Athene, (ν. ̓Αθῆναι. Suid. v. ̓Αθήνησι.) Ætolia, (ν. Αἰτωλία.) Atæa, v. 'Araía.) - Aphidna, (v. *Αφιδνα.)— Genese, (ν. Γενέση.)—Thea, (ν. Θέα.) Iopis, a district noticed by Herodianus, (v. 'Iwπis.) Lapersa, a mountain alluded to by the poet Rhianus, (v. Aаπéρσα.)-Litææ, on the authority of Apollodorus, (v. Araïai.)—Sacus, a village, (v. Zákos.) Tenos, of which the poetess Herinna was a native, (v. Tvos.)—Tyrus, (v. Túpos.) Polybius notices, on the confines of Argolis, Polichna and Leucæ. (IV. 36, 5.) Ægila is mentioned by Pausanias as a La- Ægila. conian town, in which was a temple of Ceres. (Messen. 17.) The commentators of Pliny refer the Sinus Ægilodes of that writer (IV. 5. to this place. Egilodes Lerne is placed by Ptolemy in the interior of Laco sinus. nia. (p. 90.) The Caricus was a river of the same Caricus fl. country, according to the commentators of Lycophron on the following passage of the poet, (v. 149.) Τὸν δ ̓ ἐκ Πλυνοῦ τε κἀπὸ Καρικῶν ποτῶν Βλαστόντα ῥίζης— thia via. Athenæus speaks of the Hyacinthian way, which Hyacinprobably led from Sparta to Amyclæ. (IV. 76.) Laconia is at present divided into several districts, which have each their separate appellation. That of Maina includes all the country situated between the Messenian and Laconian gulfs. Bardunia comprises the territory around the mouth of the Eurotas; and Zakounia, which seems a corruption of Laconia, all the eastern part of the province from Cape S. Angelo to the bay of Astro, which belongs to the ancient district of Cynuria ". Gell's Itiner. of the Morea, p. 234, 5. Journey through Maina in the Morea, in Wal VOL. III. pole's Mem. (t. I. p. 34.) La- Q SECTION XX. ARGOLIS. Ancient kingdoms of Argos and Mycena-Republic of the Argives-Description of the coast-Island of Egina-Topography of the interior. DIVESTING the annals of Argos of the numerous fables with which their early records are intermixed, we may collect from historical facts that the Pelasgi of Inachus and Phoroneus were the earliest possessors of this fertile part of Greece; but whether they came by sea, or wandered thither from Thrace and Macedon, cannot now be decided; the latter supposition, however, from what has been said in the introductory section, appears the most probable, We have already observed that the name of Inachus was given to a river of Epirus, which country is considered by Herodotus as the earliest seat of the Pelasgi; and it is not improbable that this appellation may have been transferred from thence to the fabled stream which flowed beneath the walls of Peloponnesian Argos. Argos itself was doubtless a name of Pelasgic origin, since we find it applied to cities of Macedonia and Thessaly, once in the occupation of that people"; a Strabo remarks that the word Argos in the Macedonian and Thessalian dialects, signi fied a field, or plain. (VIII. p. 371. and though the Greeks usually regarded those towns as colonies of the more famous Peloponnesian city, analogy would lead us, I imagine, to reverse this order of things, and to view the latter as a branch, rather than the parent stock, of this widely disseminated race. Homer certainly applies the epithet of Pelasgi to Argos of Thessaly, while he distinguishes its Peloponnesian namesake by that of Achaicum: Νῦν δ ̓ αὖ τοὺς, ὅσσοι τὸ Πελασγικὸν "Αργος ἔναιον, IL. B. 681. Εἰ δέ κεν "Αργος ἱκοίμεθ ̓ ̓Αχαιϊκὸν, οὖθαρ ἀρούρης, IL. I. 141. Πῶς ἔθαν ̓Ατρείδης ευρυκρείων Αγαμέμνων ; OD. Γ. 248. (Cf. Strab. VIII. p. 369. Schol. Hom. Ιl. Γ. 75.) Δαναὸς, ὁ πεντήκοντα θυγατέρων πατὴρ, EURIP. ARCHEL. FRAG. 2. (Cf. Strab. VIII. p. 371.) At that time the whole of what was afterwards called Argolis acknowledged the authority of one sovereign, but, after the lapse of two generations, a division took place, by which Argos and its territory were allotted to Acrisius, the lineal descendant of Danaus, while Tiryns and the maritime country became the inheritance of his brother Prœtus. A third kingdom was subsequently established by Perseus, son of the former, who founded Mycenæ; (Pausan. Corinth. 16. Strab. VIII. p. 371.) but these were all finally reunited in the person of Atreus, son of Pelops; who, having been left regent by his nephew Eurystheus during his expedition against the Heraclidæ, naturally assumed the sovereign power after his death. Atreus thus acquired, in right of the houses of Pelops and Perseus, which he represented, possession of nearly the whole of Peloponnesus, which ample territory he transmitted to his son Agamemnon, who is called by Homer sovereign of all Argos and the islands : Αὐτὰρ ὁ αὖτε Θυέστ' Αγαμέμνονι λεῖπε φορῆναι, Πολλῇσιν νήσοισι καὶ "Αργεϊ παντὶ ἀνάσσειν. IL. B. 107. (Cf. Thuc. I. 9. Strab. VIII. p. 372.) After the death of Agamemnon the crown descended to Orestes, and subsequently to his son Tisamenes, who was forced to evacuate the throne by the invasion of the Dorians and Heraclidæ eighty years after the siege of Troy. (Pausan. Corinth. 18. Strab. loc. cit.) Temenus, the lineal descendant of Hercules, now became the founder of a new dynasty, but the Argives, having acquired a taste for liberty, curtailed so much the power of their sovereigns as to leave them but the name and semblance of kings; at length having deposed Meltas, the last of the Temenic dynasty, they changed the constitution into a republican form of government. (Pausan. Corinth. 19.) The Argives were subsequently engaged in frequent hostilities with the Spartans, each people claiming the possession of the small district of Cynuria, which, however, seems to have properly belonged to the former, since their territory, as we are informed by Herodotus, once extended to the Cape of Malea, including Cythera. (Herod. I. 82. Pausan. Lacon. 2.) These conflicts apparently were not attended with any decisive result; but in the reign of Cleomenes, king of Sparta, a great battle was fought which terminated in the total defeat of the Argives, of whom many perished in the field, and a great body, having taken refuge in the grove of Argus, were destroyed in consequence of Cleomenes causing it to be set on fire. (Herod. VI. 83.) Pausanias affirms that Argos must have fallen into the hands of Cleomenes and the Spartans after this signal overthrow, had it not been saved by the daring courage and patriotism of a woman named Telesilla, who incited the rest of the Argive population, and even those of her own sex, to take up arms in defence of their city. (Corinth. 20.) Subsequently, however, the slaves of Argos, taking advantage of the enfeebled state of their country, openly rebelled, and, overturning the existing government, retained the sovereign power in their own hands, till the sons of their former masters, arriving at the age of manhood, expelled them from the city: they afterwards occupied the town of Tiryns and made war upon Argos from thence, but were at length finally subdued. (Herod. VI. 83.) It was partly owing to these internal commotions, and partly also to the jealousy which subsisted between the Argives and |