Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and TirynsSchliemann, Heinrich
History
Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and Tiryns
Schliemann, Heinrich
Mycenae (Extinct city); Tiryns (Extinct city)
The third stage in the history of the two epithets is when, after
Hera and Athena had lost their cow and owl faces, and received
the faces of women, and after the cow and the owl had become the
attributes of these deities, and had, as such, been placed at
their side, βοῶπις and γλαυκῶπις continued to be used
as epithets consecrated by the use of ages, and probably with the
meaning "large-eyed," and "owl-eyed." To this third stage belong
the Homeric rhapsodies.
[Illustration: PLATE II.
THE WEST SIDE OF THE ACROPOLIS OF MYCENÆ.
In the background is the principal summit of Mount Eubœa, 2500 feet high,
crowned with an open Chapel of the Prophet Elias.
To face page 23.]
FOOTNOTES:
[29] See Plan A. and Plate I. The etymology of the name Tiryns
(probably a Pelasgic word) is difficult to explain. It is very probable
that the city was originally called Licymnia, for Strabo (VIII. p. 373)
says that a citadel with that name is twelve stadia from Nauplia, and
this distance perfectly agrees with that of Tiryns from the latter city.
He does not distinctly say that he alludes to Tiryns; but this is very
probable, because Pindar says (_Olymp._ 7, v. 47):
καὶ γὰρ ᾽Αλκμήνας κασίγνητον νόθον
σκάπτῳ θένων,
σκληρᾶς ἐλαίας ἔκταν᾽ ἐν Τί-
ρυνθι Λικύμνιον, ἐλθίντ᾽ ἐκ θαλάμου
Μιδέας,
τῖς δέ ποτε χθονὸς οικιστὴρ χολωθείς.
'Because he (Tlepolemus) killed in wrath with a stick of the hard
olive-tree Alcmena's bastard brother Licymnius, who descended from
Midea's nuptial chamber and was the builder of the city.' Apollodorus
(II. 8, 2) confirms this, but says that he killed him accidentally:
Τληπόλεμος οὖν, κτείνας οὐχ ἑκὼν
Λικύμνιον τῇ βακτηρίᾳ γὰρ αὐτοῦ
θεραπεύοντα πλήσσοντος ὑπέδραμε,
'Tlepolemus involuntarily killed Licymnios, who approached him when he
was chastising his servant with a stick.'
Eustathius (_ad loc._) says that the first name of Tiryns was Haliis or
Haleis, fishermen having been the first settlers on the rock; this is
also confirmed by Stephanus Byzantinus (_s.v._ Τίρυνς). Pausanias
(II. 25, 8) says that the city received its name from the hero Tiryns,
a son of Argos.
[30] Paus. II. 25, 8. Τὸ δὴ τεῖχος, ὃ δὴ
μόνον τῶν ἐρειπίων λείπεται, κυκλώπων
μέν ἐστιν ἔργον, πεποίηται δὲ ἀργῶν
λίθων, μέγεθος ἔχων ἕκαστος λίθος ὡς
ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν μηδ᾽ ἂν ἀρχὴν κινηθῆναι
τὸν μικρότατον ὑπὸ ζεύγους ἡμιόνων·
λίθια δὲ ενήρμοσται πάλαι ὡς μάλιστα
αὐτῶν ἕκαστον ἁρμονίαν
τοῖς μεγάλοις λίθοις εἶναι.
[31] γᾶ κυκλωπία (Euripides, _Orestes_, 965).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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