ter of Cadmus, who bore him two sons, Learchus and Lemnos, in which there were at that time no men, Melicerta. Ino, feeling the usual jealousy of a step- Hypsipyle the daughter of Thoas governing it as queen. mother, resolved to destroy the children of Nephele. For the Lemnian women had murdered their husbands, For this purpose she persuaded the women to parch being incensed at their neglect. (Vid. Hypsipyle.) the seed-corn unknown to their husbands. They did The Argonauts, being invited to land, all disembarked as she desired, and the lands consequently yielded no with the exception of Hercules, and gave themselves crop. Athamas sent to Delphi to consult the oracle, up to joy and festivity, until, on the remonstrances of in what way the threatening famine might be averted. the son of Alcmena, they tore themselves away from Ino persuaded the messenger to say that Apollo di- the Lemnian fair ones, and once more handled their rected Phrixus to be sacrificed to Jupiter. Com- oars. The offspring of this temporary union repeopled, pelled by his people, Athamas reluctantly placed his say the poets, the Island of Lemnos. After leaving son before the altar; but Nephele snatched away both Lemnos they came to Samothrace, and thence purher son and her daughter, and gave them a gold-fleeced sued their voyage through the Hellespont into the Proram she had obtained from Mercury, which carried pontis, where they came to an island with a lofty hill them through the air over sea and land. They pro- in it named the Bears' Hill, inhabited by giants with ceeded safely till they came to the sea between Siga-six arms. The adjacent country was possessed by the um and the Chersonese, into which Helle fell, and it Dolionians, whose king was named Cyzicus. Having was named from her Hellespontus (Helle's Sea). been hospitably entertained by this prince, and having Phrixus went on to Colchis to etes, the son of He- slain the giants who opposed their departure, they set lios, who received him kindly, and gave him in mar-sail, but were driven back by adverse winds. It was riage his daughter Chalciope. He there sacrificed his in the night that they returned, and the Dolionians, taram to Jupiter Phyxius, and gave the golden fleece king them to be their enemies the Pelasgians, attackto Eetes, who nailed it to an oak in the grove of Mars. ed them; and several of the Dolionians, and among It is thus that we find this legend related by Apollodo- them Cyzicus, lost their lives. With daylight discernrus (1, 9, 1). There are, however, many variations in ing their error, the Argonauts shore their hair, and, the tale. Thus it is said that Ino was Athamas's first shedding many tears, buried Cyzicus with solemn magwife, and that he put her away by the direction of nificence. They then sailed to Mysia, where they left Juno, and married Nephele, who left him after she behind them Hercules and Polyphemus; for Hylas, had borne two children, on finding that he still retained a youth beloved by the former, having gone for water, an attachment for Ino. When the response of the was seized and kept by the nymphs of the spring oracle came to Athamas, he sent for Phrixus out of the into which he dipped his urn. Polyphemus, hearing country, desiring him to come, and to bring the finest him call, went with his drawn sword to aid him, supsheep in the flock for a sacrifice. The ram then spoke posing him to have fallen into the hands of robbers. with a human voice to Phrixus, warning him of his Meeting Hercules, he told him what had happened, danger, and offering to carry him and his sister to a and both proceeded in quest of the youth. Meantime place of safety. The ram, it was added, died at Col- the Argo put to sea, and left them behind. Polyphechis. (Philostephanus, ap. Schol. ad. ll., 7, 86.- mus settled in Mysia, and built the city of Kios: HerCompare, for another account, Hygin., Poet. Astron., cules returned to Argos. (Vid. remarks under the ar2, 20.) Other statements again are given by the tragic ticle Hylas.) The Argo next touched on the coast of poets, it being well known that they allowed them- Bebrycia, otherwise called Bithynia, where Pollux acselves great liberties in the treatment of the ancient cepted the challenge of Amycus, king of the country, myths. (Compare Hygin., fab., 4.-Nonnus, 9, 247, in the combat of the cestus, and slew him. They were seqq.) Some time after this event, when Jason, the son driven from Bebrycia, by a storm, to Salmydessa, on of Eson, demanded of his uncle Pelias the crown which the coast of Thrace, where they delivered Phineus, he usurped (vid. Pelias, Jason, son), Pelias said that king of the place, from the persecution of the harpies. he would restore it to him, provided he brought him Phineus directed them how to pursue their course the golden fleece from Colchis. Jason undertook the through the Cyanean rocks, or the Symplegades (vid. expedition, and when the Argo was ready (vid. Argo), Cyanea), and they safely entered the Euxine Sea. consulted the oracle, which directed him to invite the They visited the country of the Mariandynians, where greatest heroes of the day to share in the dangers and Lycus reigned. Here died Idmon, the seer, wounded glories of the voyage. The call was immediately re- by the tusks of a wild boar. Tiphys also dying here, sponded to, and numerous sons of gods hastened to Ancæus undertook the steerage of the vessel. They embark with him. From the Peloponnesus came Her- now kept along the southern coast of the Euxine till cules, Castor and Pollux, sons of Jupiter; Peleus and they came to the Island of Aretias, which was hauntTelamon, grandsons of that god, also came with The-ed by birds that shot feathers sharp as arrows from seus; Erginos and Ancæus, sons of Neptune, Augeas, son of Helius, Zetes and Calaïs, sons of Boreas. There were likewise Lynceus and Idas, and Meleagrus, Laertes, Periclymenus, Nauplius, Iphiclus, Iphitus, Admetus, Acastus, Butes, Polyphemus, Atalanta, and many others. Idmon, the seer, the son of Apollo, came from Argos; Mopsus, also a prophet, from Thessaly, and Orpheus, the son of the muse Calliope. The steersman was Tiphys, son of Agnius, from Siphæ in Boeotia. The entire number was fifty. (Apollod., 1, 9, 16.-Heyne, ad loc.-Burmann, Præf. ad Val. Flacc., 11, vol. 1, p. clxxiii.) When the heroes were all assembled, Mopsus took auguries, and the omens being favourable, they embarked. The joyful heroes grasped each his oar at the word of the soothsayer; and, while Orpheus struck his lyre in concert with his voice, their oars kept time to the harmony. At the close of the day they had reached the mouth of the bay of Pagasa. Here they remained for two days, and then rowed along the coast of Magnesia; and, passing the peninsula of Pallene, at length reached the Isle of

