Listed 100 (total found 112) sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "ARGOLIS Prefecture PELOPONNISOS" .
ALIIS, ALIA (Ancient city) KRANIDI
The city was inhabited by fishermen from Hermione and by inhabitants from Tiryns. It did not exist in the time of Strabo.
MALADRENI (Village) KOUTSOPODI
Malantreni is a natural northern boundary at Nemea's side, a village
the links Argolida and Corinthia
Counties. It is semi-mountainous, 16km from the city of Argos.
It is as lively as Schinochori
but with a more lyrical character.
The locals are also hard-working and they mostly deal with olive and
citrus trees, apricot trees and produce. Malantreni is well known for its vineyards
and it produces fine quality wines.
(text: Alexis Totsikas)
This text (extract) is cited March 2004 from the Prefecture
of Argolis tourist pamphlet.
ARGOLIS (Prefecture) PELOPONNISOS
ALCYONIA (Lake) LERNA
Alcyonia (Alkuonia), a lake in Argolis, near the Lernaean grove, through which
Dionysus was said to have descended to the lower world, in order to bring back
Semele from Hades. Pausanias says that its depth was unfathomable, and that Nero
had let down several stadia of rope, loaded with lead, without finding a bottom.
As Pausanias does not mention a lake Lerna, but only a district of this name,
it is probable that the lake called Alcyonia by Pausanias is the same as the Lerna
of other writers. (Paus. ii. 37. § 5, seq.; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 473.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited October 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ALEA (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Alea (Eth. Aleos, Aleates). A town of Arcadia, between Orchomenus and Stymphalus,
contained, in the time of Pausanias, temples of the Ephesian Artemis, of Athena
Alea, and of Dionysus. It appears to have been situated in the territory either
of Stymphalus or Orchomenus. Pausanias calls Alea a town of the Maenalians; but
we ought probably to read Asea in this passage, instead of Alea. The ruins of
Alea have been discovered by the French Commission in the middle of the dark valley
of Skotini, about a mile to the NE. of the village of Buyati. Alea was never a
town of importance; but some modern writers have, though inadvertently, placed
at this town the celebrated temple of Athena Alea, which was situated at Tegea.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ALIIS, ALIA (Ancient city) KRANIDI
The name of a sea-faring people on the coast of Hermionis, who derived
their name from their fisheries. (Strab. viii. p. 373.) They gave their name to
a town on the coast of Herinionis, where the Tirynthians and Hermionians took
refuge when they were expelled from their own cities by the Argives. (Ephor. ap.
Byz. s. v. Halieis; Strab. viii. p. 373.) This town was taken about Ol. 80 by
Aneristus, the son of Sperthias, and made subject to Sparta (hos heile Halieas
[not alieas] tous ek Tirunthos, Helod. vii. 137). The district was afterwards
ravaged on more than one occasion by the Athenians. (Thuc. i. 105, ii. 56, iv.
45; Diod. xi. 78.) After the Peloponnesian War the Halieis are mentioned by Xenophon
as an autonomous people. (Xen. Hell. iv. 2. 6, vi. 2, § 3.)
The district is called e Halias by Thucydides (ii. 56, iv. 45), who
also calls the people or their town Halieis; for, in i. 105, the true reading
is es Halias, i.e. Halieas. (See Meineke, and Steph. B. s. v. Halieis.) In an
inscription we find en Halieusin. (Bockh, Inscr. no. 165.)
Scylax speaks of Halia as a port at the mouth of the Argolic gulf.
Callimachus calls the town Alycus (Alukos, Steph. B. s. v.), and by Pausanias
it is named Halice (Halike), and its inhabitants Halici. (Paus. ii. 36. § 1.)
The town was no longer inhabited in the time of Pausanias, and its position is
not fixed by that writer. He only says that, seven stadia from Hermione, the road
from Halice separated from that to Mases, and that the former led between the
mountains Pron and Coccygius, of which the ancient name was Thornax. In the peninsula
of Kranidhi, the French Commission observed the remains of two Hellenic sites,
one on the southern shore, about three miles from Hermione and the same distance
from C. Musadki, the other on the south-western side, at the head of a deep bay
called Kheli or Bizati: the former they suppose to represent Halice, and the latter
Mases, and, accordingly these two places are so placed in Kiepert's map. But Leake,
who is followed by Curtius, observes that the ruins which the French Commission
have named alice are probably some dependency of Hermione of which the name has
not been recorded, since the position is too near to Hermione to have been that
of Halice, and the harbour is too inconvenient for a people who were of considerable
maritime importance. It is far more likely that such a people possessed the port
of Cheli, the situation of which at the mouth of the Argolic gulf agrees exactly
with the description of Scylax. Mases probably stood at the head of the bay of
Kiladhia.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARACHNEO (Mountain) ASKLIPIIO
Arachnaeum (to Arachnaion oros), a mountain in Peloponnesus, forming
the boundary between the territories of Corinth and Epidaurus. (Paus. ii. 25.
§ 10; Steph. B. s. v.; Hesych. s. v. husselinon; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 417,
seq., vol. iii. p. 312.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARGOLIS (Ancient area) PELOPONNISOS
Argos. The territory of Argos
called Argolis (he Argolis) by Herodotus (i. 82), but more frequently by other
Greek writers Argeia (he Argeia, Thuc. v. 75; Strab. viii.6), sometimes Argolice
(he Argolike, Strab. viii.6). By the Greek writers these words were used to signify
only the territory of the city of Argos,
which was bounded by the territories of Phlius,
Cleonae, and Corinth
on the N.; on the W. by that of Epidaurus;
on the S. by the Argolic gulf
and. Cynuria; and on the E.
by Arcadia. The Romans, however,
used the word Argolis in a more extended sense, including under that name not
only the territories of Phlius
and Cleonae on the N., but
the whole acted or peninsula between the Saronic
and Argolic gulfs, which
was divided in the times of Grecian independence into the districts of Epidauria,
Troezenia, and Hermionis.
Thus the Roman Argolis was bounded on the N. by Corinthia
and Sicyonia; on the E. by
the Saronic gulf and Myrtoum
sea; on the S. by the Hermionic
and Argolic gulfs and by
Cynuria; and on the W. by
Arcadia. But at present we
confine ourselves to the Argeia of the Greek writers, referring to other articles
for a description of the districts included in the Roman Argolis. [Phlius;
Cleonae; Epidauria;
Troezenia; Hermionis;
Cynuria.]
The Argeia, or Argolis proper, extended from N. to S from the frontiers
of Phlius and Cleonae
to the frontiers of Cynuria,
in direct distance about 24 English miles. It was separated from Arcadia
of the W. by Mts. Artemisiurnm
and Parthenium, and from
the territory of Epidaurus
on the E. by Mt. Arachnaeum.
Lessa was a town on the borders
of Epidauria (Paus. ii. 26.1);
and from this town to the frontiers of Arcadia,
the direct distance is about 28 English miles. These limits give about 524 square
English miles for the territory of Argos
(Clinton, F. H. vol. ii). The plain in which the city of Argos
is situated is one of the largest plains in the Peloponnesus,
being 10 or 12 miles in length, and from 4 to 5 in width. It is shut in on three
sides by mountains, and only open on the fourth to the sea, and is therefore called
by Sophocles (Oed. Col. 378) to koilon Argos. This plain was very fertile in antiquity,
and was celebrated for its excellent horses (Argos hippoboton, Hom. Il. ii. 287;
Strab. viii.6). The eastern side is much higher than the western; and the former
suffers as much from a deficiency, as the latter does from a superabundance of
water. A recent traveller says that the streams on the eastern part of the plain
are all drunk up by the thirsty soil, on quitting their rocky beds for the deep
arable land, a fact which offers a palpable explanation of the epithet very thirsty
(poludipsion) applied by Homer to the land of Argos
(Il. iv. 171). The western part of the plain, on the contrary, is watered by a
number of streams; and at the south-western extremity of the plain near the sea
there is besides a large number of copious springs; which make this part of the
country a marsh or morass. It was here that the marsh of Lerna
and the fathomless Alcyonian
pool lay, where Hercules is said to have conquered the Hydra. It has been well
observed by a modern writer that the victory, of Hercules over this fifty-headed
water-snake may be understood of a successful attempt of the ancient lords of
the Argive plain to bring
its marshy extremity into cultivation, by draining its sources and embanking its
streams (Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 194). In the time of Aristotle (Meteor.
i. 14) this part of the plain was well-drained and fertile, but at the present
day it is again covered with marshes. With respect to the present productions
of the plain, we learn that the dryer parts are covered with corn; where the moisture
is greater, cotton and vines are grown; and in the marshy parts, towards the sea,
lice and kalamhbokki (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 348).
The two chief rivers in the plain of Argos are the Inachus
and the Erasinus.
The Inachus (Inachos:
Banitza) rises, according to Pausanias (ii 25.3, viii. 6.6), in Mt. Artemisium,
on the borders of Arcadia,
or, according to Strabo (viii. p. 370), in Mt. Lyrceium,
a northern offshoot of Artemisium.
Near its sources it receives a tributary called the Cephissus (Kephissos: Xeria),
which rises in Mt. Lyrceium
(Strab. ix. p. 424; Aelian, V. H. ii. 33). It flows in a south-easterly direction,
E. of the city of Argos,
into the Argolic gulf. This river
is often dry in the summer. Between it and the city of Argos
is the mountain-torrent named Charadrus
(Charadros: Xeria), which also rises in Mt. Artemisium,
and which, from its proximity to Argos,
has been frequently mistaken for the Inachus by modern travellers. It flows over
a wide gravelly bed, which is generally dry in the summer, whence its modern name
of Xeria, or the Dry River. It flows into the Inachus a little below Argos.
It was on the banks of the Charadrus
that the armies of Argos,
on their return from military expeditions, were obliged to undergo a court of
inquiry before they were permitted to enter the city. (Thuc. v. 60; comp. Paus.
ii. 25.2; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 364, Peloponnesiaca, p. 267; Mure, vol. ii.
p. 161).
The Erasinus
(Erasinos, also Ardinos, Strab. viii.6: Kephalari) is the only river in the plain
of Argos which flows during
the whole year. Its actual course in the plain of Argos
is very short; but it was universally believed to be the same stream as the river
of Stymphalus, which disappeared
under Mt. Apelauron, and made its reappearance, after a subterranean course of
200 stadia, at the foot of the rocks of Mt. Chaon,
to the SW. of Argos. It issues
from these rocks in several large streams, forming a river of considerable size
(hence ingens Erasinus, Ov. Met. xv. 275), which flows directly across the plain
into the Argolic gulf. The
waters of this river turn a great number of mills, from which the place is now
called The Mills of Argos (hoi muloi tou Argous). At the spot where the Erasinus
issues from Mt. Chaon, there
is a fine lofty cavern, with a roof like an acute Gothic arch, and extending 65
yards into the mountain (Leake). It is perhaps from this cavern that the mountain
derives its name (from chao, chaino, chasko). The only tributary of the Erasinus
is the Phrixus (Phrixos, Paus. ii. 36.6, 38.1), which joins it near the sea. (Herod.
vi. 76; Strab. vi. p. 275, viii.6; Paus. ii. 36.6, 7, 24.6, viii. 22.3; Diod.
xv. 49; Senec. Q. N. iii. 26; Stat. Theb. i. 357; Plin. iv. 5.9; Leake, Morea,
vol. ii. p. 340, seq., vol. iii. p. 112, seq., Pelopon. p. 384; Ross, Reisen im
Peloponnes, p. 141.)
The other rivers in the Argeia are mere mountain torrents. On the
Argolic gulf we find the
following, proceeding from S. to N.:
1. Tanus (Tanos, Paus. ii. 38.7), or Tanaus (Tanaos, Eurip. Electr 413), now the
river of Luku, forming the boundary between the Argeia and Cynuria.
(Leake, Pelopon. pp. 392, 340)
2. Pontinus (Pontinos), rising in a mountain of the same name (Pontinus),
on which stood a temple (of Athena Saitis, said to have been founded by Danaus.
(Paus. ii. 36.8; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 473, Pelopon. p. 368)
3. Amymone (Amumone), which
descends from the same mountain, and immediately enters the lake of Lerna.
4. Cheimarrhus (Cheimarrhos), between the lake of Lerna
and the Erasinus. (Paus.
ii. 36.7; Leake, More, vol. ii. p. 338). In the interior of the country we find:
5. Asterion (Asterion), a small torrent flowing on the south-eastern side of the
Heraeum, or temple of Hera,
the waters of which are said by Pausanias to disappear in a chasm. No trace of
this chasm has been found; but Mure observed that its waters were absorbed in
the earth at a small distance from the temple (Paus. ii. 17.2; Mure, vol. ii.
p. 180; Leake, Pelopon. p. 262, seq).
6. Eleutherion, a small torrent flowing on the north-western side of the Heraeum
(Paus. ii. 17.1; Leake, Pelopon. p. 272). From a passage of Eustathius (in Od.
xiii. 408), quoted by Leake, we learn that the source of this torrent was named
Cynadra (Kunadra).
In the time of the Peloponnesian
war the whole of the Argeia was subject to Argos,
but it originally contained several independent cities. Of these the most important
were Mycenae and Tiryns,
which in the heroic ages were more celebrated than Argos
itself. Argos is situated
about 3 miles from the sea. Mycenae
is between 6 and 7 miles N. of Argos;
and Tiryns about 5 miles SE.
of Argos. Nauplia,
the port of Argos, is about
2 miles beyond Tiryns. A list
of the other towns in the Argeia is given in the account of the different roads
leading from Argos. Of these
roads the following were the most important:
1. The North road to Cleonae
issued from the gate of Eileithyia (Pans. ii. 18.3),, and ran through the centre
of the plain of Argos to
Mycenae. Shortly after leaving
Mycenae the road entered
a long narrow pass between the mountains, leading into the valley of Nemea
in the territory of Cleonae.
This pass, which was called the Tretus (Tretos) from the numerous caverns in the
mountains, was the carriage-road in the time of Pausanias from Cleonae
to Argos; and is now called
Dervenaki. The mountain is
also called Treton by Hesiod and Diodorus. It was celebrated as the haunt of the
Nemean lion slain by Hercules
(Hes. Tlzeog. 331; Diod. iv. 11; Paus. ii. 15.2, 4), Pausanias mentions (1. c.)
a footpath over these mountains, which was shorter than the Tretus. This is the
road called by other writers Contoporia (Kontororia, Pol. xvi. 16; Athen. ii.
p. 43).
2, 3. The two roads to Mantineia
both quitted Argos at the
gate called Deiras, and then immediately parted in different directions (Paus.
ii. 25.1--4). The more southerly and the shorter of the two roads, called Prinus
followed the course of the Charadrus:
the more northerly and the longer, called Climax, ran along the valley of the
Inachus. Both Ross and Leake
agree in making the Prinus the southern, and the Climax the northern of the two
roads, contrary to the conclusions of the French surveyors (Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes,
p. 130, seq.: Leake, Pelopon. p. 371, seq). For further details respecting these
roads see Mantineia.
The Prinus after crossing the Charadrus
passed by Oenoe, which was
situated on the left bank of the river; it then ascended Mt. Artemisium
(Malevos), on whose summit by the road side was the temple of Artemis, and near
it the sources of the Inachus.
Here were the boundaries of the territories of Mantineia
and Argos. (Pans. ii. 25.
§ § 1--3.)
The Climax first passed by Lyrceia
at the distance of 60 stadia from Argos,
and next Orneae,--a town
on the confines of Phliasia,
at the distance of 60 stadia from Orneae
(Paus. ii. 25. § § 4--6). It appears from this account that the road must have
run in a north-westerly direction, and have followed the course of the Inachus,
since we know that Lyrceia
was not on the direct road to Phlius,
and because 120 stadia by the direct road to Phlius would carry us far into Phliasia,
or even into Sicyonia (Ross,
Ibid. p. 134, seq). After leaving Orneae
the road crossed the mountain and entered the northern corner of the Argon Plain
in the territory of Mantineia.
4. The road to Tegea
quits Argos near the theatre,
and first runs in a southerly direction along the foot of the mountain Lycone.
After crossing the Erasinus
(Kephalari), the road divides into two, the one to the right leading to Tegea
across the mountains, and the other to the left leading through the plain to Lerna.
The road to Tegea passes
by Cenchreae and the sepulchral
monuments (poluandria) of the Argives who conquered the Lacedaemonians
at Hysiae, shortly afterwards
crosses the Cheimarrhus, and then begins to ascend Mt. Pontinus
in a westerly direction. It then crosses another mountain, probably the Creopolum
(Kreopolon) of Strabo (viii.6), and turns southwards to the Khan of Daouli, where
it is joined by a foot-path leading from Lerna.
From this spot the road runs to the W., passes Hysiae,
and crossing Mt. Parthenium
enters the territory of Tegea
(Paus. ii.24.5; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 337, seq.; Ross, ib. p. 131).
At the distance of about a mile from the Erasinus,
and about half a mile to the right of the road, the remains of a interesting pyramid
are found (see Hellinicon)
5. The road to Thyrea
and Sparta is the same as
the one to Tegea, till it
reaches the Erasinus, where
it branches off to the left as described above, and runs southwards through the
marshy plain across the Cheimarrhus to Lerna
(Paus. ii. 36.6). After leaving Lerna,
the road passes by Genesium, and the place called Apobathmi, where Danaus is said
to have landed, in the neighbourhood of the modern village of Kyveri.
