Office of Corresponding Secretary: Chapter Officers Loucas Hajiantoni (editor) Order of Ahepa William Bond President 6374 Montgomery Road Alec Hajimihalis 1st Vice President Elkridge MD 21075 Worthington Chapter Jim Constantinides 2nd Vice President Phone & Fax: 410-796-1238 Nicholas Krial Treasurer Cell 443-812-0499 John Stathopoulos Dues Secretary E-Mail: [email protected] No. 30 Newsletter Roland John Ford Recording Secretary www.ahepa30.com - www.ahepa30.org Loucas Hajiantoni Corresp. Secretary Baltimore, Maryland Appointed Officers Board of Governors Gus Letras Warden Our Mission is to promote Stephen Bourexis, (Chairman), Dr. Pete Tony Georgakis Chaplain the Hellenic Ideals of Nickolas, Nick Ioannou, Jordan Genetos, Tony Bill Koutrelakos Captain of the Guard Education, Philanthropy, Georgakis, Peter G. Samios, Mark Kaidy Bill Coutros Athletic Director Civic Responsibility, Nick Kiladis Sentinel Family, and Individual Excellence
April 2011 - Volume: 87 - Issue: 8
May 22 nd . At our April meeting, we need to President’s Message elect our delegates to go to this convention. Brotherly News We also need to vote on a $100 ad for the ear Brothers convention program. No brothers were reported ill. Please let D The AHEPA National Convention will us know of any brother that may be ill or We had a great March meeting and new be held in Miami Beach, Florida at the needs prayer or support. member initiation at our Chapter’s lodge FONTAINEBLEAU HOTEL on July 18 th room at the Annunciation. We had 36 thru 24 th . April Birthdays members attending our meeting. We The chapter’s 2 nd Annual Golf welcomed (8) new members into our chapter Tournament will be held at the Wakefield Evan A. Chriss 4/7/1922 89 John Halkias, Emmanuel Matsos, Pete Valley Golf Club on Friday, May 13 th with a William G. Coutros 4/4/1938 73 Pakas, Pascalis Papouras, Christopher shotgun start at 1 PM. This year for the $125 John N. Stathopoulos 4/4/1940 71 Sakles, Kevin Walla, Lou Zagami, and fee you will get green fee, cart, free practice Gary T. Padussis 4/8/1956 55 Tony Ziesat . We are happy to have these balls, lunch (11 AM–12:30), dinner, prizes, K. Mavrophilipos 4/12/1956 55 new members in our chapter and look Hole In One Cash Prize of $12,500, and a Steven Kousouris 4/12/1957 54 forward to their participation in our meetings Goodie Bag. We are receiving registrations Nicholas Marsh 4/11/1985 26 and events. Our District Governor Steve for the tournament but need help from all Mavronis and Lt. Governor Demetrius of chapter members to sign up foursomes Happy Birthday Brothers & Many Years! Gavatsos also were in attendance and for this event . All profits from this event go assisted with the initiation ceremony. We to support our scholarship fund. Chapter News were very glad to have them with us on this Lastly, we had some items left over special night. I want to thank Alec from last year's golf tournament. They will be Hajimihalis, Gus Stavrides, and Pete Sourlis ~Welcome Brothers~ available to all members who come to the What Brother president Bond stated for the great food that they served for all the April 6th Chapter meeting: members and guests after our March meeting. earlier bears repeating. The brothers who A. AHEPA Hats (Blue & Tan) with have been initiated into the Order at the KUDOS GUYS! AHEPA Logo on them We presented a $1000.00 check to the March meeting need to be congratulated B. Oriole Tee Shirts (Orange) Good IOCC and the Director Constantine and also welcomed for their decision. They Quality with MATUSZ #17 on them. Brian Triantafilou was very grateful to our chapter are: John Halkias, Emmanuel Matsos, Peter Matusz is one the Orioles starting pitchers for the donation. The Hellenic Housing Corp. Pakas, Pascalis Papouras, Christopher this year. made their annual report to the chapter and Sakles, Kevin Walla, Louis Zagami, Dr. Call another brother and bring him to all members of the Hellenic Housing Board Harold Ziesat. the meeting! Come and meet our new of Directors were unanimously re elected to All the chapter wishes to welcome you members! Help us make the golf tournament another term. all and hope your AHEPA experience meets a success! Looking forward to seeing you at We will continue the speaker your greatest expectations. the meeting! presentations at the April meeting with a talk by Harris “Buddy” George, Esquire on a Bill Bond book that he wrote “By George” about his , Membership Directory life as a Greek man. Our May meeting President speaker will be Jordan Genetos on ATM soon to come Fraud and Scamming Devices. Meeting Notice Brothers,
Our Scholarship raffle has raised The next regular Chapter meeting $5400.00 to date. We are still $600.00 short The Chapter Corresponding Secretary will be held on Wednesday, April 6 th at of our goal. For any of you that have not will be handing out info forms to the brothers turned in their raffle tickets yet, get them to the Ikaros Restaurant in Baltimore 7 at the next meeting in order to update their me quickly as our 1 st drawing ($600.00) will PM . Come meet our new members and information for the upcoming Membership be at the April 6 th meeting. make them feel at home in our chapter. Directory. The District #3 Convention will be held Note that the Directory is available on in Newport News, Va. from May 19 th thru line though not updated yet.