their wings. These they drove off by clattering on their shields. While they remained in this isle, the sons of Phrixus, who were on their way to Greece, having been sent by Eetes to claim their father's kingdom, were cast on the shores of Aretias by a storm. These became the guides of the Argonauts to Colchis, and conducted them to a the capital. Jason explained the causes of his voyage to Aetes; but the conditions on which he was to recover the golden fleece were so hard, that the Argonauts must have perished in the attempt had not Medea, the king's daughter, fallen in love with their leader. She had a conference with Jason, and, after mutual oaths of fidelity, Medea pledged herself to deliver the Argonauts from her father's hard conditions, if Jason married her, and carried her with him to Greece. He was to tame two bulls, the gifts of Vulcan to Æëtes, which had brazen feet, and breathed flame from their throats. When he had yoked these, he was to plough with them a piece of ground, and sow the serpent's teeth which Letes possessed; for Minerva had given him one half of those

which Cadmus sowed at Thebes. All this was to be where they were; but Apollo, taking his stand on the performed in one day. Medea, who was an enchant-rocks called the Melantian Rocks, shot an arrow into ress, gave him a salve to rub his body, shield, and the sea: the arrow flashed a vivid light, and they bespear. The virtue of this salve would last an entire held an island, on which they landed. As this isle had day, and protect alike against fire and steel. She far-appeared (uveoývaro) so unexpectedly, they named it ther told him that, when he had sown the teeth, a crop Anaphe. Here they erected an altar to Apollo Eglētes of armed men would spring up, and prepare to attack (the Lightener), and offered sacrifices. They thence him. Among these she desired him to fling stones, proceeded to Egina, where they watered; and they and, while they were fighting with one another about finally arrived at Ïolcos after an absence of four months. them, each imagining that the other had thrown these, -This celebrated voyage formed a theme for several to fall on and slay them. The hero followed the ad- ancient poets, and is noticed more or less by many other vice of the princess he entered the sacred grove of writers. Jason and the Argo are mentioned by HoMars, yoked the bulls, ploughed the land, and slaugh- mer (Il., 7, 469.—Ib., 21, 40.—Od., 12, 69). Hesiod tered the armed crop which it produced. But êtes briefly narrates the principal events (Theog., 992, refused to give the fleece, and meditated burning the seqq.); it is the subject of one of Pindar's finest odes Argo and slaying her crew. Medea, anticipating him, (Pyth., 4), and of the epic poem of Apollonius, named led Jason by night to the golden fleece: with her drugs from it. It is narrated in detail by Apollodorus and she cast to sleep the serpent which guarded it; and Diodorus Siculus. Ovid also relates a large part of it, then, taking her little brother Absyrtus out of his bed, and there is an unfinished poem on the subject by the she embarked with him in the Argo, and the vessel set Latin poet Valerius Flaccus, which displays genius sail while it was yet night. (Pherecydes, ap. Schol. and originality. We have also the Argonautics of the ad Apoll. Rh, 4, 223.--Another account is given un- pseudo-Orpheus, a poem to which the ablest critics asder the article Absyrtus.) etes, on discovering the sign a date posterior to the commencement of the Christreachery and flight of his daughter, got on shipboard tian era. To these are to be added the detached noand pursued the fugitives. Medea, seeing him gain tices in other writers and in the various scholia. Of on them, cut her brother to pieces, and scattered his the dramas composed on this subject, not a single one limbs on the stream; an event that was afterward trans- has been preserved, except the Medea of Euripides. ferred to the north side of the Euxine, where the town (Keightley's Mythology, 2d ed., p. 468, seqq.)—The of Tomi (róuot, cullings) was said to have derived its Argonautic expedition, observes Thirlwall, when viewname from it. (Apollod., 1, 9, 24.