Grave Circle A at Mycenae
placeThe royal burial ground at Mycenae where Schliemann discovered the golden death masks, connecting Homeric mythology to archaeological reality.
The Myth
Grave Circle A at Mycenae was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, following his conviction that Homer's epics described real places and real people. Inside the circle of upright stone slabs, he found six shaft graves containing nineteen bodies adorned with gold — masks, diadems, breast plates, and hundreds of gold ornaments. Upon removing a golden mask from one of the male burials, Schliemann reportedly telegraphed the King of Greece: "I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon." The mask, though magnificent, dates to the 16th century BC — about 300 years before the traditional date of the Trojan War. The burials belonged to an earlier Mycenaean dynasty. Nevertheless, the discovery proved that Mycenae was indeed the wealthy, powerful citadel Homer described. The Lion Gate, the megaron, and the tholos tombs all confirmed that the Iliad's descriptions of golden Mycenae were rooted in genuine Bronze Age splendour.
Parents
Agamemnon (traditional), earlier dynasty (actual)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The "Mask of Agamemnon" is the most famous archaeological artifact in Greece, but Schliemann almost certainly knew it wasn't actually Agamemnon's face — it's 300 years too old. Some scholars even suspect he planted or modified artifacts to make his discoveries more dramatic. Regardless, his gamble that Homer described real places revolutionised archaeology. The mask, whoever it belonged to, proved that a semi-literate businessman reading Homer like a guidebook could find treasures that professional scholars had dismissed as fantasy.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
Explore Further
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