Agamemnon- Philip

[dean]

Hello Folks,I was watching the national geographic documentary about Troy- it was pretty good- and liked especially the images of the golden mask that Schlieman found and the other pieces of jewellery that he decked out his wife in for the famous photo.It occurred to me that just as Agamemnon had united the Greeks to sail to Troy- so did Philip unite them to do the same and, to a certain degree, in his footsteps- Alexander.Just reading too that the mask of Agamemnon apparently only weighs about 60 grams and was made of golden foil as opposed to being made of solid gold.While looking on the Livius page too regarding Troy I found some lovely photos of the southern plains of Troy- where supposedly Achilles' tomb was to be found- at a place called Achilleum- (Photos taken by Jona Lendering) you should check em out- they're pretty good.Regards,
Dean.

[marcus]

And ... when Alexander was preparing to cross the Hellespont, he made a point of sacrificing at the tomb of Protesilaus, who was said to have been the first of the Achaeans to die on Trojan land.I have absolutely no doubt that Philip and Alexander (and every other Greek) knew *exactly* which parallels they were drawing - the propaganda element was not lost on a single person! :-)All the bestMarcus

[tino]

heh, heh..it seems that the Athenians may have had your exact same thought, although in not quite so detached of a position:"The story is told that in the drinking after dinner Philip downed a large amount of unmixed wine and forming with his friends a comus in celebration of the victory paraded through the midst of his captives, jeering all the time at the misfortunes of the luckless men. Now Demades, the orator, who was then one of the captives, spoke out boldly and made a remark able to curb the king's disgusting exhibition. He is said to have remarked: "O King, when Fortune has cast you in the role of Agamemnon, are you not ashamed to act the part of Thersites?" Stung by this well-aimed shaft of rebuke, Philip altered his whole demeanour completely."Book XVI, Diodorus Siculus

[marcus]

Good call! I'd forgotten about that story.All the bestMarcus

[ruthaki]

The mask of Agamemnon (or the supposed mask of A.) is quite beautiful and yes, not a heavy piece of work, rather finely crafted with thinly hammered gold. Schlieman suggested it was Agammemnon's death mask but I believe archaeologists have dated it at a much more recent time. And yes, the parallels are interesting between Philip and A. Though in truth, the 'real' reason for the invasion of Troy was to try and control the grain trade and not really anything to do with 'Helen'. Philip's reason was to gain back lands lost to the Persian invaders.