Where does a landlocked Greek city-state keep its navy?

Where did they keep them? Really big pockets.

Yes, it's always...

amusing to think of places like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and their navy on a coast about mile long.

Ancient Greece is only my 'area' literature wise, but someone will come along and help you. I just wanted to let you know, unlike the last poster, that peole will take you seriously here and our resident 'Grecian learns' will be along to help.

The name "Tiryns" keeps coming to mind. I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I can't fact check right now. Try googling it, and see what pops up.

Nauplion? It's so long since I read any ancient Greek history, but that's what comes to mind.

Was it possible they had a deep river (or dredged a channel) to a town or city under their influence?

I know nothing about Greece, now or then, but just wondered. Montreal's a seaport even though it's a couple of hundred miles away from salt water.

According to Pausanias, Tiryns was the port of Mycenae (that strong citadel was there for a reason -- to protect Mycenaean ships). There's a usable beach at Taenarum in the southern Peloponnese, and another at Pylos/Sphacteria. The navy likely wouldn't have been scattered like that, though. During the winter months they'd have been dragged ashore at Tiryns for repairs, then relaunched in April or so for the sailing season. See if you can find Lionel Casson's The Ancient Mariners. It has some excellent info on early Greek sailing.

Best,

Scott

Oh, and for a good map not in Greek, try these. Just scroll down to the maps of ancient Greece and enjoy

Scott

Mycenae is located way inland, and yet they supposedly had a strong navy if they were to dominate trade and warfare. So where did they keep their navy? Did they just have a bunch of fleets waiting around in distant ports, waiting to be used? How do you maintain and control a navy if your city is far from the sea?

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The Greek city-states (some of them) had significant territories under their military control. Mycenae, in particular, had a fairly broad sphere of influence. They were in near constant competition with Crete for naval supremacy, which they finally acheived after Knossos erupted (I forget what year). Their block of cities included Tiryns, Thebes, Orchomenos and Pylos and they associated closely with the city of Argos. Although Mycenae was never a prominent city-state on the level of Athens of Sparta, t was influential and powerful after the Minoan society began to disintegrate.

Anything north of Mycenae would in all probability be controlled by Corinth. I'm thinking that you're going to have to look at the western shore. Check out this map; it might have some options for you.

Something I would look into is whether the island of Aegina switched allegiances from Crete to Mycenae after the explosion of Knossos. The Athenians didn't dismantle and depopulate the island until sometime in the mid 400s BCE after the Peloponnesian War, but there's a significant chunk of time there where Mycenae might have sheltered its fleet close to shores friendly to it. I think Knossos blew up in 1400 <?> BCE or so, so in that thousand years it's entirely possible that there might have been a shift there.