Ancient Greeks believed themselves to be descended from a race of legendary heroes. Men of great strength and will who sailed to the ends of the earth for a golden sheepskin, warred for 10 years with the Trojans over a beautiful woman, and accomplished godlike feats. Many of these legends are now known to have some factual basis.

Archeologists have uncoverd evidence of a rich civilization, centered at the city of Mycenea, that flourished from about 1600 - 1200 B.C. Mycenae was the home of Agamemnon, the king who led the Achaeans (the ancient name of the Greeks) into the Trojan War. The Mycenaean civilization was the offshoot of the still older Minoans, based on the isle of Crete, that dominated the Agean sea from about 1600 - 1400 B.C.

The Mycenaeans were spectacular builders. Palaces were constructed with walls ten feet thick and stones weighing up to 120 tons. They were also extremely wealthy in metals, most especially gold.

Unlike the peaceful Minoans before them one of the Mycenaeans chief enterprises seems to have been war and piracy. According to Hittite records, Mycenaeans were raid towns on the coast of Asia Minor in the 1300's. Less than a century later, this splendid civilization came to an abrupt end. It was obliterated by successive invasions of less civilized Greek tribes from the north called Dorians. For 450 years the Greek world passed through a Dark Age from which only scattered legends, and a few artifacts survive.