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In other words, neither is likely the mask of Agamemnon, if such a person actually existed outside of myth. Nor is there any evidence that Schliemann ever made his much-quoted “gazed upon the face” comment.

Photo by Jean Levac / Ottawa Citizen

Ultimately, none of that matters much. What’s important — what has the power to amaze — is the sheer opulence and excellence of the artifacts recovered from the graves of Mycenaean kings and their families who lived 3,700 years ago.

Residents and visitors will have an unprecedented opportunity to experience those riches when the Canadian Museum of History’s blockbuster summer exhibition, The Greeks: From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great, opens June 5.

The Mycenaean artifacts, mostly from Grave Circle A at Mycenae, are the clear stars of the show, which presents more than 500 objects from 21 Greek museums. About 300 have never before been seen outside of Greece.

Among them is that first funeral mask discovered by Schliemann. Not only has the mask never before left Greece, since its discovery “it has essentially not left its case” in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, says curator Terry Clark. “So this is a major coup for this object to travel to North America.”

The other mask — the one now popularly known as the mask of Agamemnon — is too valuable to travel. But the history museum will display a replica made by a Swiss artist shortly after it was found by Schliemann. “It’s an artifact unto itself,” Clark says.