To the S. of Kyveri begins
the rugged road across the mountains, anciently called Anigraea (Anigraia), running
along the west into the plain of Thyrea
(Paus. ii. 38.4). Shortly before descending into the Thyreatic plain, the traveller
arrives opposite the Anavolos
(Anabolos), which is a copious source of fresh water rising in the sea, at a quarter
of a mile from the narrow beach under the cliffs. Leake observed that it rose
with such force as to form a convex surface, and to disturb the sea for several
hundred feet round. It is evidently the exit of a subterraneous river of some
magnitude, and thus corresponds with the Dine (Dine) of the ancients, which, according
to Pausanias (viii. 7.2), is the outlet of the waters of the Argon Pedion in the
Mantinice (Leake, vol. ii.
p. 469, seq.; Ross, p. 148, seq).
There were two other roads leading from Lerna,
one along the coast to Nauplia,
and the other across the country to Hysiae.
On the former road, which is described by Pausanias, stood a small village called
Temenion, which derived its
name from the Doric hero Temenus, who was said to have been buried here. It was
situated on an isolated hillock between the mouths of the Inachus
and the Erasinus, and on
that part of the coast which was nearest to Argos.
It was distant 26 stadia from Argos,
and 15 from Nauplia. (Strab.
viii.6; Paus. ii. 38.1; Ross, p. 149). On the other road leading to Hysiae,
which is not mentioned by Pausanias, stood Elaeus.
6. The road to Tiryns
issued from the gate Diampares. From Tiryns
there were three roads, one leading to Nauplia,
a second in a south-westerly direction past Asine
to Troezen, and a third in
a more westerly direction to Epidaurus.
Near the last of these roads Midea
appears to have been situated.
7. The road leading to the Heraeum,
or temple of Hera, issued from the gate between the gates Diam. pares and Eileithyia.
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARGOLIS GULF (Gulf) PELOPONNISOS
Argolicus Sinus (d Argolikos kolpos), the gulf between Argolis and
Laconia, but sometimes used, in a more extended sense, to indicate the whole sea
between the promontory Malea in Laconia and the promontory Scyllaeum in Troezenia,
thus including the Hermonicus Sinus. (Strab. viii. pp. 335, 368; Pol. v. 91; Ptol.
iii. 16. § 10; Plin. iv. 5. s. 9.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARGOLIS PLAIN (Plain) ARGOLIS
Argive plain. This plain was very fertile in antiquity,
and was celebrated for its excellent horses (Argos hippoboton, Hom. Il. ii. 287;
Strab. viii.6). The eastern side is much higher than the western; and the former
suffers as much from a deficiency, as the latter does from a superabundance of
water. A recent traveller says that the streams on the eastern part of the plain
are all drunk up by the thirsty soil, on quitting their rocky beds for the deep
arable land, a fact which offers a palpable explanation of the epithet very thirsty
(poludipsion) applied by Homer to the land of Argos
(Il. iv. 171). The western part of the plain, on the contrary, is watered by a
number of streams; and at the south-western extremity of the plain near the sea
there is besides a large number of copious springs; which make this part of the
country a marsh or morass. It was here that the marsh of Lerna
and the fathomless Alcyonian
pool lay, where Hercules is said to have conquered the Hydra. It has been well
observed by a modern writer that the victory, of Hercules over this fifty-headed
water-snake may be understood of a successful attempt of the ancient lords of
the Argive plain to bring
its marshy extremity into cultivation, by draining its sources and embanking its
streams (Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 194). In the time of Aristotle (Meteor.
i. 14) this part of the plain was well-drained and fertile, but at the present
day it is again covered with marshes. With respect to the present productions
of the plain, we learn that the dryer parts are covered with corn; where the moisture
is greater, cotton and vines are grown; and in the marshy parts, towards the sea,
lice and kalamhbokki (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 348).
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Argos ( to Argos: Eth. Argeios, Argivus, and in the poets Argeus), is said by
Strabo (viii) to have signified a plain in the language of: the Macedonians
and Thessalians; and it is
therefore not improbable that it contains the same root as the Latin word ager.
There were several places of the name of Argos. Two are mentioned in Homer, who
distinguishes them by the names of the Pelasgic
Argos (to Pelasgikon Argos, Il. ii. 681), and the Achaean Argos (Argos Achaiikon,
Il. ix. 141, Od. iii. 251). The
Pelasgic Argos was a town or district in Thessaly. The Achaean Argos, or Argos
simply, is used by Homer in three different significations:
1. To indicate the city of Argos where Diomedes reigned (Il. ii. 559, vi. 224,
xiv. 119).
2. Agamemnon's kingdom, of which Mycenae
was the capital (Il. i. 30, ii. 108, 287, iii. 75, vi. 152).
3. The whole of Peloponnesus,
in opposition to Hellas, or Greece north of the Isthmus
of Corinth (kath Hellada
kai meson Argos, Od. i. 344; comp. Od. iv. 726, Il. ix. 141, 283; Strab. viii.
pp. 369, 370).
In this sense Homer calls it the lasian Argos (Iason Argos, Od. xviii.
246), from an ancient king Iasus, son of Argus and Evadne (Apollod. ii. 1.2).
In consequence of this use of Argos, Homer frequently employs the word Argeioi
to signify the whole body of the Greeks; and the Roman poets, in imitation, use
Argivi in the same manner.
In the Greek writers Argos is used to signify both the territory of
the city of Argos, and more frequently the city itself.
I. Argos, the district. (See Argolis)
II. Argos, the City.
Argos (to Argos), usually called Argi(-orum) by the Romans, was situated
about three miles from the sea, in the plain which has already been described.
Its citadel, called Larisa
or Larissa, the Pelasgic name for a citadel (Larisa, Larissa, Pans. ii. 23.8;
Strab. viii; Dionys. i. 21), was a striking object, being built on an insulated
conical mountain of 900 feet in height, with steep rocky sides, diversified with
grassy slopes. A little to the E. of the town flowed the river Charadrus,
a tributary of the Inachus.
According to the general testimony of antiquity, Argos was the most
ancient city of Greece. It was originally inhabited by Pelasgians, and is said
to have been built by the Pelasgic chief Inachus, or by his son Phoroneus, or
by his grandson Argus. Phoroneus, however, is more commonly represented as its
founder; and from him the city was called astu Phoronikon (Paus. ii. 15.5). The
descendants of Inachus ruled over the country for nine generations; but Gelanor,
the last king of this race, was deprived of the sovereignty by Danaus, who is
said to have come from Egypt.
From this Danaus was derived the name of Danai, which was applied to the inhabitants
of the Argeia and to the Greeks in general (Apollod. ii.1). Danaus and his two
successors Lynceus and Abas ruled over the whole of the Argeia; but Acrisius and
Proetus, the two sons of Abas, divided the territory between them, the former
ruling at Argos, and the latter at Tiryns.
Perseus, the son of Danae, and grandson of Acrisius, founded the city of Mycenae,
which now became the chief city in the Argeia (Paus. ii.15.4, 16.5; Apollod. ii.2).
Eurystheus, the grandson of Perseus, was succeeded in the kingdom of Mycenae
by Atreus, the son of Pelops. The latter transmitted his power to his son or grandson
Agamemnon, king of men, who exercised a kind of sovereignty over the whole of
the Argeian territory, and
a considerable part of Peloponnesus.
Homer represents Mycenae
as the first city in Peloponnesus,
and Argos, which was then governed by Diomedes, as a subordinate place. Orestes,
the son of Agamemnon, united under his sway both Argos and Mycenae,
and subsequently Lacedaemon
also, by his marriage with Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus. Under Orestes Argos
again became the chief city in the Argeian territory. In the reign of his successor
Tisamenus, the Dorians invaded Peloponnesus,
expelled Tisamenus, and became the rulers of Argos. In the three.. fold division
of Peloponnesus, among the
descendants of Hercules, Argos fell to the lot of Temenus.
We now come to the first really historical event in the history of
Argos. The preceding narrative belongs to legend, the truth of which we can neither
deny nor affirm. We only know that before the Dorian invasion the Argeian territory
was inhabited by Achaeans, who, at some period unknown to history, had supplanted
the original Pelasgic population. According to the common legend, the Dorians
conquered the Peloponnesus
at once, and drove out the Achaean population; but it is now generally admitted
that the Dorians only slowly and gradually made themselves masters of the countries
in which we find them subsequently settled; and we know in particular that in
the Argeia, most of the towns, with the exception of Argos, long retained their
original Achaean population.
Even after the Dorian conquest, Argos appears as the first state in
Peloponnesus, Sparta
being second, and Messene
third. Herodotus states (i. 82), that in ancient times the whole eastern coast
of Peloponnesus down to Cape
Malea, including Cythera
and the other islands, belonged to Argos; and the superiority of the latter is
also indicated by the legend, which makes Temenus the eldest of the three Heracleids.
The power of Argos, however, was not derived exclusively from her
own territory, but also from the fact of her being at the head of a league of
several other important Doric cities. Cleonae,
Phlius, Sicyon,
Epidaurus, Troezen,
Hermione, and Aegina
were all members of this league, which was ostensibly framed for religious purposes,
though it in reality gave Argos a political ascendency. This league, like others
of the same kind, was called an Amphictyonia (Paus. iv. 5.2); and its patron god
was Apollo Pythaeus. There was a temple to this god in each of the confederated
cities, while his most holy sanctuary was on the Larissa,
or acropolis of Argos. This league continued in existence even as late as B.C.
514, when the power of Argos had greatly declined, since we find the Argives in
that year condemning both Sicyon
and Aegina to pay a fine of
500 talents each, because they had furnished the Spartan
king Cleomenes with ships to be employed against the Argeian territory (Herod.
vi. 92). The religious supremacy continued till a later time; and in the Peloponnesian
war the Argives still claimed offerings from the confederate states to the temple
of Apollo Pythaeus on the Larissa
(Thuc. v. 53; comip. Miller, Dorians, i. 7.1.)
The great power of Argos at an early period is attested by the history
of Pheidon, king of Argos, who is represented as a lineal descendant of Temenus,
and who reigned between B.C. 770 and 730. He attempted to establish his sway over
the greater part of Peloponnesus, and, in conjunction with the Pisatans,
he seized upon the presidency of the Olympic games in the 8th Olympiad (B.C. 747);
but he was subsequently defeated by the Spartans
and the Eleans.
After the time of Pheidon the power of Argos gradually declined, and
Sparta eventually became
the first power in Peloponnesus.
The two states had long contended for the possession of the district Cynuria
or Thyreatis, which separated
the frontiers of Laconia
and Argos. Several battles between the Lacedaemonians
and Argives are recorded at an early period, and particularly a victory gained
by the latter near Hysiae,
which is assigned to B.C. 669 (Paus. ii. 24.7). But about B.C. 547 the Spartans
obtained permanent possession of Cynuria
by the memorable combat of the 300 champions, in which the Spartan
Othryades earned immortal fame (Herod. i. 82;)
But the great blow, which effectually humbled the power of Argos,
and gave Sparta the undisputed
pre-eminence in Peloponnesus,
was dealt by the Spartan
king Cleomenes, who defeated the Argives with such slaughter near Tiryns,
that 6000 citizens perished in the battle and the retreat (Herod. vi. 76) According
to later writers, the city was only saved by the patriotism of the Argive women,
who, headed by the poetess Telesilla, repulsed the enemy from the walls (Paus.
ii. 20.8; Polyaen. viii. 33; Plut. de Virt. Mul. p. 245; Suid. s. v. Telesilla);
but we know, from the express statement of Herodotus, that Cleomenes never attacked
the city. This great defeat occurred a few years before the Persian wars (comp.
Herod. vii. 148), and deprived Argos so completely of men, that the slaves got
the government into their own hands, and retained possession of it till the sons
of those who had fallen were grown into manhood. It is further related, that when
the young citizens had grown up, they expelled the slaves, who took refuge at
Tiryns, where they maintained
themselves for some time, but were eventually subdued (Herod. vi. 83). These slaves,
as Muller has remarked (Dorians, iii. 4.2), must have been the Gymnesii or bondsmen
who dwelt in the immediate neighbourhood of the city; since it would be absurd
to suppose that slaves bought in foreign countries could have managed a Grecian
state. The Argives took no part in the Persian wars, partly on account
of their internal weakness, and partly through the jealousy of the Spartans;
and they were even suspected of remaining neutral, in consequence of receiving
secret offers from Xerxes (Herod. vii. 150). But even after the expulsion of the
bondsmen, the Dorian citizens found themselves compelled to give the citizenship
to many of the Perioeci, and to distribute them in the immediate neighbourhood
of the city (Aristot. Pol. v. 2.8). Further, in order to increase their numbers
and their power, they also dispeopled nearly all the large cities in the surrounding
country, and transplanted the inhabitants to Argos. In the Persian wars Tiryns
and Mycenae were independent
cities, which followed the command of Sparta
without the consent of Argos. The Argives destroyed Mycenae
in B.C. 468 (Diod. xi. 65; comp. Paus. viii. 16.5); and about the same time we
may place the destruction of Tiryns,
Hysiae, Midea,
and the other towns in the Argeia (Paus. viii. 27.1).
The introduction of so many new citizens gave new life and vigour
to Argos, and soon re-established its prosperity and wealth (Diod. xii. 75); but
at the same time it occasioned a complete change in the constitution. Up to this
time Argos had been essentially a Doric state. It contained three classes of persons:
1. The inhabitants of the city, consisting for the most part of Dorians, originally
divided into three tribes, to which a fourth was afterwards added, named Hyrnathia,
containing families not of Doric origin (Muller, Dorians, iii. 5.1, 2).
2. A class of Perioeci, consisting of the ancient Achaean inhabitants. Muller
(Ibid. iii. 4.2) supposes that these Perioeci were called Orneatae from the town
of Orneae; but there are good reasons for questioning this
statement.
3. A class of bondslaves, named Gymnesii, corresponding to the Helots of Sparta,
and of whom mention has been made above.
There was a king at the head of the state. All the kings were descendants
of the Heracleid Temenus down to Meltas, who was the last king of this race (Paus.
ii. 19.2; Plut. Alex. Virt. 8); and after him another dynasty reigned down to
the time of the Persian wars. Herodotus (vii. 149) mentions a king of Argos at
this period; but the royal dignity was abolished soon afterwards, probably when
the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns were received as citizens (Hermann,
Griech. Staatsalt. 23. n. 6).
The royal power, however, was always very limited (Paus. ii. 9.2);
for the Council (boule) possessed extensive authority. At the time of the Peloponnesian
war we find Argos in the enjoyment of a democratic constitution; but of the details
of this constitution we possess hardly any accounts (Thuc. v. 29, 41, 44). In
the treaty of alliance between Argos and Athens,
which Thucydides (v. 47) has preserved, we find mention at Argos of the Boule,
the Eighty, and the Artynae (Artunai). It has been conjectured that the Eighty
was a more aristocratical council, and that the Artynae may have acted as presidents
to this council (Arnold, ad Thuc. l. c.); but nothing is really known of these
two bodies except their names. The ostracism was one of the democratical institutions
of Argos (Aristot. Pol. v. 2.5; Schol. ad Aristoph. Eq. 851). Another democratical
institution was a military court, which the soldiers, on returning from an expedition,
held on the river Charadrus
before entering the city, in order to inquire into the conduct of their generals
(Thuc. v. 60).
The Argives remained neutral during the first ten years of this war,
in consequence of a truce for 30 years which they had previously formed with the
Spartans (Thuc. v. 14).During
this time they had increased in numbers and wealth; while Sparta
had been greatly exhausted by her contest with Athens.
Moreover, shortly before the expiration of the truce, the Spartans
had given great offence to her Peloponnesian
allies by concluding the peace with Athens,
usually called the peace of Nicias (B.C. 421). The time seemed favourable to Argos
for the recovery of her former supremacy in the Peloponnesus;
and she accordingly formed a league against Sparta,
which was joined by the Mantineians,
Corinthians and Eleians,
B.C. 421 (Thuc. v. 31). In the following year (B.C. 420) the Athenians
also were persuaded by Alcibiades to form a treaty with Argos (Thuc. v. 43-47);
but the disastrous battle of Mantineia
(B.C. 418), in which the Argives and their confederates were defeated by the Spartans,
not only broke up this alliance, but placed Argos in close connection with Sparta.
There had always been an oligarchical party at Argos in favour of
a Lacedaemonian alliance.
About the time of the peace of Nicias, the Argive government had formed a separate
regiment of a thousand select hoplites, consisting of young men of wealth and
station, to receive constant military training at the public expense (Diod. xii.
75; Thuc. v. 67). At the battle of Mantineia
this regiment had been victorious over the troops opposed to them, while the democratical
soldiers had been put to the rout by the enemy. Supported by this regiment, the
oligarchical party obtained the upper hand at Argos, and concluded a treaty of
peace with Sparta; and in
the following year (B.C. 417), assisted by some Spartan
troops, they overthrew the democratical form of government by force (Thuc. v.
71--81). But they did not retain their power long. At the end of four months the
people rose against their oppressors, and after a sharp contest expelled them
from the city.
The Argives now renewed their alliance with the Athenians,
and commenced erecting long walls, in order to connect their city with the sea;
but before they had time to finish them, the Lacedaemonians
invaded their territory, and destroyed the walls (Thuc. v. 82, 83). During the
remainder of the Peloponnesian
war the Argives continued faithful to the Athenian
alliance, and sent troops to the Athenian
armies (Thuc. vi. 29, vii. 57, viii. 25).
At a later time the Argives were always ready to join the enemies
of Sparta. Thus they united
with Athens, Thebes,
Corinth, and the other states
to oppose Sparta in the war
which was set on foot by the Persian king in B.C. 395; and even when Athens
assisted Sparta against the
Thebans, the Argives would
not make cause with their old allies, but fought on the side of the Thebans
against their ancient enemy, B.C. 362 (Xen. Hell. vii. 5. 5) It was about this
time that party hatred perpetrated the greatest excesses at Argos. The oligarchical
party having been detected in an attempt to overthrow the democracy, the people
became so exasperated that they put to death most of the men of wealth and influence
in the state. On this occasion 1200 men, or, according to another statement, 1500,
were slain; and even the demagogues shared the same fate. This state of things
was called by the name of Skutalismos, or club-law (Diod. xv. 58; Plut. Praec.
