ARGOS TO MYCENLE. 487 
preceding ages, which gave birth to these fertile CHAP. 
regions ; when the waters of the sea slowly - ,. v - ,> 
retired from the land ; or, according to the lan- 
guage of poetry and fable, were said to have 
reluctantly abandoned the plains of Greece 1 . 
About five miles from Argos, on the left side 
of the road, we found the remains of an antient 
structure, which at first we supposed to be 
those of the Her&um, a temple once common 
to the two cities of Mycenae and Argos ; when 
the twin brothers, Acrisius and Prcetus, who 
were grandsons of Belus, possessed the two 
capitals, and worshipped the same tutelary 
Deity 9 . This position of it corresponds, in 
some degree, with its situation, according to 
Pausanias ; but not in all respects. He de- 
scribes the distance from Mycence to Argos as 
equal to fifty stadia (6 J miles), and the Herceum 
as being at the distance of fifteen stadia (one 
(1) By attention to natural phenomena upon the spot, some light 
may certainly be thrown upon the antient fables of the country. A 
very happy illustration of the origin of the Hydra, which infested the 
Plain of Lierna, near /4rgo.i, as taken from the JUS. Journal of the 
Earl of Aberdeen, by Sir W. Cell, and is found in a Note to his Work. 
See Itin. of Greece, p-19. Lond. 1810. 
(2) K.O.} TO 'HoKin ilv&t xouov /sgev ra irgo{ ra,7f Mvxwaif ay.pJj?> x. r. A. 
Strabon. Geog. lib. viii. p. 539. Ed. Oxon. 
