No. 16. Ruins of the Cyclopean Bridge at Mycenæ.[93]
CHAPTER II.
TOPOGRAPHY OF MYCENÆ.
GATE OF THE LIONS AND TREASURY OF ATREUS.
The road from Argos to Mycenæ—The Plain of Argos: its rivers and hills, horses and vegetation—Myth regarding its arid nature—Swamps in the southern part; and fable of the Lernæan hydra—Early social development here—Legend of Phoroneus—The Pelasgian Argos—The Achæan states of Argos and Mycenæ—Situation of Mycenæ—The Citadel and its Cyclopean walls—The term defined—"Gate of the Lions"—The postern gate—Cisterns—Poetical confusion of Argos and Mycenæ.
The Lower City: its house-walls, bridge, treasuries, and pottery—Its partially enclosing wall—The undefended suburb, and its large buildings—Its extent—The only two wells in Mycenæ—Three Treasuries in the suburb—Treasuries in the Lower City—Description of the "Treasury of Atreus"—Dodwell's Argument for regarding the building as a Treasury—Uniqueness of these structures—Excavation of the Treasury by Veli Pasha.
Mycenæ, August 19, 1876.
I arrived here on the 7th inst. by the same road which Pausanias[94] describes. The distance from Argos is only 50 stadia, or 5·8 English miles. Pausanias saw, on that side of Argos which looked toward Mycenæ, the temple of Lucina (Εἰλείθυια), and next an altar of the Sun, which appears to have been on the bank of the Inachus. After having passed this river he saw, to his right, the temple of the Mysian Demeter, and further on to his left the mausoleum of Thyestes, the brother of Atreus and uncle of Agamemnon. This monument was crowned with a ram of stone, in commemoration of the adultery of Thyestes with his brother's wife. Still further on he saw, to his right, the temple (ἡρῷον) of Perseus, the founder of Mycenæ. But of all these monuments not a vestige now remains.
The first river I passed, in coming from Argos, was the ancient Χαράδρος, now called Rema, an affluent of the Inachus, on the banks of which, as Thucydides[95] informs us, the Argives were in the habit of holding a military court on the return of their armies from abroad, before allowing them to enter the city. Soon afterwards I passed the very wide bed of the famous river Inachus, now called Bonitza, which traverses the plain of Argos in its entire length. The beds of both these rivers are dry except when heavy rain falls in the mountains; and this appears to have been the case also in the time of Pausanias, who says[96] that he found the sources of the Inachus on Mount Artemisium, but that the quantity of water was very insignificant and it only ran for a short distance. This seems to prove beyond any doubt that the Arcadian mountains were then already as bare of trees as they are now.