Reip. Ger. p. 814, b.; Muller, Ibid. iii. 9.1)
Little requires to be said respecting the subsequent history of Argos.
The most memorable occurrence in its later history is the attempt of Pyrrhus to
surprise the city, in which he met with his death (Plut. Pyrrh. 34;). Like many
of the other cities in Peloponnesus,
Argos was now governed by tyrants, who maintained their power by the support of
the Macedonian kings; but
when Aratus had succeeded in liberating Sicyon
and Corinth, he persuaded
Aristomachus, the tyrant of Argos, voluntarily to resign his power; and the Argives
then joined the Achaean league, B.C. 229 (Pol. ii. 44; Plut. Arat. 35). Argos
fell for a time into the hands of Cleomenes (Pol. ii. 52), and subsequently into
those of Nabis, tyrant of Sparta,
and his cruel wife (Pol. xvii. 17; Liv. xxxii. 18); but. with the exception of
these temporary occupations, it continued to belong to the Achaean league till
the final conquest of Greece by the Romans, B.C. 146 (Strab. viii).
Argos was one of the largest and most populous cities in Greece. We
have already seen that in the war with Cleomenes it lost 6000 of its citizens;
but at the time of the Peloponnesian war it had greatly increased in numbers.
Lysias, in B.C. 402, says that Argos equalled Athens
in the number of her citizens (Dionys. Lys. p. 531); and there were probably not
less than 16,000 Athenian
citizens at that time. But 16,000 citizens will give a total free population of
66,000. If to these we add the slaves and the Perioeci, the aggregate calculation
cannot have been less than 110,000 persons for Argos and its territory (Clinton,
F. H. vol. ii. p. 424, seq.)
Few towns in Greece paid more attention to the worship of the gods
than Argos. Hera was the deity whom they reverenced above all others. This goddess
was an Achaean rather than a Dorian divinity, and appears in the Iliad as the
guardian deity of the Argives; but her worship was adopted by the Dorian conquerors,
and was celebrated with the greatest honours down to the latest times. Even in
B.C. 195 we find Aristaenus, the general of the Achaean league, invoking, Juno
regina, cujus in tutela Argi sunt (Liv. xxxiv. 24). The chief temple of this goddess,
called the Heraeum, was situated
between Argos and Mycenae,
but much nearer to the latter than to the former city; and in the heroic age,
when Mycenae was the chief
city in the Argeia, the inhabitants of this city probably had the management of
the temple (Grote, vol. i. pp. 226, 227). In the historical age the temple belonged
to the Argives, who had the exclusive management of its affairs. The high priestess
of the temple held her office for life; and the Argives counted their years by
the date of her office (Thuc. ii. 2). Once in four years, probably in the second
year of every Olympiad, there was a magnificent procession from Argos to this
temple, in which almost the whole population of the city took part. The priestess
rode in a chariot, drawn by two white oxen (Herod. i. 31; Cic. Tusc. i. 4. 7;).
Respecting the site of this temple, which was one of the most magnificent in Greece,
some remarks are made...(see Heraeum).
In the city itself there were also two temples of Hera, one of Hera
Acraea on the ascent to the Acropolis (Paus. ii. 24.1), and the other of Hera
Antheia in the lower part of the city (Paus. ii. 22.1). But the temple of Apollo
Lyceius is described by Pausanias (ii. 19.3) as by far the most celebrated of
all the temples in the city. Tradition ascribed its foundation to Danaus. It stood
on one side of the Agora (Thuc. v. 47), which Sophocles therefore calls the Lyceian
Agora of the wolf-slaying god (tou lukoktonou theou agora Lukeios, Soph. Electr.
6; comp. Plut. Pyrrh. 31; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 401, seq.). There was also
a temple of Apollo Pythaeus on the Acropolis,which, as we have already seen, was
a common sanctuary for the Dorian states belonging to the ancient Argive confederacy
(Paus. ii. 24.1; Thuc. v. 53.) There were temples to several other gods in Argos;
but we may pass them over, with the exception of the temples of Zeus Larissaeus
and of Athena, both of which crowned the summit of the acropolis (Paus. ii. 24.3;
Strab. viii.6).
The great number of temples, and of statues with which they were adorned,
necessarily led to the cultivation of the fine arts. Argos became the seat of
one of the most celebrated schools of statuary in Greece. It rose to the greatest
renown in the 5th century, B.C., under Ageladas, who was the teacher of Pheidias,
Myron, and Polycleitus, three of the greatest sculptors in antiquity. Music was
also cultivatedwith success at Argos at an early period ; and in the reign of
Darius the Argives were reckoned by Herodotus (iii. 131) the best musicians in
Greece. Sacadas, who flourished about this period (B.C. 590--580), and who was
one of the most eminent of the Greek musicians, was a native of Argos. Sacadas
obtained distinction as a poet as well as a musician; and the Argive Telesilla,
who was contemporary with Cleomenes, was so celebrated as a poetess as to be classed
among those who were called the Nine Lyric Muses (Dict. of Biogr. art. Sacadas
and Telesilla). But after this time we find no trace of the pursuit of literature
at Argos. Notwithstanding its democratical constitution, and the consequent attention
that was paid to public affairs, it produced no orator whose fame descended to
posterity (Cic. Brut. 13). The Argives had the character of being addicted to
wine (Aelian, V. H. iii. 15; Athen. x. d).
The remains of Argos are few, but still sufficient to enable us to
fix the position of some parts of the ancient city, of which Pausanias has left
us a minute account. The modern town of Argos is situated wholly in the plain,
but it is evident from the existing remains of the ancient walls, that the mountain
called Larissa was included within the ancient city. On the summit of this mountain
there are the ruins of a Gothic castle, the walls of which are built upon those
of the ancient acropolis. The masonry of the ancient parts of the building is
solely or chiefly in the more regular or polygonal style. There are, however,
considerable vestiges of other lines of wall, of massive Cyclopian structure,
on the sides and base of the hill connecting the citadel with the lower town (Mure,
vol. ii. p. 184). Euripides, in more than one passage, alludes to the Cyclopian
walls of Argos (Argos, hina teiche laina Kuklopi ourania nemontai, Troad. 1087;
Argeia teiche kai Kuklopian polin, Here. Fur. 15). It appears from the ancient
substructions that the ancient acropolis, like the modern citadel, consisted of
an outer wall or rampart, and of an inner keep or castle. The latter occupied
a square of about 200 feet.
From either end of the outer fortification, the city walls may be traced on the
descent of the hill. As no remains of the city walls can be traced in the plain,
it is difficult to form an estimate of the dimensions of the ancient city; but
Leake conjectures that it could not have been less than 5 miles in circumference.
We learn from Livy that Argos had two citadels ( nam duas [arces]
habent Argi, Liv. xxxiv. 25). This second citadel was probably situated at the
extremity of the hill, which forms the north-eastern projection of the mountain
of Larissa, and which rises
to about one-third of the height of the latter. The ridge connecting this hill
with the Larissa is called
Deiras (Deiras) by Pausanias (ii. 24.1). The second citadel was called Aspis
(Aspis, Plut. Pyrrh. 32, Cleom. 17, 21), since a shield was suspended here as
the insignia of the town; whence the proverb hos ten en Argei aspida kathelon
(Zenob. vi. 52; Plut. Prove. Alexand. 44; Suid.; Muller, Doricans, App. vi.9).
There are considerable remains of the theatre, which was excavated
on the southern slope of the Larissa. In front of the western wing of the theatre
there are some brick ruins of the Roman period. At the south-western end of the
Larissa there are remains
of an aqueduct, which may be traced two miles beyond the village of Belissi
to the NW.
The Agora appears to have stood nearly in the centre of the city.
In the middle of the Agora was the monument of Pyrrhus, a building of white marble;
on which were sculptured the arms worn by this monarch in his wars, and some figures
of elephants. It was erected on the spot where the body of Pyrrhus was burnt;
but his remains were deposited in the neighbouring temple of Demeter, where he
died, and his shield was affixed above the entrance (Paus. ii. 21.4). A street
named Coele (Koile, Pans. ii. 23.1) appears to have led from the Agora to the
Larissa, the ascent to which
was by the ridge of Deiras. At the foot of the hill Deiras was a subterraneous
building, which is said to have once contained the brazen chamber (ho chalkous
thalamos) in which Danae was confined by her father Acrisius (Paus. ii. 23.7;
comp. Soph. Antig. 948; comp. Hor. Carm. iii. 16. 1). The gymnasium, called Cylarabis
(Kularabis), from the son of Sthenelus, was situated outside the city, at a distance
of less than 300 paces according to Livy (Paus. ii. 22.8; Liv. xxxiv. 26; Plut.
Cleom. 17). The gate which led to it was called Diamperes (Diamperes). It was
through this gate that Pyrrhus entered the city on the night of his death (Plut.
Pyrrh. 32) The king fell near the sepulchre of Licymnius in a street leading from
the agora to the gymnasium. (Plut. Pyrrh. 34; Paus. ii. 22.8)
The principal gates of Argos appear to have been:
1. The gate of Eileithyia, so called from a neighbouring temple of this goddess,
leading to Mycenae and Cleonae
(Paus. ii. 18.3)
2. The gate of Deiras (hai pulai hai pros te Deiradi), leading to Mantineia.
In the ridge, called Deiras, Leake observed an opening in the line of the ancient
walls, which marks precisely the position of this gate (Paus. ii. 25.1)
3. The gate leading to Tegea (Paus.
ii. 24.5)
4. The gate leading to Temenium.
5. The gate Diamperes, leading to Tiryns,
Nauplia and Epidaurus.
6. A gate leading to the Heraeum.
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ARTEMISSION (Mountain) LYRKIA
Artemisium. A mountain forming the boundary between Argolis and Arcadia, with a temple of Artemis on its summit. It is 5814 feet in height, and is now called the Mountain of Turniki. (Paus. ii. 25.3, viii. 5.6; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 203.)
ASSINI (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Eth. Asinaios, Asineus. A town in the Argeia, on the coast, is mentioned
by Homer (Il. ii. 560) as one of the places subject to Diomedes. It is said to
have been founded by the Dryopes, who originally dwelt on Mt. Parnassus. In one
of the early wars between the Lacedaemonians and the Argives, the Asinaeans joined
the former when they invaded the Argive territory under their king Nicander; but
as soon as the Lacedaemonians returned home, the Argives laid siege to Asine and
razed it to the ground, sparing only the temple of the Pythaeus Apollo. The Asinaeans
escaped by sea; and the Lacedaemonians gave to them, after the end of the first
Messenian war, a portion of the Messenian territory, where they built a new town.
Nearly ten centuries after the destruction of the city its ruins were visited
by Pausanias, who found the temple of Apollo still standing. Leake places Asine
at Tolon, where a peninsular maritime height retains some Hellenic remains. The
description of Pausanias, who mentions it (ii. 36. § 4) immediately after Didymi
in Hermionis, might lead us to place it further to the east, on the confines of
Epidauria; but, on the other hand, Strabo (viii. p. 373) places it near Nauplia;
and Pausanias himself proceeds to describe Lerna, Temenium, and Nauplia immediately
after Asine. Perhaps Asine ought to be placed in the plain of Iri, which is further
to the east. The geographers of the French Commission place Asine at Kandia, a
village between Tolon and Iri, where they found some ancient remains above the
village, and, at a mile's distance from it towards Iri, the ruins of a temple.
But, as Leake observes, the objection to Kandia for the site of Asine is, that
it is not on the sea-shore, as Pausanias states Asine to have been; and which
he repeats (iv. 34. § 12) by saying that the Messenian Asine, whither the Asinaei
of Argolis migrated, after the destruction of their city by the Argives, was situated
on the sea-side, in the same manner as Asine in Argolis.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CHARADROS (Tributary) ARGOS - MYKINES
Between Inachus and the city of Argos
is the mountain-torrent named Charadrus
(Charadros: Xeria), which also rises in Mt. Artemisium,
and which, from its proximity to Argos,
has been frequently mistaken for the Inachus by modern travellers. It flows over
a wide gravelly bed, which is generally dry in the summer, whence its modern name
of Xeria, or the Dry River. It flows into the Inachus a little below Argos. It
was on the banks of the Charadrus
that the armies of Argos,
on their return from military expeditions, were obliged to undergo a court of
inquiry before they were permitted to enter the city. (Thuc. v. 60; comp. Paus.
ii. 25.2; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 364, Peloponnesiaca, p. 267; Mure, vol. ii.
p. 161).
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ELEOUS (Ancient city) LERNA
Elaeus, Elaious: Eth. Elaiousios. A town in the Argeia, mentioned only by
Apollodorus (ii. 5.2) and Stephanus B. From the statement of the former writer
we may conclude that it could not have been far from Lerna, since Heracles, after
he had succeeded in cutting off the immortal head of the Hydra, is said to have
buried it by the side of the way leading from Lerna to Elaeus. The remains of
this town have been found in the unfrequented road leading from Lerna to Hysiae.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
EPIDAVROS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Epidauros: Eth. Epidaurios. A town on the eastern coast of Peloponnesus,
in the district called Argolis under the Romans. Throughout the flourishing period
of Grecian history it was an independent state, possessing a small territory (Epidauria),
bounded on the west by the Argeia, on the north by the Corinthia, on the south
by the Troezenia, and on the east by the Saronic gulf. Epidaurus is situated on
a small peninsula, which projects from a narrow plain, surrounded on the land
side by mountains. In this plain the vine is chiefly cultivated, as it was in
the time of Homer (ampeloent Epidauron, Hom. Il. ii. 561). North of the peninsula
is a well protected harbour; south of it, an open roadstead. The original town
was confined to the peninsula, which is 15 stadia in circumference. (Strab. viii.
p. 374.) The town also extended upon the shore both north and south of the peninsula,
and embraced the small promontory which forms the southern extremity of the northern
harbour. Epidaurus is accurately described by Strabo as situated in a recess of
the Saronic gulf, looking towards the NE., and shut in by high mountains. Epidaurus
possessed only a small territory; but various circumstances contributed to make
it a place of importance at an early period. Of these the principal was its temple
of Asclepius, situated at the distance of five miles from the city, of which we
shall speak presently. Epidaurus lay near Aegina and the other islands in the
Saronic gulf, and nearly opposite the harbours of Athens, from which it was distant
only a six hours' sail. It was likewise nearly due east of Argos, from which there
was a highway to Epidaurus, forming the chief line of communication between Argos
and the Saronic gulf. Epidaurus was said by Aristotle to have been originally
a Carian settlement. Hence it was called Epicarus. Strabo relates that its more
ancient name was Epitaurus. (Strab. l. c. Steph. B. s. v. Epidauros; Eustath.
ad Hom. Il. ii. 561.) It was afterwards colonised by lonians. According, to Aristotle,
it was colonised by Ionians from the Attic tetrapolis, in conjunction with the
Heracleidae on their return to Peloponnesus; but it is more in accordance with
the generally received legend to suppose that Epidaurus had been previously colonised
by Ionians, and that these latter were expelled by the Dorian invaders. Indeed,
this is the statement of Pausanias, who relates that at the time of the Dorian
invasion Epidaurus was governed by Pityreus, a descendant of Ion, who surrendered
the country without a contest to Deiphontes and the Argives, and himself retired
to Athens with his citizens. (Paus. ii. 26. § 1, seq.) Deiphontes is represented
as the son-in-law of Temenus, who obtained Argos as his share of the Dorian conquests,
having married Hyrnetho, the daughter of Temenus. The misfortunes of Deiphontes
afforded materials for the tragic poets. Whatever truth there may be in these
legends, the fact is certain that the Dorians became masters of Epidaurus, and
continued throughout the historical period the ruling class in the state. At an
early period Epidaurus appears to have been one of the chief commercial cities
in the Peloponnesus. It colonised Aegina, which was for a long time subject to
it. It also colonised, near the coasts of Asia Minor, the islands of Cos, Calydnus,
and Nisyrus. (Herod. vii. 99.) But as Aegina grew in importance, Epidaurus declined,
and in the sixth century B.C. almost all the commerce of the mother-city had passed
into the hands of the Aeginetans.
Epidaurus was originally governed by kings, the reputed descendants
of Deiphontes; but, as in most of the other Grecian states, monarchy was succeeded
by an oligarchy, which was in its turn superseded for a time by a tyranny. Amongst
the tyrants of Epidaurus was Procles, whose daughter Melissa was married to Periander,
tyrant of Corinth; and when Procles resented the murder of his daughter by Periander,
the latter marched against his father-in-law and led him away into captivity after
taking Epidaurus. (Herod. iii. 50 - 52.) After the abolition of the tyranny the
government of Epidaurus again reverted to the oligarchy. who retained possession
of it during the whole historical period. For this reason the Epidaurians were
always firm allies of Sparta, and severed their connection with their mother-city,
Argos, since the latter had adopted a democratical constitution. Of the exact
form of the Epidaurian government we have no particulars. We only read of magistrates
called Artynae, who were presidents of a council of 180 members. (Plut. Quaest.
[p. 841] Graec. 1.) The original inhabitants of the country were called Konipodes
or dusty-feet, and cultivated the land for their Dorian masters in the city. (Plut.
l. c.; Hesych. s. v. Konipodes; Muller, Dor. vol. ii. pp. 57, 151, transl.) In
the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 419) the Argives made war upon the Epidaurians and
attempted to take their city, but they were repulsed and obliged to retreat into
their own territories. (Thuc. v. 53 - 57.) In the time of the Romans, Epidaurus
was little more than the harbour of the temple of Asclepius. Pausanias gives only
a brief account of its public buildings. He mentions a temple of Athena Cissaea
on the acropolis; temples of Dionysus, Artemis, and Aphrodite, in the city; a
sacred enclosure of Asclepius in the suburbs; and a temple of Hera on a promontory
at the harbour, which promontory is doubtless the one forming the northern entrance
to the harbour, and now called C. Nikolao. (Paus. ii. 29. § 1.) The name of Epidaurus
is still preserved in the corrupted form of Pidhavro, which is the name of a neighbouring
village. The foundations of the ancient walls may be traced in many parts along
the cliffs of the peninsula. Here Dodwell noticed some fragments of columns, and
a draped statue of a female figure, forming apparently the cover of a sarcophagus.
