there were rumors that the Axaioi wanted to build their empire there and have control of the Efxeino Ponto in order to be able to advance their naval emporium in that region.
Homer is the main source of history for the events that took place during the war. The legend is that three Godesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, quarreled over which of them was the fairest. The Judge was Paris, the handsome son of the Trojan king Priam, who decided in favor of Aphrodite, and as a reward was promised the most beautiful of women, Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta. Paris stole Helen from Kranai, Gythion’s little island and headed for Troy. Meneleos called upon his brother Agamemnon, the best commander of that period, and with 1186 ships and more than 100,000 men from different states and principalities set out against Troy. Agamemnon came back to Mycenae from Troy to be killed by his wife Clytemistra, assisted by her lover Aegisthos. Agamemnon’s children, Orestes and his sister Electra, killed both their mother and Aegisthos but they were both acquitted by the Aeropagous court in Athens. The last king of Mycenae, according to tradition, was Tismenos, Orestes son; he was killed while defending his state from the descendents of Hercules.
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We entered into the Kyclopeia walls
Through the great Lion Gate
And into what is left of the Palace of Mycenae
As we walked outside the museum and into the entrance of Acropolis, two lions decorated the entrance. Their heads were missing (they were made from different material, and the weather took a toll on them), while their bodies were intact. We entered the majestic looking gate and the area to our immediate right was a wheat storage area, a warehouse to store wheat and other farming goods. In that area the servants would package the goods to be exported and sold to other countries. The farms were very productive because water was plentiful. As we walked the steps on the other side we noticed the graves of the kings where a lot of the beautiful vases and gold ornaments had been found by Schliemann, the German archaeologist, in the 1880s. The ancient Greeks honored their dead with such things as their best art and gold jewelry; most of them are in the museum located outside the Acropolis area. The area inside the Acropolis is protected by the Government, and no one can touch it without permission from the Archaeological Society, which is responsible for the protection of the ancient sites of Greece.
As we walked up the steps, we saw where the palace was located on the top of the hill. Next to it was a mansion, a house with a holy altar, and the remains of a church. There were two red stones, exactly were the entrance of the two-story palace would be. In one of the corners was the throne from where we could see the Argolian cambos and as far as the sea of Nafplio. This fueled our imaginations. What wonderful scenery there was around us, with the green grass plentiful this time of the year. This spot was gorgeous and strategically chosen to spot the enemies coming from any direction, from the sea and all around. The palace was very large and it was a place for the congress to meet. It was a continuation of two large rooms built on the side of a very sharp edge of a hill from where the view was undisturbed by anything except the singing of the baby birds, from their nests which were built inside the sharp edges of the hill. I wanted to be there in the morning when the sun was rising, to witness the sunrise, and the different colors in the horizon combining with the reflection of the sun’s rays in the water. I wanted to witness the different gems of the water shining their individual colors, in combination with the green fields full of wild flowers and aromas.
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Our imagination was energized
Of how this ancient place would
Have been in the medieval age
We imagined how this place looked like during those glorious years, when it was at its peak. On one side of the Acropolis would be the servants, busy cleaning and taking orders, while the artists would be designing the vases, and making the famous jewels for the king and their nobles. The gold mask of Agamemnon was a famous piece found by Schliemann in Agamemnon’s grave V. His face was detailed in a gold leaf with such detail and grace. Other famous pieces were made from bronze.
The drawings on those pieces were made with other metals, and consisted of animal hunting scenes and sea decorations. The vases had drawings of warriors with horses. A mask made out of asbestos represented a woman’s face named Sfigga. The Mecenaens followed their teachers from Crete to develop their Art, and their influence from them was great, although they went farther to develop military themes, which were their specialty. The congress and the King were busy making decisions as to what their next expeditions would be and against whom.
This era was all about battles, and that shows in their drawings. Parties, entertainment, called pompes, and bullfights were also present. The Acropolis with its Kyklopeian walls was like a small kingdom with their king, their army, their nobles, their servants, their farmers, cattle farmers, even prisoners from the wars, many different classes of people lived there. That is apparent from the different types of graves discovered there and what the archaeologists found in them, especially the perpendicular royal tombs found by Erricos Sleman in 1876. Homer’s Iliad and Odysseia and what is written there agree with the archaeologists’ discoveries.
Source: Museum of Mycenae, Greece, 2014
Bio:
Stella Lagakos is a member of the Hellenic Writers' Group of Washington, D.C.. She was born in Gythion, Laconias, Greece. She studied business at Queen's College, NY. She is married and has one son, and lives in the Washington DC area. She travels often to Greece with her husband and is currently writing her memoir.
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