TIRYNS, an ancient city of Argolis', in the Peloponnesus, one of the very oldest cities of Greece, situated a short distance s.e. of Argos, near the head of the Argolic gulf. According to the common tradition it was founded by Prcetus, a mythic king of Argo lis; and its massive walls, like other rude massive structures in Greece of unknown antiquity, were reputed to be the work of the Cyclopes. Prcetus is said to have been succeeded by Perseus; and in this place Hercules was believed to have passed his youth. At the time of the Trojan war Tiryns appears to have been subject to the kings of Argos. Some time subsequently to the battle of Plata (to which the Tirynthians sent troops), probably about the year 468 B.c., the city was taken by the Argives, and entirely de stroyed; and after this period Tiryns remained uninhabited, the walls of the citadel only being left standing, the wonder and admiration of later ages. Tiryns affords one of the most interesting specimens of what is called Cyclopean architecture, the ruins of this place, and those of the neighboring city of Mycenie, being the grandest of all in Greece. The acropolis, or citadel, of Tiryns, was built on the summit of a low, flat, rocky hill, rising abruptly out of the dead level of the plain of Argos, and appears to have con sisted of an upper and a lower inclosure of nearly equal size, with an intermediate plat form. There were two main entrances, on the e. and on the s. sides, with a postern on
the west. The entire circuit of the walls still remains more or less preserved; they are upward of 20 ft. in thickness, and are formed of unliewn stones of enormous size, rudely piled in tiers one above the other, without the use of mortar or cement, the interstices being filled up with smaller stones, so as to make the whole mass solid and compact. There are several covered galleries of singular construction in the body of the wall, on the e. and the s. sides, the roof being formed by sloping the courses of masonry on each side of the passage at an angle to each other. One of them has six recesses, or niches, on the outer side of the walls, intended probably to facilitate defense. Alto gether, " this colossal fortress is the greatest curiosity of the kind in existence."