—Ovid, Trist., 3, ed in the light in which it has usually been considered, 9.) While Eetes was engaged in collecting the limbs is an event which a critical historian, if he feels himof his son, the Argo escaped. He then despatched a self compelled to believe it, may think it his duty to number of his subjects in pursuit of the Argo, threat-notice, but which he is glad to pass rapidly over, as a ening, if they did not bring back his daughter, to inflict | perplexing and unprofitable riddle. For even when the on them the punishment designed for her. At length ancient legend has been pared down into an historical the Argo entered the western sea, and came to the form, and its marvellous and poetical features have been Island of Circe. The belief for a long time prevailed, all effaced, so that nothing is left but what may appear that there was a communication between the Palus to belong to its pith and substance, it becomes, indeed, Mæotis and the Oceanus or earth-encompassing stream. dry and meager enough, but not much more intelligible This communication the oid poets made to be a narrow than before. It still relates an adventure, incomprehenpassage or strait, but later writers the river Tanais. sible in its design, astonishing in its execution, connectThe writer of the Orphic Argonautics makes the Ar-ed with no conceivable cause, and with no sensible gonauts pass up the Phasis into the Palus Mæotis, effect. Though the account which we have given is thence into the main Oceanus, and thence directing evidently an artificial statement, framed to reconcile their course to the west, to come to the British Isles the main incidents of a wonderful story with nature and the Atlantic, and to reach at last the Columns of and probability, it still contains many points which Hercules. Circe performed the usual rites of purifi- can scarcely be explained or believed. It carries us cation to remove the blood-guilt of the death of Ab- back to a period when navigation was in its infancy syrtus, and the heroes then departed. Ere long they among the Greeks; yet their first essay at maritime came to the Isle of the Sirens, charmed by whose en- discovery is supposed at once to have reached the exchanting strains they were about to land on that fatal treme limit, which was long after attained by the adshore, when Orpheus struck his lyre, and with its tones venturers who gradually explored the same formidable overpowered their voices. Wind and wave urged on sea, and gained a footing on its coasts. The success the Argo, and all escaped but Butes, who flung him- of the undertaking, however, is not so surprising as self into the sea to swim to the Flowery Isle. Venus, the project itself; for this implies a previous knowlto save him, took him and set him to dwell at Lilybæ- edge of the country to be explored which it is very um. The Argonauts now passed Scylla and Charyb- difficult to account for. But the end proposed is still dis, and also the Wandering Rocks; over these they more mysterious; and, indeed, can only be explained beheld flame and smoke ascending, but Thetis and with the aid of a conjecture. Such an explanation her sister Nereids guided them through by the com- was attempted by some of the later writers among the mand of Juno. Passing Thrinakia, the Isle of the ancients, who perceived that the whole story turned on Sun, they came to the island of the Phracians. Some the golden fleece, the supposed motive of the voyage, of the Colchians who were in pursuit of the Argonauts, and that this feature had not a sufficiently historical arriving here, found the Argo, and requested Alcinous appearance. But the mountain torrents of Colchis to give Medea up to them. He assented, provided were said to sweep down particles of gold, which the she had not been actually married to Jason. His wife natives used to detain by fleeces dipped in the streams. Arete, hearing this, lost no time in joining the lovers This report suggested a mode of translating the fable in wedlock; and the Colchians, then fearing to return, into historical language. It was conjectured that the settled in the island Sailing thence, the Argo was Argonauts had been attracted by the metallic treasures assailed by a tremendous storm, which drove it to the of the country, and that the golden fleece was a poetSyrtes, on the coast of Libya. After being detained ical description of the process which they had observthere for some time, they proceeded on their home-ed, or perhaps had practised an interpretation cerward voyage, and came to Crete, where the brazen man, Talus, prohibited their landing; but Medea, by her art, deprived him of life. On leaving Crete, the night came on so black and dark that they knew not

