Figure 8 Detail of fresco from Akrotiri, Thera (Santorini), ca. 1700 BC. Museum of Prehistoric Thera.
Source: © Malcolm Fairman / Alamy Stock Photo.
FRESCO Painting in watercolor on a wall or ceiling whose mortar or plaster is still fresh and
moist, so that the colors sink in and become more durable (figures 8, 16 , and 89).
The Greeks Speak Up
“And Agamemnon placed his helmet upon his head, a helmet made of four sheets of metal, with two
horns and a horsehair crest that nodded menacingly over all. He took up a pair of sturdy spears fitted
with sharp points of bronze, and the gleam of the bronze shone forth from him into the far-off
heavens. And about him Athena and Hera made the thunder ring out, paying tribute to the lord of
Mycenae, rich in gold.” (Homer, Iliad 11.41–6)
Historians refer to the period that immediately succeeded the Minoan as the “Mycenaean Period,” or the
period in which “Mycenaean” civilization was dominant in mainland Greece and the Aegean. We saw
above that the term “Minoan civilization” is a modern confection created with ingredients deriving from