TIRYNS TO ARGOS. 453 
chres, the Shrines, and the votive receptacles, are 
so many " sure and firm-set" rocks; slightly 
modified, indeed, by the hand of man, but upon 
which the blast of desolation passes like the 
breath of a zephyr. Argos is conspicuous in 
this class of cities : and if, in the approach to it 
from Tiryns, where Art seems to have rivalled 
Nature in the eternity of her existence, the 
view be directed towards the sea, a similar 
and not less striking object is presented, in the 
everlasting Citadel of Nauplia. The INACHUS, The River 
separating the two capitals of Acrisius and 
Prcetus, is now, as it was formerly, a wide, but 
shallow water-course, sometimes entirely dry. 
It was dry when we passed. Callipiachus men- 
tions its beautiful waters 1 . On account of its 
periodical exsiccation, it has been considered by 
travellers as having been the subject of a greater 
alteration than it has really sustained. Antient 
stories, it is true 2 , pretended that it was once 
remarkable for suicides, committed by persons 
who had precipitated themselves into itsjlood a : 
but these events might happen in an occasional 
torrent, as well as in a perennial river 3 . 
(1) See the Hymn of Callimachus upon the Baths of Pallas. 
(2) Vid. Plutarch, de Fluviis, pp. 58, 59- Tolosa, 1615. 
(3) " Most of the Grecian streams are winter torrents, and dry in 
the summer." Squire's MS. Correspondence. 