tainly more ingenious, or, at least, less absurd than those by which Diodorus transforms the fire-breathing bulls which Jason was said to have yoked, at the bidding of Eetes, into a band of Taurians who guarded

naturally attracted towards the northeast, first by the islands that lay before the Hellespont, and then by the shores of the Propontis and its two straits. Their successive colonies, or spots signalized either by hostilities or peaceful transactions, would become the landing-places of the Argonauts.-If, however, it should be asked, in what light the hero and heroine of the legend are to be viewed on this hypothesis, it must be answered that both are most probably purely ideal personages, connected with the religion of the people to whose poetry they belong. Jason was per

the fleece, and the sleepless dragon which watched | course of their earliest naval expeditions. They were over it, into their commander Draco: but yet not more satisfactory; for it explains a casual, immaterial circumstance, while it leaves the essential point in the legend wholly untouched. The epithet golden, to which it relates, is merely poetical and ornamental, and signified nothing more, as to the nature of the fleece, than the epithets white or purple, which were also applied to it by early poets. (Schol. ad Apoll. Rh., 4, 177.) According to the original and genuine tradition, the fleece was a sacred relic, and its importance arose out of its connexion with the tragical story of Phrixus, the main feature of which is the hu-haps no other than the Samothracian god or hero Jaman sacrifice which the gods had required from the sion, whose name was sometimes written in the same house of Athamas. This legend was not a mere po- manner, the favourite of Ceres, as his namesake was etic fiction, but was grounded on a peculiar form of of Juno, and the protector of mariners, as the Thesreligion, which prevailed in that part of Greece from salian hero was the chief of the Argonauts. Medea which the Argonauts are said to have set out on their seems to have been originally another form of Juno expedition, and which remained in vigour even down | herself, and to have descended, by a common transito the Persian wars. Herodotus informs us, that tion, from the rank of a goddess into that of a heroine, when Xerxes, on his march to Greece, had come to when an epithet had been mistaken for a distinct Alus, a town of the Thessalian Achaia, situate near name. The Corinthian tradition claimed her as bethe Gulf of Pagasa, in a tract sometimes called the longing properly to Corinth, one of the principal seats Athamantian plain, his guides described to him the of the Minyan race. The tragical scenes, which renrites belonging to the temple of the Laphystian Jupi- dered her story there so celebrated, were commemoter, an epithet equivalent to that under which Phrixus rated by religious rites, which continued to be observis said to have sacrificed the ram to the same deity, ed until the city was destroyed by the Romans. Acas the god who had favoured his escape. (Zevs cording to the local legend, she had not murdered her Þúfios.-Muller, Orchomenus, p. 164.) The eldest children; they had been killed by the Corinthians; among the descendants of Phrixus was forbidden to and the public guilt was expiated by annual sacrifices enter the council-house at Alus, though their ancestor offered to Juno, in whose temple fourteen boys, chosen Athamas was the founder of the city. If the head of every twelvemonth from noble families, were appointthe family was detected on the forbidden ground, he ed to spend a year in all the ceremonies of solemn was led in solemn procession, covered with garlands, mourning. The historical side of the legend seems to like an ordinary victim, and sacrificed. Many of the exhibit an opening intercourse between the opposite devoted race were said to have quitted their country to shores of the gean. If, however, it was begun by avoid this danger, and to have fallen into the snare the northern Greeks, it was probably not long conwhen they returned after a long absence. The origin fined to them, but was early shared by those of Peloponassigned to this rite was, that, after the escape of nesus. It would be inconsistent with the piratical Phrixus, the Achæans had been on the point of sac- habits of the early navigators to suppose, that this inrificing Athamas himself to appease the anger of the tercourse was always of a friendly nature; and it may gods; but that he was rescued by the timely interfe- therefore not have been without a real ground that rence of Cytissorus, son of Phrixus, who had returned the Argonautic expedition was sometimes represented 'from the Colchian Ea, the land of his father's exile: as the occasion of the first conflict between the Greeks hence the curse, unfulfilled, was transmitted for ever and the Trojans. (Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. to the posterity of Phrixus. This story, strange as 1, p. 142, segg.-Müller, Orchomenus, p. 258, seqq. it may sound, not only rests on unquestionable author--Id. ibid., p. 302, 357.-For other, but far less satity, but might be confirmed by parallel instances of Greek superstition; and it scarcely leaves room to doubt, that it was from this religious belief of the people, among whom the Argonautic legend sprang up, that it derived its peculiar character; and that the ex-chichte der Hellenen, vol. 1, p. 414, seqq.) Apollonius pedition, so far as it was the adventure of the golden fleece, was equally unconnected with piracy, commerce, and discovery. It closely resembled one of the romantic enterprises celebrated in the poetry of the middle ages, the object of which was imaginary, and the direction uncertain. And so Pindar represents it as undertaken for the purpose of bringing back, with the golden fleece, the soul of Phrixus, which could not rest in the foreign land to which it had been banished. But the tradition must also have had an historical foundation in some real voyages and adventures, without which it would scarcely have arisen at all, or become so generally credited. The voyage of the Argonauts must no doubt be regarded, like the expedition of the Tyrian Hercules, as representing a succession of enterprises, which may have been the employment of several generations. And this is perfectly consistent with the manner in which the adventurers are most properly described. They are Minyans, a branch of the Greek nation whose attention was very early drawn by their situation, not perhaps without some influence from the example and intercourse of the Phoenicians, to maritime pursuits. The form which the legend assumed was probably determined by the