The sea has encroached upon the shore on either side of the peninsula, and some
remains of the outer city may still be seen under water.
The temple of Asclepius was situated at the distance of 5 miles west
of Epidaurus on the road to Argos. (Liv. xlv. 28.) It was one of the most celebrated
spots in Greece, and was frequented by patients from all parts of the Hellenic
world for the cure of their diseases. The temple itself was only a small part
of the sacred spot. Like the Altis at Olympia, and the Hierum of Poseidon at the
Isthmus, there was a sacred enclosure, usually called the grove (alsos) of Asclepius,
and containing several public buildings. It stood in a small plain entirely surrounded
by mountains. (Paus. ii. 27. § 1.) The sacred enclosure was less than a mile in
circumference; it was confined on two sides by steep hills, and on the other two
by a wall, which appears to have formed a right angle in the lowest and most level
part of the valley, and is still traceable in several places. (Leake.) The recollection
of the sacred character of this valley has been preserved down to the present
name. It is still called Hieron (hieron), or the Sanctuary; and it is a curious
circumstance that the village, through which the road leads to the Hieron, bears
the name of Koroni, evidently derived from Coronis, the mother of Asclepius, and
which it must have preserved from ancient times, although the name is not mentioned
by ancient writers. Of the mountains surrounding the sanctuary the highest lies
to the north: it is now called Bolonidia, and bore in ancient times the name of
Titthium (Titthion), because the child of Coronis, which was exposed upon this
mountain, was here suckled by a goat. (Paus. ii. 26. § 4, 27, § 7.) Mount Cynortium
(Kunortion, Paus. ii. 27. § 7), on which stood a temple of Apollo Maleatas, is
probably the hill in the southeast of the valley, above the theatre, on the way
to Troezen. Pausanias also mentions a hill called Coryphaeum, on the summit of
which was a temple of Artemis Coryphaea. It appears to have been the height in
the south-west of the valley, since some believed that an olive tree on the ascent
to the mountain was the boundary of the territory of Asine. (Paus. ii. 28. § 2.)
The buildings in the sacred grove are described by Pausanias. He mentions first
the temple of Asclepius, containing a chryselephantine statue of the god, the
work of Thrasymedes of Paros, and half the size of the temple of Zeus at Olympia.
The god sat upon a throne, holding a staff in one hand, and resting the other
upon the head of a serpent; a dog lay at his feet. On one side of the temple there
were dormitories for those who came to consult the god. Near the temple was the
Tholus, a circular building of white marble, built by Polycleitus of Argos, and
containing pictures by Pausias. In the sacred enclosure there was a theatre, also
built by Polycleitus, which Pausanias considered particularly worthy of attention.
The other objects within the sacred enclosure specified by Pausanias were temples
of Artemis, Aphrodite, and Themis, a stadium, a fountain covered with a roof,
and several works erected by Antoninus Pius before he became emperor of Rome,
of which the most important were the bath of Asclepius, a temple of the gods called
Epidotae, a temple dedicated to Hygieia, Asclepius, and Apollo surnamed the Aegyptian,
and a building beyond the sacred enclosure for the reception of the dying and
of women in labour, because it was unlawful for any one to die or to be born within
the sanctuary. (Paus. ii. 27.) A festival was celebrated in the sacred grove in
honour of Asclepius with musical and gymnastic games: it took place every four
years, nine days after the Isthmian games. (Schol, ad Pind. Nem. iii. 145; Plat
Ion, init.; Dict. of Ant. art. Asclepieia.) The site of the sacred enclosure is
now covered with ruins, which it is difficult for the most part to assign to any
definite buildings. The position of the Tholus is clearly marked by its foundations,
from which it appears that it was about 20 feet in diameter. In its neighbourhood
are some foundations of a temple, which was probably the great temple of Asclepius.
The ruins of the theatre are the most important. Leake observes that this theatre
is in better preservation than any other temple in Greece, except that which exists
near Trametzus in Epirus, not far from Ioannina. The orchestra was about, 90 feet
in length, and the entire theatre about 370 feet in diameter: 32 rows of seats
still appear above ground in a lower division, which is separated by a diazoma
from an upper, consisting of 20 seats. Twenty-four scalae, or flights of steps,
diverging in equidistant radii from the bottom to the top, formed the communications
with the seats. The theatre, when complete, was capable of containing 12,000 spectators.
Of the stadium there remain the circular end and a part of the adjacent sides,
with 15 rows of seats. Near it are the ruins of two cisterns and a bath.
When L. Aemilius Paulus visited Epidaurus in B.C. 167 after the conquest
of Macedonia, the sanctuary was still rich in gifts presented by those who had
recovered from diseases; but it had been robbed of most of these votive offerings
before the. time of Livy. (Liv. xlv, 28.) It suffered most from the depredations
of Sulla at the same time that he robbed the temples of Olympia and Delphi. (Diod.
Exc. p. 614, ed. Wess.) It is described by Strabo as a place renowned for the
cure of all diseases, always full of invalids, and containing votive tablets descriptive
of the cures, as at Cos and Tricca. (Strab. viii. p. 374.)
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ERASSINOS (River) ARGOS - MYKINES
The Erasinus
(Erasinos, also Ardinos, Strab. viii.6: Kephalari) is the only river in the plain
of Argos which flows during the whole year. Its actual course in the plain of
Argos is very short; but it was universally believed to be the same stream as
the river of Stymphalus,
which disappeared under Mt. Apelauron, and made its reappearance, after a subterranean
course of 200 stadia, at the foot of the rocks of Mt. Chaon,
to the SW. of Argos. It issues from these rocks in several large streams, forming
a river of considerable size (hence ingens Erasinus, Ov. Met. xv. 275), which
flows directly across the plain into the Argolic
gulf. The waters of this river turn a great number of mills, from which the
place is now called The Mills of Argos (hoi muloi tou Argous). At the spot where
the Erasinus issues from
Mt. Chaon, there is a fine
lofty cavern, with a roof like an acute Gothic arch, and extending 65 yards into
the mountain (Leake). It is perhaps from this cavern that the mountain derives
its name (from chao, chaino, chasko). The only tributary of the Erasinus
is the Phrixus (Phrixos, Paus. ii. 36.6, 38.1), which joins it near the sea.
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ERMIONI (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Hermion (Hermione, Herod., Xen., Strab.; Hermion Eurip. Here. Fur.
615; Polyb. ii. 52; Hermion, Scylax, p. 20: Eth. Hermioneus; fem. Hermionis: Adj.
Hermionikos, Hermioneus, Hermionius, Hermionicus). The territory Hermionis a town
at the southern extremity of Argolis, in the wider use of this term, but an independent
city during the flourishing period of Grecian history, and possessing a territory
named Hermionis. The sea between the southern coast of Argolis and the island
of Hydrea was called after it the Hermionicus Sinus (Hermionikos kolpos, Strab.
viii. p. 335), which was regarded as distinct from the Argolic and Saronic gulfs.
Hermione was founded by the Dryopes, who are said to have been driven
out of their original abodes on Mount Oeta and its adjacent valleys by Heracles,
and to have settled in the Peloponnesus, where their three chief towns were Hermione,
Asine, and Eion. (Herod. viii. 43. 47; Diod. iv. 37.) Hermione is mentioned by
Homer along with its kindred city Asine. (Hom. Il. ii. 560.) Asine and Eion were
conquered at an early period by the Dorians, but Hermione continued to exist as
an independent Dryopian state long afterwards. Hermione appears to have been the
most important of the Dryopian towns, and to have been in possession at one time
of a larger portion of the adjacent coast, as well as of several of the neighboring
islands. Strabo, following ancient authorities, places the promontory Scyllaeum
in Hermionis (Strab. viii. p. 373), and the Helnionic gulf extended along the
coast of Troezen as far as this promontory. Hermione is mentioned first among
the cities of the Amphictyony, the representatives of which were accustomed to
meet in the adjacent island of Calaureia (Strab. viii. p. 374), from which it
has been inferred that Hermione had the presidency of the confederacy, and that
the island belonged to this city. It is expressly stated that Hydreia belonged
to the Hermionians, and that they surrendered this island to the Samian pirates,
who gave it into the charge of the Troezenians. (Herod. iii. 59.) The Hermionians
are mentioned as Dryopes at the time of the Persian wars: they sent three ships
to Salamis, and 300 men to Plataea. (Herod. viii. 43, ix. 28.) Subsequently the
Argives took possession of Hermione, and settled there an Argive colony. There
is no account of its conquest, and Pausanias supposes that the Argives obtained
peaceable possession of the town; but it probably came into their power about
the same time that they subdued Mycenae and Tiryns, B.C. 464. Some of the expelled
Hermionians took refuge at Halieis, where the Tirynthians had also settled; and
it was perhaps at this time that the lower city was deserted. (Paus. ii. 34. §
5; Strab. viii. p. 373; comp. Steph, B. s. v.) Hermione now became a Doric city;
but the inhabitants still retained some of the ancient Dryopian customs. Thus
it continued to be the chief seat of the worship of Demeter Chthonia, who appears
to have been the principal deity of the Dryopians; and we learn from a remarkable
inscription that the Asinaeans, who had settled in Messenia after their expulsion
from Argolis, continued to send offerings to Demeter Chthonia at Hermione. (Bockh,
Inscr. no. 1193.) Although Hermione had fallen into the hands of the Argives,
it did not continue permanently subject to Argos, and it is mentioned subsequently
as an independent town and an ally of Sparta. (Thuc. ii. 56, viii. 3) After the
capture of the Acrocorinthus by Aratus, the tyrant who governed Hermione voluntarily
surrendered his power, and the city joined the Achaean league. (Polyb. ii. 44.)
Hermione continued to exist long afterwards, as is proved by its numerous coins
and inscriptions
Pausanias describes Hermione at considerable length. The old city,
which was no longer inhabited in his time, stood upon a promontory seven stadia
in length, and three in breadth at its widest part; and on either side of this
promontory there was a convenient harbour. There were still several temples standing
on this promontory in the time of Pausanias, of which the most remarkable was
one sacred to Poseidon. The later town, which Pausanias visited, stood at the
distance of four stadia from this temple upon the slopes of the hill Pron. It
was entirely surrounded by walls, and was in earlier times the Acropolis of the
city. Among its ruins lies the modern village of Kastri. Of the numerous temples
mentioned by Pausanias the most important was the ancient Diyopian sanctuary of
Demeter Chthonia, situated on a eight of Mount on, said to have been founded by
Chthonia, daughter of Phoroneus, and Clymenus her brother. (Eur. Herc. Fur. 615.)
It was an inviolable sanctuary; but it was plundered by there Cilician pirates.
(Phot. Lex. s. v. Hermione; Plut. Pomp. 24.) Opposite this temple was one sacred
to Clymenus and to tie right was the Stoa of Echo, which repeated the voice three
times. In the same neighbourhood there were three sacred places surrounded with
stone fences; one named the sanctuary of Clymenus, the second that of Pluto, and
the third that of the Acherusian lake. In the sanctuary of Clymenus there was
an opening in the earth which the Hermionians believed to be the shortest road
to Hades, and consequently they put no money in the mouths of their dead to pay
the ferryman of the lower world. (Paus. ii. 35; Strab. viii. p. 373.) From
Hermione a peninsula, now called Kranidhi, extends towards the south and west
It contains two promontories, on each of which there are Hellenic remains. Pausanias
names two ancient places, called Halice and Mases, on the road from Hermione to
Asine, both of which must have been situated in this peninsula, but he gives no
further indication of their position. It has been conjectured that the Hellenic
remains near C. Muzaki, on the more easterly of the two promontories above mentioned,
are those of Halice; and that the remains on the more westerly promontory at Port
Kheli represent Mases. but there are good reasons for believing that the ruins
near C. Muzaki are those of some town the name of which has not been recorded;
that Halice, or, as it is also called, Halieis, stood at Port Kheli; and that
Mases was situated more to the north, on the western coast, at Port Kiladhia.
In the time of Pausanias, Mases served as the harbour of Hermione. Towards the
east the frontier of the Hermionis and Troezenia was marked by a temple of Demeter
Thermasia, close to the sea, 80 stadia westward of Cape Scyllaeum, the name of
which has been preserved in that of Thermisi. (Pans. ii. 34. § 6.) Near this temple,
on the road from Troezen to Hermione, was a small place called Eilei (Eileoi),
the name of which has been preserved in the modern Ilio. Westward the Hermionis
seems to have extended as far as the territory of Asine. On the road from Mases
to Asine, Pausanias mentions the promontory Struthus (Struthous); at the distance
of 250 stadia from which, by a mountain path, were Philanorium (Philanorion) and
Bolei (Boleoi), the latter being the name of a heap of stones: 20 stadia beyond
Bolei was a place called Didymi.
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IIONES (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Eion (Eiones). A town in the Argolic peninsula, mentioned by Homer along
with Troezen and Epidaurus. It is said to have been one of the towns founded by
the Dryopes, when they were expelled from their seats in Northern Greece by Hercules.
Strabo relates that the Mycenacans expelled the inhabitants of Eiones, and made
it their sea-port, but that it had entirely disappeared in his time. Its position
is uncertain; but, in consequence of the preceding statement of Strabo, it is
placed by Curtius in the plain of Kandia.
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INACHOS (River) ARGOLIS
The Inacus (Inachos: Banitza) rises, according to Pausanias (ii 25.3, viii. 6.6),
in Mt. Artemisium, on the
borders of Arcadia, or, according
to Strabo (viii. p. 370), in Mt. Lyrceium,
a northern offshoot of Artemisium.
Near its sources it receives a tributary called the Cephissus (Kephissos: Xeria),
which rises in Mt. Lyrceium
(Strab. ix. p. 424; Aelian, V. H. ii. 33). It flows in a south-easterly direction,
E. of the city of Argos,
into the Argolic gulf. This river
is often dry in the summer. Between it and the city of Argos
is the mountain-torrent named Charadrus
(Charadros: Xeria), which also rises in Mt. Artemisium,
and which, from its proximity to Argos,
has been frequently mistaken for the Inachus by modern travellers. It flows over
a wide gravelly bed, which is generally dry in the summer, whence its modern name
of Xeria, or the Dry River. It flows into the Inachus a little below Argos. It
was on the banks of the Charadrus
that the armies of Argos,
on their return from military expeditions, were obliged to undergo a court of
inquiry before they were permitted to enter the city. (Thuc. v. 60; comp. Paus.
ii. 25.2; Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 364, Peloponnesiaca, p. 267; Mure, vol. ii.
p. 161).
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INOI (Ancient city) LYRKIA
Or Oene (Oine). A small town in the Argeia, west of Argos, on the
left bank of the river Charadrus, and on the southern (the Prinus) of the two
roads leading from Argos to Mantineia. Above the town was the mountain Artemisium
(Malevos), with a temple of Artemis on the summit, worshipped by the inhabitants
of Oenoe under the name of Oenoatis (Oinoatis). The town was named by Diomedes
after his grandfather Oeneus, who died here. In the neighbourhood of this town
the Athenians and Argives gained a victory over the Lacedaemonians. Leake originally
placed Oenoe near the left bank of the Charadrus; but in his later work he has
changed his opinion, and supposes it to have stood near the right bank of the
Inachus. His original supposition, however, seems to be the correct one; since
there can be little doubt that Ross has rightly described the course of the two
roads leading from Argos to Mantineia.
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IREON (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOS - MYKINES
... Heraeum, which long eluded the researches of all travellers in Greece. Its
remains were discovered for the first time in 1831, by General Gordon, the commander
of the Greek forces in the Peloponnesus.
Pausanias describes (ii. 17.1) the Heraeum as situated at the distance of 15 stadia
from Mycenae, to the left
of the route between that city and Argos,
on the lower declivities of a mountain called Euboea; and he adds, that on one
side of it flowed the Elentherion, and on the other flowed the Asterion, which
disappeared in an abyss. These details are all verified on the ground explored
by General Gordon. It is a. rocky height, rising,. in a somewhat insulated form,
from the base of one of the highest mountains that bound the plain towards the
east, distant about two English miles from Mycenae,
which corresponds nearly to the 15 stadia of Pausanias. The remains of the temple
are distant from Argos between
5 and 6 miles, which correspond to the 45 stadia of Herodotus (i. 31). Strabo
(viii.6) says that the temple was distant 40 stadia from Argos,
and 10 from Mycenae, but
each of these measurements is below the truth. The old Heraeum was burnt in the
ninth year of the Peloponnesian
war (B.C. 423), by the negligence of the priestess (Thuc. iv. 133), whereupon
Eupolemus was employed to erect the new temple, described by Pausanias. The new
Heraeum was built a little below the ancient one; but the substructions of the
latter were still seen by Pausanias (ii. 17.7). The eminence on which the ruins
are situated is an irregular triangular platform, with its apex pointing, towards
Mount Euboea, and its base towards Argos.
The surface is divided into three esplanades or terraces, rising in gradation
one above the other, from the lower to the upper extremity. The central one of
the three is supported by a massive Cyclopian substruction, still in good preservation,
and a conspicuous object from some distance. This Cyclopian wall is a part of
the remains of the ancient temple which Pausanias saw. On the lowest of the terraces
stood the Heraeum built by Eupolemus. Here General Gordon made some excavations,
and discovered, among other things, the tail of a peacock in white marble. This
terrace has substructions of regular Hellenic masonry, forming a breastwork to
the base of the triangle towards the plain. The length of the surface of the hill
is about 250 yards; its greatest breadth about half its length.