The Order of AHEPA was founded on July 26, 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia - Worthington Ch. #30 was founded on October 5, 1923 in Baltimore, MD Worthington Chapter No. 30 Newsletter ~ Page 1 of 6 ~ April 2011 Volume 87 – Issue 8 Commentaries & Items of Interest days in the storeroom describing the finds and preparing his book on MYCENAE Mycenae. Before he went to work in the storeroom on Monday morning, Part VI Henry wrote an article for the London Times in which he said that despite By Nicholas P. Krial the fact that he had uncovered only two bodies thus far in the fourth tomb, this was “the tomb which tradition of the ancients designated as The village was abuzz. It was no longer possible to keep it a secret. the tomb of the King of Men, Agamemnon, Cassandra, Eurymedon and Everyone knew that gold jewelry of great worth had been found in the their companions.” tombs. Rumors were flying right and left but aside from the rumors, all Henry took Professor Phindicles to the storehouse. The professor one had to do was to look at the Schliemann faces: the glowing pride, the was stunned, his eyes glazed as he handled one by one some of the ecstasy of fulfilment. Or to note the admiration, the reverence the hundreds of gold ornaments, masks, diadems. “You have indeed hit the villagers felt and showed for Henry and Sophia. The Dases family and royal tombs” he said. Henry was delighted with the professor’s reaction. the entire village had understood what the Schliemanns had He suggested they go up to the dig immediately. “I am convinced” he accomplished, something no others ever had throughout their history; said, “there are more bodies in that fourth tomb. I want you to see them their appreciation and gratitude were deeper than the tombs. Demetrios, covered with gold from head to foot. It is an incredible experience!” the alert and independent young man whom Henry had trusted with Professor Phindicles was a graduate of the University of Athens and had responsible work admitted to Schliemann that he, and practically served for many years as vice president of the Greek Archaeological everyone else in the village, was wrong when he said there was nothing Society. He had a solid education in archaeology and ancient history. The in the acropolis. Schliemann corrected him: “No Demetrios, you were two men liked and respected each other but they were diametrically right. You said, ‘ What there is to find, Dr. Schliemann will find.’ ” opposite on their attitude towards science. Henry was constantly accused The calendar showed November 25 . Sophia and her crew had of publishing too quickly, of been obliged to contradict himself with unearthed a round altar constructed of cyclopean stones at the level of succeeding reports. Phindicles, on the other hand, was too timid to twenty five feet from the surface of the mount. release the scientific material he had accumulated. The crew dismantled the altar, numbered the At the age of fifty six he had published nothing. stones one by one and removed them to He admired Schliemann for his audacity even reconstruct in Athens. Once that was though he was convinced there were pitfalls in accomplished Henry set his crew to excavate the publishing opinions, theories, even educated darker soil. He found the top of the fourth tomb guesses before the finds had been counter checked six feet below where Sophia’s altar had stood. It half a dozen times by pier review. was the largest tomb yet. The excavation site was On the way to the citadel the professor by then about twenty four feet long and twenty stopped to inspect Sophia’s dromos and the feet wide and close to ten feet high. They cleared treasury. He congratulated her warmly on her away the pebbles and under it, in this tomb, they accomplishment. He had missed the luncheon found four inches of white clay. Under the clay there with Dom Pedro. Shortly, they went down to they found two bodies. There was evidence of the the floor of the fourth tomb. Professor Phindicles same small fire, wood and ash with one crucial examined the two skeletons Henry had not difference; each face was covered with a large attempted to remove. “They are out of prehistory, gold mask. Henry was in a state of euphoria. He Death Mask of Agamemnon - 10 that seems certain” he said and then asked Henry, called Sophia close to him, showed her the mask 1/8 inch beaten gold - 1550 BC “What makes you think that there are other and said, “Study it for some moments. You can get corpses in this tomb?” Henry replied, “ We have a tolerable idea of the features. See here, the large, reached the lowest level, the solid rock in only one oval face with the high forehead, the long Grecian nose, the small mouth third of the floor space. I am sure that very soon we will be coming with thin lips. The eyes are shut but see how well marked the hairs of the across a new layer of pebbles on the un excavated floor.” They found eyelashes and eyebrows are.” The second mask showed a different three more beds of pebbles. character leading Henry to wonder whether these masks were not actual When the layer of pebbles and ash had been cleared away, they portraits made in the likeness of the dead. They next uncovered five large found three corpses lying with their heads to the east, feet to the west. bronze vessels, four of them filled with ash and earth. The fifth, was The professor cried out in astonishment. The head of the dead were literally a gold mine; out of it they took one hundred buttons covered covered with gold masks the full size of the face. They saw the breasts with gold just like the ones they had found before. After a moment of covered with large gold breastplates, three magnificent gold crowns exultation for this find, they very quickly uncovered an extraordinarily decorated with rosettes and circles, a massive gold bracelet with silver large silver cow’s head with two gold, curved horns with their insides flowers soldered into it. Phindicles held it in his hand in disbelief. There filled with half rotted wood. Flushed with pleasure Henry exclaimed, were two large gold rings one with the portrait of a hunter whose chariot “There can be no doubt that this cow’s head was intended to represent was drawn by two stallions the other showing a battle scene. It was Hera, the patron deity of Mycenae.” getting