Mycenaean Mastery at the Getty Villa
Sealstone with a Battle Scene (The Pylos Combat Agate) , Minoan, 1630–1440 BCE. © Hellenic Ministry of Culture – HOCRED / Archaeological Museum, Chora, SN18-0112 / © Palace of Nestor Excavations, Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati / Photo: Jeff Vanderpool Bros think about the Roman Empire, but nobody thinks about the Mycenaeans. It wasn't always that way. To Homer the Mycenaean epoch was a golden age of Greek prosperity and heroism, the setting for the Iliad and Odyssey . Despite that, Mycenae has little name recognition in 21st-century America, and important Mycenaean material is rarely encountered in museums. The first large U.S. museum survey is the Getty Villa's new, post-fire-closure show, "The Kingdom of Pylos: Warrior-Princes of Ancient Greece." It assembles over 230 objects from Messenia, the Western part of the Mycenaean realm, and particularly from Pylos, a kingdom that came to rule about 800 square miles. First gallery of "The Kingdom o...
