Arnhem (nl) 2016 – Hellas in the bronze age- 2 © Joost Blasweiler

The kings of and the cemetery in

Royal tombs at Dendra, July 2015, pictures by author.

The acropolis of Midea was the third most-powerful centre of the Mycenaean Argolid after the other two cyclopedian citadels of and .1 The history of this kingdom has almost disappeared, although the myth of tells us of the rise of the kingdom in the time period of the Mycenaeans. Jorrit Kelder stated that the Mycenaean kings had ruled a large territory of about three times the size of modern of . Its territory included various major centers like Tiryns and the harbor Nauplion, which could plausibly be seen as important yet dependent sub-centers ruled by branches of the Mycenae’s royal clan.2 Katie Demakopoulo confirmed that all these citadels belong to the floruit of the Mycenaean civilization. The fortifications of Tiryns were the earliest from the beginning of the 14th century BC; the others followed some decennia later. Nevertheless Midea had already been inhabited during the final phases of the Stone Age and it became, according to Demakopoulo, a flourishing settlement in the early and mid Bronze Age (3200-1600 BC).3 By the establishment of a palace system of government in , Midea played an important role in the control and protection of the fertile Argive plain.

1 Katie Demakopoulo 2012, The Mycenaean Acropolis of Midea, published by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 12. 2 Jorrit M. Kelder 2010, The kingdom of Mycenae, 97. 3 Katie Demakopoulo 2012, The Mycenaean Acropolis of Midea, 12.

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The myth of Perseus gives more details about the interrelationship of these kings in the area. It was in the myths of ancient people that they made their view of the world explicit. Myths were used to describe a specific time and location where a narrative had taken place; historical narratives according to a tradition of a specific town or area. These myths evolved for centuries. Almost all of the etiological narratives, in which the Hellenes relate to us narratives of where they come from or who they originally were, are myths. And in these myths, we are told how the gods, the lower deities, and the demons, were acting. The supernatural element to life was extremely important in the lives of the people in the ancient world, so it was only natural that in their historical narratives they are relating to us the deeds of the gods, and the meaning of their deeds in their daily life.

Perseus, king of Tiryns, was the son of Danaë and Zeus, who founded Mycenae and Midea. The myth tells us that king Akrisios has ruled Argos at the Peloponnesus.4 His life was poisoned by his fear from a prophecy of an oracle. That one day, the son of his only daughter Danaë would kill him. To prevent his daughter from marrying, he built a huge bronze tower and at the top he locked her up, strongly guarded. Lonely and longing for her salvation she passed her days, till Zeus laid his eyes upon her. He was touched by her sadness and beauty. Zeus descended from the sky to her like a golden rain.

Aerial photograph of the acropolis of Midea 2010 ©Katie Demakopoulo - the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

4 Sophie Ramondt 1989, Mythen en Sagen van de Griekse wereld, Perseus: 86-116. There are several variants of the myth.

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Then everything became light and lovely around Danaë, and within her, a child of Zeus grew in a wonderful way. In the tower-top she gave birth to a child: the radiant Perseus. King Akrisios became frantic and he ordered that his daughter and her son be placed in a box and thrown into the sea. Protected by Zeus, they bobbed to the small island Serifos, where king Polydektes accommodated them friendly. Perseus grew up and being challenged by king Polydektes, he decided to slay . Perseus is helped by Hermes, Athene, and Hephaestus with advice and vital equipment how to find and kill Medusa.5 Perseus beheaded Medusa and flew away with her head above the sea. Drops of blood of Medusa fell down and mingled with sea foam, from which a snow-white, winged horse, Pegasus was born by the will of Poseidon. Perseus flew above the mountains and deserts of Africa and landed in Aethiopia. There he killed a sea-drakōn of Poseidon to save , the daughter of king Kepheus, the king of Aethiopia. And he had to defeat the brother of Kepheus, because Andromeda, when she was young, had been promised to marry her uncle. Afterwards, Perseus married Andromeda, and they went by boat to the island Serifos, where his mother Danaë was waiting. After defeating Polydektes, who wanted to marry his mother against her will, he gave the Medusa-head to Pallas Athene, who fixed it on her aegis, a sacral fleece. All these struggles about princesses can be explained by the tradition in ancient Hellas, that the royal succession (often) has been determined by the marriage of the daughter of the king or by remarrying the queen.6 Finally they all went back to Argos, where king Akrisios still ruled his kingdom. And so it was prophesied, king Akrisios was accidentally killed by Perseus. He threw his discus in the funeral-game of the father of king Teutamides of Pelasgian . His discus carried out of its path by the wind and the will of the gods, and it killed his grandfather. After the accident it was impossible for Perseus to succeed as the king of Argos. He offered the throne of Argos to his cousin, the king of Tiryns, and therefore Perseus became king of Tiryns. The famous royal clan of the Perseīden originated 7 from Perseus and Andromeda. According to the tradition king Perseus founded Mycenae and Midea from Tyrins. At the end of the 13th century BC, Midea was hit by a devasting earthquake, which caused extensive damage to the acropolis. It would appear that Poseidon, “he who shakes the earth”, had avenged the Perseīden for their killing his former lover Medusa.

