ROAD FROM ARGOS TO MYCENÆ.
But as the Inachus plays so important a part in the mythic legends of the Argolid, which make him the husband of Meleia and father of Phoroneus, the first king of Argos, and of the moon-goddess Iö (the later Hera), there can be no doubt that in prehistoric times the Inachus was a river of some consequence. This, however, seems to be only possible if we suppose the Arcadian mountains to have been at that time overgrown with forests. That the Inachus was once, and for ages, an abundant river, is proved also by the fact that the whole plain of Argos has been formed by the alluvia of its rivers, but principally by those of the Inachus.
Further upon the road from Argos to Mycenæ I passed another smaller river-bed, which seems to be the Cephisus mentioned by Pausanias.[97] In speaking of the rivers of the plain of Argos, I must further mention the two streams Eleutherion and Asterion, between which was situated the celebrated Heræum on the lower slope of Mount Eubœa. Both are now dry and have no water except in heavy and long-continued rains, but they seem still in classical antiquity to have had an abundance of water all the year round, for the Eleutherion was the sacred water used in the religious ceremonies at the temple, whilst the water of the Asterion fed the asterion-plant (a kind of aster), sacred to Hera, from the leaves of which wreaths and festoons were made for the goddess. The very name also of Mount Eubœa seems to indicate that it was once a rich pasture ground, whilst now it is as completely barren of all vegetation as are the beds and banks of the two rivers.
The plain of Argos is enclosed on the west and north by the highlands of Artemisium, on the east by those of Arachnæon. From the former several parallel ridges of hills advance for some distance into the plain; the most northerly of them is Mount Lycone, which terminates in Mount Larissa, 900 feet high, with the Acropolis of Argos, the city itself being situated at the foot of the mount, in the plain. The second ridge is the Chaon, at the foot of which the river Erasinus issues in a copious stream and falls into the Argolic Gulf, turning many mills. This river was in all antiquity considered to be identical with the Stymphalus, which disappears by two subterranean channels under Mount Apelauron in Arcadia. The third parallel ridge is the Pontinus. On the east side much smaller and more detached hills slope gently into the plain. To the north the mountains are very rough and abrupt. On the north and south-east of the Acropolis of Mycenæ are the two highest peaks of Mount Eubœa;[98] the northern one, which is crowned with an open chapel of the prophet Elias, is 2500 feet high.
In all antiquity the plain of Argos was celebrated for the breeding of horses, and Homer,[99] seven times in the Iliad, praises its splendid horse-pasture grounds by the epithet "ἱππόβοτος."
Owing to the great dryness of the land, wine and cotton can now be grown only in the fertile lower plain, and a little corn and tobacco is all that can be produced in the highlands. Even as late as the Greek war of independence (1821) there must have been much more moisture here, because at that time the whole plain, and even a large portion of the highlands, were thickly planted with mulberry, orange, and olive trees, which have now altogether disappeared.
THE PLAIN OF ARGOS.
The epithet πολυδίψιον, "very thirsty," which Homer gives to the plain of Argos, agrees perfectly with its present condition, and also with the myth told by Pausanias:[100] "Poseidon and Hera disputed about the possession of the land (the plain of Argos), and Phoroneus, son of the river Inachus, Cephisus, Asterion, and Inachus himself, had to decide; they adjudged the plain to Hera, whereupon Poseidon made the waters disappear. Hence neither Inachus nor any other of the aforesaid rivers have any water, except when Jove sends rain (Ζεὺς ὕει); in summer all the rivers are dry except the (springs of) Lerna." The epithet πολυδίψιον, however, does not agree with the passage already cited from Aristotle,[101] which asserts that at the time of the war of Troy the land of Argos was swampy, whilst that of Mycenæ was good.
The most southern part of the plain of Argos has at all times had a great abundance of water, but with little or no profit to agriculture; for the sea-shore is lined with vast and almost impassable swamps, and the river Erasinus, which pours down from Mount Chaon, soon empties itself into the Gulf of Nauplia. Further, the springs at the foot of Mount Pontinus form the famous swamps of Lerna, where Hercules is fabled to have killed the Hydra. Probably this myth is the symbolic account of an attempt once made to drain the swamps and to convert them into arable land.