Agamemnon: Did you mean...?

The relief of Samothrace, c. 550 BCE. An inscription identifies a procession of Agamemnon, a herald, and Epeios (maker of the Trojan Horse). To the right is a griffin, now defaced. (Louvre Museum, Paris)

Homer's Iliad describes the final year of the Trojan War, a legendary conflict between an alliance of Greek cities and the city of Troy in Anatolia. It was probably written in the 8th century BCE after a long oral tradition. The Greeks themselves...

The so-called death mask of Agamemnon - the king of Mycenae in Homer's Iliad. Gold funeral mask from Grave Circle A, Mycenae (mid-16th century BCE). The mask in fact predates Agamemnon by 400 years but nevertheless remains solid evidence...

Helen of Troy (sometimes called Helen of Sparta) is a figure from Greek mythology whose elopement with (or abduction by) the Trojan prince Paris sparked off the Trojan War. Helen was the wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, and considered...

The Trojan War was fought between Greeks and the defenders of the city of Troy in Anatolia sometime in the late Bronze Age. The story has grabbed the imagination for millennia but a conflict between Mycenaeans and Hittites may well have occurred...

A short video describing Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of the so-called "Death Mask of Agamemnon".

Diomedes is the king of Argos and a hero in Greek mythology. He was one of the leading warriors in the Trojan War, with the reputation of being gifted and strong in combat. He contributed 80 ships to the Greek forces in the Trojan War and...

Electra is a play written by the 5th-century BCE Greek tragedian Sophocles. Similar to Aeschylus' Libation Bearers, Electra focuses on the return of Electra's brother Orestes from exile and the plot to murder their mother. Years earlier...

Mycenae was a fortified late Bronze Age city located between two hills on the Argolid plain of the Peloponnese, Greece. The acropolis today dates from between the 14th and 13th century BCE when the Mycenaean civilization was at its peak of...

Mask of Agamemnon, from shaft grave V, grave circle A, c.1550-1500 B.C.E., gold, 12 inches / 35 cm (National Archaeological Museum, Athens) Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris