According to legend, the ancient city of Mycenae was founded by Perseus, the demi-god who slew Medusa and the Kraken. The main evidence for this comes from two classical sources: ‘The Description of Greece’ by Pausanias, and the ‘Bibliotheca’ of Pseudo-Apollodorus. Both texts were written in the 2nd century AD, or about 1200 years after the destruction of Mycenaean culture.

In the case of Apollodorus, the story is derived from folkloric tradition many hundreds of years old. Stories surrounding Perseus appear in Hesiod’s ‘Theogony’ (8th century BC), and they were old even then. If Perseus did, in fact, found the city (or fortify it, as both Apollodorus and Pausanius also suggest), then it happened at least 800 years before Hesiod, in the period known as the Bronze Age.

Between this time (ca 1600 BCE) and the rise of Classical Greek culture, there was a collapse of Bronze Age civilizations located around the eastern Mediterranean (1206-1150 BCE). All that was great and important about Mycenaean culture was eradicated in the collapse, and the region entered what is known as the Greek Dark Ages. Cities were burned and buried, literacy and art faltered, and foreign trade ground to a halt. If there really was a historical Perseus, all records of him were lost, along with most other evidence of Mycenaean culture.

And so we depend on myths passed down by oral tradition (including Homer’s ‘Iliad’), collected works, such as ‘Theogony’ and the ‘Bibliotecha’, and the first-hand observations of Pausanias. In his ‘Description of Greece’ (2.15.4) he writes, “Along the road to Argus, you see on the left the ruins of Mycenae. The Greeks are aware that the founder of Mycenae was Perseus. . .” In 2.16.6, he adds, “In the ruins of Mycenae is a fountain called Persea; there are also underground chambers of Atreus and his children, in which were stored their treasures.” This is the story that inspired Heinrich Schliemann’s famous excavations at Mycenae from 1874 to 1881.

Additionally, Pausanias says (in 2.18.1) that, “By the side of the road from Mycenae to Argos there is on the left hand a hero-shrine of Perseus. The neighboring folk, then, pay him honors here. . .” Clearly, it seems that the founding of Mycenae by Perseus was an accepted truth by Peloponnesian locals.

Why did Perseus need to establish a new city? The myths tell how Acrisius, the king of Argos, was told by the Oracle at Delphi that his grandson would kill him. When his beautiful daughter, Danaë, was visited by Zeus and gave birth to a boy, Acrisius tried to get rid of them by casting them out to sea. Perseus and his mother survived this ordeal, of course, and after many adventures the hero found himself taking part in an athletic contest in Larissa. He threw a quoit, or discus, which swerved and fatally struck Acrisius. As he could not in good faith claim the Argosian throne, Perseus exchanged kingdoms with his cousin, Megapenthes, and became king of Tiryns (about 15km SE of Mycenae).

The founding of the Mycenaean capital apparently occurred shortly afterwards. According to Pausanius (2.16.3), “on its site the cap (myces) fell from his scabbard, and he regarded this as a sign to found a city. I have also heard the following account. He was thirsty, and the thought occurred to him to pick up a mushroom (myces) from the ground. Drinking with joy water that flowed from it, he gave to the place the name of Mycenae.”

Apollodorus, however, repeats a traditional tale that Perseus had merely fortified Mycenae (2.4.4). A separate myth has it that the great walls of Tiryns and Mycenae, composed of huge boulders stacked neatly, were built by the Cyclopes, a Thracian race of giants.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the site of Mycenae was first settled around 4000 years ago, but by whom is unclear. Perhaps it was Ionians or Ahhiyawa from Anatolia that adopted Minoan culture to become Homer’s famed Achaeans, or perhaps the name ‘Perseus’ refers to an unknown race of people, rather than a single man. The etymology of the name is uncertain. What is known, however, is that the city called Mycenae became the hub of the first great Greek civilization; one that dominated the eastern Mediterranean for almost 500 years.