Argos

Argos, city, ancient Greece

Argos (är`gŏs, –gəs), city of ancient Greece, in NE Peloponnesus, 3 mi (4.8 km) inland from the Gulf of Argos, near the modern Nauplia. It was occupied from the early Bronze Age and is mentioned in Homer's Iliad as the kingdom of Diomed. Argos was the center of Argolis and in the 7th cent. B.C., under King Pheidon, dominated much of the Peloponnesus. For centuries it was one of the most powerful Greek cities, struggling with Sparta and rivaling Athens and Corinth. Much of Argos' power disappeared after Cleomenes I of Sparta took (c.494 B.C.) the city. Pyrrhus was killed in an attack on Argos in 272. The city joined the Achaean League in 229, and in 146 it was taken by Rome, under whose rule trade flourished. The Heraeum temple, 6 mi (9.7 km) N of Argos, was the principal center for the worship of the goddess Hera. Argos produced important sculptors, including Polycletus, in the 5th cent. There is a small modern town called Argos on the site of the ancient city.

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Argos, in Greek mythology

Argos, in Greek mythology: see Argus.

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Argos

an ancient city in SE Greece, in the NE Peloponnese: one of the oldest Greek cities, it dominated the Peloponnese in the 7th century bc. Pop.: 22 000 (1995 est.)

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Argos

lulled to sleep and beheaded by Hermes. [Gk. Myth.: Metamorphoses, I]

See : Decapitation

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Argos

Odysseus’ pet, recognizes him after an absence of twenty years. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey 17:298]3

See : Dogs

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Argos

a city in Greece located on the Peloponnesus. The population in 1966 was 13,200.

Argos was settled during the Early Bronze Age at the beginning of the second millennium B.C. During the 15th-14th centuries B.C., Argos was one of the centers of the Achaean Confederacy. After conquest by the Dorians in the 12th—11th centuries B.C., Argos became the center of Argolis and competed with Sparta for supremacy in the Peloponnesus. In the seventh century B.C., Pheidon, the tyrant of Argos, extended his power over a considerable part of the Peloponnesus; he was the first in Greece to begin minting silver coins. During the Greco-Persian Wars (500–449 B.C.) Argos maintained neutrality. In the fifth century B.C. it became a very large center for the slave trade, with an emerging democratic structure. In the second half of the fourth century B.C., Argos fell under Macedonian domination, and in 229 B.C. it joined the Achaean League. From 146 B.C. the city was under Roman rule, and in 297 and again in 395 A.D. it was devastated by the Goths.

In ancient times Argos was famous for the artistic school that produced such well-known Greek sculptors as Ageladas, Polyclitus, and Polymedes. Excavations at Argos were begun in 1902 by Dutch and French archaeologists. Argos is one of the centers of tourism in Greece.

REFERENCE

Beven, H. G., and W. Vollgraff. Argos et Sicyone. . . The Hague, 1947. [2–531–31