Nestor's Cup - The "Cup of Nestor" From Mycenae

The "Cup of Nestor" From Mycenae

In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann excavated Grave Circle A at Mycenae, and in several shaft graves he found rich deposits of grave goods, including many golden objects. Shaft Grave IV yielded the richest finds, and among these Schliemann found a golden vessel which he identified as the "Cup of Nestor" as described in the Iliad. Schliemann believed that the shaft graves dated to the time of the Trojan War, and identified Shaft Grave V as the tomb of Agamemnon. However, Schliemann's identification of the shaft graves with Homeric heroes was not accepted by many archaeologists in his own day. The shaft graves are conventionally dated to ca. 1600-1500 BC, some three centuries before the date of the Trojan War (if the war is to be considered as a historical event). Thus the "Cup of Nestor" from Mycenae would have been buried hundreds of years before Nestor supposedly made use of it at Troy.

The cup found at Mycenae differs from Homer's description in several respects, apart from being much smaller. The cup from Mycenae has two handles, whereas Homer's cup has four. Homer's cup has two doves per handle, but the cup found in the shaft grave has a single bird for each handle, and instead of the doves found on the Homeric cup, the birds on the Mycenae cup are falcons.

This cup is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece.