Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/279

 256 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. which pervade them, already excited attention and wonder in the time of Homer ; whilst they were shown and talked about in later days "as the work of the Cyclopes."' Tiryns, like Mycenae, became desert from the fifth centur)' B.C., when its inhabitants were driven out and transported to Argos. The Argives, whose neutrality in the Persian war amounted to treason,* could not forgive the Tirynthians for having embraced the popular cause, and above all for having opened their gates to revolted slaves, who had made good their escape from Argos ; and who, secured behind the strong ramparts of Tiryns, harried the land of their former masters.'' The e,- pulsion of both Tirynthians and Mycenlans from their respective ' Iliad: oi 3"Apyoc r" t[y<}i, TipvrBd ti Tf,)^ioiaa<iv ; APOLLODOBUS, Biblioth.; StrabO; Pausanias. ^ The names of both Tirynthians and Mycenians can still be read on the triple bronze serpent wbich formed the base of the tripod at Delphi, now in Atmeidati Square — once the Hippodrome^at Constantinople. The best account which has appeared in print respecting this bronze piece is Das Phl-eiscfit Weihgesffienk in Dtlphi {lahrbueh des k. d. arc/taohgischen Ifistiiuts, 1886). ^ The above engraving is after a photograph. The road seen in the for^ound leads from Nauplia to Argos, and passes in front of Tir)ns.
 * Herodotus,