Argos

ARGOS, the name of several ancient Greek cities or districts. Most important was the chief town in eastern Peloponnese, whence the peninsula of Argolis derives its name. The Argeia, or Argos proper, is a shelving plain at the head of the Argive gulf, well watered and fertile, with easy communications towards the Corin thian isthmus, and passes westward into Arcadia. Greek legends indicate its high antiquity and its early intercourse with Egypt, Lycia and other countries. Though eclipsed in the Homeric age, when it was the realm of Diomedes, by the later foundation of Mycenae, it regained its predominance after the invasion of the Dorians (q.v.), and was probably for some centuries the leading power in Peloponnesus. Under Pheidon Argos ruled all eastern Peloponnesus (8th or 7th century B.e.).

Argos was organized, like Sparta, in three Dorian tribes, with a class of Perioeci (neighbouring dependents), and one of serfs, nevertheless the two cities were enemies from the 8th century. In spite of a victory at Hysiae (apparently in 669 B.c.) the Argives were forced back. By 55o B.C. they had lost the whole coast strip of Cynuria and were so weakened in about 495, through defeat by Cleomenes I., that they had to open the franchise to their Perioeci.

Argos (c. 470 B.e.) with the Arcadians fought Sparta again, but only destroyed their revolted dependencies of Mycenae and Tiryns in 468 or 464; they became allies of Athens in 461, renewing a link made by Peisistratus, but they had to make a truce with Sparta in 451.

During the early years of the Peloponnesian War Argos re mained neutral; after the peace of Nicias (421) the alliance of this State, with its unimpaired resources and flourishing commerce, was courted on all sides. By throwing in her lot with the Pelo ponnesian democracies and Athens, Argos seriously endangered Sparta's supremacy, but the defeat of Mantineia (418) and a suc cessful rising of the Argive oligarchs spoilt this chance. Though speedily restored the democracy gave Athens no further help except occasional mercenaries (see PELOPONNESIAN WAR).

In the early 4th century, Argos, in population and resources equalling Athens, was prominent in the Corinthian League against Sparta. Argives helped to garrison Corinth (394), and seem to have annexed it for a while. But the peace of Antalcidas (q.v.) barred Argive pretensions to control all Argolis. After the battle of Leuctra the oligarchs attempted a revolution but were put down vindictively (370). The democracy consistently supported the victorious Thebans against Sparta, and sent a large contingent to the decisive field of Mantineia (362). When pressed in turn by their old foes, the Argives were among the first to call in Philip of Macedon, who reinstated them in Cynuria after becoming master of Greece. In the Lamian War Argos sided with the patriots against Macedonia ; after its capture by Cassander from Polysperchon (317) it fell in 303 into the hands of Demetrius Poliorcetes. In 272 the Argives joined Sparta in resisting Pyrrhus of Epirus, who was killed in an unsuccessful night attack upon the city. They passed instead into the power of Antigonus Gonatas of Macedonia. Aratus (q.v.) contrived to win Argos for the Achaean League (229), in which it remained save during a brief occupation by the Spartans Cleomenes III. (q.v.) and Nabis (224 and 196).

The Roman conquest helped Argos by removing the trade com petition of Corinth. Under the Empire, Argos was the head quarters of the Achaean synod and a resort of merchants. Though plundered by the Goths in A.D. 267 and 395 it retained some of its commerce and culture in Byzantine days. The town was cap tured by the Franks in 1210 ; of ter 1246 it was held in fief by the rulers of Athens. In 1397 and 1500 the Turks massacred the pop ulation at Argos in conflicts with the Venetians. Repeopled with Albanians, Argos was chosen as seat of the Greek national as sembly in the wars of independence, was courageously defended by the patriots (1822), and was burnt to the ground by Ibrahim Pasha (1825). The present town of i o,000 inhabitants is purely agricultural. The Argive plain, though not yet sufficiently re claimed, yields good crops of corn, rice and tobacco. The early Argives were known for their musical talent. Their school of bronze sculpture, whose first famous exponent was Ageladas (Hagelaidas), the reputed master of Pheidias, reached its climax towards the end of the 5th century in Polyclitus (q.v.) and his pupils. To this period also belongs the new Heraeum (see below), one of the most splendid temples of Greece.

The Argive Heraeum.

