In the second millennium BC Mycenae was a major center of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae.

Legend says that Mycenae was founded by Perseus, grandson of king Acrisius of Argos, son of Acrisius' daughter, Danae. After killing his grandfather by accident, Perseus could not or would not inherit the throne of Argos. An exchange of realms with his half-brother, Megapenthes, was arranged instead and he became king of Tiryns, Megapenthes taking Argos. From there he founded Mycenae and ruled the kingdoms jointly from Mycenae.

The memory of the power of Mycenae lingered in the minds of the Greeks through the subsequent centuries, commonly known as the Dark Age. The epic poems attributed by the later Greeks to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, preserve memories of the Myceanean period. Homer's poems make Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War.


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