The first river I passed, in coming from Argos, was the ancient Χαράδρος, now called _Rema_, an affluent of the Inachus, on the banks of which, as Thucydides[95] informs us, the Argives were in the habit of holding a military court on the return of their armies from abroad, before allowing them to enter the city. Soon afterwards I passed the very wide bed of the famous river Inachus, now called _Bonitza_, which traverses the plain of Argos in its entire length. The beds of both these rivers are dry except when heavy rain falls in the mountains; and this appears to have been the case also in the time of Pausanias, who says[96] that he found the sources of the Inachus on Mount Artemisium, but that the quantity of water was very insignificant and it only ran for a short distance. This seems to prove beyond any doubt that the Arcadian mountains were then already as bare of trees as they are now. [Sidenote: ROAD FROM ARGOS TO MYCENÆ.] But as the Inachus plays so important a part in the mythic legends of the Argolid, which make him the husband of Meleia and father of Phoroneus, the first king of Argos, and of the moon-goddess Iö (the later Hera), there can be no doubt that in prehistoric times the Inachus was a river of some consequence. This, however, seems to be only possible if we suppose the Arcadian mountains to have been at that time overgrown with forests. That the Inachus was once, and for ages, an abundant river, is proved also by the fact that the whole plain of Argos has been formed by the alluvia of its rivers, but principally by those of the Inachus. Further upon the road from Argos to Mycenæ I passed another smaller river-bed, which seems to be the Cephisus mentioned by Pausanias.[97] In speaking of the rivers of the plain of Argos, I must further mention the two streams Eleutherion and Asterion, between which was situated the celebrated Heræum on the lower slope of Mount Eubœa. Both are now dry and have no water except in heavy and long-continued rains, but they seem still in classical antiquity to have had an abundance of water all the year round, for the Eleutherion was the sacred water used in the religious ceremonies at the temple, whilst the water of the Asterion fed the asterion-plant (a kind of aster), sacred to Hera, from the leaves of which wreaths and festoons were made for the goddess. The very name also of Mount Eubœa seems to indicate that it was once a rich pasture ground, whilst now it is as completely barren of all vegetation as are the beds and banks of the two rivers.