isfactory theories on the subject, consult Bryant's Mythology, vol. 3, p. 362, seqq.-Ritter, Vorhalle, p. 420, seqq.-Knight, Inquiry, &c., 220, Class. Journ., No. 53, p. 75.-Plass, Vor-,und Urges

Rhodius gives another account, equally improbable. He says that they sailed from the Euxine up one of the mouths of the Danube, and that Absyrtus pursued them by entering another mouth of the river. After they had continued their voyage for some leagues, the waters decreased, and they were obliged to carry the ship Argo across the country to the Adriatic, upward of 150 miles. Here they met with Absyrtus, who had pursued the same measure, and conveyed his ship in like manner over the land. Absyrtus was immediately put to death; and soon after, the beam of Dodona (vid. Argo) gave an oracle, that Jason should never return home if he was not previously purified of the murder. Upon this they sailed to the island of Ea, where Circe, who was the sister of Eêtes, expiated him without knowing who he was. There is a third tradition, which maintains, that they returned to Colchis a second time, and visited many places of Asia.

ARGOS (sing. neut. et ARGI, masc. plur.), I. the capital of Argolis, situate on the river Inachus, and generally regarded as the most ancient city of Greece. (Diod. Sic., 1, 17.) Its early prosperity and commercial connexion with the Phoenicians are

