Tiryns

Tiryns is a Mycenaean archaeological site in Argolis in the Peloponnese, 20 km (12 mi) south of Mycenae. It was a hill fort with occupation going back seven thousand years, from before the beginning of the Bronze Age. It reached its height of importance between 1400 and 1200 BC, when it became one of the most important centres of the Mycenaean world. Along with the nearby ruins of Mycenae, UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site in 1999 for its outstanding architecture.

Its most notable features were its palace, its Cyclopean tunnels and especially its walls, which gave the city the Homeric epithet of mighty walled Tiryns. Cyclopean masonry means stonework of massive boulders roughly fitted together with minimal clearance, set in clay mortar or none, typical of Mycenaean fortifications. The megaron of the palace has a large reception hall with a throne against the right wall and a central hearth bordered by four Minoan-style wooden columns. Two of its three walls were later incorporated into an archaic temple of Hera.

Ancient tradition held that the walls were built by the Cyclopes, because only giants of superhuman strength could have lifted such stones. The geographer Pausanias, visiting in the 2nd century AD, wrote that two mules pulling together could not move even the smaller stones. Tradition also links the walls to Proetus, brother of Acrisius, king of Argos, and Tiryns became associated with the myths of Heracles, who was said to have performed his Twelve Labours from there.

In the middle of the 3rd millennium BC it was a flourishing early settlement, with a circular structure 28 m (92 ft) in diameter beneath the later palace yard. The first Greek inhabitants settled at the beginning of the Middle Helladic period (2000–1600 BC). The acropolis was built in three phases, and the surviving ruins of the citadel date to the end of the third, between 1300 and 1200 BC.

In c. 1300 BC the citadel and lower town had a population of 10,000 people covering 20–25 hectares. The palace was destroyed in c. 1200 BC, but the population continued to grow and by 1150 BC reached 15,000. The palace area was inhabited into the early Archaic period, until the middle of the 8th century BC. Around 1180 BC a deposit of gold and silver objects, including a fifteenth-century BC Minoan signet ring, was buried in a cauldron in the lower town. By the time Pausanias came, the site was completely deserted.

Tiryns is first referenced by Homer, who praised its massive walls. Ancient tradition held that the walls were built by the Cyclopes because only giants of superhuman strength could have lifted the enormous stones. After viewing the walls of the ruined citadel in the 2nd century AD, the geographer Pausanias wrote that two mules pulling together could not move even the smaller stones.

Tradition also associates the walls with Proetus, the sibling of Acrisius, king of Argos. According to the legend Proetus, pursued by his brother, fled to Lycia. With the help of the Lycians, he managed to return to Argolis. There, Proetus occupied Tiryns and fortified it with the assistance of the cyclopes. Thus Greek legend links the three Argolic centers with three mythical heroes: Acrisius, founder of the Doric colony of Argos; his brother Proetus, founder of Tiryns; and his grandson Perseus, the founder of Mycenae. But this tradition was born at the beginning of the historical period, when Argos was fighting to become the hegemonic power in the area and needed a glorious past to compete with the other two cities.