late in the morning and Sophia persuaded the men to stop work It was not Stamatakes’s desire that the governor of the province be for a few minutes for lunch. They sat at the bottom of the tomb, their present at the dig, but the Archaeological Society in Athens which backs to the walls, drinking wine, eating freshly made bread, goat cheese temporarily stopped Henry and Sophia from further work on the site. and olives a diet not unlike the one their newly discovered ancestors When they return to the Dases house in the evening, Henry found a would have enjoyed in their day. They passed the finds from one to telegram from the Archaeological Society in Athens. The Society said another commenting on the quality and approximate age of the that Professor Spyridon Phyndicles was leaving next day for Mycenae workmanship. Phindicles observed that the faces presented by the masks and asked that Dr. Schliemann please suspend activities until he arrives. were totally different from the idolized statues of gods and heroes. “ Being delayed for two whole days at this time of rainy weather of the They almost have to be portraits” he said. Henry put his arm around year was something Schliemann did not like but Professor Phindicles was Sophia’s shoulder and said with considerable satisfaction, “ It was Kyria his friend and Henry knew him as a fair man. He would spend those two
The Order of AHEPA was founded on July 26, 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia - Worthington Ch. #30 was founded on October 5, 1923 in Baltimore, MD Worthington Chapter No. 30 Newsletter ~ Page 2 of 6 ~ April 2011 Volume 87 – Issue 8 Schliemann who first suggested that each of those masks was a likeness she saw a half frustrated smile on his face. ‘ I am the one who of the diseased whose face it covered.” discovered the tombs. I am the one who excavated them and found the After lunch they uncovered nine more gold drinking cups, a two remains of the ancient kings. I am the one who brought forth from the handled goblet with horizontal decorations, one wine flagon with earth what is probably the most magnificent treasure ever taken out of an interwoven linear ornamentation and another one with a handle fastened earlier civilization. All of this I have found. Yet, suddenly, I am not even to it by gold rivets. Then, Sophia found under one of the corpses a included in the discussion. There is no further need of me. I am an massive gold goblet. It was ornamented with fourteen rosettes. Phindicles outsider...” held it in his hand and estimated that it weighed at least four pounds. His When they crossed the street to the Dasses house they could see a face was full of joy as he commented, “ It is one of the most splendid number of fires which the soldiers on the citadel had set to keep warm jewels of your Mycenaean treasure!” Henry did not hear. He was digging during the night. Henry was awestruck, his mind reeling back through at the bottom level of pebbles in the middle corpse when he came up to a history. He said more to himself than to his companions: “ For the first sizable wine goblet each of the four handles of which were in the form of time since its capture by the Argives in 468 B.C. , and so for the first two pigeons. Henry turned to Phindicles, showing him the cup he held in time during 2,344 years, the acropolis of Mycenae has a garrison whose his hand that was shaking slightly. He looked stunned. His face was watch fires, seen by night throughout the whole Plain of Argos, carry white as he held the cup forward for the professor to see, and his back the mind to the watch kept for Agamemnon’s return from Troy, and expression was utter amazement and incredulity. Henry did not say the signal which warned Clytemnestra and her paramour of his anything; it was the first time Sophia ever saw him at a loss for words. approach...” Phindicles was dead tired. Sophia went strait to bed. Henry Instinctively, the professor understood Henry’s meaning. He, too, was grasped the narrow nightstand between his knees and wrote out a very familiar with the design of the cup in his hand. Could it be possible telegram to King George I: “With extreme joy I announce to Your that what Schliemann was holding in his hand was Nestor’s cup as Majesty that I have discovered the tombs which tradition, echoed by described in the Iliad? It was known King Nestor of Pylos had last used it Pausanias, has designated as the sepulchers of Agamemnon, Cassandra, at council in the Troad. Both Henry and professor Phindicles knew the Eurymedon and all their companions who were killed while partaking of description in its minutest detail. Homer says, “She placed beside them a a banquet with Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. They were splendid goblet / which the old man had brought with him / From home; surrounded with a double circle of stone slabs...I found in the tombs it was studded with golden pins / It had four handles, on each of which immense treasures and archaic objects of pure gold. pegged two golden pigeons ; (the underline is mine, NPK) / The goblet These treasures by themselves are sufficient to fill a great museum, had two bottoms.” Finally, Henry said, “Don’t you agree that this goblet which will be the most wonderful in the world, and will attract to Greece nearly fits the description of Nestor’s cup?” Phindicles agreed and for centuries thousands of strangers from every land. proposed that they double check the bottom of the cup to make certain. Because I work for the pure love of science I naturally have no claim to Work began early next morning. For the first time Stamatakes got these treasures. I give them with a lively enthusiasm and intact to Greece. down to his knees and began to dig through the ashes, pebbles and May God grant that these treasures may become the cornerstone of an underlying earth. There were five of them in the dig now, Henry, Sophia, immense national wealth.” the professor, Stamatakes and their trusted assistant, Spyro. All were Schliemann woke up Sophia and asked her to read the telegram. feverishly working and making discoveries : four gold diadems, a gold Henry said, “ I simply feel we must not be anonymous...displaced. When belt, heavy gold pins used either as breast pins or hair pins, and a solid we get back to Athens I suspect there is going to be