Of the two torrents between which the Heraeum stood, the north-western
was the Eleutherion, and the south-eastern the Asterion. Pausanias says that the
river Asterion had three daughters, Euboea, Prosymna,
and Acraea. Euboea was the mountain on the lower part of which the Heraeum stood;
Acraea, the height which rose over against it; and Prosymna
the region below it. (Mure, vol. ii. p. 177, seq.; Leake, Pelopon. p. 258, seq.)
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KECHREES (Ancient city) ARGOS
Kenchreai: Eth. Kenchreates. A town in the Argeia, south of Argos,
and on the road from the latter city to Tegea. Pausanias says that it was to the
right of the Trochus (trochos), which must not be regarded as a place, but as
the name of the carriage road leading to Lerna. Near Cenchreae Pausanias saw the
sepulchral monuments of the Argives, who conquered the Lacedaemonians at Hysiae.
The remains of an ancient place, at the distance of about a mile after crossing
the Erasinus (Kephalari), are probably those of Cenchreae; and the pyramid which
lies on a hill a little to the right may be regarded as one of the sepulchral
monuments mentioned by Pausanias. It is supposed by some writers that the Hellenic
ruins further on in the mountains, in a spot abounding in springs, called ta Nera
or Skcaphidaki, are those of Cenchreae; and the proximity of these ruins to those
of Hysiae is in favour of this view; but on the other hand, the remains of the
pyramid appear to fix the position of Cenchreae at the spot already mentioned
near the Erasinus. The words of Aeschylus (Prom. 676) - eupotoW KerchWeias [al.
Kenchreias] rheos LerWes akreW te - would seem to place Cenchreae near Lerna,
and the stream of which he speaks is perhaps the Erasinus.
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LISSA (Ancient city) ASKLIPIIO
A village of Epidauria, upon the confines of the territory of Argos,
and at the foot of Mount Arachnaeum. Pausanias saw there a temple of Athena. The
ruins of Lessa are situated upon a hill, at the foot of which is the village of
Lykurio. On the outside of the walls, near the foot of the mountain, are the remains
of an ancient pyramid, near a church, which contains some Ionic columns.
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LYKONI (Mountain) ARGOS
Lycone (Lukone), a mountain of Argolis, on the road from Argos to Tegea. (Paus. ii. 24.6.)
LYRKIA (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Lyrceia, Lyrceium (he Lurkeia, Lurkeion, in Strab. viii. p. 376, Lukourgion
is a false reading for Lurkeion). A town in the Argeia, distant 60 stadia from
Argos, and 60 stadia from Orneae, and situated on the road Climax, which ran from
Argos in a north-westerly direction along the bed of the Inachus. The town is
said to have been originally called Lynceia, and to have obtained this name from
Lynceus, who fled hither when all his other brothers, the sons of Aegyptus, were
murdered by the daughters of Danaus on their wedding night. He gave intelligence
of his safe arrival in this place to his faithful wife Hypermnestra, by holding
up a torch; and she in like manner informed him of her safety by raising a torch
from Larissa, the citadel of Argos. The name of the town was afterwards changed
into Lyrceia from Lyrcus, a son of Abas. It was in ruins in the time of Pausanias.
Its remains may still be seen on a small elevation on the left of the Inachus,
at a little distance beyond Sterna, on the road to Argos.
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MASSIS (Ancient city) KRANIDI
he Masetos, Eth Masetios. An ancient city in the district Hermionis,
in the Argolic peninsula, mentioned by Homer along with Aegina. In the time of
Pausanias it was used as a harbour by Hermione. (Hom. Il. ii. 562; Strab. viii.
p. 376; Paus. ii. 36. § 2; Steph. B. s. v.) It was probably situated on the western
coast of Hermionis, at the head of the deep bay of Kiladhia, which is protected
by a small island in front. The possession of this harbour on the Argolic gulf
must have been of great advantage to the inhabitants of Hermione, since they were
thus saved the navigation round the peninsula of Kranidhi: The French Commission,
however, place Mases more to the south, at port Kheli, which we suppose to have
been the site of Halice.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
sometimes Mycene (Mukenai; Mukene, Hom. Il. iv. 52: Eth. Mukenaios,,
Mycenaeus, Mycenensis: Kharvati). One of the most ancient towns in Greece, and
celebrated as the residence of Agamemnon. It is situated at the north-eastern
extremity of the plain of Argos upon a rugged height, which is shut in by two
commanding summits of the range of mountains which border this side of the Argeian
plain. From its retired position it is described by Homer (Od. iii. 263) as situated
in a recess (muchph) of the Argeian land, which is supposed by some modern writers
to be the origin of the name. The ancients, however, derived the name from an
eponymous heroine Mycene, daughter of Inachus, or from the word mukes, for which
various reasons were assigned. (Paus. ii. 17. § 3; Steph. B. s. v.) The position
was one of great importance. In the first place it commanded the upper part of
the great Argeian plain, which spread out under its walls towards the west and
south; and secondly the most important roads from the Corinthian gulf, the roads
from Phlius, Nemea, Cleonae. and Corinth, unite in the mountains above Mycenae,
and pass under the height upon which the city stands. It was said to have been
built by Perseus (Strab. viii. p. 377 ; Paus. ii. 15. § 4, ii. 16. § 3), and its
massive walls were believed to have been the work of the Cyclopes. Hence Euripides
calls Mycenae polisma Perseos, Kuklopion ponon cheron (Iphig. in Aul. 1500). It
was the favourite residence of the Pelopidae, and under Agamemnon was regarded
as the first city in Greece. Hence it is called poluchrusos by Homer (Il. vii.
180, xi. 46), who also gives it the epithets of euruaguia (Il. iv. 52) and euixtimenon
ptoliethron (Il. ii. 569). Its greatness belongs only to the heroic age, and it
ceased to be a place of importance after the return of the Heracleidae and the
settlement of the Dorians in Argos, which then became the first city in the plain.
Mycenae, however, maintained its independence, and sent some of its citizens to
the assistance of the Greeks against the host of Xerxes, although the Argives
kept aloof from the common cause. Eighty Mycenaeans were present at Thermopylae
(Herod. vii. 202), and 400 of their citizens and of the Tirynthians fought at
Plataeae (Herod. ix. 28). In B.C. 468, the Dorians of Argos, resolving to bring
the whole district under their sway, laid siege to Mycenae; but the massive walls
resisted all their attacks, and they were obliged to have recourse to a blockade.
Famine at length compelled the inhabitants to abandon the city; more than half
of them took refuge in Macedonia, and the remainder in Cleonae and Ceryneia. (Diod.
xi. 65; Strab. viii. pp. 372, 377; Paus. ii. 16. § 5, v. 23. § 3, vii. 25. § 3,
viii. 27. § 1.) From this time Mycenae remained uninhabited, for the Argives took
care that this strong fortress should remain desolate. Strabo, however, committed
a gross exaggeration in saying that there was not a vestige of Mycenae extant
in his time (viii. p. 372). The ruins were visited by Pausanias, who gives the
following account of them (ii. 15, 16): Returning to the pass of the Tretus, and
following the road to Argos, you have the ruins of Mycenae on the left hand. Several
parts of the enclosure remain, and among them is the gate upon which the lions
stand. These also are said to be the work of the Cyclopes, who built the walls
of Tiryns for Proetus. Among the ruins of the city there is a fountain named Perseia,
and subterraneous buildings (hupogaia oikodomemata) of Atreus and his sons, in
which their treasures were deposited. There are likewise the tombs of Atreus,
of his charioteer Eurymedon, of Electra, and a sepulchre in common of Teledamus
and Pelops, who are said to have been twin sons of Cassandra. But Clytaemnestra
and Aegisthus were buried at a little distance from the walls, being thought unworthy
of burial where Agamemnon lay.
The ruins of Mycenae are still very extensive, and, with the exception
of those of Tiryns, are more ancient than those of any other city in Greece. They
belong to a period long antecedent to all historical records, and may be regarded
as the genuine relics of the heroic age.
Mycenae consisted of an Acropolis and a lower town, each defended
by a wall. The Acropolis was situated on the summit of a steep hill, projecting
from a higher mountain behind it. The lower town lay on the south-western slope
of the hill, on either side of which runs a torrent from east to west. The Acropolis
is in form of an irregular triangle, of which the base fronts the south-west,
and the apex the east. On the southern side the cliffs are almost precipitous,
overhanging a deep gorge; but on the northern side the descent is less steep and
rugged. The summit of the hill is rather more than 1000 feet in length, and around
the edge the ruined walls of the Acropolis still exist in their entire circuit,
with the exception of a small open space above the precipitous cliff on the southern
side, which perhaps was never defended by a wall The walls are more perfect than
those of any other fortress in Greece; in some places they are 15 or 20 feet high.
They are built of the dark-coloured limestone of the surrounding mountains. Some
parts of the walls are built, like those of Tiryns, of huge blocks of stone of
irregular shape, no attempt being made to fit them into one another, and the gaps
being filled up with smaller stones. But the greater part of the walls consists
of polygonal stones, skilfully hewn and fitted to one another, and their faces
cut so as to give the masonry a smooth appearance. The walls also present, in
a few parts, a third species of masonry, in which the stones are constructed of
blocks of nearly quadrangular shape; this is the case in the approach to the Gate
of Lions. This difference in the masonry of the walls has been held to prove that
they were constructed at different ages; but more recent investigations amidst
the ruins of Greece and Italy has shown that this difference in the style of masonry
cannot be regarded as a decisive test of the comparative antiquity of walls; and
Col. Mure has justly remarked that, as there can be no reasonable doubt that the
approach to the Gate of Lions is of the same remote antiquity as the remainder
of the fabric, it would appear to have been the custom with these primitive builders
to pay a little more attention to symmetry and regularity in the more ornamental
portions of their work.
The chief gate of the Acropolis is at the NW. angle of the wall. It
stands at right angles to the adjoining wall of the fortress, and is approached
by a passage 50 feet long and 30 wide, formed by that wall and by another wall
exterior to it. The opening of the gateway widens from the top downwards; but
at least two-thirds of its height are now buried in ruins. The width at the top
of the door is 9 1/2 feet. This door was formed of two massive uprights, covered
with a third block, 15 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 6 feet 7 inches high in the
middle, but diminishing at the two ends. Above this block is a triangular gap
in the masonry of the wall, formed by an oblique approximation of the side courses
of stone, continued from each extremity of the lintel to an apex above its centre.
The vacant space is occupied by a block of stone, 10 feet high, 12 broad, and
2 thick, upon the face of which are sculptured two lions in low relief, standing
on their hind-legs, upon either side of a covered pillar, upon which they rest
their fore-feet. The column becomes broader towards the top, and is surmounted
with a capital, formed of a row of four circles, enclosed between two parallel
fillets. The heads of the animals are gone, together with the apex of the cone
that surmounted the column. The block of stone, from which the lions are sculptured,
is said by Leake and other accurate observers to be a kind of green basalt; but
this appears to be a mistake. We learn from Mure (Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p.
324) that the block is of the same palombino, or dove-coloured limestone, of which
the native rock mainly consists, and that the erroneous impression has been derived
from the colour of the polished surface, which has received from time and the
weather a blueish green hue. The column between the lions is the customary symbol
of Apollo Agyieus, the protector of doors and gates. (Muller, Dor. ii. 6. § 5.)
This is also proved by the invocation of Apollo in the Agamemnon of Aeschylus
(1078, 1083, 1271), and the Electra of Sophocles (1374), in both of which tragedies
the scene is laid in front of this gate. It has been well observed that this pair
of lions stands to the art of Greece somewhat in the same relation as the Iliad
and the Odyssey to her literature; the one, the only extant specimens of the plastic
skill of her mythical era, the other, the only genuine memorials of its chivalry
and its song. The best observers remark that the animals are in a style of art
peculiar to themselves, and that they have little or nothing of that dry linear
stiffness which characterises the earlier stages of the art of sculpture in almost
every country, and present consequently as little resemblance to the Archaic style
of the Hellenic works of a later period as to those of Egypt itself. The special
peculiarities of their execution are a certain solidity and rotundity amounting
to clumsiness in the limbs, as compared with the bodies. The hind-legs, indeed,
are more like those of elephants than lions; the thighs, especially, are of immense
bulk and thickness. This unfavourable feature, however, is compensated by much
natural ease and dignity of attitude. The turning of the body and shoulders is
admirable, combining strength with elegance in the happiest proportions. The bellies
of both are slender in comparison with the rest of the figure, especially of the
one on the right of the beholder. The muscles, sinews, and joints, though little
detailed, are indicated with much spirit. The finish, both in a mechanical and
artistical point of view, is excellent; and in passing the hand over the surface,
one is struck with the smooth and easy blending of the masses in every portion
of the figure. (Mure, vol. ii. p. 171.) Besides the great Gate of Lions, there
was a smaller gate or postern on the northern side of the Acropolis, the approach
to which was fortified in the same manner as that leading to the great gate. It
is constructed of three great stones, and is 5 feet 4 inches wide at the top.
Near the Gate of Lions the wall of the lower city may be traced, extending
from N. to S. In the lower town are four subterraneous buildings, which are evidently
the same as those described by Pausanias, in which the Atreidae deposited their
treasures. Of these the largest, called by the learned the Treasury of Atreus,
and by the Greek ciceroni the Grave of Agamemnon, is situated under the aqueduct
which now conveys the water from the stream on the northern side of the Acropolis
to the village of Kharvati. This building is in nearly a perfect state of preservation.
It is approached by a passage now in ruins, and contains two chambers. The passage
leads into a large chamber of a conical form, about 50 feet in width and 40 in
height; and in this chamber there is a doorway leading into a small interior apartment.
The doorway terminating the passage, which leads into the large, chamber, is 8
feet 6 inches wide at the top, widening a little from thence to the bottom. On
the outside before each door-post stood a semi-column, having a base and capital
not unlike the Tuscan order in profile, but enriched with a very elegant sculptured
ornament, chiefly in a zigzag form, which was continued in vertical compartments
over the whole shaft. Those ornaments have not the smallest resemblance to anything
else found in Greece, but they have some similitude to the Persepolitan style
of sculpture. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 374.) There are remains of a second subterraneous
building near the Gate of Lions (Plan, D); and those of the two others are lower
down the hill towards the west.
There has been considerable discussion among modern scholars respecting
the purpose of those subterraneous buildings. The statement of Pausanias, that
they were the treasuries of the Atreidae, was generally accepted, till Mure published
an essay in the Rheinisches Museum for 1839 (vol. vi. p. 240), in which he endeavoured
to establish that all such buildings were the family vaults of the ancient heroes
by whom they were construeted. In the great edifice at Mycenae he supposes the
inner apartment to have been the burial-place, and the outer vault the heroum
or sanctuary of the deceased. This opinion has been adopted by most modern scholars,
but has been combated by Leake, who adheres to the ancient doctrine. (Peloponnesiaca,
p. 256.) The two opinions may, however, be to some extent reconciled by supposing
that the inner chamber was the burial-place, and that the outer contained the
arms, jewels, and other ornaments most prized by the deceased. It was the practice
among the Greeks in all ages for the dead to carry with them to their tombs a
portion of their property; and in the heroic ages the burial-places of the powerful
rulers of Mycenae may have been adorned with such splendour that the name of Treasuries
was given to their tombs. There is, indeed, good reason for believing, from the
remains of brazen nails found in the large chamber of the Treasury of Atreus,
that the interior surface of the chamber was covered with brazen plates.
At the foot of the lower town stands the modern village of Kharvati.
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NAFPLIA (Ancient city) NAFPLIO
Nauplia: Eth. Nauplieus. The port of Argos, was situated upon a
rocky peninsula, connected with the mainland by a narrow isthmus. It was a very
ancient place, and is said to have derived its name from Nauplius, the son of
Poseidon and Amymone, and the father of Palamedes, though it more probably owed
its name, as Strabo has observed, to its harbour (apo tou tais nausi prospleisthai,
Strab. viii. p. 368; Paus. ii. 38. § 2.) Pausanias tells us that the Nauplians
were Egyptians belonging to the colony which Danaus brought to Argos (iv. 35.
§ 2); and from the position of their city upon a promontory running out into the
sea, which is quite different from the site of the earlier Grecian cities, it
is not improbable that it was originally a settlement made by strangers from the
East. Nauplia was at first independent of Argos, and a member of the maritime
confederacy which held its meetings in the island of Calaureia. (Strab. viii.
P. 374.) About the time of the Second Messenian War, it was conquered by the Argives;
and the Lacedaemonians gave to its expelled citizens the town of Methone in Messenia,
where they continued to reside even after the restoration of the Messenian state
by Epaminondas. (Paus. iv. 24. § 4, iv. 27. § 8, iv. 35. § 2.) Argos now took
the place of Nauplia in the Calaureian confederacy; and from this time Nauplia
appears in history only as the seaport of Argos (ho Nauplios limen, Eurip. Orest.
767; limenes Nauplioi, Electr. 451). As such it is mentioned by Strabo (l. c.),
but in the time of Pausanias the place was deserted. Pausanias noticed the ruins
of the walls of a temple of Poseidon, certain forts, and a fountain named Canathus,
by washing in which Hera was said to have renewed her virginity every year. (Paus.
ii. 38. § 2.)