attested by Herodotus (1, 1). The walls of the city in their own hands, till the sons of their former maswere constructed of massive blocks of stone, a mode ters, arriving at the age of manhood, expelled them of building which was generally attributed to the from the city. It was partly owing to these internal Cyclopes (Euripides, Troad., 1087. Id., Herc. commotions, and partly also to the jealousy which subFur., 15), but which evidently shows the Pelasgic sisted between the Argives and the Lacedæmonians, origin of the place. It was also protected by two that the former took no part in the Persian war. Not citadels, situated on towering rocks, and surrounded long after the termination of this war, the Argives, acby fortifications equally strong. The principal one tuated by motives of envy against the Mycenaeans, was named Larissa. (Strabo, 370.-Livy, 34, 25.) who had distinguished themselves at Thermopyla, In the time of Strabo, Argos was inferior only to made war upon that people, and, after taking MyceSparta in extent and population, and from the de- næ, finally destroyed that city, B.C. 468. (Diod. scription of Pausanias, it is evident that, when he vis- Sic., 11, 65.—Pausan., 2, 16.) At a subsequent peited this celebrated town, it was adorned with many riod, we find the Argives uniting with the Athenians, sumptuous buildings and noble works of art. Argos Corinthians, and other powers against the Spartans. produced some of the first sculptors of Greece, among The judicious measures, however, pursued by King whom were Ageladas, the master of Phidias, and Agis and the Spartan allies, frustrated the operations Polycletus, who surpassed all the artists of antiquity of their Argive foes, and had the Lacedæmonian king in correctness of design. Music also was highly cul- pressed his advantage, the latter must have been totivated in this city; and, as early as the reign of Da- tally routed. The following year, the hostile armies rius, the Argives, according to Herodotus, were ac- met in the plains of Mantinea, where a decisive battle counted the first musicians of the age. (Herodot., 3, was fought, whic ended in the total defeat of the Ar131.) Argos, if we follow the common tradition, was gives and their allies. This event dissolved the confounded by Inachus, B.C. 1856. On the arrival of federacy against the Lacedæmonians; and the Argives Danaus, who is said to have come from Egypt, the in- not only made peace with that people, but were even habitants changed their ancient appellation of Pelasgi persuaded by them to convert their hitherto democratto that of Danai. (Eurip., Archel., frag. 2.-Com- ical constitution into an aristocracy. (Thucyd., 5, pare Strabo, 371.) At that time the whole of what 65, seqq.) Not long after, however, a counter-revowas afterward called Argolis acknowledged the au- lution took place, when the people revolted, and, after thority of one sovereign; but, after the lapse of two overpowering the oligarchical party, entered once generations, a division took place, by which Argos and more into an alliance with Athens. Having obtained its territory were allotted to Acrisius, the lineal de- the assistance of that power, they now erected long scendant of Danaus, while Tiryns and the maritime walls, extending from the city to the sea, which ensured country became the inheritance of his brother Praetus. to them a constant communication with their allies by A third kingdom was subsequently established by Per- means of that element. (Thucyd., 5, 82.) The Arseus, son of the former, who founded Mycena; but gives, induced by gratitude for the interest which Althese were all finally reunited in the person of At- cibiades had taken in their affairs, joined the Sicilian reus, son of Pelops; who, having been left regent by expedition (Thucyd., 6, 29); and, even after the dishis nephew Eurystheus, during his expedition against astrous termination of that enterprise, they continued the Heraclidæ, naturally assumed the sovereign power to support the Athenian cause, till the defeat they susafter his death. Atreus thus acquired, in right of the tained near Miletus obliged them to recall their forces. houses of Pelops and Perseus, which he represented, Argos, adhering to the principle of opposing the agpossession of nearly the whole of Peloponnesus, which grandizement of Sparta, joined the league which was ample territory he transmitted to his son Agamemnon, afterward set on foot against that power by the influwho is called by Homer sovereign of all Argos and the ence of Persia; and furnished troops for the battles of islands. (Il., 2, 107.-Compare Thucyd., 1, 9.– Nemea, Coronea, and the other engagements which Strabo, 372.) After the death of Agamemnon the took place during what is usually termed the Corinthicrown descended to Orestes, and subsequently to his an war, which was concluded by the peace of Antalson Tisamenes, who was forced to evacuate the throne cidas. On the renewal of hostilities between the by the invasion of the Dorians and Heraclidæ eighty Boeotians and Lacedæmonians, the Argives again years after the siege of Troy. (Pausan., 2, 18.) Te- joined the former, and fought at the battle of Mantimenus, the lineal descendant of Hercules, now became nea. (Xen., Hist. Gr., 7, 5.) After this period, no the founder of a new dynasty; but the Argives, hav- event of interest or importance occurs in the history of ing acquired a taste for liberty, curtailed so much the Argos until the unsuccessful attempt made to surprise power of their sovereigns as to leave them but the and capture that city by Pyrrhus. This prince, being name and semblance of kings: at length, having de- then at war with Antigonus Gonatas, whom he had posed Meltas, the last of the Temenic dynasty, they driven from Macedonia, having failed in the enterprise changed the constitution into a republican govern- he meditated against Sparta, marched rapidly on ment. (Pausan., 2, 19) As regards the inward or- Argos, which he reached during the night, and had ganization of this government, we only know, that in already penetrated into the town, when succours arArgos, a senate, a college of eighty men, and magis-rived from Antigonus. Pyrrhus being slain, his troops trates, stood at the head. In the time of the Achaan were all destroyed or made prisoners. (Piut., Vit. league the first officer of the state appears to have Pyrrh.-Pausanias, 1, 13.-Strabo, 377.) Argos, been elected by the people. (Liv., 32, 25.) The like other Peloponnesian states, became afterward Argives, after the establishment of their republican subject to the domination of a tyrant; but when, by form of government, were engaged in frequent hostil- the talents and energy of Aratus, Corinth and Sicyon ities with the Spartans, each people claiming the pos- had been emancipated, Aristomachus, who then reignsession of the small district of Cynuria. In the reigned in Argos, voluntarily abdicated his authorof Cleomenes, king of Sparta, the Argives met with a total defeat, and Argos itself was only saved from the enemy by the daring courage of a female, Telesilla, who incited the rest of the population, and even those of her own sex, to take up arms in defence of their city. (Pausan., 2, 20.) Subsequently, however, the slaves of Argos, taking advantage of the enfeebled state of the country, openly rebelled, and, overturning the existing government, retained the sovereign power

