No. 1. Map of Argolis.

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CHAPTER I.

EXCAVATIONS AT TIRYNS.

Situation of the City—Description by Pausanias—Cyclopean Walls: meaning of the epithet—The Quarry—The rock of Tiryns and its bordering Wall—Galleries, Gate, and Tower—Walls and Terraces of the Acropolis—Mythical traditions and History of Tiryns—Its destruction by the Argives—Its connection with the myth of Hercules—Morasses in the Plain of Argos—The Walls of Tiryns the most ancient monument in Greece—Pottery a test of antiquity—Beginning of the Excavations—Cyclopean house-walls and conduits—Objects discovered—Terra-cotta cows, and female idols with cow's-horns—Both represent the goddess HERA BOÖPIS—A bird-headed idol—A bronze figure, the only piece of metal at Tiryns, except lead—No stone implements found—Pottery—Hellenic remains outside the citadel, which was the primitive city—Proofs of different periods of habitation—The later city of Tiryns—The archaic pottery of Tiryns like that of Mycenæ—Its forms and decoration denote higher civilisation than the rude walls would lead us to expect—Older pottery on the virgin soil, but no cows or idols—Probable date of the second nation at Tiryns, about 1000 to 800 B.C.; of the Cyclopean walls, about 1800 to 1600 B.C.—No resemblance to any of the pottery in the strata of Hissarlik, except the goblets—A human skeleton found—Whorls—Estimate of soil to be moved at Tiryns—Greater importance of MYCENÆ.

Tiryns, August 6, 1876.

In the south-east corner of the Plain of Argos, on the lowest and flattest of a group of rocky hills, which rise like islands out of the marshy lowlands, only eight stadia or one mile from the Gulf of Argos, was situated the ancient citadel of Tiryns, now called Palæocastron.[29] It was celebrated as the birthplace of Hercules and was famous for its gigantic Cyclopean walls, of which Pausanias says, "The circuit wall, which is the only remaining ruin (of Tiryns) was built by the Cyclopes. It is composed of unwrought stones, each of which is so large that a team of mules cannot even shake the smallest one: small stones have been interposed in order to consolidate the large blocks."[30]