In the middle ages Nauplia was called to Nauplion, to Anaplion, or
ta Anaplia, but has now resumed its ancient name. It became a place of considerable
importance in the middle ages, and has continued so down to the present day. In
the time of the Crusades it first emerges from obscurity. In 1205 it was taken
by the Franks, and became the capital of a small duchy, which commanded the plain
of Argos. Towards the end of the 14th century it came into the hands of the Venetians,
who regarded it as one of their most important places in the Levant, and who successfully
defended it both against Mahomet II. and Soliman. They ceded it to the Turks in
1540, but wrested it from them again in 1686, when they constructed the strong
fortifications on Mt. Palamidhi. This fortress, although reckoned impregnable,
was stormed by the Turks in 1715, in whose hands it remained till the outbreak
of the war of Grecian independence. It then became the seat of the Greek government,
and continued such, till the king of Greece removed his residence to Athens in
1834.
The modern town is described by a recent observer as having more the
air of a real town than any place now existing in Greece under that title; having
continuous lines of houses and streets, and offering, upon the whole, much the
appearance of a second-rate Italian seaport. It is built on the peninsula; and
some remains of the Hellenic fortifications may be seen in the site of the walls
of Fort Itslale, which is the lower citadel of the town, and occupies the site
of the ancient Acropolis. The upper citadel, called Palamidhi (Ralamedion), is
situated upon a steep and lofty mountain, and is one of the strongest fortresses
in Europe. Although its name is not mentioned by any ancient writer, there can
be little doubt, from the connection of Palamedes with the ancient town, that
this was the appellation of the hill in ancient times.
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PROSYMNA (Archaeological site) MYKINES
Prosumna: Eth. Prosumnaios. An ancient town in the Argeia, in whose territory
the celebrated Heraeum, or temple of Hera, stood. (Strab. viii. p. 373). Statius
gives it the epithet celsa (Theb. iv. 44). Pausanias (ii. 17.2) mentions only
a district of this name.
SAMINTHOS (Ancient city) MYKINES
Saminthus, Saminthos. A town in the Argeia, on the western edge of the Argive
plain, which was taken by Agis, when he marched from Phlius into the territory
of Argos in B.C. 418. (Thuc. v. 58.) Its position is uncertain. Leake, who supposes
Agis to have marched over Mt. Lyrceium and the adjoining hills, places it at Kutzopodhi (Koutsopodi)
(Morea, vol. ii. p. 415), and Ross at the village of Pheklia (Phychtia), on the southern
side of Mt. Tricaranon, across which is the shortest pass from the Phliasia into
the Argive plain.
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TIMENION (Ancient port) ARGOS
Temenium (Temenion), a town in the Argeia, at the upper end of the
Argolic gulf, built by Temenus, the son of Aristomachus. It was distant 50 stadia
from Nauplia (Paus. ii. 38.2), and 26 from Argos (Strab. viii. p. 368). The
river Phrixus flowed into the sea between Temenium and Lerna (Paus. ii. 36.6, ii. 38.1). Pausanias saw at Temenium two temples of Poseidon and Aphrodite
and the tomb of Temenus (ii. 38.1). Owing to the marshy nature of the plain,
Leake was unable to explore the site of Temenium; but Ross identifies it with
a mound of earth, at the foot of which, in the sea, are remains of a dam forming
a harbour, and upon the shore foundations of buildings, fragments of pottery,
&c. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 476; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 149; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 383.)
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TIRYNS (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
Tiruns: Eth. Tirunthios. (The name is perhaps connected with turrhis,
Lepsius, Tyrrh. Pelasger, p. 13). One of the most ancient cities of Greece, lay
a short distance SE. of Argos, on the right of the road leading to Epidaurus (Paus.
ii. 25. § 8), and at the distance of 12 stadia from Nauplia. (Strab. viii. p.
373.) Its massive walls, which have been regarded with wonder in all ages, are
said to have been the work of the Cyclopes, and belong to the same age as those
of Mycenae. (Paus. ii. 16. § 5, ii. 25, § 8, vii. 25. § 6, ix. 36. § 5; Strab.
l. c.; Plin. vii. 56. s. 57.) Hence Homer calls the city Tiruns teichioessa. (Il.
ii. 559.) Pindar speaks of the Kuklopia prothura of Tiryns (Fragm. 642, ed. Bockh),
and Pausanias says that the walls are not less worthy of admiration than the pyramids
of Egypt (ix. 36. § 5.) In another passage he describes the walls as consisting
of wide masses of stone (argoi lithoi), of such a size, that a yoke of oxen could
not stir the least of them, the interstices being filled in with smaller stones
to make the whole more compact and solid. (Paus. ii. 25. § 8.) The foundation
of Tiryns ascends to the earliest mythical legends of the Argeia. It was said
to have derived its name from Tiryns, the son of Argus (Paus. ii. 25. § 8), and
to have been founded by Proetus. (Strab. viii. p. 372; Paus. ii. 16. § 2.) According
to the common tradition, Megapenthes, the son of Proetus, ceded Tiryns to Perseus,
who transmitted it to his descendant Electryon. Alcmena, the daughter of Electryon,
married Amphitryon, who would have succeeded to the crown, had he not been expelled
by Sthenelus, king of Argos. Their son Hercules afterwards regained possession
of Tiryns, where he lived for many years, and hence is frequently called Tirynthius
by the poets. (Hes. Scut. 81; Pind. Ol. x. 37, Isthm. vi. 39; Virg. Aen. vii.
662; Ov. Met. vii. 410) Although Tiryns was thus closely connected with the Heraclidae,
yet the city remained in the hands of the old Achaean population after the return
of the Heraclidae and the conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians. The strong
fortress of Tiryns was dangerous to the neighbouring Dorian colony of Argos. After
the dreadful defeat of the Argives by Cleomenes, their slaves took possession
of Tiryns and held it for many years, (Herod. vi. 83.) In the Persian War the
Tirynthians sent some men to the battle of Plataea. (Herod. ix. 28.) Subsequently
their city was taken by the Argives, probably about the same time as Mycenae,
B.C. 468. The lower city was entirely destroyed; the citadel was dismantled; and
the inhabitants fled to Epidaurus and Halieis, a town on the coast of Hermionis.
(Strab. viii. p. 373; Ephorus, ap. Steph. B. s. v. Halieis; Eustath. ad Horn.
Il. ii. 559, p. 286,) It was probably owing to this circumstance that Stephanus
B. was led into the mistake of saying that Tiryns was formerly called Halieis.
The Tirynthians, who did not succeed in effecting their escape, were removed to
Argos. (Paus. ii. 25. § 8.) From this time Tiryns remained uninhabited; and when
Pausanias visited the city in the second century of our era, he saw nothing but
the remains of the walls of the citadel, and beneath them towards the sea the
so-called chambers of the daughters of Proetus. No trace of the lower city appears
to have been left. The citadel was named Licymna, after Licymnius, son of Electryon,
who was slain at Tiryns by Tleptolemus, son of Hercules. (Strab. vii. p. 373;
Pind. Ol. vii. 47.) Hence Statius calls the marshes in the neighbourhood of Tiryns
stagna Licymnia. (Theb. iv. 734.) Theophrastus represents the Tirynthians as celebrated
for their laughing propensities, which rendered them incapable of attention to
serious business (ap. Athen. vi. p. 261, d.).
The ruins of the citadel of Tiryns are now called Paleo Anapli. They
occupy the lowest and flattest of several rocky hills, which rise like islands
out of the plain. The impression which they produce upon the beholder is well
described by Col. Mure: This colossal fortress is certainly the greatest curiosity
of the kind in existence. It occupies the table summit of an oblong hill, or rather
knoll, of small extent or elevation, completely encased in masses of enormous
stones, rudely piled in tiers one above another, into the form alternately of
towers, curtain walls, abutments, gates, and covered ways. There is not a fragment
in the neighbourhood indicating the existence of suburb or outer town at any period;
and the whole, rising abruptly from the dead level of the surrounding plain, produces
at a distance an effect very similar to that of the hulk of a man-of-war floating
in a harbour. The length of the summit of the rock, according to Col. Leake's
measurement, is about 250 yards, the breadth from 40 to 80, the height above the
plain from 20 to 50 feet, the direction nearly N. and S. The entire circuit of
the walls still remains more or less preserved. They consist of huge masses of
stone piled upon one another, as Pausanias describes. The Wall is from about 20
to 25 feet in thickness, and it had two entrances, one on the eastern, and the
other on the southern side. In its general design the fortress appears to have
consisted of an upper and lower enclosure of nearly equal dimensions, with an
intermediate platform, which may have served for the defence of the upper castle
against an enemy in possession of the lower. The southern entrance led by an ascent
to the left into the upper inclosure, and by a direct passage between the upper
inclosure and the eastern wall of the fortress into the lowest inclosure, having
also a branch to the left into the middle platform, the entrance into which last
was nearly opposite to the eastern gate. Besides the two principal gates, there
was a postern in the western side. On either side of the great southern entrance,
that is to say, in the eastern as well as in the southern wall, there were galleries
in the body of the wall of singular construction. In the eastern wall, where they
are better preserved, there are two parallel passages, of which the outer has
six recesses or niches in the exterior wall. These niches were probably intended
to serve for the protracted defence of the gallery itself, and the galleries for
covered communications leading to towers or places of arms at the extremity of
them. The passage which led directly from the southern entrance, between the upper
inclosure and the eastern Wall into the lower division of the fortress, was about
12 feet broad. About midway, there still exists an immense door-post, with a hole
in it for a bolt, showing that the passage might be closed upon occasion. The
lower inclosure of the fortress was of an oval shape, about 100 yards long and
40 broad; its walls formed an acute angle to the north, and several obtuse angles
on the east and west. Of the upper inclosure of the fortress very little remains.
There is some appearance of a wall of separation, dividing the highest part of
all from that next to the southern entrance; thus forming four interior divisions
besides the passages. (Leake.) The general appearance of these covered galleries
is shown in the accompanying drawing from Gell's Itinerary.
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TRIZINIA (Ancient area) PELOPONNISOS
Troezen (Troizen; also Troizene, Ptol. iii. 16. § 12: Eth. Troizenios:
the territory ge Troizenia, Eurip. Med. 683; he Troizenis ge, Thuc. ii. 56), a
city of Peloponnesus, whose territory formed the south-eastern corner of the district
to which the name of Argolis was given at a later time. It stood at their distance
of 15 stadia front the coast, in a fertile plain, which is described below. (Strab.
viii. p. 373.) Few cities of Peloponnesus boasted of so remote an antiquity; and
many of its legends are closely connected with those of Athens, and prove that
its original population was of the Ionic race. According to the Troezenians themselves,
their country was first called Oraea from the Egyptian Orus, and was next named
Althepia from Althepus, the son of Poseidon and Leis, who was the daughter of
Orus. In the reign of this king, Poseidon and Athena contended, as at Athens,
for the land of the Troezenians, but, through the mediation of Zeus, they became
the joint guardians of the country, Hence, says Pausanias, a trident and the head
of Athena are represented on the ancient coins of Troezen. (Comp. Mionnet, Suppl.
iv. p. 267. § 189.) Althepus was succeeded by Saron, who built a temple of the
Saronian Artemis in a marshy place near the sea, which was hence called the Phoebaean
marsh (Phoibaia limne), but was afterwards named Saronis, because Saron was buried
in the ground belonging to the temple. The next kings mentioned are Hyperes and
Anthas, who founded two cities, named Hypereia and Antheia. Aetius, the son of
Hyperes, inherited the kingdom of his father and uncle, and called one of the
cities Poseidonias. In his reign, Troezen and Pittheus, who are called the sons
of Pelops, and may be regarded as Achaean princes, settled in the country, and
divided the power with Aetius. But the Pelopidae son supplanted the earlier dynasty;
and on the death of Troezen, Pittheus united the two Ionic settlements into one
city, which he called Troezen after his brother. Pittheus was the grandfather
of Theseus by his daughter Aethra; and the great national hero of the Athenians
was born and educated at Troezen. The close connection between the two states
is also intimated by the legend that two important demi of Attica, Anaphlystus
and Sphettus, derived their names from two sons of Troezen. (Paus. ii. 30. § §
5-9.) Besides the ancient names of Troezen already specified, Stephanus B. (s.
v. Troizen) mentions Aphrodisias, Saronia, Poseidonias, Apollonias and Anthanis.
Strabo likewise says (ix. p. 373) that Troezen was called Poseidonia from its
being sacred to Poseidon.
At the time of the Trojan War Troezen was subject to Argos (Hom. Il.
ii. 561); and upon the conquest of the Peloponnesus by the Dorians, it received
a Dorian colony from Argos. (Paus. ii. 30. § 10.) The Dorian settlers appear to
have been received on friendly terms by the ancient inhabitants, who continued
to form the majority of the population; and although Troezen became a Doric city,
it still retained its Ionic sympathies and traditions. At an early period Troezen
was a powerful maritime state, as is shown by its founding the cities of Halicarnassus
and Myndus in Caria. (Paus. ii. 30. § 8; Herod. vii. 99; Strab. viii. p. 374.)
The Troezenians also took part with the Achaeans in the foundation of Sybaris,
but they were eventually driven out by the Achaeans. (Aristot. Pol. v. 3.) It
has been conjectured with much probability that the expelled Troezenians may have
been the chief founders of Poseidonia (Paestum), which Solinus calls a Doric colony,
and to which they gave the ancient name of their own city in Peloponnesus.
In the Persian War the Troezenians took an active part. After the
battle of Thermopylae, the harbour of Troezen was appointed as the place of rendezvous
for the Grecian fleet (Herod. viii. 42); and when the Athenians were obliged to
quit Attica upon the approach of Xerxes, the majority of them took refuge at Troezen,
where they were received with the greatest kindness by the semi-ionic population.
(Herod. viii. 41; Plut. Them. 10.) The Troezenians sent 5 ships to Artemisium
and Salamis, and 1000 men to Plataeae, and they also fought at the battle of Mycale.
(Herod. viii. 1, ix. 28, 102.) After the Persian war the friendly connection between
Athens and Troezen appears to have continued; and during the greatness of the
Athenian empire before the thirty years' peace (B.C. 455) Troezen was an ally
of Athens, and was apparently garrisoned by Athenian troops; but by this peace
the Athenians were compelled to relinquish Troezen. (Thuc. i. 115, iv. 45.) Before
the Peloponnesian War the two states became estranged from one another; and the
Troezenians, probably from hostility to Argos, entered into close alliance with
the Lacedaemonians.
In the Peloponnesian War the Troezenians remained the firm allies
of Sparta, although their country, from its maritime situation and its proximity
to Attica, was especially exposed to the ravages of the Athenian fleet. (Thuc.
ii. 56, iv. 45.) In the Corinthian War, B.C. 394, the Troezenians fought upon
the side of the Lacedaemonians (Xen. Hell. iv. 2. 16); and again in B.C. 373 they
are numbered among the allies of Sparta against Athens. (Xen. Hell. vi. 2. 3)
In the Macedonian period Troezen passed alternately into the hands of the contending
powers. In B.C. 303 it was delivered, along with Argos, from the Macedonian yoke,
by Demetrius Poliorcetes; but it soon became subject to Macedonia, and remained
so till it was taken by the Spartan Cleonymus in B.C. 278. (Polyaen. Strat. ii.
29. § 1; Frontin. Strat. iii. 6. § 7.) Shortly afterwards it again became a Macedonian
dependency; but it was united to the Achaean League by Aratus after he had liberated
Corinth. (Paus. ii. 8. § 5.) In the war between the Achaean League and the Spartans,
it was taken by Cleomenes, in B.C. 223 (Polyb. ii. 52; Plut. Cleom. 19); but after
the defeat of this monarch at Sellasia in B.C. 221, it was doubtless restored
to the Achaeans. Of its subsequent history we have no information. It was a place
of importance in the time of Strabo (viii. p. 373), and in the second century
of the Christian era it continued to possess a large number of public buildings,
of which Pausanias has given a detailed account. (Paus. ii. 31, 32.)
According to the description of Pausanias, the monuments of Troezen
may be divided into three classes, those in the Agora and its neighbourhood, those
in the sacred inclosure of Hippolytus, and those upon the Acropolis. The Agora
seems to have been surrounded with stoae or colonnades, in which stood marble
statues of the women and children who fled for refuge to Troezen at the time of
the Persian invasion. In the centre of the Agora was a temple of Artemis Soteira,
said to have been dedicated by Theseus, which contained altars of the infernal
gods. Behind the temple stood the monument of Pittheus, the founder of the city,
surmounted by three chairs of white marble, upon which he and two assessors are
said to have administered justice. Not far from thence was the temple of the Muses,
founded by Ardalus, a son of Hephaestus, where Pittheus himself was said to have
learnt the art of discourse; and before the temple was an altar where sacrifices
were offered to the Muses and to Sleep, the deity whom the Troezenians considered
the most friendly to these goddesses.
Near the theatre was the temple of Artemis Lyceia, funded by Hippolytus.
Before the temple there was the very stone upon which Orestes was purified by
nine Troezenians. The so-called tent of Orestes, in which he took refuge before
his expiation, stood in front of the temple of Apollo Thearius, which was the
most ancient temple that Pausanias knew. The water used in the purification of
Orestes was drawn from the sacred fountain Hippocrene, struck by the hoof of Pegasus.
In the neighbourhood was a statue of Hermes Polygius, with a wild olive tree,
and a temple of Zeus Soter, said to have been erected by Aetius, one of the mythical
kings of Troezen.
The sacred enclosure of Hippolytus occupied a large space, and was
a most conspicuous object in the city. The Troezenians denied the truth of the
ordinary story of his being dragged to death by his horses, but worshipped him
as the constellation Auriga, and dedicated to him a spacious sanctuary, the foundation
of which was ascribed to Diomede. He was worshipped with the greatest honours;
and each virgin, before her marriage, dedicated a lock of her hair to him. (Eurip.
Hippol. 1424; Paus. ii. 32. § 1.)