ity, and persuaded the Argives to join the Achæan league. (Polyb., 2, 44.) During the momentary success obtained by Cleomenes, Argos fell into the hands of that prince, but it was presently recovered by the Achæans, and continued to form part of their confederacy till its final dissolution by the Romans. (Polyb., 2, 52, seqq.-Strabo, l. c.) The population of Argolis was divided into three classes, consisting of citizens, inhabitants of the country, or eplolkot, and

body (Apollod., l. c.). Ovid, however, gives him the poetic number of a hundred, of which only two were asleep at a time. (Met., 1, 625.) The strength of Argus was prodigious and Arcadia being at the time

mal, and afterward wore its hide. He also killed a satyr, who carried off the cattle of the Arcadians; and watching an opportunity, when he found the Echidna (the daughter of Tartarus and Earth) asleep, he deprived her of life. When lo had been changed into a cow, Juno gave the charge of watching her to Argus. He thereupon bound her to an olive-tree in the grove of Mycenae, and kept guard over her. Jupiter, pitying her condition, sent Mercury to steal her away; but a vulture always gave Argus warning of his projects, and the god found it impossible to succeed. Nothing then remaining but open force, he killed Argus with a stone, and hence obtained the name of Argus-slayer, or Argicide ('Apyεipóvτns). Thus far Apollodorus. Ovid, however, varies the fable in several particulars, and, among other things, makes Mercury to have slain ing to the same poet also, Juno transferred the eyes of Argus, after death, to the tail of her favourite bird the peacock.-An explanation of the whole legend will be given under the article Io. (Apollod. I. c.—Keightley's Mythology, p. 406, 2d ed.)-II. A son of Jupiter and Niobe daughter of Phoroneus. According to one account he succeeded Phoroneus on the Argive throne, and gave the name of Argos to the whole Peloponnesus. Another statement, however, makes him to have been the successor of Apis. (Apollod., 2, 1, 1.-Heyne, ad loc.-Schol. ad Eurip., Orest., 1247.)— III. The builder of the Argo. His parentage is differently given by different writers, and he is often confounded with Argus the son of Phrixus (IV.). Both he and this latter were in the number of the Argonauts. (Consult the remarks of Burmann in the list of the Argonauts appended to his edition of Valerius Flaccus, s. v. Argus.)-IV. Son of Phrixus and Chalciope daughter of etes. He is often confounded with the preceding, for example by Apollodorus (1, 9, 16) and Pherecydes (ap. Schol. ad Apoll. Rh., 1, 4). He and his brothers were found by the Argonauts on the island of Aretias, in the Euxine, having been cast on it by a storm when on their way to Greece to claim their father's kingdom; and he guided the Argonauts to Colchis. (Schol. ad Apoll. Rh., 2, 309, 384.) Valerius Flaccus, on the other hand, makes the Argonauts to have found Argus in Colchis, at the palace of etes (5, 461), and with this the account of the pseudo-Orpheus substantially agrees (v. 858, seqq.). Compare the remarks of Burmann, as cited in the previous paragraph (III.).—V. A guest of Evander's, who conspired against that monarch, and was slain in consequence by the followers of the latter without his knowledge. The spot where he was in terred was called, according to some, Argiletum. (Vid. Argiletum.-Virg., En., 8, 345.—Serv., ad loc.)— VI. A hound of Ulysses', that recognised its master after an absence on the part of the latter of nearly twenty years. (Od., 17, 301.)

