Description of Greece

​Argos, the grandson of Phoroneus by his daughter, having become king after Phoroneus, named the country after himself. From Argos were born Peirasus and Phorbas, and from Phorbas, Triopas, and from Triopas, Iasus and Agenor. Now Io, the daughter of Iasus, reached Egypt, whether as Herodotus wrote or as the Greeks say. Crotopus, the son of Agenor, held the rule after Iasus, and from Crotopus was born Sthenelas; but Danaus, having sailed from Egypt against Gelanor, the son of Sthenelas, put an end to the kingship of the descendants of Agenor. What followed this is equally known to everyone: the daring deed of the daughters of Danaus against their cousins, and how, after Danaus died, Lynceus held the rule.

​The sons of Abas, the son of Lynceus, divided the kingdom, and Acrisius remained there in Argos, while Proetus held the Heraeum, Midea, Tiryns, and all the coastal parts of the Argive land; and signs of Proetus’ dwelling in Tiryns are left even to this day. A long time afterward, Acrisius, learning that Perseus was himself alive and performing great deeds, withdrew to Larissa on the Peneus. But Perseus—for he wished by all means to see his mother’s father and to welcome him with kind words and deeds—went to him at Larissa. And while Perseus, being in the prime of his youth and rejoicing in his invention of the discus, was displaying it to everyone, Acrisius, without noticing, by some fate fell under the path of the discus’ rush.

​Thus for Acrisius the prediction of the god met its fulfillment, nor did his devices against his daughter and grandson turn away what was fated for him. When Perseus returned to Argos—for he was ashamed because of the rumor of the killing—he persuaded Megapenthes, the son of Proetus, to exchange kingdoms with him, and having himself taken over the other’s land, he founded Mycenae. For there the cap (mykes) of his sword fell off for him, and he regarded this sign as suitable for the founding of a city. I have also heard that when he was thirsty, the idea occurred to him to pick up a mushroom (mykes) from the earth, and water having flowed from it, he drank and was pleased, and gave the name Mycenae to the place.

​Homer in the Odyssey made mention of a woman Mycene in this verse: “Tyro and Alcmene and fair-crowned Mycene.” The poems which the Greeks call the Great Eoeae say that she was the daughter of Inachus and the wife of Arestor; they say, therefore, that from her the city also received its name. But the story they attribute to Acusilaus, that Myceneus was the son of Sparton, and Sparton of Phoroneus, I would not accept, because not even the Lacedaemonians themselves do so. For the Lacedaemonians have an image of a woman Sparta at Amyclae, but they would wonder even to hear of Sparton as a son of Phoroneus.

​The Argives destroyed Mycenae out of jealousy. For while the Argives remained quiet during the invasion of the Mede, the Mycenaeans sent eighty men to Thermopylae, who shared in the deed with the Lacedaemonians; this ambition brought destruction upon them by provoking the Argives. Yet there still remain other parts of the wall and the gate, and lions stand upon it; they say that these too are the works of the Cyclopes, who made the wall in Tiryns for Proetus.

​Among the ruins of Mycenae is a spring called Perseia, and underground chambers of Atreus and his sons, where their treasuries of money were. There is the grave of Atreus, and there are also the graves of those whom Aegisthus slaughtered after entertaining them at a banquet when they returned from Ilium with Agamemnon. The Lacedaemonians who live around Amyclae dispute about the monument of Cassandra; but there is another grave of Agamemnon, and that of Eurymedon the charioteer, and the same one of Teledamus and Pelops—for they say Cassandra bore these as twins, ​and Aegisthus slaughtered them over their parents while they were still infants—and also the grave of Electra; for she lived with Pylades, Orestes having given her to him. Hellanicus also wrote this: that Medon and Strophius were born to Pylades by Electra. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus were buried a little further from the wall; they were deemed unworthy of being inside, where Agamemnon himself lay and those who were slaughtered with him.