House of Atreus.
DIES VENERIS PRID. NON. MART. MMDCCLII A.U.C. | VI
Photographer: Xuan Che
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Prior to the eighteenth century, Western scholars dismissed the idea that Greek mythology possessed historical merit. ¹
German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann shattered that misperception when he unearthed what is widely considered to be the ancient citadel of Mycenae, founded by Perseus & governed by Agamemnon, whose tragic history has been dramatised by Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, Anne Washburn & co.
This artefact, excavated by Schliemann, is popularly (& erroneously) referred to as the death mask of Agamemnon.
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¹ Judith G. Coffin, Robert C. Stacey, Western Civilizations (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008), 64.
Image used with permission under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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2012-Feb-04