Walls of the acropolis of Midea, July 2015.

5 Daniel Ogden 2013, Drakōn, 92 and 237. 6 Margalit Finkelberg 2005, Greeks and Pre-Greeks, 65-71. 7 J.G. Schlimmer and Z.C. de Boer 1910, Woordenboek der Grieksche en Romeinsche Oudheid, 456. The Tiryns area was inhabited before the Bronze age, and ancient Greeks believed that the citadel was built by Proitos, brother of the king of Argos, Akrisios, and grandfather of Perseus, the founder of Mycenae. "...Akrisios stayed in Argos, Proitos took the Heraion, and Mideia, Tiryns" (Pausanias, II 16 6).

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Rodney Castleden stated that ancient Argos in the Mycenaean time period was not the capital of the . 8 He wrote: “There are hints that Argos was subordinated to the king of Mycenae. The Catalogue of Ships in the has the Argive contingent led by two descendants of king of Argos, but they are dominated by and outshone by Diomedes, who is the son of an Aetolian exile, but also totally loyal and subservient to Agamemnon”. Castleden described that opposite Argos, dominating the eastern edge of the Argive plain, is Midea, which is one of the least known Mycenaean sites. Midea was nevertheless the third fortress of the Argolid, after Mycenae and Tiryns, and was built on a high conical hill about half way between them. Its massive circuit walls enclosing 24.000 square meters of acropolis and terraces. Around 1200 BC, her great buildings were destroyed by conflagration and a earthquake.

To the upper acropolis of Midea, July 2015.

8 Rodney Castleden 2005, Mycenaeans, 53

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One can wonder if there was an independent kingdom of Midea in the Mycenaean time period. No text have been found in which this is indicated. The archeological results show that a (vassal?) ruler or administrator might have lived in the upper acropolis. A kind of palace building has been attested at the lower part of the acropolis.9 According to Jorrit Kelder, the wealthy kings of Mycenae had ruled not only the area of the Argive plains and mountains, but also the whole of Korinthia and probably even . He stated that it is likely that at least from LH IIIA (ca. 1400 BC) onward, the whole Argive plain was part of the kingdom of Mycenae. In the Kom el Hetan list of Egypt only Mycenae and Naupilion (the port of arrival) were mentioned and not the cities of Tiryns, Midea and Argos.10 The many royal tombs at Derna about 3 km northwest of the acropolis of Midea are a strong indication that Midea was once a separate kingdom and perhaps even in the Mycenaean time period. In Tiryns just a few large tholos graves, and around the citadel of Mycenae many royal graves and tholos have been found, which might implicate that their royal clans did not use the cemetery of Derna.11 It is quite possible that the great kings of Mycenae had subordinated many vassal kings and other kings, who had recognized the king of Mycenae as a war-leader or leader in foreign affairs.

Ground plan of the fortified area of the Acropolis of Midea( after E. Markou with additions by M. Patapatiou and A. Kiratzis). Legend: 1. Palace and other building remains(13th-12th c. BC). 2 and 3 Complex of buildings end 13th c. BC. 4. Buildings of the pre- Mycenaean period 4800 -1600 BC. 6. Mycenaean and Late Roma periods. 7-9 Building remains + sally port “Syrinx” 13th-12th c. BC. 10. Inner gate.

9 Katie Demakopoulo 2012, The Mycenaean Acropolis of Midea, 10 Jorrit M. Kelder 2010, The kingdom of Mycenae, 96. 11 In the area of the city Mycenae many tholos tombs have been found. Louise Schofield reported that close to Mycenae at Berbati , Prosymna and at Kokla many tholos tombs have been found from the 15th century BC, as well (2007, The Mycenaeans, 57). In Nauplion at the foot of the hill Pronoia some Mycenaean graves has been excavated (Nicos Paphatzis1978 , Mycenae-- Tiryns- Nauplion, 36).

