DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0269
242 RUINS OF MYCENiE.
treasury of Atreus. It was probabty a cistern. According to Plutarch,'
the first name of the hill on which Mycenae stands, was Argion.
A deep rocky glen separates the northern side of the acropolis
from a neighbouring hill; on all the other sides it is more or less
steep, but particularly so towards the three-topped Euboia. In
a rocky ravine, which divides the acropolis from this moun-
tain, there is the bed of a torrent at present dry, but it is
evident that the stream, which rises at the Perseia, or fount of
Perseus, ran through it to the plain. This stream is at present con-
veyed in a small open aqueduct, of modern construction, over the
treasury of Atreus to the subjacent village of Kabrata, and from
thence to the khan at the beginning of the plain. There was an-
ciently a bridge over the ravine; one of the side walls still remains,
consisting in well joined polygons. The fount of Perseus rises a few
hundred yards to the north-east of the acropolis, and, immediately
after issuing from the rock, forms a small clear stream of excellent
water, with which Mycenae was anciently supplied.
After the return of the Heraclidae into the Peloponnesos, about
eighty years after the Trojan war, Mycenae began to decline in power
and population.2 It must have been considerably reduced before
the Persian invasion, since it could not equip more than eighty men,
as its contingent at Thermopylae;5 and afterwards, in conjunction
with the city of Tiryns, it furnished only four hundred troops at
the battle of Plataea.4
It is singular that Strabo,5 who was at Corinth, within a very few
miles of Mycenae, should have been ignorant of the existence of its
ruins; so much so, that he emphatically says that not a vestige of
that city was left, " atrje vvv pj5 lyvog evgitrxttrOui tuv MvKrivouuv voXwg."
In the same manner he leaves hardly a trace of several cities in
Greece which exhibit considerable remains even at this day. Pau-
sanias, who wrote one hundred and fifty years after Strabo, describes
De Flutnin. ' Strabo, b. 8. p. 372. s Herodot. b. 1. p. 202.
* Id. b. 9. c. 28. 5 Loc cit
treasury of Atreus. It was probabty a cistern. According to Plutarch,'
the first name of the hill on which Mycenae stands, was Argion.
A deep rocky glen separates the northern side of the acropolis
from a neighbouring hill; on all the other sides it is more or less
steep, but particularly so towards the three-topped Euboia. In
a rocky ravine, which divides the acropolis from this moun-
tain, there is the bed of a torrent at present dry, but it is
evident that the stream, which rises at the Perseia, or fount of
Perseus, ran through it to the plain. This stream is at present con-
veyed in a small open aqueduct, of modern construction, over the
treasury of Atreus to the subjacent village of Kabrata, and from
thence to the khan at the beginning of the plain. There was an-
ciently a bridge over the ravine; one of the side walls still remains,
consisting in well joined polygons. The fount of Perseus rises a few
hundred yards to the north-east of the acropolis, and, immediately
after issuing from the rock, forms a small clear stream of excellent
water, with which Mycenae was anciently supplied.
After the return of the Heraclidae into the Peloponnesos, about
eighty years after the Trojan war, Mycenae began to decline in power
and population.2 It must have been considerably reduced before
the Persian invasion, since it could not equip more than eighty men,
as its contingent at Thermopylae;5 and afterwards, in conjunction
with the city of Tiryns, it furnished only four hundred troops at
the battle of Plataea.4
It is singular that Strabo,5 who was at Corinth, within a very few
miles of Mycenae, should have been ignorant of the existence of its
ruins; so much so, that he emphatically says that not a vestige of
that city was left, " atrje vvv pj5 lyvog evgitrxttrOui tuv MvKrivouuv voXwg."
In the same manner he leaves hardly a trace of several cities in
Greece which exhibit considerable remains even at this day. Pau-
sanias, who wrote one hundred and fifty years after Strabo, describes
De Flutnin. ' Strabo, b. 8. p. 372. s Herodot. b. 1. p. 202.
* Id. b. 9. c. 28. 5 Loc cit