Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
heaped scorn on his critics by shouting, “Very well, then. This is not the Mask of Agamem-
non. It is the mask of my butcher, Herr Shultz!”
[154]
Today, the mask is a treasure of Athens' National Museum. But scholarship remains
divided over its authenticity. Schliemann is known to have commissioned forgeries passed
off as genuine. The Greek government does not permit non-destructive testing of the mask
to fix its probable dates. More nagging still is the assertion by some who have studied the
mask that it looks strangely modern: eyes half-closed, half-open that seem to follow the
viewer around the room, a nineteenth-century fashionable goatee. And most disturbing, the
mask bears a curious resemblance to the ruler Schliemann so wished to impress: Kaiser
Willhelm of Germany!
Not so much mystery as irony. When the Trojan treasures disappeared from Berlin dur-
ing World War II, no country claimed or admitted responsibility. Then, many years later
Russia admitted to finding and keeping them. The treasures had been found! They were
safe in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg!
WHAT IS THE PELOPONNESUS?
The southern peninsula of Greece, the Peloponnesus is named for the mythical Pelops (lit-
erally, Pelop's island;
nesos
means island). It is the site of several of the most important
kingdoms and city-states of ancient Greece: Sparta, Argos, and Corinth. Its deep valleys
and high mountains guarded the independence of those states, and its numerous bays and
harbors provided easy access to the sea. Cruise ships make port in the city of Naphlio, first
capital of modern Greece, a lovely, well-proportioned city with an elegant town square.
WHAT IS THE VENETIAN IMPRINT ON THE PELOPONNESUS?
Greece was a province of the Ottoman Empire during the 350 years following the Turkish
capture of Constantinople in 1453; and as Ottoman power rose and fell, the ambitious
Venice—always hungry for trading opportunities and wealth—seized islands in the Ionian
Sea, the island of Crete, and ports on the Peloponnesus. Turkish ruins are scattered about
Naphlio. And high above the city is the Venetian fortress of Palamidi, built between 1711
and 1714. Palamidi was built to withstand siege and cannon fire; its vast encircling wall
encloses a series of small forts to make it possible for defenders to effect strategic retreats
without surrendering the fortress itself.
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