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The royal cemetery of Derna. At a distance of three kilometers from the acropolis of Midea, the cemetery of Dendra is located. 16 chamber graves and one monumental tholos tomb have been excavated between the time period of 1927 and 1995. The graves dated from ca. 1400 till ca. 1300 BC. Many of them were robbed in the Mycenaean time period itself and many have been used more than once as the final resting place of the royal clans of the king of Midea. The tombs 2, 10 and 12 contained important and rich offerings, like one found in the tholos tomb. The dromos to the tombs were blocked by stones and earth. A tomb had usually several pits in which the royal men, women and children were buried. Just a few persons of one royal family appeared to have been buried in one tomb. The tholos tomb had 4 pits and a king and queen have been found in one large pit of the tholos. In one tomb the bodies of horses or donkeys were buried.12 According to the excavators, many of the tombs, inside or just before the entrance one can see the result of lighting funeral pyres and gifts. Professor Persson stated that in the tholos of Midea a pyre with funeral gifts had been burnt, as well.13 Martin Nilsson stated that these fires were so extensive that they cannot be acknowledged as only for purificatory and sanitary purposes, but has to be seen as a curious mixture of inhumation and burning of offerings. The religious meaning of burial is clear. The earth bears all which lives. However it is the earth which also reclaims life, not to destroy, but to receive it in her own form. To be buried is to share the spontaneous, eternal life of the earth. Fire, like the earth, bestows eternal life. 14

Tombs in Dendra, map of Axel W. Persson 1931, The Royal Tombs at Dendra near Midea, 20.

12 Evangelia Pappi & Valasia Isaakidou 2015, On the significance of equids in the Late Bronze Aegean, Mycenaeans up to date. 13 Martin P. Nilsson 1949, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survival in Greek Religion, 597. 14 W. Brede Kristensen 1992, Life out of Death, 178-179.

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Warmth is the condition of life in the world of plants, animals and man. Hephaistos represented this cosmic principle of life; his eternal fire was eternal life and renewal of his fire on the altar was renewal of life of the world.

Tomb no.2 appeared to be a Cenotaph, a tomb without the remains of the deceased. The surviving relatives would have done their best to bring the souls to rest. A desire dictated not only by piety, but most of all by fear, so that the souls shall not hover around. described this belief in the Iliad. For instance, when Odysseus was forced to flee from the land of the Cicones,15 he did not set sail until he had three times called by name those of his comrades who had fallen in battle (Axel W. Persson 1931:109 and Martin P.Nilsson1949, Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, 600). Perssons described two stone statues, which were found in tomb no2. The stones take the place of the bodies of the deceased, they are there to supply a material covering of the souls. They probably underwent the same treatment, which the bodies otherwise have received, like washing and anointing. Also in classical times the tomb stone was the substitute of the deceased to a certain extent at the offering of scarifies, it was anointed and wreathed, and decorative ribbons were wound round it. The Great Bear was pictured in tomb no.2 in Dendra. Above the altar in tomb 7 small holes were in the wall. Ca. 2m above the floor and it reminded Persson of the constellation of the Great Bear. Its appearance is like the one in royal tombs of Egypt. He stated that the holes are 15 cm. deep and could have served for fastening metal stars or perhaps an object representing the constellation, which here can be explained as a symbol of immorality. Plutarch says that the souls of the gods were removed to heaven to shine as stars and the soul of Typhon is called the bear. In the tomb among the burial gifts the excavators found a typical Egyptian alabastron and an Egyptian beaded garment. According to Persson this gives additional support to the suggestion that the chamber tomb was also made for a man of noble birth, who like the Egyptian kings was transferred to the stars. Persson (1931: 115-116) also pointed to the pictures on the sarcophagus from Hagia Triada, which might represent “the deification of the mighty dead” (Martin P. Nilsson, 1927: 368).

