European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 29, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Gold cup found among treasures in Royal Circle grave at ancient Mycenae. By Mike is Kah Slaff writer to the kind of Rar Zantuan and gory tale that would get an x rating today. The ancient greek tray Dies describe How a Oman and her Lover killed her husband in the Bathtub then the children avenged their father by Illing their Mother. The tale of deception love and intrigue involved Sisters and Brothers and brought armies into Battle and rave the freudian world of psychoanalysis the oedipus Complex. Some Sav a woman was at the Root of it All. When Helen was lured away from her husband by a family Friend from Fiir a full portion of flaming hell broke Loose. Her husband enlisted the help of his brother the one eventually killed in the Bathtub by the sister of the woman who ran off and they the set out with armies to ret her bar ten years Lacr. After the destruction of a City with thousands killed they did she returned to her victorious husband and some accounts say they lived happily Ever Afier. The woman was Helen of Troy but she could lust As easily have been called Helen of Sparta. That s where she lived when she left with Paris son of Troy s King Priam. Her enraged husband King Menelaus of Sparta wasted no Lime with his quest to get her . He got his brother Aram non of Mycenae the most powerful King of Greece to go with him to Troy after the 10-year siege and destruction of that City. Menelaus got Helen  agamemnon returned Home with a mistress. Cassandra Only to be murdered by his wife  and her Lover aegisthus. They in turn were killed by her children Orestes and Electra. It s All part of greek legend the tragic myths which came from the dramatic events played by the Royal House at Mycenae inspired poets and writers for generations. Their deeds were immortalized by the playwrights of Athens and rot Archeo lusts imaginations fired up. And nowhere docs it All seem More Likely that it All might possibly have happened than at the ruins of Mycenae known now As the City of agamemnon and the cyclopean  today the acropolis of me Nae. Easily reached by daily bus Tours from Athens is a ruin atop a 900-foot Peak overlooking the Plain of Argos. Winds sweep across the Rock strewn Plain and funnel their blast at Mycenae heightened by the Venturi effect produced by the mountains on each Side of it Prophet Ellas to the North and Zara to the South. Ii is an arid Barren place that gives few from Helen of Troy to the oedipus Complex treasure Hunter archaeologist Schliemann. Hints of its past glories when it was one of the most important cultural and political centers of Greece in the heroic age. Mycenae in its Halcyon Days dominated the Plain and controlled the Overland routes to the North East West and even the sea Lane of the Gulf of Naf lion. Legend says Perseus son of zeus and of the mortal Danae. Founded the City Between 1400 and 1350 . And that it was he who fortified its Citadel using the Cyclops to build its huge Walls. The next prominent leaders were atreus. Then his son agamemnon who lived Between 1220 and 1190 . The City was destroyed by the dorians a group of greek speaking indo europeans. 80 years after Aga Memnon resumed from Troy. Although it had other rises and Falls it never again attained its former glory. Unlike Troy it was never completely covered and its location was never subject of controversy. In 1876 a German. Heinrich Schliemann. Discovered and explored the Royal cemetery there known now As grave Circle a. He found intact Royal Graves filled with objects of Gold Silver Bronze and Terra Cotta. H was through Chrestos Tsumas. A scholar who worked at the site for 20 years after Schliemann s 14 week Effort that most of what is now known about the site was brought to Light. The excavations uncovered the Palace of  a huge subterranean Cistern the houses in the Citadel and Many tombs. Golden mask of agamemnon a death mask dating from 1500 ., was found in 1876. In 1952. Grave Circle b. 120 Yards West of Lions Gale was excavated by the greek arc ecological society which took control of the area in 1833. Archaeological efforts have put the City s beginnings far beyond classical Greece to about 2500 to 2300 . In the Early Bronze age. And the contents of the Circle Graves have proved that the City was powerful and wealthy in the affairs of Mainland Greece in the 17lh and i6th centuries .the prominent things today Are the Circle Graves the cyclopean Walls the Lions Gate the Cistern the Palace of agamemnon and the tombs of aureus and clytemnestra. The first thing the visitor sees Are the huge City Walls largely in ruins today. They Are constructed of huge stones Hammer dressed to fit nearly perfectly on top of each other. The stones arc so Large that ancient greeks maintained that Only the mythical Cyclops could have lifted them into place. The Walls on the North Side arc Best preserved. Their thickness ranges from 16 feet to 22 feet and they Are believed to have been 40 feet High originally. The City is entered through the Lions Gale which was constructed with defense of the City in mind. There is a narrow court flanked by the huge cry Walls leading to the Gate which limits the number of attacking enemy near the Gate at any one Lime. The Gale is believe to have been built about 1250 . It is about 13 feet High and 12 feel wide. The Lintel Over it weighs about 18 tons. The Relief of Lions above the Gate the Emblem of Myce Nae is among the old Cal monumental pieces of sculpture of the Western world and gives the Gate its name. Inside the Walls to the right after passing through the Lions Gate is grave Circle a. A circular Stone Wall around a pit. The contents from it Are in the mycenaean room of the National archaeological museum of Athens. The Graves Are dated to about 350 years before agamemnon s time the Palace ruins sit atop the Hill within the Walls and it was on this Palace roof that clytemnestra allegedly placed a Sentinel to watch for the return of agamemnon from Troy. On the East Side stairs Lead up to the domes tic quarters of the Palace. One room has a Corner which indicates that the room had a floor painted red and at least two Steps or Low benches along its sides. A Drain at its North Side and the color of the floor suggest the possibility that this was the tied Bath in which agamemnon was murdered but scholars say the evidence is against this into Pretat Ion. The stairway leading Down into the Cistern lies at the Northeast Corner of the City. H you want to enter it Lake a powerful Light a Normal flashlight will not do. Page 12 the stars and stripes sunday