slaves or vassals, called yvuvnres. (Aristot., Rep., 5, 2, 8.-Pollux, 3, 83.) The number of the first class might amount to 16,000, being nearly equal to that of the Athenian citizens. (Lys., ap. Dion. Hal., p. 531.) The free part of the population may therefore be esti-infested with a wild bull, he attacked and slew the animated at 65,000 souls, to which, if we add the ɛpiotKot and slaves, we shall have an aggregate of nearly 110,000 persons. (Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, 2d ed., vol. 1, p. 426.-Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 9, p. 226, seqq.)—II. Pelasgicum, a city of Thessaly, of Pelasgic origin, as its name indicates. It is generally supposed to have been identical with Larissa on the Peneus. Strabo (440) informs us that there was once a city named Argos close to Larissa. (Compare Heyne, ad Il., 6, 457.)-III. Oresticum, a city of Macedonia, in the district Orestis and territory of the Oreste. Its foundation was ascribed by tradition to Orestes, son of Agamemnon. (Strabo, 326.-Compare Theag. Maced., ap. Steph. Byz., s. v. 'Opéoral, et 'Apyos.)-IV. A city of Acarnania, situate at the southeastern extremity of the Ambracian Gulf, in the territory of the Amphilochi. It was founded, as Thu-Argus with a harpé, or short curved sword. Accordcydides reports (2, 68), by Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus, on his return from Troy, who named it after his native city, the more celebrated Argos of Peloponnesus. Ephorus, however, who is cited by Strabo (326), gave a somewhat different account, affirming that Argos in Acarnania owed its origin to Alcmaon, by whom it was named Amphilochium, after his brother Amphilochus. (Compare Apollod., 3, 7.-Dicaarch., Stat. Græc., v. 46.) Argos was originally by far the largest and most powerful town of the country; but its citizens, having experienced many calamities, admitted the Ambraciots, their neighbours, into their society, from whom they acquired the knowledge of the Grecian language, as it was spoken at that time. | The Ambraciots, however, at length gaining the ascendency, proceeded to expel the original inhabitants, who, too weak to avenge their wrongs, placed themselves under the protection of the Acarnanians. These, with the aid of the Athenians, commanded by Phormio, recovered Argos by force, and reduced to slavery all the Ambraciots who fell into their hands. The Ambraciots made several attempts to retrieve their loss, but without effect. Many years subsequent to this we find Argos, together with Ambracia, in the possession of the Etolians; and, on the surrender of the latter town to the Romans, we are informed by Livy, that the consul M. Fulvius removed his army to Argos, where, being met by the Etolian deputies, a treaty was concluded, subject to the approbation of the senate. (Liv., 38, 9.-Polyb., fragm., 22, 13.) Argos, at a later period, contributed to the formation of the colony of Nicopolis, and became itself deserted. The ruins of the city have been visited by several travellers, but Dr. Holland's account is perhaps the most circumstantial. He describes them as situated at the southeastern extremity of the Gulf of Arta, on one of the hills which form an insulated ridge running back in a southeast direction from the bay. The walls, forming the principal object in these ruins, skirt along nearly the whole extent of the ridge, including an oblong irregular area, about a mile in its greatest ARGYRASPIDES, a name given to the troops of Alexlength, but of much smaller breadth. The structure ander, from the silver plates added by him to their of these walls is Cyclopian; they are of great thick-shields when about to invade India. (Compare Quinness, and on the eastern side, where built with the most regularity, are still perfect to the height of more than twenty feet. (Holland's Travels, vol. 2, p. 224. -Cramer's Ancient Greece, vol. 2, p. 10, seqq.) ARGUS, I. a son of Arestor, according to one account (Asclep., ap. Apollod., 2, 1, 3), and hence called by Ovid Arestorides. (Met., 1, 624.) Others, however, make him a son of Inachus. (Pherecyd., ap. eund.) Acusilaus and Eschylus (Supp., 318.Prom. V., 698) call him Earth-born. He was named All-seeing (avónтns), as having eyes all over his

tus Curtius, 8, 5, 4, and Justin, 12, 7.) There is some doubt whether the name in question was confined to a particular corps of Alexander's invading army or to the whole. The latter opinion appears to be the more correct one. (Consult on this point the remarks of Schmieder, ad Curt., 4, 13, 27, and 8, 5, 4.)

ARGYRA, a town of Achaia, a little to the southeast of Patræ. The river Selemnus flowed in its vicinity, and near it also was the fountain of Argyra. (Pausan, 7, 23.)-II. A sea-nymph, of whom Selemnus, a young shepherd, was enamoured. She eventually slighted