The several Egyptian objects in the tombs of Derna show the contacts between the kings of the Argolid and Egypt. The tradition to collect costly objects to enhance the status of rulers and their royal clan is also attested in the Aegean. Many of these (golden) objects had a religious meaning for funerals (H. Wittaker 2011:137,144). Rodney Castleden stated that only certain Minoan and Mycenaean centers had large quantities of orientalia and occidentalia, probably by exchanges of royal gifts. The trading must have been carefully organized following specific directional lines, with specific points of entry. The patterns suggest, according to Castleden, centers, which developed specific trading relations with distant producers: Mycenae with Egypt, Tiryns with Cyprus, Thebes with

15 The Cicones lived on the southwestern coast of Thrace, they sided with Troy against the Achaean invaders during the Trojan War.

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Assyria, and Kommos with Italy.16 Another remarkable find in a tomb in Derna caused a revival of the discussion about the method of burial in the shaft graves at Mycenae. In tomb no.8 of Dendra, a wooden coffin has been found, in which some toe bones were still found in situ.17 The coffin (1.90 m in length and ca. 0,57 m in breadth) had been directly placed on the floor of the chamber. According to Persson, the find in tomb 8 shows that persons of rank were occasionally buried in Rectangular wooden coffins during the Mycenaean periods. The grooves through the doorway in some of the older chamber tombs provided further proof of such coffin burials. He stated that in tomb no.6 at least one corpse was buried in quite a different way. The custom of burying the dead in wooden coffins would not become general. During the Mycenaean age, the practice of burying the dead in a shaft hewn out of the rock was generally adopted.18

The tholos tomb of Dendra (1931).

16 Rodney Castleden 2005, Mycenaeans, 196. Joris Kelder described the relations of Mycenae with Egypt (Mycenae rich in silver and The Egyptian Interest in Mycenaean Greece). In ca. 1437 BC, whilst on campaign in northern Syria, Thutmoses III received an envoy from the ‘Prince of Tanaju’, bringing him ‘a silver shawabti-vessel in Keftiuan workmanship together with four bowls of copper with handles of silver. Total 56 deben 4 kite’.20 Keftiu has long been recognized as the Egyptian designation for , whereas Tanaju is now understood as the Egyptian term for mainland Greece. It seems that silver from the mainland of Greece was traded with gold from Egypt. H. Whittaker 2011, Exotica in early Mycenaean Burials as evidence for self-representation of the Elite, Exotica, 137-144). 17 Axel W. Persson 1942, The New Tombs at Dendra near Midea, 111-118. He also mentioned the discussion about the possibility of Egyptian influences on the burials in Mycenae, for instance via Crete. In the first shaft grave at Mycenae Schliemann had discovered a mummified head under a ponderous golden mask. The round face, with all its flesh had been wonderfully preserved. There was no hair, but both eyes were perfectly visible, also the mouth, which owing to the enormous weight that had pressed upon was wide open and showed 32 beautiful teeth. More over in the 3rd shaft grave Schliemann found gold-plates of different shapes, which had been used to cover two corpses of children. The thin plates had been tightly pressed around the body in such manner that it was completely enclosed, and in addition, the face, hands and feet had been moulded by being chased, though only in summary manner. Exactly the same custom of completely enclosing the dead in gold-plate is met with in Egypt (the tomb of Senebtsi at Lisht). 18 Axel W. Persson 1942, The New Tombs at Dendra near Midea 119.

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Graves in the Argolid from the Mycenaean time period.19

Sofia Voutsaki has thoroughly examined the ancient graves in the Argolid; she observed differences during the Late Hellenic time periods. She stated : “In the LH I period we can immediately notice a very asymmetrical distribution of wealth. This is the peak of the Shaft Grave phenomenon with the enormous concentration of exotic and valuable goods in the Grave Circle of Mycenae. But one should keep in mind the robbed shaft graves in Lerna, as well. The first chambers tombs, for instance in Mycenaean and Prosymna, vary in wealth, but none in really rich. The other graves- most simply pits and cists- are consistently poor . The LH II period sees the abandonment of the Grave Circles and the adoption and spread of the tholos tomb. Even if we miss the crucial information from most tholoi(as they are robbed), we can still observe that the distribution of wealth becomes more even and gradual. This is because LH II represents the peak in use of tholoi and/or rich chamber tombs in Mycenae, Prosymna, Berbati, Dendra and even in less important, peripheral sites such as Kazarma and Kokla. In this period, the deposition of wealth in chamber tombs reached a peak; some of these tombs are large, carefully finished, and in a few cases decorated. The number of cists and pits declines; those that we have are poor. In LH IIIA the distribution of wealth once more presents an asymmetrical pattern. This is due to two developments: a. the spread of chamber tomb (the majority of new chamber toms is poor) and b. the decrease in the numbers of tholoi. Many tholoi have fallen out; new ones are built only in Mycenae and Dendra. The situation in Tiryns is uncertain, as the two tholoi there cannot be dated. But the one in Dendra is abandoned before LH IIIA2.Thus, the use of tholoi becomes progressively restricted in Mycenae and perhaps Tiryns. But rich chamber toms are still in use in Prosymna and Dendra and perhaps in Asine, The patterns we have discerned in LH IIIA are accentuated in the LH IIIB time period.” 20

Asine: view from the top of the citadel, July 2015.

