TOWARDS TROY
MYCENAE, GREECE
Image Number 301
Did the Greeks attack Troy? The short answer is "probably." Though for most of modern history, archeologists believed that the war was just a legend, today it is accepted that there probably was such a war. The amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, using The Iliad and the The Odyssey of Homer as a guide, discovered the ruins of a powerful city in Asia Minor. The evidence indicates that the Mycenaeans probably did sack Troy in around 1250 BC. But around 1200 BC sees the the decline of the Mycenaeans. One theory of the Mycenaean fall may be found in Homer and Greek legends. The war took a toll on their civilization. When the kings returned they found their power weakened. Odysseus, for example, when he finally arrived at Ithica, found his loyal wife Penelope hounded by suitors. Other returning kings, such as Agamemnon, met bad fates. Did the Mycenaean kings have to fight for their place when they came back from Troy? This view, from the ramparts of Agamemnon’s palace at Mycenae, overlooks the bay from which his fleet departed for Troy.
TECHNICAL NOTES
The image was taken with a tripod-mounted Phase One 645 Camera at ISO 200. Exposure of 1/320th of a second and aperture F8. 45 mm Phase One lens with focal plane shutter. The image was captured on a Phase One IQ180 80 megapixel digital back.