the same volley of gold lion cub. Then, they found more gold stars made of three gold gunfire when we try to establish the historicity of our tombs as there was leaves and soldered together at the center. In the late hours of the about Troy. That’s why I think we ought to make a frontal attack.” afternoon they came upon more wood buttons covered with heavy gold Sophia agreed and added, “ As they say in Crete, never turn your back on disks and more than one hundred leaves of gold in the shape of an eight an adversary.” shield. There appeared before their dazed and unbelieving eyes silver Winter was fast approaching. The calendar showed November 30. goblets, bowls, and vases. There was also a wooden comb with a curved Henry moved to the fifth area in the rock which was defined by the gold handle, bronze arrowheads and sixty boar’s teeth which had been tombstones that showed carved serpent coils. Sophia’s crew had already used to decorate the helmet of these dead monarchs. This time it was excavated into more than twenty feet of earth and they had found two Phindicles who quoted Homer. “ And on his brow a leathern headpiece more un sculptured stelae. Three feet below that the workmen arrived at placed / Well wrought within, with numerous straps secured, / And on the rock tomb itself. They swept away the layer of pebbles and to their the outside, with wild boar’s gleaming tusks / Profusely garnished, great surprise the rock dugout was only two feet deep, by far the scattered here and there / By skillful hand...” At the very end they came shallowest tomb they had found. They found the remains of only one upon bronze swords, lances, long knives, and an alabaster sword handle skeleton, one gold diadem and a broken green vase of Egyptian adorned with flat gold nailheads. And finally, they unearthed thirty porcelain. Several hours of searching revealed nothing more. “ It is a copper vessels, copper tripods such as the Iliad and the Odyssey disappointment ” Henry said, “ after the fourth tomb and its riches. What represented as prizes in the games, and as darkness setting in at the we have to do now is to go back to that first tomb which we abandoned bottom of the tomb, a large quantity of oyster shells, some of which had when it became rain filled.” not been opened. For that project Demetrios had hand picked twenty workmen. They With the day’s work done they all walked behind the cart carrying were already down more than twenty feet from the surface of the ‘agora’. the boxes to the storehouse. There was so much work to be done here! Henry estimated that they had to go another ten feet. The air was clear, Each piece had to be photographed, catalogued, described. Ioanna Dases the water had evaporated and the dig was dry. The crew moved rapidly and her daughter brought in covered plates of hot food and ouzo. Then, and soon had excavated an area about twenty by twelve feet when they the men started thinking how to protect the gold finds and safely take located the actual sides of the tomb. Again they swept away the layer of them to Athens. Stamatakes, who had been a student of Phindicles at the pebbles and found their first body, which lay on the south side. It was a University and had recently changed his manner from bellicose to male probably over six feet tall, that had been squeezed into a space of cooperative said, “ Professor Phindicles, don’t you think you ought to only five and one half feet. But when they looked at the head they were take all of this gold with you when you return? I will fasten down each of thunderstruck. There was, “ an in drawing of breath bespeaking awe.” these boxes securely, and you can take our guard of soldiers, who will They were gazing upon the most beautiful mask in all of the tombs see it safely onboard ship.” Professor Phindicles replied, “ I agree. I will (Jonathan M. Hall, Hellenicity, Between Ethnicity and Culture, cable the Society to have a guard at the dock at Piraeus to escort the University of Chicago Press, 1982). “The features were Hellenic, the treasure to the National Bank.” Sophia could read Henry’s thoughts when nose straight and narrow, the eyes large with lifelike eyelids; a heroic
The Order of AHEPA was founded on July 26, 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia - Worthington Ch. #30 was founded on October 5, 1923 in Baltimore, MD Worthington Chapter No. 30 Newsletter ~ Page 3 of 6 ~ April 2011 Volume 87 – Issue 8 mouth with well proportioned lips, a superb beard which left the chin that method of cremation and speculated addressing Professor Phindicles, clean; gracefully carved eyebrows and a luxuriant mustache which turned “...the two layers of pebbles apparently afford the proper amount of upward at each end.” Schliemann was ecstatic. “It is the face of a ventilation so that the flesh and clothing is destroyed but the skeleton and monarch. It has to be Agamemnon, no doubt! Look at the authority, the treasure remain largely intact.” Phindicles agreed pointing out that this power, the gift of command. It is Agamemnon!” Later in the day Henry was not the type of cremation as practiced on a pyre where the ashes (or could not help but send a telegram to King George I: “ I have gazed upon bones) were collected and placed in an urn. Here, there was no collection the face of Agamemnon.” or did he. For the record, some of his of ashes at all; the ashes were left right in the tomb with the remains of biographers (Irving Stone, A Biographical Novel of Henry and Sophia the cremated body. As an example, he cited Homer’s account of the Schliemann, Doubleday, N.Y., 1936, Will Durant, History of cremation of Patroclus on the funeral pyre and the subsequent burial of Civilization, Our Oriental Heritage, Simon and Schuster, N.Y., 1953 say the urn containing his ashes (or bones) in the tumulus at the shore of the that did not happen. If anyone knows of a confirming source please let Troad. In fact, he continued, the fact that we find any ashes at all here is me know). Regardless, today, anyone looking at that magnificent funeral an anachronism, since during the Mycenaean times interment was mask in the Archaeological Museum in Athens, on Patision Street about preferred. It is conceivable that the Mycenaeans did not think of the three city blocks from Omonoia Square, cannot help but agree with partial