19 Agamemnon is mentioned in the Homeric epos always as annax, the ruler of the basileis, the lords. The annax, a term which in later times in Greek was only ever mentioned to be a god. But in the tablets of the term wanax is used to describe the king. Henk Singor (2005, Homeric Heldendichten, 28) stated that it is very likely that the wanax in the Mycenaean time period was a sacral figure which had a special relation to the gods from which he had received his kingship. His reign is represented by his scepter, which was made by Hēfaistos for Zeus, the son of Kronos. This sacral aspect of the Mycenaean kingship disappeared in Greece almost after the destruction of Mycenae. Only in we see some similarities of a sacral kingship and in the epos of Homer the Greek heroes are mentioned as sons, grandsons or at least as offspring of the gods. 20 S. Voutsaki 1995, Social and political processes in the Mycenaean Argolid: the evidence from the mortuary practices. In Laffineur, R. and Niemeier, W.-D. (eds.) POLITEIA: Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age. Aegaeum 12, Liège, 55-65.

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16 chamber graves have been excavated in Dendra; one of them was a tholos tomb. The bodies of kings, queens, princesses and children have been found. Many graves were used twice and many had already been robbed in the end of the Mycenaean time period. Fortunately, some of the shafts of the chambers graves were completely pristine. In these shafts many silver and golden jewelry and vessels, seal-stones, swords and some bronze helmets have been found. Some of the rings were made of several layers of gold, silver and iron. Even a complete bronze armour has been found, it was almost too heavy to wear in a fight. Perhaps it was used when the king stood on a chariot.

The start of the excavation in 1926: Miss Dorothy Bur, a member of Professor Blegen’s staff during his excavations in Heraion in 1926, took the occasion to visit Midea. In Mycenae she had procured as guide and donkey-driver Orestes, son of the innkeeper Dimitri. When they came to the village of Dendra, they caught sight of some peasants just near the road busily occupied in trying to remove a few large flat stone slabs from the field. Miss Burr recognized a stone as the upper lintel block of a tholos tomb. She reported it both to the police at Nauplia and Argos and the American School of Archaeology. (Axel W. Persson 1931 :8).

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Dendra and the clans of the great king of Mycenae

The remains of the acropolis of Midea and the royal graves of Derna both prove that kings and queens had ruled the east border of the Argolid. Not only the Perseus Myth, but also other myths, like the one of , and their narratives describe these rulers and their family members. If one connects the information of the myths with the rules of succession in ancient Hellas, than we will get a more clear view of the family and clan relations of the rulers of Derna and the great kingdom of Mycenae. I will start with the information from the myths and narratives. From the Perseus myth, it is known that Perseus replaced the throne of Argos with his cousin Megapenthes and became king of Tiryns, Midea and Mycenae. In the myth, it appears that the kingdom Argos was more important and had more prestige than Tiryns, Midea and Mycenae.21 Megapenthes was the son of , the Perseus myth informs us that Proetus was the twin brother of Akrisios, the father of Danaë. According to Robert Graves the myth of Akrisios and Proetus records the foundation of an Argive double kingdom.22 The twin brothers fought even in their mother’s womb and when they reached manhood came to blows over Argos.23 Proetus was expelled and betook himself to Lycia, where he married the daughter of the king. He returned and with the help of his father-in-law, succeeded in gaining possession of Tiryns, which, according to Apollodorus’ tale, he surrounded with walls with the help of Cyclopes.24 Pausanias (II,16,2) adds that Proetus moreover became the ruler of Hearion, Midea and the Argive coast.

At the citadel of Tiryns, November 2007

21 Rodney Castleden 2005, Mycenaeans, 18. 22 Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, vol.1., 243. 23 Text part of professor Axel W. Persson 1931, The Royal Tombs at Dendra near Midea, 6. 24 Apollodorus II, 2 1f.