The sacred enclosure contained, besides the temple of Hippolytus,
one of Apollo Epibaterius, also dedicated by Diomede. On one side of the enclosure
was the stadium of Hippolytus, and above it the temple of Aphrodite Calascopia,
so called because Phaedra beheld from this spot Hippolytus as he exercised in
the stadium. In the neighbourhood was shown the tomb of Phaedra, the monument
of Hippolytus, and the house of the hero, with the fountain called the Herculean
in front of it.
The Acropolis was crowned with the temple of Athena Polias or Sthenias;
and upon the slope of the mountain was a sanctuary of Pan Lyterius, so called
because lie put a stop to the plague. Lower down was the temple of Isis, built
by the Halicarnassians, and also one of Aphrodite Ascraea. The ruins of Troezen
lie west of the village of Dhamala. They consist only of pieces of wall of Hellenic
masonry or of Roman brickwork, dispersed over the lower slopes of the height,
upon which stood the Acropolis, and over the plain at its foot. The Acropolis
occupied a rugged and lofty hill, commanding the plain below, and presenting one
of the most extensive and striking prospects in Greece. There are in the plain
several ruined churches, which probably mark the site of ancient temples; and
several travellers have noticed the remains of the temple of Aphrodite Calascopia,
overlooking the cavity formerly occupied by the stadium. The chief river of the
plain flows by the ruins of Troezen, and is now called Potamni. It is the ancient
Taurius, afterwards called Hyllicus (Paus. ii. 32. § 7), fed by several streams,
of which the most important was the Chrysorrhoas, flowing through the city, and
which still preserved its water, when all the other streams had been dried up
by a nine years' drought. (Paus. ii. 31. § 10.)
The territory of Troezen was bounded on the W. by that of Epidaurus, on
the SW. by that of Hermione, and was surrounded on every other side by the sea.
The most important part of the territory was the fertile maritime plain, in which
Troezen stood, and which was bounded on the south by a range of mountains, terminating
in the promontories Scyllaeum and Bucephala, the most easterly points of the Peloponnesus.
Above the promontory Scyllaeum, and nearly due E. of Troezen, was a large bay,
protected by the island of Calaureia, named Pogon, where the Grecian fleet was
ordered to assemble before the battle of Salamis (Herod. viii. 42; Strab. viii.
p. 373.) The porttown, which was named Celenderis (Paus. ii. 32. § 9), appears
to have stood at the western extremity of the bay of Pogon, where some ancient
remains are found. The high rocky peninsula of Methana, which belonged to the
territory of Troezen and is united to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, is described
in a separate article. There were formerly two islands off the coast of Troezen,
named Calaureia and Sphaeria (afterwards Hiera), which are now united by a narrow
sandbank. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. p. 442, seq.; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 56;
Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 431, seq.)
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YSSIES (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Husiai, Husia, Eth. Husiates. A town in the Argeia, on the road from
Argos to Tegea, and at the foot of Mt. Parthenium. (Paus. ii. 24. § 7, viii. 6.
§ 4, 54. § 7; Strab. viii. p. 376.) It appears to have been destroyed by the Argives,
along with Tiryns, Mycenae, and the other towns in the Argeia, after the Persian
wars (Paus. viii. 27. § 1); but it was afterwards restored, and was occupied by
the Argives in the Peloponnesian War as a frontier-fortress, till it was taken
and destroyed a second time by the Lacedaemonians in B.C. 417. (Thuc. v. 83; Diod.
xii. 81.) The defeat of the Lacedaemonians by the Argives, near Hysiae, of which
Pausanias (ii. 24. § 7) speaks, is placed in B.C. 669. The ruins of Hysiae stand
on an isolated hill above the plain of Achladokampos (Achladokampos, from achras,
achlas, a wild pear-tree, and kampos, a plain). They consist of the remains of
the acropolis, which escaped the notice of Leake.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ERMIONI (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
A town on the eastern coast of Argolis on a bay deriving its name (Hermionicus Sinus) from the town. It was originally founded by the Dryopes, and was long a flourishing city, famous for its temple of Demeter Cthonia. It belonged to the Achaean League.
INOI (Ancient city) LYRKIA
A town of Argolis, west of Argos. Here the Argives and Athenians defeated the Lacedaemonians, B.C. 388.
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
Mycenae and Mycene (Mukenai, Mukene). A city at the head of
the plain of Argolis, reputed in Greek tradition to have been the residence of
Agamemnon. Its most flourishing period probably fell within the latter half of
the second thousand years before Christ. At that time the seat of wealthy and
powerful chieftains, it subsequently fell under the power of Argos, and was during
the historical period a place of no importance. The wall of the citadel and several
"bee-hive" tombs have always been visible. Excavations, carried on by
Schliemann in 1876, and later by the Greek Arch?ological Society, have enormously
increased our knowledge of Mycenae and of the early civilization which it represents.
The first illustration shows in the middle distance the acropolis
of Mycenae, with a portion of its encompassing wall. This wall, for the most part,
resembles in its construction that of Tiryns, though the blocks are not so gigantic.
In places, however, we find an outer facing of approximately regular ashlar masonry;
in other places, of carefully jointed polygonal work. The principal entrance,
the socalled Lion Gate, is shown in the third illustration. It consists of two
upright posts surmounted by an enormous flat lintel. The relieving triangle above
the lintel is filled by a relief representing two lions (or lionesses) facing
one another, and having between them an object of doubtful interpretation. There
is, in addition, a smaller gate on the north side of the citadel.
Within the Lion Gate is a circular enclosure, nearly ninety
feet in diameter. This was formed by two concentric rows of upright slabs, the
space between the two rows being covered by horizontal slabs. Within the enclosure
are six rectangular graves of various sizes, sunk in the rock at various depths
below the double ring of slabs. The graves when opened contained the remains of
from one to five corpses each (buried unburned), or nineteen in all, together
with gold masks and ornaments, vessels of gold and of bronze, bronze weapons,
pottery of the so-called Mycenae type, etc. Above the graves (in precisely what
positions it is now difficult to make out) stood a number of grave-stones, partly
unsculptured, partly sculptured with rude reliefs.
At the summit of the acropolis remains of a palace, similar
in plan to that of Tiryns, but less well preserved, were discovered in 1886 by
the Greek Archaeological Society. The great megaron or hall, with its circular
hearth surrounded by four pillars and its double vestibule, is easily recognizable.
Above the palace, and partly upon its ruins, are remains of what is thought to
have been an early Doric temple.
Outside the acropolis was the city, consisting apparently of
several detached settlements. In this region eight large subterranean buildings,
doubtless tombs, of bee-hive form, are known to exist. The most imposing of these
is the so-called "Treasury of Atreus" or "Tomb of Agamemnon,"of
which a vertical section is shown on p. 452. It is approached by a passage-way
or dromos, walled at the sides, but open above. Then comes the doorway, once closed
by heavy doors. The principal inner chamber is about fifty feet in diameter at
the bottom and the same in height. It is built of great stones, laid in horizontal
courses, each course pushed a little farther inward than the one below; compare
the construction of the relieving triangle over the Lion Gate. There is, besides,
a smaller side-chamber, cut in the rock. The other seven beehive tombs are built
in a similar fashion, but with smaller stones. In addition to these, upwards of
sixty smaller tomb-chambers, excavated in the solid rock and approached likewise
by dromoi, have been discovered and opened.
The prehistoric civilization to which the Mycenaean remains
bear witness must have been, in comparison with what meets us at the dawn of the
historical period in Greece, a brilliant one. That it was powerfully influenced
by the earlier civilizations of the East, and especially by that of Egypt, there
is abundant evidence to show. But the whole subject of its relations to what went
before and what came after is in too uncertain a state to be treated in a sketch
like the present.
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TIRYNS (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
A prehistoric citadel in the Argolic plain, about two and one-half
miles north of Nauplia, and one mile from the sea. It occupies the summit of a
low hill, about 980 feet long by 330 feet wide, and, in the southern half, 59
feet high above the surrounding plain, or 72 feet above sea level. Here, during
a period probably not earlier than the fifteenth century B.C., nor later than
the eleventh, was the stronghold of a powerful line of chieftains. Like Mycenae,
Tiryns seems to have early fallen under the power of Argos, and in B.C. 468 it
was annihilated by Argos, or at least reduced to absolute insignificance. Thorough
excavations were carried on in the southern portion of the citadel by Dr. Schliemann
and Dr. Dorpfeld in 1884 and 1885. The walls of fortification were cleared, and
within them the remains of an extensive palace were revealed. The lower (northern)
portion of the citadel remains unexcavated.
The citadel-wall of Tiryns is the classic example of "Cyclopian"
masonry of the most primitive type. It is built of huge, irregular blocks of lime
stone, many of them eight to ten feet long, three feet thick, and three feet high.
These blocks were not fitted to one another, but the interstices were filled with
clay and with small stones. In places there is a distinct approach toward an arrangement
in horizontal courses. The thickness of the wall at the bottom varies from 16
feet to 28 feet, except in two places, where it is greatly increased in order
to receive a system of store-chambers. The height of the existing remains is in
places upward of 25 feet. The original height can only be guessed; it has been
estimated at 50 feet, on the average, measured outside. The citadel had one, and
only one, great entrance. This was on the east side. A broad ramp, so placed that
the unshielded side of an attacking force would be exposed to the missiles of
the defenders above, led to an opening, without gates, in the wall. What defence
existed within this opening to the north is not known. To the south the passage
was barred by a strong gate, whose threshold and related posts are still in their
places. On the opposite (western) side of the citadel was a postern gate, from
which ascended a narrow, winding stairway to the back of the palace; there were
also two small gate apertures in the northern part of the citadel. On the east
side, at the south end, was a gallery in the wall which furnished the means of
communication with a series of rectangular store-chambers. The method of roofing
by pushing the successive courses of stones farther and farther inward till they
meet, should be noted (compare the "Treasury of Atreus" at Mycenae).
This system of chambers with communicating gallery is repeated in the south wall,
and there are here remains of the stairway by which access was obtained from the
summit of the citadel.
The palace was contemporaneous with the fortification just described.
Its walls, not needing especial strength, were built, in their lower portions,
of moderate-sized stones laid in clay mixed with straw, with occasional beams
of wood laid lengthwise. In many places the upper portions, beginning about three
feet from the ground, consisted of unbaked bricks; in two places the bricks begin
from the ground. These walls were protected by a plaster consisting of an undercoat
of clay and an outer coat of pure lime. The latter was decorated with paintings,
of which many fragmentary specimens have been found. Another sort of wall-decoration
was found in the vestibule of a hall, extending across the western wall at the
bottom. This was an alabaster frieze, sculptured with an elaborate pattern of
palmettes, rosettes, etc., and studded with pieces of blue glass, supposed to
be the kuanos of Homer. The floors throughout the palace were made of pure lime
or of lime mixed with small pebbles. Thresholds were of wood or stone. Columns
and antae were of wood. It is not certain whether there was a second story over
any part of the building. The ground-plan was as follows: Through a large propylaeum,
one passed into an irregular open court, and thence through a second and smaller
propylaeum into a rectangular open court (aule) having a floor of lime and pebbles
and enclosed on three sides by colonnades. North of this came what was obviously
the most important part of the house, consisting of a vestibule, an antechamber,
and a rectangular roofed hall (megaron). In the centre of this hall was a circular
hearth, and around the hearth stood four wooden columns supporting the ceiling.
As for the outlying rooms, most of them cannot be precisely designated. One, however,
a square chamber approached by a passageway starting from the west side of the
antechamber of the men's hall, was certainly a bathroom. Its floor was one gigantic
stone, estimated to weigh over twenty tons. A fragment of a terracotta bath-tub
was found here.
The palace of Tiryns corresponds in many important respects with the
type of house or palace presupposed in the Homeric poems. There are, however,
some differences, of which the most important concerns the communication between
the men's and the women's apartments. This, in the Homeric house, was direct and
easy; at Tiryns it was long and circuitous. This and the other differences may
be due to difference of locality and date. It must not be forgotten that the fortifications
and palace of Tiryns are pre-Homeric.
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ALIIS, ALIA (Ancient city) KRANIDI
ARGOLIS (Ancient area) PELOPONNISOS
Region of northeastern Peloponnese.
Argolis owes its name to what became the main city of the region,
Argos, itself named after
several mythological heroes by the name Argos, the first of whom was a son of
Zeus and Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus, and the brother of Pelasgus. Argos reigned
over all of Peloponnese, which
was then called Argolis (hence the name “Argives” which is often used
in the Iliad to designate the Greeks as a whole).
Later, the name Argolis was restricted to the part of Peloponnese
around the city of Argos.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
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ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
City of northern Peloponnese.
Argos was one of the most important cities of Peloponnese,
rival of Sparta for the leadership
of that region. Indeed, at the start of his Histories, Herodotus presents it as
once a city that had “in every respect the first place in the country nowadays
called Greece” (Histories,
I, 1). And, in the Homeric world, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek expedition
against Troy, is often presented
as king of Argos, or of the Argives, and the word “Argives (Argeioi)”,
inhabitants of Argos, is often used as synonym of “Greeks”. In fact
it is hard to separate the stories relating to Argos itself from those relating
to Argolis as a whole or
to other cities of Argolis,
such as Tirynthus or Mycenae,
which helps explain why Agamemnon can be seen by Homer as sometimes king of Argos
and at other times as king of Mycenae.
In mythology, the first king of Argos is the River-God Inachus, a
son of the Titans Oceanus and his sister and wife Tethys. He was chosen as arbitrator
between Hera and Poseidon in their fight for the dominion over the country and
decided in favor of Hera. Hera indeed, as she herself claims in the Iliad, was
the protector of Argos, where she had a very ancient temple, the Heraion.
In Peloponnesian legends, Inachus is said to have been the father of Phoroneus,
the first human being, who is sometimes presented as the one who decided between
Hera and Poseidon and introduced the cult of Hera in Peloponnese.
He was also credited for teaching men to gather in cities and use fire. He was
the father of Niobe, the mother of all living beings and the first mortal who
was loved by Zeus, from whom she had a son named Argus, credited for teaching
men how to cultivate wheat, and who became king of Peloponnese,
then called as a whole Argos after him, a name that was later restricted to the
city of Argos and the surrounding region of Argolis.
Among the descendants of Inachus was Io, who is either said to be
the daughter of Iasos, or directly the daughter of Inachus. Epaphus, the son of
Zeus and Io, married Memphis, the daughter of the River-God Nile, from which he
had a daughter named Libya. From Poseidon, Libya had twins, Agenor and Belus.
Agenor became the father of Cadmus, Phoenix and Europa, while Belus had two sons,
Danaus and Aegyptus. Danaus had fifty daughters, the Danaides, while Aegyptus
had fifty sons. Afraid of these boys, Danaus fled with his daughters and reached
Argos where he overthrew the king of the time, Gelanor, last descendant of Phoroneus,
to become king in his place. But, after he had settled in Argos, his fifty nephews
came after him to claim his daughters as wives. Danaus gave his consent, though
he was not convinced by the boy's plea of goodwill, but, during the wedding night,
at their father's command, all the daughters murdered their bridegrooms, except
the first-born, Hypermestra, who spared her husband Lynceus. After that, to find
willing husbands for his daughters, Danaus had to offer them as prizes in games
that he organized. Eventually, the Danaides, along with their father Danaus, were
all killed by Lynceus to avenge his brethren. In Hades, as a penalty for their
crime, the Danaides were condemned to pour eternally water in bottomless vessels.
Danaus was said to have built the citadel of Argos, in which his tomb was still
visible in historical times.
Lynceus then became king of Argos. From Hypermestra he had a son,
Abas, who became the father of twins that reproduced the hatred between their
grandfathers Danaus and Aegyptus: Acrisius and Proetus. They fought for the kingship
of Argos after the death of their father, and Acrisius got Argos, while Proetus
settled in nearby Tirynthus.
Acrisius had a daughter named Danae and, when he asked the oracle for a son, he
was told that it would be his daughter who would have a son and that this son
would kill him. So he jailed Danae, but this didn't prevent Zeus from falling
in love with her and making her pregnant in her jail by taking the form of a shower
of gold. Danae secretly gave birth in her jail to a son named Perseus, and her
father didn't learn of it until one day, the infant made noise while playing and
Acrisius heard him. Unwilling to kill the baby, yet hoping to save his life, Acrisius
put his daughter and her son in a wooden box and abandonned them to the sea. The
raft drifted until it landed in the island of Seriphos,
where the baby and his mother were taken care of by a fisherman named Dictys,
who became Perseus' adoptive father.
From Andromeda Perseus had many children, including Alcaeus and Electryon.
The former was the father of Amphitryon and the later of Alcmene, the earthly
parents of Heracles. Perseus was also, through another of his sons, Sthenelus,
who became king of Mycenae,
the grandfather of Eurystheus, Heracles' rival for the kingdom of Mycenae
who imposed upon him the 12 labors.
Back in Argos, Megapenthes had a son, Anaxagoras, and a daughter,
Iphiarina. Anaxagoras succeeded his father as king of Argos. Anaxagoras was succeeded
on the throne of Argos by his son Alector, then by Alector's son Iphis. Melampous
married Iphianassa, one of Proetus' daughters he had cured, while Bias married
the other, Lysippe, though he had been married earlier to Pero, the daughter of
his uncle Neleus, king of Pylos,
and sister of Nestor, with whom he had had several children. It is a son he had
had with Pero, Talaus, who succeeded him.
Melampous had several sons, including Antiphates who succeeded him,
and Abas, whose daughter Lysimache, in one tradition, married Talaus and was the
mother of Adrastus. When Polybus died without children, he left his throne to
Adrastus. Having become king of Sicyon,
Adrastus made peace with his cousin Amphiaraus and recovered his share of the
throne of Argos; and, though he never completely forgave his cousin, he gave him
his sister Eriphyle in marriage, under the condition that, in case of future disagreement,
they would rely on her arbitration, a condition that turned out to be fateful
to Amphiaraus later. To help Polynices recover his throne, Adrastus asked the
help of members of the three royal families of Argos, the sons of Bias, Melampous
and Proetus. The seven princes who took part in the expedition against Thebes
were, aside from Adrastus, their leader, Polynices and Tydeus: Canapeus, son of
Hipponous, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, and finally, Amphiaraus.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1999), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
FOURNI (Village) KRANIDI
A valley W of the modern village of Phournoi in the S part of the region.