destruction of the body by fire as cremation. Homer may have Schliemann evaluation, the face of Agamemnon or not! been reflecting on more common use of cremation when the Iliad was The skull crumbled after a few minutes of exposure to the written centuries later. atmosphere but it held long enough for Henry to have a good look. Indeed, as it has been mentioned earlier, the Mycenaeans had Professor Phindicles was noncommittal. He looked at Schliemann borrowed several aspects of their culture from the Minoan civilization. quizzically. In this narrow tomb bottom, in the quiet tone of an educator, The Cretans placed their dead in stone tombs and adorned the departed he reminded Henry that the first law of science is that you withhold richly with fine clothing and gold jewelry. Furthermore, “ Cretans even judgement until the evidence is all in. Henry felt neither hurt nor crossed the Styx in style: Priestesses with attendants poured last libations admonished. “ Perfectly true, Professor Phindicles. But that is not my at the burial.” ( National Geographic Society, Builders of the World / nature. It is also not the nature of my work. I want the world to Greece and Rome, Mandadori Press, 1967). Incidently, “crossing the experience our excavations and discoveries as they happen, hour by hour, Styx,” was an expression in ancient Greece signifying that someone was day by day. If I make assumptions as I go along it is because I conceive on his way to the underworld, that he had died. It was not, however, the of that method as being at the core of my work. When later evidence most commonly used expression. The most commonly used expression proves that I have been in error, I admit it quite honestly and go on to was ‘crossing the Ahero’ river and all passengers on the boat to cross what I believe to be the next true assumption. In this way people see not into the Hades (the entrance to which was guarded by the three headed only our every find but learn our very thought. That is the only way I can dog Cerberus, son of Typhon and Echidna), had to pay two obols ( two make my excavation a total experience for the public.” Phindicles patted tenths of a drachma) to enter. Incidently, Lucian, a Hellenistic writer of Henry on the shoulder and said, “ well said Dr. Schliemann. Each of us the 2 nd century B.C. who wrote Satyrical prose, in the Dialogues of the must express himself according to the demands of his own character.” Dead, writes about one of those passengers who arrived to cross into Sophia and Phindicles were examining “Agamemnon’s” Hades but he did not have the two obol fare needed to pay for the remarkable breastplate. It was a thick sheet of gold almost two feet long crossing. Understandably, the captain of the boat, Charon, is very and over one foot broad, and it was ornamented with spiral designs. perplexed as to what he should do with that particular passenger now. By When they removed the breastplate they found little of the skeleton left. the way the two obol fare was placed on top of each of the eyes of the What they assumed to be an arm bone was covered by a broad gold deceased. In Cyprus, likewise, there was no cremation. The dead were ribbon. Then, they found fifteen bronze swords and another sword of buried in state with dozens of vases, ropes, beads and piles of cloth extreme size, such as the “King of Men” would have carried, located by “ crammed into their tombs. Agamemnon’s” feet. Moving rapidly in the cramped quarters they There is a rather interesting variation in the above description. In unearthed a mine of amber beads, broken silver vases and an alabaster the Odyssey, book X and Book XI the entrance to Hades is marked at the vase filled with round gold buttons. confluence of the river of fire, Perephlegeton , and the river of wailing, Schliemann now moved to the north side of the excavated space Kokytos, an offshoot of the Styx. They both meet at the river Aheron and where the other tomb was dug out of the rock. All three were very the lake Aherousia which constitutes the boundry the ferryman of the disappointed because they found that this body had been plundered. dead crosses on his bark. Perhaps, the most popular part of the There was no the tell tale sign of pebbles or clay intact on top of the Underworld picture in the Odyssey (Odysseus visited there) is the usual three feet by five feet area they had encountered before, and the punishment that sinners have to endure in Hades: Sissifos is condemned ashes and pebbles had been disturbed by grave robbers. The body was to push a stone uphill which for ever rolls back down again, and Tantalus without gold ornaments. Sophia asked, “When did all this take place?” striving to grasp the fruit and to drink the water of the fountain only to Schliemann answered that in his estimation the shaft the grave robbers see it withdrawing and unable to reach it.. By the 5 th century B.C. the dug to descend to the tomb contained the same compacted debris as that Greeks had a clear understanding that immorality and criminal offenses of the rest of the area they themselves had been presently excavating. always met with enormous and eternal punishment. In fact, the Greeks That led him to the conclusion that the grave robbery probably took place had special agents, called Erinies, or Furies (maidens of vengeance) shortly before or around the time the Argives captured Mycenae in 468 whose job it was to incessantly pursue criminals, drive them mad with B.C. Suddenly, it dawned on him, also, that the twelve gold buttons he remorse and torment them in Hades. had found in the beginning scattered around, seemingly out of nowhere Burials and funerary rituals are important in archaeology. Besides when they first dug towards the center earlier, were gold items the grave giving evidence of early human religious culture based on belief in the robbers had dropped in their rush to escape. Obviously, the grave robbers afterlife and/or superstition, it is also a fact that whatever is deliberately had dug a narrow shaft straight down, hit this middle body, gathered up buried underground it is most likely to survive undisturbed through the all the gold they could get their hands on and fled. It would not have centuries. Grave archaeology has developed into a highly specialized and been very difficult for the grave robbers to do this. The accumulation of complex discipline. Burial customs and beliefs about the dead have debris on the citadel during almost 2,500 years, from the time of the always gone hand in hand, one influencing the other. Historians say that robbery to Henry’s present excavation, was not nearly as deep then, as it the first traces of religious feeling appear in the Upper Palaiolithic was now, to reach the tombs. period; there is evidence of human burials and funerary practices. The In all other respects the tomb and the condition of the body in it, concepts of the soul and life after death were, even in those primitive was like the other tombs they had found before. Henry had not heard of years, of main concern to mankind. In the case of the Greeks, burial