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Perseus, who had exchanged dominos with his cousin, fortified Midea and Mycenae with walls, according to Apollodorus (II,4,4). Andromeda bore him many sons, amongst them , who later ruled over Midea. His famous daughter , the heroine of Midea, became the mother of Midea.25 Alcmene married , but they were expelled by Sthenelus, the uncle of Alcmene, who made himself ruler over Argos, Tiryns and Mycenae. Sthenelus was the husband of the daughter of , and after reducing Argos to subjection, he sent for Atreus and Thyestes, his brothers-in-law, and gave Midea over to them.26 In the Pelops legend in the Homeric tradition, Pelops was king of Mycenae. He handed the scepter down to Atreus, Atreus to Thyestes, and Thyestes to Agamemnon.27 According to one version of the legend, Pelops, before his marriage with Hippodameia, had a son Chrysippus by a nymph. As he loved this son more than other children, Hippodameia persuaded her sons, Atreus and Thyestes, to slay their step-brother. Pelops then cursed his sons, and Hippodameia, was forced to flee with them to Midea, where she was said to have died. However, later her remains were transferred to Olympia at the order of the Oracle.28 It is this curse of Pelops which was cast upon the House of the Pelopidae and it was the cause of all crimes and misfortunes, which are treated in Greek literature. With them come the names of Atreus, Thyestes, Agamemnon, Aegisthus, Clytaemestra, Orestes and Electra. Professor Axel Persson concluded:“Thus at Midea and Dendra we walk on the most sacred ground of Greek legend”.29

The citadel of Mycenae, November 2007.

25 Text parts of professor Axel W. Persson 1931, The Royal Tombs at Dendra near Midea, 6. 26 Apollodorus II,4,6. 27 Iliad, II, 104 ff. 28 Plutrach, Moralia II, 376; Pausanias, VI, 20,7. 29 Axel W. Persson 1931, The Royal Tombs at Dendra near Midea, 7.

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The large tholos grave near the citadel of Mycenae, July 2015.

The Perseus myth and the additions of Apollodorus and Pausinias explain the family connections of the rulers of Argos, Tiryns, Midea and Mycenae. Margalit Finkelberg has convincingly argued that the kingship in Bronze Age Greece does not make provision for royal succession from father to son. The narratives from the ancient kingdoms of , , Aetolia, Argos, Lycia, Salamis, , Sparta and describe other succession rules. For instance in the Myth of Odysseus, it is obvious that marrying queen Penelope was the way to become king of Ithaca. While the son of Odysseus was apparently not important at all in the succession of the throne. Margalit Finkelberg proved that in the early times the kings were usually succeeded by a son-in-law, and in exceptional conditions a member of the royal clan, who married the queen, for instance when the king died in a war or was murdered. Finkelberg stated that the standard situation was that of the daughter being given in marriage by her male relatives. Therefore it was these male relatives, and above all, the father of the bride, who decided who would be the husband of his daughter, and so be the next king.30 It seems that the position of the queen can be satisfactorily accounted for if we assume that she was the priestess of the goddess of the land. Another important condition was, according to Finkelberg, the bridegrooms were usually a member of the clan of the king and often by a rotation of several branches in the royal clan. Sons of important branches of the royal clan became, by rotation, the heir by marrying the most important daughter of the king. Finkelberg described that the two conflicting traditions as regards the royal dynasty of Mycenae can be explained by this rotation system.

30 Margalit Finkelberg 2005, Greeks and Pre-Greeks, 89.

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Tiryns, the golden seal-ring CMS I, 179. Offerings to the goddess or priestess-queen. It was unearthed at the lower town of Tiryns in 1915.

She stated that the examples of Argos, Amyclae and Thebes strongly suggest that we are dealing with alternate succession between two clans: the Perseids and the Pelopids; the aim was to secure their royal position at Mycenae.31 According to Finkelberg, the nobles of Hellas identified themselves in tribal rather than in local terms. That is to say, they saw themselves as the ‘Aiolids’, the ‘Perseids, the “Pelopids’, rather than as the ‘Thebans’, the ‘Mycenaeans’ or the ‘Amycleans’. In the case of the kingdom of Midea, the myths, the narratives and the succession-rules in Hellas suggest that the acropolis has been inhabited by royal members of the clan of the Perseids from the time period that the acropolis had been fortified by large walls. Until the day that Sthenelus, who was the husband of the daughter of Pelops, made Atreus and Thyestes, members of Pelopid clan, king of Midea. According to Apollodorus, Sthenelus was able to expel the members of the Perseid clan from Midea, after he had made himself king of Argos, Tiryns and Mycenae. The royal graves at Derna northwest of the acropolis of Midea, seem to have been used to give important members of the Perseid and Pelopid clans their final resting-place. The cemetery was of course situated to the west, in the direction of the entrance of underworld and, therefore less threatened by roaming ghosts.