TIRYNS (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
MYKINES (Municipality) ARGOLIS
DIMENA (Village) EPIDAVROS
Dimena is a village belonging to the Municipality of Epidavros. There are about 630 residents, but the remarkable thing is, is the fact that more and more young people return to their birthplace, with the result we see an increase in the number of the residents of the Municipality. The altitude of the village is 150 meters above sea level. Previously the villagers lived in Aggelokasrto of Korinthos and at Aranxnaio during the summer period and in the winter they lived in Dimena. But for 70 years now they are living permanently at Dimena .. In the area of Dimena there are many churches of great interest to tourists and locals alike each having their own traditional celebrations. The most important of May the 21st, St. Constantine and St. Helene day which there is a local festival. Also there are others festivals such 2nd of Feb. Jesus Candle mass holiday and St. George. It is worthwhile for every visitor to try the famous Giosa (a traditional oven baked meal with goat meat) a pleasant surprise for meat eaters.
EPIDAVROS (Small town) ARGOLIS
KOLIAKI (Settlement) EPIDAVROS
Koliaki is not as old as Trachea it's inhabitants coming mainly from Arkedes around the 1850s. Mainly a farming community, the main types being sheep/goat/poultry farming with olive groves and small market gardens. Bread and cheese making have spread to this town also. Is a very graphic village with old small buildings and picturesque views, it is positioned between Trachea and Ancient Epidavros.
KRANIDI (Small town) ARGOLIS
Perched high up in the steep hills, halloed by the idyllic pine tree
forest of Agia Anni, Kranidi supervises from above the entire peninsula of Ermionis.
Located in a most charismatic position, in the midst of the peninsula's plains,
Kranidi today,- the capital of Ermionis- is built on the boundaries of the ancient
city of Masitos, which also included the area of today's Kilada as well as a section
of the near by community of Fourni.
Kranidi acquires its recent name in the beginning of the 16th century,
but it has been inhabited since the 13th, when the Byzantine emperor Andronikos
II allotted the area to Theodoros Nomikopoulos. Its name is possibly credited
to another version of the word Koronida which was the name of the small islet
of Kilada.
With its permanent residents occupying themselves with agriculture
and cattle breeding but also with commerce and shipping, Kranidi started to develop
around the chapel of Agios Ioannis - the Metropolis of Kranidi today- and reached
a great economic peak which allowed it to have a leading role in Greece's effort
to overthrow the Turks and win back its independence. Kranidi took part in the
revolution with a part of its fleet, soldiers and material goods needed. It is
the birthplace of the great monk and fighter of 1821's revolution Paparsenis Krestas
who, as the leader of the battalion of Kranidi participated in the battle and
freed Palamidi. During the civil war in 1823, Kranidi will become the seat of
the Executing Committee for a few months.
After the revolution and until the beginning of the 20th century,
Kranidi owned a large commercial fleet. But the weakness of its people to respond
to the challenges of the time and to replace their boats with steam -driven ones,
led commercial activities to a deadlock.
Irrefutable proof of its economic flourishing is the traditional
and characterized as preservable settlement with its impressive mansions resembling-
not by coincidence- those of Spetses. The sweet-smelling yards, the freshly painted
walls and fountains, the rooms and old balconies, all create a unique sensation.
The characteristic buildings of the local architectural style like the Town Hall
and the Library, the five big churches of the 19th century- the most important
one being the Metropolis of Agios Ioannis- the Well of Pyrgos, the three fully
restored windmills and the traditional oilmills, make you feel as if you have
traveled back in time. Wherever you look, you will see small white chapels embracing
the city. One is located at the top of Agia Anna's hill offering a great, panoramic
view and the chapels of Agios Ioannis Theologos at Artiki and of prophet Eliseos
are also worth seeing. The most important one of all though is the Byzantine chapel
of Agia Triada in the area of Pikrodafni. It was built in 1224 by "lord"
Michael Mourmoura deputy of the Franks in the area. The church has the shape of
a cross and its saddled roof valuable murals have survived until today.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from the WebSite of the Prefecture of Argolis
NEA EPIDAVROS (Small town) ARGOLIS
In the area of New Epidavros, cottages first appeared during the Modern Greek age, circa Early Mycenaean. In ancient times it was part of Epidavros, connecting with the other villages through common history. With the passing of time, New Epidauros came to own three important monasteries, one vitally significant Byzantine castle, more than 20 churches together with the large area of land constituting, during the Byzantine period, the central core of Epidavros. The intent is for an attractive, tourist village with traditional rural architecture. Its pretty, narrow streets are built into one of the slopes of the "Akros" outcrop and on the next rocky outcrop are the ruins of the Byzantine castle; at the base of this there is a gorge unique for its natural beauty, known as the "Gorge of Vothila". The village stretches out, down to the sea, ending at two beautiful natural bays with clean water for swimming and fishing. Pine trees, olives and orange trees encompass the village and the port.
The villagers of New Epidavros are, in the first instance, farmers who cultivate olive and citrus trees, while the fishing is also important to them. The visitor could take pleasure in the natural and historical beauties of the area, staying at the local hotels or camping sites and there are also rooms to let. Also the area has, in addition, restaurants, bars and one disco, for nightlife. During the summer, on the lovely beaches, the festival of Redeemer's Day takes place on the 6th of August.
PORTO HELI (Village) ARGOLIS
(Following URL information in Greek only)
SCHINOCHORI (Village) KOUTSOPODI
Three kilometres after Koutsopodi
is Schinochori, a lively village situated at the foot of Arkoudovrisi. The locals
are hard-working producers and traders in open markets. They also deal with cattle-raising,
tobacco crops, aviculture and olive trees.
The village’s churches are Zoodochos Pigi and St. Demetrios
and they were rebuilt by the locals in 1925.
At the built-up area of Chelmi
near Schinochori they have discovered two ancient wells and other ancient relics.
(text: Alexis Totsikas)
This text (extract) is cited March 2004 from the Prefecture
of Argolis tourist pamphlet.
TRACHIA (Village) EPIDAVROS
One of the older -if not the oldest- village of our municipality. In the past, Trachea was one of the Turkish communities, which after 1821 when Greece took back their freedom, people from North Greece (Epirotes) came to stay here. The new residents grew up with success in the art of cheese making and soon they flourished. As time passed, they created the tradition of producing cheese products within the area of Argolida. With the finest quality and taste resulting in them now being one of the best producers in Greece.
Today Trachea owns 11 traditional family cheese factories, keeping the secrets they took from their ancestors. Also they grew up the art of making bread following the old traditional recipes and they have 12 bakeries famous for their bread and paximadia.
Here you can eat in one of the 8 excellent taverns, with specialty in boiled goat and roast lamb. The people here are very polite and hospitable and hence it is a popular attraction for locals and tourists alike. It is one of the most beautiful stopping points for the travelers on their way towards to Ermioni, Kranidi, Spetses, Poros and many other places.
VROUSTI (Village) KOUTSOPODI
Vrousti is a mountainous village situated on the southern mountainsides
of mountain range Mpachriami. It is only 16km from Argos
and it is a ‘balcony’ that looks out on the peaks of Artemisio,
Karia, Agrilitsa
and Fregaina. The chapel of
Prophet Helias has a view of Neochori,
Sterna, Malantreni,
Koutsopodi and many other
villages.
The two main characteristics of the village are stone and silence.
It is a combination that creates feelings of peacefulness, tranquility and intangible
fear due to the view of the abandoned houses and the ruins. It used to be a crowded
village once, but all its large families sought for a better future in Australia,
America, Athens
and Argos in 1960’s.
However, some believe that the village has to ‘revive’
again. Thus, they rebuild of renovate their traditional houses and they are ready
to discover the beauty of the village.
(text: Alexis Totsikas)
This text (extract) is cited March 2004 from the Prefecture
of Argolis tourist pamphlet.
ARGOLIS (Prefecture) PELOPONNISOS
In the following WebPages you can find an interactive map with all the monuments and museums of the Prefecture, with relevant information and photos.
Tourists that visit Argolida usually refer to tourist guides, which
mostly recommend county’s southern areas as best place to visit. The cities
of Argos and Nauplia,
the archeological sites of Mycenae,
Tiryntha and Epidaurus,
as well as various southern seaside resorts are very popular. However, few visitors
have met the breathtaking view of the Argolic mountains and even ewer can imagine
this other side of Argolida.
All mountainous villages have common characteristics. They are linked
with narrow streets and pathways and they have common manners and customs, feasts
etc.
The architecture of those villages is typical. It represents mountainous
Peloponnese: two-storeyed,
gray houses made of stone with wooden loggia and several flowerpots upon the wooden
or stony stairs. Just 10-30km away from Argos,
all villages can be excellent mountain resorts. They are natural balconies, where
visitors have the opportunity to scan the sea and the plain among the perennial
trees.
(text: Alexis Totsikas)
This text (extract) is cited March 2004 from the Prefecture
of Argolis tourist pamphlet.
ERMIONI (Small town) ARGOLIS
Bisti is a small pine-clad peninsula at the end of the city and
at the same time an open-air archaeological site. In the summer, the limpid
waters of its beaches render it a most enjoyable spot for swimming, while it
is also an inviting place for walkers all year round and at all times of the
day.
Lavish temples have been built here. On the most central, flat hill
of Bisti visitors can still see today the stone foundations at the base of the
temple of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and the Temple of Poseidon, both of which
extend towards the renovated stark white windmill.
Bisti used to be surrounded by “Cyclopean Walls”, the
remains of which are still conspicuous today, mainly in the northern part of the
city; in the same area lie the remnants of the workshops wherein the porphyra
was produced.
This text is cited March 2004 from the Municipality
of Ermioni tourist pamphlet.
MYCENAE (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
PROSYMNA (Archaeological site) MYKINES
ARGOLIS (Ancient area) PELOPONNISOS
EPIDAVROS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
IREON (Ancient sanctuary) ARGOS - MYKINES
NAFPLIA (Ancient city) NAFPLIO
TIRYNS (Mycenean palace) ARGOLIS
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
Argos. A titular see of Peloponnesian Greece, from the fifth to the twelfth
century, about twenty miles southwest of Corinth.
It was considered the oldest city of Greece
and was once the head of the Doric League, and in its time one of the largest
and most populous of the Greek cities.
Argos was famous in Greek antiquity for the worship of Hera, and her
great temple, the Heraeum
(fully excavated in 1831), was considered one of the most magnificent monuments
of Greek architecture. In the fifth century, B.C., the city was also famous for
its temple of Apollo, the chief Doric sanctuary, and as the seat of celebrated
schools of sculpture and music, especially the flute.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was the seat of a diocese,
being then held successively by the French Dukes of Athens
and the Byzantines; in 1463 it passed under Ottoman rule.
Thomas J. Shahan, ed.
Transcribed by: Tim Drake
This extract is cited June 2003 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
ALIIS, ALIA (Ancient city) KRANIDI
On an excellent harbor near the S tip of the peninsula. Occupied from
Protogeometric times, it enters recorded history with Athens unsuccessful attack
in 460 B.C. Not long before, refugees from Tiryns in the Argive Plain had settled
here, probably without displacing the natives. Sometime before 431 B.C. the town
was captured by Sparta but with the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War it was subject
to further raids by the Athenians to whom the use of acropolis and harbor was
granted in 424-423 B.C. by treaty. In the next century Halieis appears as a Spartan
ally through 370-369 B.C., after which there is no sure historical reference.
Under the name Tirynthioi coinage was issued in the 4th c. as from an independent
city-state. The site was abandoned near the end of the century. Scattered remains,
including a calidarium built on classical fortifications, testify to some occupation
in late Roman times.
The town is located on the slopes and shore below a low hill on the
S side of the circular harbor, across from the modern village of Porto Cheli.
From at least the 8th c. B.C. mudbrick walls enclosed a small acropolis, the site
of the shrine of an unidentified goddess. The military role of the hill is shown
by a series of fortifications and associated structures, culminating before the
mid 4th c. in an impressive semicircular tower. By the shore a settlement from
at least the early 7th c. had a separate wall. In the Classical period a circuit
with no less than four gates and a number of rectangular and round towers ran
down from the acropolis to, and along, the shore. Private houses and workshops
of mudbrick on stone socles have been found over the whole site, affording a rare
glimpse at the plan of a provincial town. Changes in sea level have covered up
to 50 m of the town along the shore; there appears to have been a small war harbor
enclosed within the circuit of the walls.
On the E side of the bay, some 500 m from the city, a Sanctuary of
Apollo has been found at a depth of ca. 2 m below sea level. A temple (27 x 4
m) divided into three chambers was probably in existence by ca. 675 B.C.; it has
yielded quantities of metal and votive pottery and much of a marble statue of
the god. To the S of the temple are the foundations of a long altar and a stadium
with two stone starting lines, 167 m apart. The temple appears to have been destroyed
near the mid 5th c., perhaps in the Athenian attack, and never rebuilt on that
site. Athletic activities occasioned the construction of various other buildings
and flourished until close to the end of the city's life. Finds from the city,
sanctuary, and necropolis are kept in the Nauplion Museum.
M. H. Jameson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Oct 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 11 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Though only a small place(Tiryns) in Classical times, it sent a contingent to fight at Plataia and was a thorn in the side of Argos until the Argives destroyed it, probably in the sixties of the 5th c. B.C. The exiled Tirynthians settled in Halieis in the S Argolid. . . The exile of the Tirynthians at Halieis (Porto Cheli) is confirmed by Tirynthian coins found in excavations there
This extract is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Oct 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Epidauros and Troizen on the east coast were independent of Argos, as were the three small poleis, Hermione, Halieis, and Mases in southern Argolid. According to tradition, Halieis was settled by Tirynthians after their defeat by the Argives, and none of the cities in the north or south ever lived in anything more than an uneasy truce with one another. . There was no lasting peace after the Peloponnesian War, and as a consequence Halieis and other sites were abandoned early in the Hellenistic period.
A Classical and early Hellenistic polis at the southern tip of the Argolid. The town was laid out in the 5th century B.C. on an orthogonal street plan, perhaps the earliest use of this system in Greece, and was occupied until 300-280 B.C. when the town was abandoned. American archaeologists excavating since 1962 have revealed religious buildings on the acropolis and blocks of houses on the slopes below the acropolis. Early use of underwater excavation techniques were used here to explore an early stone temple of Apollo with a stoa and stadium and nearby house blocks that had been submerged by rising sea level in the last 2000 years. The underwater remains may be viewed from a boat or by snorkeling, and many typical houses are still visible in the trenches on the east side of the Porto Kheli bay.
This extract is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Oct 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
ARGOS (Ancient city) ARGOLIS
The city lies at the foot of two hills a few km from the sea, dominating
the Argive plain. Described by Pausanias, it has been cited many times by historians
and orators, as well as by epic and tragic poets.
The earliest of the Pelasgian settlements, it was also the most important.
Legend very soon associated it with a goddess (Hera), the cow (Io), and the wolf
(Danaos). The Danaans were portrayed as invaders, succeeded in their turn by the
Achaians possibly at the beginning of the second millennium. In any event, the
region was already divided at the time of Perseus the Danaid. Argos still played
a major role in the two campaigns of the Achaians against Thebes; however, the
Trojan expedition was led by Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. The rivalry with Sparta,
which was to dominate the next centuries, may go back to Orestes.
After the Dorian invasions Argos once again flourished under the tyrant
Pheidon; it may have been he who introduced into Greece a sort of money in the
form of spits, or obeloi (second half of the 8th c.). Then when Sparta eclipsed
Argos and grew at its expense, it joined almost every one of the anti-Lakonian
leagues until Flaminus rescued it from Nabis (195 B.C.). Argos does not seem to
have suffered under the Romans, and in spite of the pillaging of the Goths the
life of the city never stopped.
We know nothing of how the city was laid out in any period of antiquity.
There is evidence of a Neolithic settlement in the S region, and of one from the
Early Helladic period on the Aspis (to the N). This hill most probably was the
Middle Helladic acropolis. The Larissa, which dominates the site to the NW, apparently
was fortified only in the Mycenaean period. The only other finds from the 2d millennium
are a few remains of dwellings at the foot of the hills and some tombs, many of
them cut in the rock and particularly rich in Late Helladic III B.
Grave-offerings, the chief evidence of the next centuries, once again
become extremely plentiful about Pheidon's time; the museum has a unique collection
of the original Geometric ware of Argos as well as a cuirass found beside a helmet
with a crest shaped like a crescent, both exceptionally well preserved. On the
other hand, the sculpture schocls of archaic and classical Argos, so renowned
in antiquity, have left practically no trace on the site.
Some topographical locations can be determined: that of the Temple
of Pythian Apollo, with its manteion, and the Temple of Athena Oxyderkes, on the
W flank of the Aspis; that of the temples and citadel of the Larissa; hewn in
the E side of that hill, one of the finest theaters in Greece (end of the 4th
c.); farther S, under a Roman odeum, the remains of a theater with straight banks
of seats, built before the 4th c., perhaps as a meeting place for the assembly.
The discovery of an Aphrodision next to the odeum enables us to interpret Pausanias'
description and to presume that the foundations of a square hypostyle hall (the
boule?) and a long 5th c. portico almost opposite the theater belong to the agora.
Changes made to the theater, the odeum, the building of great baths as well as
villas (mosaics are in the museum) point to sustained activity in the 1st-2d and
4th-5th c. A.D.
J. F. Bommelaer, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 61 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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