TI'RYNS (Lat.. from Gk. Ttpvvs). An an cient city of Argolis, in the Peloponnesus, situ ated a short distance southeast of Argos, near the head of the Argolie gulf. According to 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 Cyelopes. Later, Perseus was said to have ruled here, and the place was the residence of Hercules while in servitude to Eurystheus. At the time of the Dorian con quest Argos seems to have secured the supremacy over the plain, though during the Persian Wars Tiryns appears independent and sent troops to Plattea. Some time subsequently, probably about the year n.e. 468, the city was taken by the Ar gives; after this period Tiryns remained unin habited, the walls of the citadel only being left standing, the wonder and admiration of later ages. The acropolis or citadel of Tiryns was built on the summit of a low, flat. rocky hill, about 980 by 330 feet in extent, which rises abruptly out of the dead level of the plain of Argos to a height of from 30 to 60 feet. It consists of three terraces of which the highest was occupied by a prehistoric palace. the middle by lessor buildings, while the lowest has been scarcely explored, but seems to have contained only small structures. This hill was surrounded by a massive wall of huge blocks of limestone of irregular shape, laid in a clay mortar. The original height is uncertain, though in some places it is still nearly 25 feet. The
thickness around the lower terrace is not quite uniform, but does not exceed 26 feet ; around the upper terrace it varies from lb to the prodigious figure of 57 feet. A part of this wall was occupied by galleries and chambers probably for the storing of provisions. The main entrance was on the east, and was reached by a ramp: on the west was a postern gate with a stairway in the rock. The palace on the summit was ex cavated by Sellliemann and Diirpfeld in 1544 85, and until the recent discoveries in Crete was the most complete example of the home of a Myeemran king. After passing the en trance gate. the way leads to a large propylaea, which opens into a great. open cou•t; from this a second gateway leads to another paved court (a6X17, ante), surrounded by colonnades. On one side low steps and a door lead to a vestibule, which again opens into the great hall (121-yasov, inegaron), with a circular hearth in the centre. Around this central structure is a eomplex of passages and lesser rooms, including a bath, and a smaller court with its own niegaron, possibly the women's apartments. The essential identity of this palace with that described in the Homeric poems lends peculiar interest to the discovery. Consult: Sehliemann. Tiryns (London, 1886) ; Schnehhardt, Schlicmann's Excavations, trans. by E. Sellers (London, 1891) ; Perrot and Chipiez, Histnire de fart dues Eantiquite, vol. vi. (Paris, 1894).