The Order of AHEPA was founded on July 26, 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia - Worthington Ch. #30 was founded on October 5, 1923 in Baltimore, MD Worthington Chapter No. 30 Newsletter ~ Page 4 of 6 ~ April 2011 Volume 87 – Issue 8 practices after about 1100 B.C. begin to vary from Mycenaean customs mention for instance, the Greek victory at Marathon over the Persians and there seems to eventually prevail a single burial with cremation against overwhelming odds. The Greek victory at Marathon has a very performed occasionally down to c. 9 th century B.C. In about the same simple explanation. What Darius had failed to realize was that in the time in places such as Crete and Cyprus the stone chamber or cyst tomb battle of Marathon, the Persian ‘subjects’, driven forward under the predominates and the single burial by interment/inhumation becomes the master’s whip, faced Athenian ‘citizens’, men who owned the soil they prevalent rule, and, it is even introduced or exported to Rhodes at about tilled, and ruled the state that governed them. They fought to preserve the same time. their democracy because it was their own creation and the form of In Bronze Age mainland Greece, evidence exists that cremation is government they themselves had devise and felt comfortable in their the prevalent method of burial. It was also extensively practiced among participation in it. Dying for it was but a fulfillment. the Hittites and the Trojans. In the Homeric epics it is the only form of In contrast, the practice of cremation has been interpreted (credit as disposal of the body of the dead which is acknowledged. Bare in mind in previous page) as a “spiritual revolution in which the power of the that Homer, in his writings, does not describe customs of his own day dead was broken, with the soul being banished from the realm of the circa 840 B.C. Homer describes customs of Late Bronze Age circa 1184 living.” That may be the case, but it is not clear whether the departed B.C. He knew about them from information that had filtered down to his should or should not be respected more or less because of that. It should day through legend and folklore. In contrast, evidence likewise exists that be noted that the Athenians did not cremate their 192 dead after the at the ancient Athenian cemetery, Kerameikos, located outside the Battle of Marathon; they buried them in the Tymvos tou Marathonos in Dipylon Gate at the eponymous suburb of Athens (a must see when in the field where they fought and fell, a sacred spot upon the face of the Athens) from the 8 th century onward inhumations increase substantially earth to this day, and for centuries to come. as compared to cremations and constitute the vast majority, if not the The Urnfield Culture has been mentioned earlier. The Urnfield only method, of the disposal of the dead. Kerameikos was the cemetery culture flourished between 1300 B.C. to 750 B.C. and was a Late Bronze of ancient Athens through which run Ιερα Οδος (The Sacred Way parts Age culture that developed and expanded in central Europe from of which are still there today) leading to Eleusina to celebrate the Hungary to France. The name is derived from the custom of cremating Eleusinian Mysteries. It is of interest to note that during the construction the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were subsequently buried of the Kerameikos Station for the expanded Athens Metro, a burial pit in the field. Historians say that the Urnfield culture followed the Tumulus was found and about 1000 graves of the 4 th and 5 th century B.C. were culture which Homer mentions in the Iliad as the method of burial of discovered. Thucidides describes the panic caused by the plague Patroclus and Achilleus at the sea shore of the Troad. In this instance, (possibly an epidemic of Typhoid) which hit the besieged immortal city likewise, urns were used to receive the ashes of the two heroes. Our own in 430 B.C. during the Peloponnesian War. He makes no mention of Dr. Pete Nickolas visited Troy about ten years ago and says there has cremation. As it has already been stated, in Greece, cremation is been no preservation or maintenance of the historic site by the Turks. The practiced down to the 9 th century and is practically the only form. But tumuli can no longer be seen and the whole area is neglected. from the 8 th century onwards, inhumation predominates and accounts for Despite the preponderance of Urnfield burials in the Urnfield over eighty percent of all burials. (Erwin Rohde, The Culture of Burial , culture, however, some inhumations about the same time have been Freiberg,1894). found. The most famous remains of the Urnfield culture today are found Historians disagree in the interpretation of the evidence. Is the in Orvieto, Italy and are believe to be the remains of an extensive increase in the use of tombs and inhumations in the declining years of the Etruscan necropolis of the period of 1000 B.C. Their urns are constructed 8th century the result of the arrival of the immigrants, the Dorians, and the to reflect houses of the living and their cemeteries reflect actual cities imposition of their customs on the rest of the native population, or does it with wide streets and sometimes two story tombs. Tools and weapons signal a cultural change following the collapse of the Mycenaean went to the grave with men , while jars and safety pins went with women. kingdom? Unfortunately, there is no clear correlation regarding the Herodotos says that the Etruscans were immigrants to Italy, the Umbria change in native customs