23© T R A V' E L S t N G R E E C E;
each other, had one tutelary deity, Juno j and were Jointly
proprietors of her temple, the Heraeum, which was near
■ Mycenae. 1 -
Agamemnon enlarged his dominions by his valour and good
fortune. He poffeded Mycenae with the region about Gorinth
jand Sicyon, and that called afterwards Ach«.a, On his return
from Troy, he -was flain with his companions at a banquet.
Mycenae then declined ; and, under the Heraclid®,-wasmade
fubjedt to Argos- •
I T he Mycenaeans, fending eighty men; partook; with the
Lacedaemonians in the glory acquired at Thermopylae. Th<S-
jealoufy of the Argives produced the deftrudtion of • their city *
which was abandoned after a liege and laid walte 'in- the firft-
year o f the feventy-eighth Olympiad *. The; wall was cfa|d
to have been a work of. the architedts, who oonftrudted-that
o f Tifyns, and was fo ftrong, it could not be forced-by-'the
Argives. Some part o f i t remained in the fecond Century, with
a gate, on which were lions ;«a fountain j the fub terraneous
edifices, where Atreus and his fons had depofited their treafures';
and, among other fepulchral monuments,:-one of Agamemnon,
2nd one of his fellow foldiers and fufferers,
- A r g o s was forty firadia or five miles j and Mycensetenor
fifteen ftadia, about a mile and a half, from the Heraum:' This
renowned temple was adorned with curious fculpture, and numerous
flatubs. The image was very large,.made by Polycletus,
of gold and ivory, lifting on a thronp. Among the offerings
was a fhield taken by Menelaus from Euphorbus at Ilium j an
altar of filver, on which the marriage of Hebe with Hercules
was reprefented j a golden crown and .purple robe given .by
Nero; and a peacock of gold fet with pretious Hones dedicated
by Hadrian. Near it were the remains o f a more antient temple, 1
1 In the year before Chrift, 466.
which
231
which ha$ been burned;;a taper-fetting fome garlands.on fire,
while the prieftefs was alleep.
Tu'E'tuin called fhe- Columns?, we had been informed, was
near the dire'a road to Corinth. We fuppofed the building to
have been the temple of Jupiter at Nemea, and i t was expedred
that on the way to it wefljiould difcover Mycenae and the temple
of Juno,; f& Having re-a-fqended Tretus, fays Paufanias, on the
«•left hand of the: road to-Argos are the ruins of Mycenae*!?;
We croffed the wide bed of the torrent-river,, and the.Inachus,
and then travelled in a dully, road in the plain, and about funfet
arrived at Tretus. O n reviewing, our. journey, I found with-
secret,-' that Mycenae was at no great diftance on our rights
when we entered between the mountains-
C H A P , l v i ;
We arrive at Nemea— O f the temple o f Jupiter— th e Nemanf
games___Ruin o f the temple— Mount Apefasy & c .— A village
, and monafiery.
T H E pafs'? o f Tretus. i's narrow, the mountains riling on-
each fide. The track is by a deep-worn water-courfe, which-
was filled with-thickets o f oleander, myrtle, and ever-green?
the ftream clear and lhallow. _ Some Turks , keep guard on it to
apprehend fugitives and fufpedtedperfons* living '.under a flied.
cbverei with boughs, ' Three of* them, on feeing us, came to
the way-fide with water,, which civility we requited with a few
peraus. Soon after we turned out of the road to the left, and,.,
by a path impeded with Ihr.ubs afcended a brow o f the mountain,,
in which are caves, ranging, in the rock, the abode of Ihepherjls
in winter. One was perhaps the den of the Nemean lion,,
which continued to be Ihown in the fecond century. From the
I ri dge: