A circular wall, composed of large regular blocks, incloses an area of sixty-two feet diameter. In this wall are two gates, one facing Cyparissaii, and the other looking towards Laconia. The architraves have fallen; but that which belonged to the Laconian gate remains entire, with one end on the ground, and the other leaning against the wall.
There are the remains, also, of a stadium, and of a theatre, one of the smallest in Greece. Several other traces, masses of fine walls, and heaps of stones, that are scattered about the place, are overgrown or nearly concealed by large trees and luxuriant shrubs[4].
NO. II.—MYCENÆ.
This city was the capital of Agamemnon, who was the commander-in-chief of the assembled Greeks, before the walls of Troy. This event took place, B. C. 1184; and the present ruins are supposed to be the ruins of the city before that event.
Perseus translated the seat of his kingdom from Argos to Mycenæ. The kings who reigned at Mycenæ, after Perseus, were Erectryon, Sthenelus, and Eurystheus. The last, after the death of Hercules, declared open war against his descendants, apprehending they might some time or other attempt to dethrone him; which, as it happened, was done by the Heraclidæ; for, having killed Eurystheus in battle, they entered victorious into Peloponnesus; and made themselves masters of the country. But a plague obliged them to quit the country. Three years after this, being deceived by the ambiguous expression of the oracle, they made a second attempt, which likewise proved fruitless. This was about twenty years before the taking of Troy.
Atreus, the son of Pelops, uncle by the mother’s side to Eurystheus, was the latter’s successor. And in this manner the crown came to the descendants of Pelops, from whom Peloponnesus, which before was called Apia, derived its name. The bloody hatred of the two brothers, Atreus and Thyestes, is known to all the world.
Plisthenes, the son of Atreus, succeeded his father in the kingdom of Mycenæ, which he left to his son Agamemnon, who was succeeded by his son Orestes.
The kingdom of Mycenæ was filled with enormous and horrible crimes, from the time it came into the family of Pelops.
Tisamenes and Penthilus, sons of Orestes, reigned after their father, and were at last driven out by the Heraclidæ.