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he subjoins, what architect can compare with Polycletus in harmony and beauty?

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Going up the water-course, between the mountains, is a church, where, besides fragments, we found a short incription. Diogenes the hierophant to account of a vision in his sleep." on Mount Cynortium, probably on summit beyond are other traces, it is likely of a temple of Diana.

far-darting Apollo, on Apollo had a temple this spot; and on a

The springs and wells by the ruins are now supposed to possess many excellent properties. To these and a good air, with the recreations of the theatre and of the stadium, and to the medicinal knowledge and experience of the priests, may be attributed both the recovery of the sick, and the reputation of Æsculapius. The renown and worship of this god began in Epidauria, and continued for many centuries. Since he failed, some saints have succeeded to the business; and I have seen patients lying in beds in their churches at Athens. The whole neighbourhood has for ages plundered the grove. The Ligurians remembered the removal of a marble chair from the theatre, and of statues and inscriptions, which among other materials, were used in repairing the fortifications of Nauplia, now called Napoli, or in building a new mosque at Argos.

The tortoises of Mount Citharon were sacred to Pan; the serpents of Epidauria to Esculapius. One species, yellower than common, was peculiar to this region, and tame, perhaps like the cranes, from being never molested. These reptiles still abound. Some, as the Ligurians relate, are very large, not venomous, and, if attacked, fight with their tails.

CHAP. LIV.

Leare Ligurib-Nauplia-Tiryns-The river Inachus-Old Argos-The present town.

OUR sick companion was able to travel after resting two days. The sailors left us at night, with orders to proceed in the felucca to the port of Corinth, and wait our arrival by land. The janizary and Swiss went for horses to Napoli, and, not succeeding there, to Argos. They returned at midnight much fatigued, with eight only and a couple of Argives. The next evening we descended from Ligurió into the plain, and crossing with the pyramidal ruin on our right, entered between two ridges of mountains. The track was stony, among bushes, by slender streams, and over dry water-courses. After three hours we dismounted at a place called The Gardens. We had here figs ripe and large. We resolved to continue our journey by moon-light, to avoid the heat of the sun and also the flies, which had terribly tormented our horses. We supped and lay in an orchard, chiefly of pomegranate and mulberry trees; among which was the plant called Opuntia, then in flower. We set out again at two in the morning, and by a rough track entered the plain of Argos. This pass has been strongly guarded. Several summits of the mountains on each side are crowned with large neglected castles. The road led us through olive-groves, near to Napolia, now Napoli of Romania.

Nauplia, the port of Argos, was situated at the bottom of a deep gulf. The people were supposed to have accompanied Danus from Egypt. They were expelled by the Ar

gives for rebellion. In the second century the town was desolate; but ruins of the walls remained, with a temple of Neptune, and a fountain, which still flows, called Canathus. The Argives were accustomed to wash at it a statue of Juno yearly, on her festival. The harbour is the most secure, and best defended in the Morea. The houses are on a tongue of land running out into the sea, and overlooked by a high and abrupt mountain. It is a place of a good appearance, and is strongly fortified both by nature and art. It was taken, with the castle of Argos, by the Venetians in 1686. We could see two ships at anchor, and were told that a couple of French frigates had sailed the night before to chastise the Dulciniotes, who had been recently guilty of piracies. We left Nauplia behind us, and travelled toward Argos.

Our guides led us out of the direct road to an abandoned fortress on a rocky eminence in the plain. The wall has large stones toward the bottom; the superstructure chiefly modern and mere patch-work. This was once Tiryns, the citadel of Prœtus, the ruins of which were extant on the right-hand of the road from Argos to Epidauria. The Cyclopes, who came from Lycia, were said to have erected the wall, which only remained in the second century. It consisted of rough stones, the smallest of which could not have been moved, at first, by a yoke of mules; with lesser stones fitted to fill the vacant spaces. Farther on, by the sea and Nauplia, were caverns called Cyclopia, with labyrinths, or, as they were named, the chambers of the daughters of Prœtus; probably quarries. The inhabitants of Tiryns, and also of Midéa, a place of which the site was visible on the left of that road, had been transferred to Argos.

We continued our journey over a level plain, of fine impal

pable soil, and by cotton grounds, gardens, and the stubble of wheat. We approached Argos, and crossed a shallow stream, once called Charadrus, and also the bed of the Inachus. The Argives related, that this was one of the river-gods, who adjudged the country to Juno, when she contended for it with Neptune, which deity in return made their water to vanish; the reason why the Inachus flowed only after rain, and was dry in summer. The source was a spring, not copious, on a mountain in Arcadia, and the river served there as a boundary between the Argives and the Mantineans.

Ancient Argos stood chiefly on a flat. The springs were near the surface, and it abounded in wells, which were said to have been invented by the daughters of Danaus. This early personage probably introduced the pyramidal monuments. He lived in the acropolis, or citadel, which was named Larissa, and accounted moderately strong. On the ascent was a temple of Apollo on the ridge, which in the second century continued the seat of an oracle. The woman who prophesied, was debarred from commerce with the male sex. A lamb was sacrificed in the night, monthly; when, on tasting of the blood, she became possessed with the divinity. Farther on was a Stadium, where the Argives celebrated games in honour of Neméan Jupiter and of Juno. On the top was a temple of Jupiter, without a roof, the statue off the pedestal. In the temple of Minerva there, among other curious articles, was a wooden Jupiter, with an eye more than common, having one in the forehead. This statue, it was said, was once placed in a court of the palace of Priam, who fled as a suppliant to the altar before it, when Troy was sacked. Argos retains its original name and situation, standing near the mountains, which are the boundary of the plain, with

Napoli and the sea in view before it. The shining houses are whitened with lime or plaster. Churches, mud-built cottages and walls, with gardens and open areas, are interspersed, and the town is of considerable extent. Above the other buildings towers a very handsome mosque, shaded with solemn cypresses; and behind, is a lofty hill, brown and naked, of a conical form, the summit crowned with a neglected castle. The devastations of time and war have effaced the old city. We inquired in vain for vestiges of its numerous edifices, the theatre, the Gymnasium, the temples and monuments, which it once boasted, contending even with Athens in antiquity, and in favours conferred by the gods. We tarried in a miserable khan during the heat of noon, and toward evening set out, with an additional baggage-horse, for a place called The Columns.

CHAP. LV.

Mycena near Argos-Agamemnon slain at Mycena-The city ruined-The temple of Juno-We miss the site.

THE kingdom of the Argives was divided into two portions by Acrisius and his brother Prœtus. Argos and Mycena were their capitals. These, as belonging to the same family, and distant only about fifty stadia, or six miles and a quarter, from each other, had one tutelary deity, Juno; and were jointly proprietors of her temple, the Heræum, which was near Mycena.

Agamemnon enlarged his dominions by his valour and good He possessed Mycenae, with the region about

fortune.

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