Mycenae (Μυκῆναι) — a Homeric kingdom of the Odyssey, c. 1200 BC

Mycenae — Gold-rich Mycenae, house of Atreus — where the king of men came home to the axe.

The overlord's realm, richest of the Achaean kingdoms. Agamemnon led the whole host to Troy and returned to be murdered by Aigisthos and Klytaimnestra; seven years on, Orestes has avenged him and restored the line.

Leader at Troy: Agamemnon.

Ruler in the Odyssey's present: Orestes.

Role in the Trojan War: Achaean overlord. A hundred ships — the largest contingent — and supreme command of the Greek host; the war itself opened on his quarrel with Achilles.

The homecoming: Murdered on his return — and avenged by his son.

Gold-rich Mycenae, the well-built citadel behind its Lion Gate, was the seat of Agamemnon son of Atreus and the richest of the Achaean realms. Its lands ran from Mycenae and wealthy Corinth and stablished Kleonai across the northern Argolid to Sikyon, Hyperesia, Pellene, Aigion and broad Helike along the Corinthian shore. Agamemnon was anax andron, lord of men — overlord of the whole expedition. He led a hundred ships, the largest contingent, 'pre-eminent amid all the warriors, because he led folk far greatest in number,' and by the ancestral sceptre of Pelops he commanded the assembled kings of Greece. To loose the becalmed fleet from Aulis he gave his own daughter Iphigenia to the knife; and it was his seizure of Briseis from Achilles that kindled the wrath — the menis — with which the Iliad opens and which nearly shattered the Greek host before Troy could fall. But the old curse of the house of Atreus followed the king of men home. While he warred, his cousin Aigisthos seduced his queen Klytaimnestra; and when Agamemnon came back in triumph they cut him down at the welcome-feast, as a man fells an ox at the stall. For seven years Aigisthos ruled Mycenae over the murdered king's throne. At the dramatic present the blood-price has just been paid. Orestes, Agamemnon's son, has come from exile in Phocis and killed the usurper Aigisthos — and his own mother — avenging his father and restoring the line of Atreus. Across the whole world of the returns his deed rings as the measure of a true son: Zeus himself names it in Olympos, and Nestor, Menelaos and Athena each press it upon Telemachos — be bold, they tell him, and win such renown as Orestes.

“Even so Aigisthos, beyond that which was ordained, took to him the wedded wife of the son of Atreus, and killed her lord on his return.” — Odyssey 1.35-36