This temple was the most important centre of Hera worship in the ancient world; it always remained the chief sanctuary of the Argive district, and was one of the earliest sites in the country. It lies on the foothills east of the Argive plain, about 5m. from Argos, 3m. from Mycenae and Miden, and 6m. from Tiryns, and was maintained jointly by Argos and Mycenae till the destruction of the latter in 468. According to tradition the Heraeum was founded by Phoroneus at least thir teen generations before Agamemnon, i.e., about 1750 B.C. This is in general agreement with the archaeological evidence for the earliest Minoan exploitation of the district. That the site was occu pied at least as early as this is shown by rude walls and pottery of successive styles, beneath the later sanctuary; and close at hand there is a fine "bee-hive" tomb like those of Mycenae (q.v.). In the period of invaders in the nth century, in spite of the new culture which was introduced by the Dorians the Heraeum main tained its importance; it was here that the succession of priestesses served as a chronological standard for the Argive people, and even far beyond their borders; and it was here that Pheidon deposited the discarded ingot-currency, of3eXLoKot, when he introduced coin age into Greece. When the old temple was burnt down in the year B.c., through the negligence of the priestess Chryseis, the Argives erected a splendid new temple, built by Eupolemos, in which was placed the great gold and ivory statue of Hera, by the sculptor Polyclitus, contemporary and rival of Pheidias, which was one of the most perfect works of sculpture in antiquity. Pausanias describes the temple and its contents (ii. 17), and also saw the ruins of the older burnt temple.

In 1854 A. R. Rhangabe made tentative excavations on this site, and it was completely explored by the American Archaeological Institute and School of Athens in 1892-95, showing that the sanc tuary, instead of consisting of but one temple with the ruins of the older one above it, contained at least 11 separate buildings, occupying an area of about 975 by 325 feet.

In

the centre of the second terrace stands the substructure of the great second temple together with so much of the archi tectural members that it has been possible to design a complete restoration. On the north side of this terrace, between the second temple and the Cyclopean supporting wall, a long colonnade run ning from east to west ends in a well-house and waterworks. At the east end chambers were erected against the hill, in front of which were placed statues and inscriptions, and a large hall con taining three rows of columns, with a porch and entrance facing the temple. Below the second terrace a large complicated build ing, earlier than the second temple, may have served as gymnasium or sanatorium. A ruder building north of this is probably much earlier. At the foot of the elevation on which this temple stands, and thus facing the city of Argos, a splendid stoa or colonnade, to which large flights of steps lead, was erected about the time of the building of the second temple, to give worthy access from the city of Argos. At the west extremity of the whole site lies a huge stoa running round two sides of a square and an extensive house of Roman times. The masses of votive offerings and other small objects illustrate a continuous succession of styles from the Middle Minoan to Roman; and are of exceptional interest for the period of transition from Minoan to Hellenic. Commonest dedications were small clay figures of the goddess, and bronze dress-pins prov.

ing the popularity of the cult among the women, always the special care of this goddess.

The excavations in the second temple revealed the outlines of the base upon which the great statue of Hera stood, but no trace of the statue itself. From Pausanias we learn that "the image of Hera is seated and is of colossal size." Like the Olympian Zeus of Pheidias, Hera was seated on a decorated throne, holding in her left hand a sceptre, surmounted by a cuckoo (as that of Zeus had an eagle), and in her right, instead of a figure of Victory (such as the Athena Parthenos and the Olympian Zeus held), simply a pomegranate. The crown was adorned with figures of graces and the seasons. From the dimensions of the temple it is computed that the total height including the base would be about 26ft., the seated figure about I 8f t. The temple was decorated with "sculp tures over the columns, representing some the birth of Zeus and the battle of the gods and giants, others the Trojan War and the taking of Ilium." Besides numerous fragments a very beautiful head, probably Hera, and a draped female torso belonging to the pediments, have been discovered. Of the metopes two are almost complete, and among many fragments ten heads are well pre served.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, PyrrBibliography.—Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plutarch, Pyrr- hus, ; Strabo, pp. 373-374; Pausanias, ii. 15-24 ; W. M. Leake, Travels in the Morea, ii. ch. 19-22 (1835) ; E. Curtius, Peloponnesos, ii. 350-364 (Gotha, 1851) ; H. F. Tozer, Geography of Greece, pp. 292-294 (1873) ; J. K. Kophiniotis, 'Ivropia rov "Apyous (1892-1893) ; W. Vollgraff, in Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique (1904, pp. 1906, PP. PP. 139-184) .

See also C. Waldstein, The Argive Heraeum (vol. i. Boston and New York, 1902) ; vol. ii. the Vases by J. C. Hoppin, the Bronzes by H. F. de Cosa, 1905) ; Excavations of the American School of Athens at the Heraion of Argos (1892), and numerous reports and articles in the American Archaeological Journal since 1892.

(M. C.; C. WA.; J. L. My.)