A RIDE ACROSS THE PELOPONNESE. 199 



pointed out to us as Mycenae, and a small knoll 

 nearer to the sea as Tiryns. 



Considering the very prominent part played by 

 Argos in Greek history, from the days when King 

 Diomede joined his neighbour Agamemnon in his 

 expedition against Troy, up to the latest period of 

 Greek freedom, it is disappointing to find so few 

 remains of pristine greatness. Save the theatre, 

 which stands proof against the ravages of time, 

 and the scanty ruins of the walls to which we 

 have referred, nothing remains to tell that Argos 

 was once a great city. Time seems, in some sort, 

 to have punished Argos for her cruel treatment of 

 her rival Mycenae. Mycenae was destroyed in 468 

 B.C., and, so far as we know, has never been in- 

 habited since. Argos, on the other hand, has 

 lasted till this day, but it has outlived its great- 

 ness. The town is so modern, so busy and full of 

 life, that even what few relics of the past remain are 

 almost forgotten in the stir of the present. At My- 

 cenae no disturbing element comes in to break the 

 contemplation of its mighty past. The massive 

 walls, the curiously - wrought vaults, the newly- 

 found treasure, are silent witnesses to days of 

 power, of skill, and of wealth which must have 

 been, to whatever period we may assign them. Of 

 the after-time nothing reminds us. The desolation of 

 centuries has preserved to us, dim but unbroken, the 

 image of Mycenae as it was two thousand years ago. 



