The Tomb of Clytemnestra was a Mycenaean tholos type tomb built in c. 1250 BC. A number of architectural features such as the semi-column were largely adopted by later classical monuments of the first millennium BC, both in the Greek and Latin world. The Tomb of Clytemnestra with its imposing façade is together with the

Treasury of Atreus The Treasury of Atreus or Tomb of Agamemnon is a large ''tholos'' or beehive tomb constructed between 1350 and 1250 BC in Mycenae, Greece.Wace, A. J. (1940). The Treasury of Atreus. ''Antiquity, 14'', 233. ISSN 0003-598X The tomb was used for an ...

the most monumental tomb of that type. The tomb is named after

Clytemnestra Clytemnestra (; grc-gre, Κλυταιμνήστρα, ''Klytaimnḗstrā'', ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the twin sister of Helen of Troy. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by E ...

, the wife of king

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the hus ...

mythical Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...

ruler of Mycenae and leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War. However, it has been also suggested by modern scholars that this might have been Agamemnon's tomb or even that the tomb was never occupied due to the destruction of Mycenae which occurred during that time.

Chronology and classification

Tholos type tombs emerged in Mycenaean Greece in c. 1500-1450 BC as the resting places of the local royal families. They consisted of large circular burial chambers with high vaulted roofs and a straight entry passage (dromos) lined with stone. A total of nine royal tholos tombs were built in the immediate vicinity of the citadel of Mycenae during 15th-14th century BC. The most monumental of these with imposing façades are the

and the Tomb of Clytemnestra. The latter built in c. 1250 BC was the last tomb of this type in the region. It is also one of the representative examples of Mycenaean tholos tombs together with the Treasury of Atreus and the Tomb of the Genii..

Architecture

The entrance to the tomb consists of a

dromos Dromos may refer to: * ''Cursus publicus'', the public road system of the Roman and Byzantine empires * Dromos, in architecture, an entrance passage or avenue leading to a building * Dromoi Dromoi (Greek: δρόμοι "ways"; singular: δρόμο ...

with walls of

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

in conglomerate. Similarly, the stomion is built from the same element. The exterior façade of the stomion is decorated with half-columns made of

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...

which were carefully carved with ornate capitals and vertical fluting. A large relieving triangle overlaps the door lintel. It was originally decorated by a colored relief sculpture.. Through the lintel block a small drain is cut in the rock, lined with low rubble walls and roofed with small slabs. Above them two stones are set to take the direct pressure off the covering slabs. The surface of the tomb was covered with coat of white

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...

. The burial chamber has a diameter of . Most blocks are sawn rather than hammer-dressed. The tomb chamber is constructed throughout of ashlar conglomerate masonry. The Tomb of Clytemnestra shares several architectural features with that of Atreus such as the combination of conglomerate and limestone. However, the Tomb of Clytemnestra displays slightly more advanced technical features with rows of curved stones continuing around the structure at the same level of the lintel. This may indicate that the Tomb of Clytemnestra was a slightly later construction compared to the one of Atreus. Architectural features of this specific tomb such as the semi-column were largely adopted by later classical monuments of the first millennium BC, both in the Greek and Latin world..

Excavations

The tomb is named after

, wife of king

of Mycenae who led the Greek expedition against Troy. Similarly, a number of Mycenaean tholos tombs were named after mythical persons of the local ruling dynasties, like Atreus and Aegisthus. The ancient Greek geographer

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: * Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of ...

referred to the location of the tombs of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus a little further from the walls of Mycenae, as they were not judged fit to be buried within the walls due to the murder of king Agamemnon. 19th century archaeologist

Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (; 6 January 1822 – 26 December 1890) was a German businessman and pioneer in the field of archaeology. He was an advocate of the historicity of places mentioned in the works of Homer and an archaeolog ...

followed this passage of Pausanias and searched at the vicinity of Mycenae for their tombs. Excavations in the 1960s led to the discovery of the surrounding walls of the tomb.. In the dromos, a woman's grave was found in addition to accompanying artifacts; two mirrors, ornaments and beads. However, the inner burial chamber was found looted and empty. Lord

William Taylour Lord William Desmond Taylor (3 January 1904 – 2 December 1989) was a British archaeologist, specialising in Mycenaean Greece. Biography William Desmond Taylour was the second son of Geoffrey Taylour, 4th Marquess of Headfort, and the Irish G ...

suggested that the tomb may have been king Agamemnon’s. It has been also claimed that the tomb had no occupant at all due to the destruction of Mycenae that occurred sometime during the mid-to-late 13th century BC..

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