At Troy, Agamemnon commanded the Greek forces throughout the war, which lasted 10 years. He was a forceful and experienced leader, but he sometimes lacked the ability to make firm decisions, and some of the other Greeks resented his luxurious lifestyle.
In the final year of the war, Agamemnon was forced to give up Chryseis, a slave girl he had captured, to the god Apollo. To replace her, he took Briseis, a girl belonging to Achilles, the Greeks’ finest and strongest warrior. Achilles
Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) was a wealthy German businessman who retired early, at age 36, to focus on his hobby, archaeology. Although he was only an amateur, he made some of the most important discoveries ever about the ancient world. From 1870 to 1890 he worked on the excavation of Troy, in modern Turkey, revealing that the city had been rebuilt many times, and that it had been at the center of a large-scale war during the 12th or 13th century BCE.
In 1876 he began work at Mycenae, hoping to discover the remains of Agamemnon. The tombs and ruins he found there were full of treasures, including gold burial masks. Schliemann excitedly proclaimed, "I have looked upon the face of Agamemnon!" Later archaeologists, however, determined that the tombs were far older than the 13th century BCE, the earliest estimated period of the Trojan War. Nevertheless, Schliemann's work provided huge amounts of information about the Mycenaean civilization.
Above: Archaeologists believe that this ancient graveyard was the burial site of kings and other members of Mycenaean royalty.
Was very upset and angry. He sulked and refused to fight, and because of this the Greeks were almost defeated. They won the war only after Achilles rejoined the fighting following the death of his closest friend, Patroclus. Odysseus’s plan for getting past the impenetrable walls of Troy also helped. Odysseus’s idea was that a small group of warriors would hide inside a wooden horse made to appear like a gift to the Trojans. Once inside the city, the warriors would emerge from hiding and open the gates to the city, allowing the rest of the Greeks to enter.
World History
