TIRYNS (Gr. Te-runs, anglicized ti-rinz), a prehistoric fort ress and afterwards a small Greek city, on an isolated ridge of rock near the east side of the plain of Argos in Peloponnese, about 3 m. from the coast, and from the port of Nauplia. There is a railway station close to the site. In Greek legend it was founded by Proetus, brother of Acrisius, king of Argos. His successor, Perseus, founded Mycenae some io m. further inland. Later, Heracles here served Eurystheus in many "labours," and Tydeus and his son Diomedes held it. After the Dorian conquest (q.v.) Tiryns, like Mycenae, declined as Argos grew; it sent its small contingent to fight at Plataea (q.v.) in 479; but about 46o it was destroyed by the Argives. Pausanias (c. A.D. 17o) was shown here the "palace of Proetus," and the "chambers of his daughters," and wondered at the "Cyclopean" walls, the ripvvs raxt6Eacra of Homer Il. ii. 559. The same walls in 1884 attracted the atten tion of Heinrich Schliemann, the excavator of Troy (1871) and Mycenae (1875), who uncovered, with W. Dorpfeld, a prehistoric "palace" remarkable for many points of resemblance to the "House of Odysseus" in the Odyssey; but made only a few sound ings into the stratified remains under its floors. These were care fully examined from 1908 onward by members of the German Archaeological Institute in Athens, and though their conclusions are not yet fully published, the following outline of the archaeology of Tiryns is assured.
The natural ridge on which Tiryns stands is about 33o yd. from north to south, and 112 at widest from east to west; the greater height of its southern half now is mainly due to superstructures. From about 2000 B.C. a small unfortified settlement can be traced on, and also around this ridge, with three superposed layers of mud-brick houses; on what was probably the summit (under the later megaron) was a remarkable round building, nearly 90 ft. across, also of mud brick but roofed with slates and tiles, probably for some public or official use.
About i600 B.C. the southern half of the ridge was heavily fortified with rude but massive walls, to protect a new "palace" of which the plan is obscure (for it lies underneath its successor), but the arts and industries are derived, like those of the con temporary "shaft graves" at Mycenae, from the "Middle Minoan" culture of Crete (q.v.). The settlement which it dominated ex tended some hundreds of feet to south and east of the ridge. Com munication was by a gateway in the east wall, underneath the later "propylaea." About m. away, on the hill called St. Elias, cist graves and rock-chambers are found, of various dates, and on the same hill is a ruinous "beehive tomb" like those at Mycenae, Heraeum and Midea, and probably contemporary with them ; but nothing has survived from its contents.
The "early palace" perished by violence and was succeeded, about 1300 B.c., by another, which occupied the whole area of the early citadel, and was in turn defended by the massive but rudely-fashioned walls which are now conspicuous. These con siderably enlarge the area of the fortress and enclose also the whole of the northern half of the ridge. The latter, however, was not occupied by buildings (except a pot kiln and some workshops) but was levelled upwards with debris as a place of refuge for de pendants and their cattle. The same principal entrance, heavily
fortified, in the middle of the east side, served both this "lower citadel" and the "upper" section south of it, which was further protected by an inner gate with bolted doors, as at Mycenae, within which a covered porch (propylaea) panelled with wood above a stone plinth, gave access to a level outer court occupying the whole of the south end, and sustained by very thick sub structures. These contain, on their east and south frontages, the famous "galleries" which served as store rooms in peace, and as casemates in war. As the "later palace" within these fortifications was not itself designed for defence, its construction was slighter, and it has perished above plinth level. Its plan, however, which has attracted the attention of commentators on Homer, since Schliemann's time, is completely traceable. The outer court gives access, through a second porch, to an inner one, about 53 ft. by 7o ft., containing a domestic altar, furnished to east and west by colonnades, and giving access northward through a deep portico with two columns to a vestibule (with three doors outward and one inward) and so to a great hall to which the Homeric name megaron is commonly applied. This hall, about 4o ft. by 3o ft., has a central hearth, between four column bases, which supported a roof with some kind of louvre or clerestory to let out the smoke. On the cement floor, which is ornamented with painted panels of octopus and dolphins, a space is marked out between the hearth and the east wall, as the place of honour ; but there is neither dais nor any other doorway but that of the vestibule. From the latter a small door leads west to a bathroom, of which the floor is a single limestone slab draining to the main sewer, as at Cnossus (q.v.); in this room were found the remains of a clay bath tub.
This "later palace" also perished by violence, and parts of its mud-brick walls were so calcined that at first sceptical scholars acclaimed them as Byzantine, and there was, in fact, a small Byzantine church (now removed), with a graveyard near the south end of the site. As it evidently lay long desolate, little re mains of its decorative splendour except fragments of fresco, and of an alabaster frieze inlaid with blue enamel like the OptyKen Kvavoto of Od. vii. 87. The pottery is of degenerate Late Myce naean style.
The frescoes of the "earlier palace," with rich spiral and floral designs, resemble those of contemporary Cnossus (L.M., i. ii.) ; those of the "later" included a majestic procession of women bearing offerings, an elaborate hunting scene, in which a boar is attacked by hounds and men, and other animals are represented; an assault on a palace ; a chariot procession ; and bull-baiting gym nastic of the Cnossian kind. A small painted plaque shows the worship of an armed goddess ; and a fragment with ass-headed per sonages may be a masquerade.
To the centuries after the destruction of the palace belong a series of graves with pottery of "geometrical" style, safety pins, and other objects of the Early Iron age. In the 7th century a tem ple was dedicated to Hera on the site of the Mycenaean megaron, and furnished with rude terracotta offerings.