Editing Mycenae (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:The acropolis at Mycenae, Dec. 2001.jpg|thumb|A view of the citadel]]

The name ''Mukanai'' is thought not to be [[Greek language|Greek]] but rather one of the many [[Pre-Greek substrate|pre-Greek place names]] inherited by later Greek speakers.<ref>{{harvnb|Beekes|2009|loc=p. 29 (''s.v.'' "Ἀθήνη")}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Chadwick|1976|p=1}}.</ref> Legend has it that the name was connected to the Greek word ''mykēs'' (μύκης, "mushroom"). Thus [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] ascribes the name to the legendary founder, [[Perseus]], who was said to have named it either after the cap (''mykēs'') of the sheath of his sword or after a mushroom he had plucked on the site.<ref>Pausanias. ''Description of Greece'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+2.16.3&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 2.16.3]</ref> [[Homer]] connected the name to the nymph Mycene, the daughter of the river god Inachos of [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] ([[Odyssey]] 2.120).

In the ''[[Iliad]]'' the name of the city is spelled ''{{lang|grc-Latn|Mykḗnē}}'' (Μυκήνη).<ref>Homer. ''[[Iliad]]'',
[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+4.52&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0133 4.52], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+7.180&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0133 7.180], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.+Il.+11.46&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0133 11.46]</ref> The later form, {{lang|grc-Latn|Mykē̂nai}} (Μυκῆναι), was the result of a well-known [[sound change]] in [[Attic Greek|Attic]]-[[Ionic Greek|Ionic]], which shifted some instances of ''ā'' to ''ē''.