To the upper acropolis of Midea, July 2015. I want to express my gratitude to Didi Nguyen for the improvement of the English text.

31 Margalit Finkelberg 2005, Greeks and Pre-Greeks, 87

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Appendix :

Heracles and the king of Mycenae. Before the birth of Heracles, Zeus had said in the Assembly of the Gods, that a descendent would be born from Perseus that day, to which all the offspring from the clan of Perseus would have been subordinated. But Hera, who did not adjudge happiness to the child of the lover of her husband, ensured on that day , the son of Sthenelus, was born and not Heracles. In this way Eurystheus became king of Mycenae and Heracles subordinated to him. King Eurystheus worried about the growing fame of his young cousin and therefore he ordered him to complete many impossible activities. Heracles did not intended to obey, but Zeus, who did not want to change his words in the Assembly of the Gods, commanded his son to serve the king. Medusa and the Hellenes. Jane Harrison has pointed out (Prolegomena to the study of Greek Religion, chapter V) that Medusa was once the goddess herself, hiding behind the a mask: a hideous face intended to warn the profane against trespassing on her Mysteries. According to Robert Graves the beheading of Medusa was at the bottom an act of the Hellenes, who overran the goddess’s chief shrines, stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks, and took possession of the sacred horses. An early representation of the goddess with a Gorgon’s head and a mare has been found in (Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, vol.1, 17).

Left the entrance of tomb no. 6 and at the right the Tholos tomb (Axel W. Persson 1931, The Royal Tombs at Dendra near Midea).

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Axel W. Persson 1942, The New Tombs at Dendra near Midea.

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Tomb no.8 fig.44: Remains of the wooden coffin after excavation. The upper edge represents the coffin, the lower is a section through the earth beneath the coffin.

Tomb 2, the cenotaph. Immediately inside the door were three lamps of steatite, one more than half a meter high (Persson 1931:79).

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The epic of Man - 1961- 157 : a royal funeral in a Mycenaean tomb. Mystery cult, earth and fire. Kristensen32 tell us a lot about of the old Greek mystery cults. He stated that the target of the cult was inauguration in the life forever, so in the mystery of the dead. “to be inaugurated is dying” was their theory. For the living the inauguration took place by effigy, by imagination. The awareness and the recognition of the inauguration when one was dying, assembled in action, in a sacral cultic achievement. The corpse ceremony functioned to inaugurate the dead into the mystery. In ancient Hellas burial and cremation were both used to treat the corpse of the dead. In the case of burial the religious meaning is clear. The earth bears all which lives33. However it is the earth which also reclaims life, not to destroy it, but to receive it in her own life. Burial is to share the spontaneous, eternal life of the earth. Electra is directing her plea to the earth when she prays: “this earth, who give birth to everything, feeds all and will taken back again the germ of everything.“ Cicero narrated that the Athenians, that after the corpse had been lowered into the earth, iterated the grave “to give the dead as thought a mother’s womb” (Cicero, de legibus, 2.25.63). One was not thinking that the dead would be reborn in a new human from, but to new life, the endurable life of the earth. Kristensen suggested that cremation in the ancient would has to be explained from the same religious principle underlying.

32 W. Brede Kristensen 1992, Life out of Death, 177. 33 Ibidem 178: The earth daemon Erichthonius, son of Gaia or Athena, was the forefather of the people of Athinai.

