This is the most recent of the 8 tholos toms in Mycenae, built around the end of the 14th century (cf. French, p. 70). Stylistically it is similar to
Atreus' Treasury, but smaller and there is not side chamber.
The ceiling fell in nineteenth century (probably when it was sacked by Veli Pascha), but it was restored in 1951.
We don't know to whom belong to this tomb and the association with Clytemnestra is modern one, but the finds from the tomb shows that a woman was buried here.
Clytemnestra was wife of Agamemnon. According to the tragedies of Aeschylus, she betrayed her husband for Aegisthus and helped to assassinate Agamemnon. The so called
Tomb of Aegisthus is situated just next to Clytemnestra's.
REFERENCE
- Robin Barber, Greece (Blue Guide), London- N.Y. 2001 (Revised reprint of the 6th edition of 1995), p. 228.
- Christopher Mee & Antony Spawforth, Greece (An Oxford Archaeological Guide). Oxford/ OUP, 2001, p. 185.
- Elizabeth French, Mycenae : Agamemnon's capital : the site in its setting. Stround: Tempus, 2002, pp. 70-71.
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