between those areas that were only partially region, from Lydia, in Asia Minor. He does not say anything about the influenced by the new Dorian trend, as compared to those areas that custom of cremation, only that, “After voyaging past many peoples, they became demonstrably Dorian, such as Sparta. Historians will only agree came to the land of the Umbrici where they built cities and live to this that with single burial the dead person is treated more as an individual, day.” The most surprising aspect of the Urnfield culture is that the though, to be sure, the burial place is sometimes, especially with practice seems to have originated in the Balkans and obviously reached prominent families, or a family enclosure to be visited in contemplation as far north as Hungary and then spread out west into Europe. by the living family members a custom that is still in existence in In summation, historians say that based upon the evidence available Greece. today, it is not possible to assign a certain time when cremation ceases to Historians also agree that the new practice interment as opposed be used and inhumations becomes the custom or vise versa. The reason is to cremation is more in line with the soon to emerge Greek that both inhumation and cremation (albeit partial) are found side by side characteristic of respect, regard and esteem for the individual. It must be in the same place. In Crete they even appear together in the same grave. born in mind that, not long afterwards, the Greeks, through their And, this has also been found to be true in Mycenae. “The Mycenaean enlightened lawgivers, Solon, Cleisthenes, Draco and others, would tombs reveal few traces of the habit of burning the dead, which the gradually originate, promote and subsequently bring to fruition the idea Homeric Greeks, and the Hittites, and the Trojans invariably practiced; of the “citizen” as opposed to the idea of the “subject,” which was the while, beyond what is implied in a single mention of embalming, prevalent principle of the relationship between the government and the Homer’s poems completely ignore the practice of burial.” (J.B.Bury, A governed at the time. There is a colossal difference between the two History of Greece, The Modern Library by Random House, N.Y., 1927). terms, and it is based upon the manner people think of their government Furthermore, Homer has Helen of Troy lament upon the death of Paris, and their own role in it. For example, it has been often said that the “... The bones and ashes were ceremonially conveyed to the tomb, Greeks invented democracy; this is a misnomer. The Greeks did not libations left, the lid opened and closed. Paris inside. Handsome Paris ‘invent’ democracy. Democracy was the natural outgrowth of the Greeks’ how could he rest content there? But we know nothing of the dead. We having invented the ‘individual’ with his god given rights, privileges, only know they are profoundly different than us.” (Margaret George, duties and obligations to his state, a much harder concept to comprehend, Helen of Troy, Penguin Book, N.Y., USA, 2002) Scholarship generally in an age of servility and servitude prevalent all around them. Thomas agrees that in later times (8 th century onwards) both customs existed in Jefferson would restate the same noble principles in different words 2500 Greece but inhumation is by far more common if not the only custom. years later in the Declaration of Independence. As a consequence of the development of these novel and noble concepts in Athens, we could
The Order of AHEPA was founded on July 26, 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia - Worthington Ch. #30 was founded on October 5, 1923 in Baltimore, MD Worthington Chapter No. 30 Newsletter ~ Page 5 of 6 ~ April 2011 Volume 87 – Issue 8 was watching her as she worked, even when she had her back turned to On the following day, December 1, they made the most him. Looking at him she could see his expressive face and he seemed to extraordinary find. In the north side of the tomb the crew had just be talking to her though she did not understand his language. During the removed about one foot of earth when they again came upon the first discoveries at Mycenae, more so than Troy, Sophia had come to feel far layer of pebbles and ash. Henry and the others cleared away the ash more strongly than ever before, her husband’s intense obsession with strewn and fire blackened pebbles with their hands. Here they found the Homer which had also become her own. Schliemann lived in two worlds, third skeleton. There was the usual mask on the face and the breastplate two time levels, and she had begun to feel the same way. Schliemann covering the rib cage. The mask over the face had been crushed to such himself had said that it was the Year of Our Lord, 1876 and at the same an extend that no semblance of a portrait was discernible. Routinely, time the year of his ‘lordship’, the dead King, who had survived the Henry pulled the mask and the breastplate and, instantly, all three of the impact of three millennia. Her actual knowledge was limited to what she explorers were stunned and bewildered. Before them lay the preserved and Henry had unearthed at Troy and here at Mycenae. And she came to head and torso of a dead person with a “ face that was almost deeply appreciate Henry’s vast knowledge of the ancient world and palpitatingly alive as it stared up at them through closed eyelids.” Homer. She looked again at the corpse. The King did not frighten her Henry, Sophia and professor Phindicles were astounded. They saw though it was a strong face, a powerful face in structure she did not think a thin lipped mouth which disclosed a complete set of perfect thirty two that it was menacing. In a way, she thought, she would be happy as a teeth and a vacant spot where a small nose must have been. The forehead subject of this monarch when he ruled over the vast and beautiful was broad and bald. The body had been laid out in a small size grave Mycenaean civilization and lived comfortably on this acropolis. After all, compared to its size; the shoulders were hunched up around the chin and she was married to a man who was a monarch in his own world. The the back of the head. The body must have been pushed into the tomb spectacular treasure of these tombs and those of Troy had been Henry