Waldstein, Charles: The Argive Heraeum (Band 1): General introduction, geology, architecture marble statuary and inscriptions (Boston [u.a.], 1902)

10

GEN EEAL INTRODUCTION

Another great feature of the chief festival at the Argive Heraeum were the games,
which, from the nature of the prizes offered, were called acrirls iv "Apyei or e£ "Apyovs
dcnrts' or xa^Keos o-yiiv,1 a name sometimes given to the whole festival. The prize
to the victors in these contests consisted of a bronze shield or some other object in bronze
and a myrtle wreath.3 This may in part account for the numerous objects in bronze
found on this site during our excavations.4 The games were supposed to have been
founded by Lynceus or Archhms,5 and in historical times took place in the stadium of
Argos.0 Then followed a great Trofjunj1 or procession in which were armed youths,
maidens, etc., reminding us of the main features of the Panathenaic procession. In the
times of the supremacy of the city of Argos this procession probably traversed the whole
distance from the stadium of Argos to the Heraeum, a feature which no doubt Avas intro-
duced when the chief care of the Heraeum was transferred to Argos from Tiryns and
Mycenae.

TOPOGRAPHY.

To appreciate the historical relation which the Heraeum bore to the three great cen-
tres of early Greek history in the Argolid we must consider the topography of the
temple precinct (Figs. 1-4).*

Pausanias9 tells us that the Heraeum is fifteen stadia from Mycenae. Strabo,1" on
the other hand, says that the Heraeum was forty stadia from Argos and ten from
Mycenae. Both authors underestimate the distance from Mycenae, which is about
twenty-five stadia, or a little more than three miles; Avhile the distance from Argos is
forty-five stadia, or a little more than five miles. The distance from the Heraeum to the
site of the ancient Midea is slightly greater than to Mycenae, while that from the
Heraeum to Tiryns is about six miles, i. e. slightly greater than to Argos.

Were Ave to judge merely from actual distance, the Heraeum would thus be most closely
associated with Mycenae. We must, moreover, note that both Pausanias and Strabo
appear to associate the Heraeum only with Mycenae and Argos. The closer association
with Mycenae implied in the notice of Pausanias is to be ascribed simply to the fact that
his journey naturally took him from Mycenae to the Heraeum. Strabo, on the other
hand, makes Argos his centre; and Avhile he recognizes the priority of Mycenae in the

i C. I. G. 234 ; 1008.

- Piud. Nem. x. 22 ; Hesycli. s. u.

3 Kaibel, Epigr. 840.

1 An epigram on the base of a statue erected to King
Nicocreon of Cyprus mentions as the cause of erecting
the statue the sending by him of bronze "Hpai %v els eponv
7r€ix7To[f a€]9\a j/e'ois, Le Bas-Foucart, Pelop. 122 ; Roscher,
Lex. I. p. 2077.

5 Hyg. Fab. 275, 170 ; Schol. Piud. Ol. vii. 152.

c Pans. II. 24. 2.

' Aen. Tact. 1. 17, Eurip. El. 172 ; Dion. Hal. I. 21.

8 The chief passages in ancient authors on this sub-
ject are Pausan. II. 15 ff., and Strabo VIII. 0.

The chief modern books on the topography are these :
Steffen, Karten von Mykenai, Berlin, 1884, and pp. 39-42;
Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland, II. pp. 47 seq. with
map of the Heraeum (Tapei); W. Vischer, Erinnerungen
und Eindrucke aus Griechenland, pp. 310, 317, and the ex-
cellent short account in Frazer's Pausanias, III. pp. 105-
181. For earlier books cf. Leake, Peloponnesiaca, pp. 258-

264 ; Mure's Journal, II. pp. 177-182 ; Curtius, Der Pelo-
ponnes, II. pp. 390-400, 509 ff. ; W. G. Clark, Pelopon-
nesus, pp. 81 ff.

9 The passage in Pausanias, so far as it relates to the
topography runs (II. 17. land 2): MtwjiwSe ivapiarepa
irevre a7rt'xfi Ka\ 5e'«a trraSta Tb'Hpdiov. /)e? 5e Kara rriv bbbv vdup
'EKevQepiov KaAovp.evov ' xpwvral 5e aura? rrpus Kadapda at irepl
rb lepbv Ital rwv flvffitcv is ras airoppr^TOvs. avrb 5e rb lepov ivriv
iv x®ajxa\wTtp(i> tvs Eu/3ol'as. rb yap St} upos rovro bvop.a£ov(Xiv
Evfioiai', Keyovres 'Aareptwvl yeveo~6at rtZ rvorafxtS 9vyarepas
Eiifioiav Kal Ylp6ffufj.i'av Ka\ 'Anpalay, elval 5t rpotyobs ttjs "Upas '
teal airb 'AKpaias rb upos KaXovfri rb atzavriKpb rod 'Hpalou, awb
5e Et)$otas oaov irspi rb Upbf, Ylpotrvpvav 5e T7}l> inrb rb 'Hpa~oe
Xivpaf. u 5e 'A<TTep(a)i> ovtos petav virep rb 'Hpaiov is (pdpayya
ifTTTiTTroiv acpam'cWcu.

10 The passages in Strabo are (VIII. 6. 2. 308) : airb 5e
rov "Apyovs els rb 'HpaTov reaaepaKovra, evQev 5e els MvKrjvas
5e«a, and (VIII. 0. 10. 372) r6 re 'Apyos ko). ras Mutcfivas,
Kal rb 'Hpaiov elvai KOivbv lepbv rb wpbs rals NlvKi)i>ais a^aroiv,
K. r. A.