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Fire denoted eternal life, like the earth. Hephaestus represented this cosmic element of life: his eternal fire was the eternal life and the renewal of his fire on the altar was the renewal of life on earth. In the worship of Hestia of Vesta one can see clearly the manifestation of this principle. The cremation could represent the inauguration into the eternal life. When the goddess Demeter in Eleusis had taken over the treatment of Demophon the royal child, she wanted to give him immortality . In daytime she feed him with ambrosia, the element of immortality , while at night she hide him in “the forces of the fire.” Here we see that goddess of the earth wanted to give immortality by the forces of fire. We remembered the goddess of fire Hephaestus, the lord of life on Earth, he created Pandora, the blessing of earth, and he begot Erichthonius, the earth daemon. When it comes to Demeter's actions towards Demophoon, and also Medea's towards her sons, this is also a demonstration of a very ancient rite performed for children who had been born. It was called 'shining', and involved sacred fire being carried around the child at birth in a bid to keep away evil spirits. It was thought that a newborn or young child was more susceptible to these evil spirits. In some ways, this can be likened to the importance of Hestia and the hearth fire constantly being lit to keep evil spirits away from the home. There is also the ancient allegations in regards to Heracles, who is said to ascend the pyre to obtain immortality in the community of the gods. Kristensen stated that the common opinion for the use of cremation was different. The usual explanation of cremation is, that it would have taken place to arrange that the souls as soon as possible would go to the Netherworld. However according to Kristensen34 burial and cremation had the same religious meaning, He pointed to the excavation of the so called fire-graves in Greece, in which burial and cremation is united in one procession. The corpse was descended into the earth, where pyre was built. The fire had lighted and after the flames had consumed the corpse , the grave was filled with ground and upon a small earthen hill was made. Several Attic fire-graves has been found. Martin Nilsson35 described also these pyres and fires in tombs and in graves of the Minoan and Mycenaean time period. He stated that “in the Mycenaean age a curious mixture of inhumation and burning of offerings is found”. According to Nilsson these large fires, of which traces still remain in certain tombs (supposedly of rich and mighty people) were so extensive that they cannot be acknowledged as only being intended for purificatory and sanitary purposes. It is interesting that almost everywhere in ancient Hellas there were festivals of the dead. According to Nilsson the persons without a name and the forgotten ones for ever were also offered and connected with chthonic deities in these festivals 36. Kristensen stated that often in old religions that similar, but originally independent cult achievements or symbols, were united in this manner. The Greek grave tradition is remarkable because the sacraments of the fire and of the earth had coalesced completely in these fire-graves. Kristensen suggested that it is not to be exclude that the fire in the depth of the grave the fire of the earth presented, about which Hephaetus and Demeter ruled.

34 Kristensen 1992, Life out of Death, 179. 35 M. P. Nilsson 1949, The Minoan-Mycenaen Religion, 589 - 609 36 Martin P. Nilsson 1906, Griechische Feste Von Religiöser Bedeutung, 456.

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If that was the case then the dead in the grave was inaugurated also by the remedy of the fire to the life of the earth. Kristensen concluded: “Just as Poseidon was Hermes phytalmios, creator of life. Hermes let life arise from the death. Therefore he is the head of the souls, therefore he is leading the three Chariten ( the blessing of the earth) out of the cave, therefore he brings Padora and Kore from the realm of the dead. And therefore the dead indentified their selves with him”.

Ghosts could be useful, too. Ritual specialists knew how to create a “curse tablet”, that compelled ghosts to rise from the underworld. The ritual specialist commanded the ghosts to attack or to hinder someone on behalf of a client37.Daniel Ogden38 informs us about the categories of the “restless” dead, which appear to be latent already in Homer. 1. The Aôroi :“those dead before their time”. Those cheated of their full stint of life bitterly stayed back to haunt the land of the living of which they had been deprived. 2. Bi(ai)othanatoi: “those dead by violence”. These included the battle dead and executed criminals. 3. Agamoi : “those dead before marriage”. Bothe male and female ghosts could be assigned. 4. Ataphoi:”those deprived of burial’. Ghosts couldn’t achieved rest without the due funeral rights.

The restless ghosts one could encounter easily through sleep, around their tombs, at old battlefields, and at “the living bank of the Styx”. The restless ghosts lent themselves most easily to exploitation for magical purposes. They could (bitterly) haunt and harm the living beings.

At the top of the Acropolis of Tiryns, 2007.

37 Sarah Iles Johnston 2004, Religions of the Ancient World, 484. 38 Daniel Ogden 2009, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds, 146.

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1932 Les Guides Bleus sous la direction de Marcel Monmarché – Grèce .

The Acropolis of Tiryns.

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The mountain Marta (881 m) view from the citadel of Mycenae, July 2015.

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The mountain Zara (600 m) at Mycenae, July 2015.

Walking to the final resting place of the royals in Mycenae.

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Museum Delphi.

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