with considerable force. Henry noticed that the rib cage was in good Schliemann’s accomplishment, and his alone. Through his knowledge condition though there was no flesh left on the ribs and the backbone. and unshakable belief in the historicity and veracity of Homer, the world The hip bones were there but the body from the groin down had would know for the first time how the Mycenaeans had lived and died. disintegrated. It was a good face, a strong face, and as Sophia remarked, And, perhaps, some of their innermost secrets. She had one bold wish in life this young man was a good looking fellow. When Henry could she did not confide even to Henry; that Homer could have been beside catch his breath he exclaimed, “This face is very much like the picture them during these revealing days. So much of what he had written about which my imagination formed of Agamemnon long ago.” Sophia looked the Mycenaeans and the Trojans had come to life, Schliemann had up at her husband and said, “Now, Henry, you cannot have three brought to life, to prove the authenticity of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Agamemnons. You have to make up your mind which one was the Darkness came soon. It was the second day in December. The commander of the Greeks against Troy.” Henry agreed. He believed that crowds dispersed. Henry and his little group stayed for a while until the the magnificent mask they had found on that first ‘Agamemnon’ was, soldiers had lighted a dozen of campfires and positioned themselves to surely, the portrait of Agamemnon. However, he found no face under the guard the tomb. The Mycenaean acropolis had again come alive. mask. Now, he had found a face, but no mask with distinguishable The following day, December 3, there were over a thousand people from features, or at least features of authority and stature that would qualify the Argolid and surrounding areas who came to see the unbelievable him as “the King of the Achaeans.” It was a problem he would have to phenomenon of one of their remote ancestors who had returned to them. wrestle with. Schliemann and his group were down in the tomb. Shifting through the Like in previous tombs, they also found here a number of gold earth they found an additional thick gold goblet ornamented with three items. The new breastplate was a thick plate of gold sixteen inches long lions running at great speed and a smaller silver drinking cup. Scattered by ten wide but it was unadorned. To the right of the body Henry through the debris and apparently not related to any of the three skeletons uncovered two bronze swords with decorated handles. Next, they in particular, were silver goblets and a large silver vase. In the meantime uncovered eleven more bronze swords, gold plates and more than one the artist arrived with his brushes and oil paints. The others came out of hundred gold buttons. Sophia uncovered a huge gold drinking cup and the tomb so that the artist could do his work. As soon as they came up the more gold plates, one showing a lion chasing a stag. ladders they saw the crowd waiting. Obviously, it was the day before a Henry looked again at the corpse thinking it was a miracle that the workman had seen the ‘mortal corpse.’ and the word had spread quickly. mortal corpse had remained almost intact since antiquity. He did not The people of the Argolid, astonished at what they had been hearing, want to touch it for fear that the whole thing might crumble like the gathered waiting to have a glimpse of their distant ancestor. Villagers others had. He asked professor Phindicles if he knew anything about from the surrounding villages kept coming all morning to see the ancient embalming to preserve the corpse but the professor did not. Henry king who looked so much alive. The soldiers threw a rope cordon around climbed out of the tomb and asked Demetrios to hand carry a telegram to the entrance to the tomb to keep people from falling in. the Nauplion office. The telegram was to the artist, Pericles Komninos, Schliemann was standing on top of the ‘agora’ when a middle urging him to come at once to paint a portrait of the corpse to preserve aged, bald headed man wearing thick spectacles and carrying a bundle the image for posterity. Henry, then, called Stamatakes to come and take under his arm approached and said he wanted to speak to Dr. the last boxes filled with the gold objects they had excavated to the horse Schliemann. The chief of police introduced him to Henry as Spyridon cart to transport to the store house. The fiercest looking soldier had been Nikolaou, the pharmacist from Argos. Henry said, “ Mister Nikolaou, I posted to stand guard by the cart all day long, even though, Schliemann hope your suggestion is the one I have been waiting for.” Nikolaou thought, that was not really necessary; people in the Argolid, and indeed replied, “ Yes, Dr. Schliemann, I believe it is. People are saying that you in all of Greece, would have dreaded stealing even touching anything are looking for someone who knows about embalming. I have read the from a more than three thousand year old tomb. It would have brought a material on the Egyptian embalmers and the preservation of the body by curse down upon them, something that the Greeks believe to this day. the injection of spices. On two occasions I was called to preserve the Incidentally, to my knowledge, the portrait of the corpse has never been bodies of two sailors so they could be taken home for burial. I used exhibited in the museum or elsewhere, and it has not been included in alcohol in which I dissolved gum sandarac. The alcohol preserves the Schliemann’s books. resin as a varnish. Apparently the method works because I had letters Shortly before they left the site for the day as the shadows from the sailors’ families thanking me. You understand that I can only lengthened and evening descended, Sophia found it an eerie experience apply the resin to exposed parts of the body.” to be thirty two feet below the surface working in the presence of this ~ ~ ~ almost living king. She had a strange feeling that the long dead monarch … To Be Continued
The Order of AHEPA was founded on July 26, 1922 in Atlanta, Georgia - Worthington Ch. #30 was founded on October 5, 1923 in Baltimore, MD Worthington Chapter No. 30 Newsletter ~ Page 6 of 6 ~ April 2011 Volume 87 – Issue 8