Argos — Kingdom of the Danaans
⚡ Quick Facts
The Oldest City in Greece
Argos claimed to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in Greece — and possibly in all of Europe. In mythology, it was the favored city of Hera, who loved it even more than Mycenae or Sparta. The great Heraion, her most important temple outside of Olympia, stood on the slopes above the Argive plain.
The city was named after Argus, its legendary founder — not to be confused with Argus Panoptes, the hundred-eyed giant whom Hera employed as a watchman. The connection to Hera ran deep: when Poseidon and Hera quarreled over patronage of the city, the river gods judged in Hera's favor, and Poseidon flooded the Argive plain in anger.
Birthplace of Perseus
Argos was where King Acrisius, warned by prophecy that his grandson would kill him, locked his daughter Danaë in a bronze tower. Zeus entered as a shower of golden rain, and Perseus was conceived. Cast out to sea in a chest, Perseus eventually returned to Argos, where he accidentally killed Acrisius with a discus throw at a funeral games — fulfilling the prophecy exactly.
Diomedes and the Trojan War
By the time of the Trojan War, Argos was ruled by Diomedes, one of the greatest Greek warriors. He was one of the few mortals bold enough to wound gods in battle — he stabbed both Aphrodite and Ares on the battlefield at Troy, with Athena's encouragement.
Phoroneus, Io and the First Kings
Argive tradition did not begin with Perseus. Its oldest figure is the river Inachus, and his son Phoroneus, whom the Argives honoured as the first man to gather people into a community. Pausanias reports that the Argives credited Phoroneus, not Prometheus, with the discovery of fire, and that a flame called "the fire of Phoroneus" was kept burning in the city in his day. The eponym of the city was Argos, a son of Zeus by Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus (Apollodorus). He is a different figure from Argus Panoptes, the many-eyed herdsman, and different again from the Argus who built the ship Argo. The three names are often mixed up.
The many-eyed Argus belongs to the story of Io, daughter of Inachus and priestess of Hera at Argos. When Zeus desired her, Io was turned into a heifer, and Hera set Argus to guard her until Hermes killed him. That killing is the source of the epithet Argeiphontes, "Argus-slayer", which Homer uses for Hermes, although its original meaning is debated. Io's wanderings took her to Egypt, and her descendants came back to Argos generations later. That return is the city's next great story. For the full tale see Io and Zeus.
Danaus, the Danaids and the House of Acrisius
Danaus, a descendant of Io, fled Egypt with his fifty daughters to escape marriage to the fifty sons of his brother Aegyptus. Aeschylus' Suppliants dramatises their arrival at Argos and their plea for asylum before King Pelasgus. The cousins followed them, and the marriages went ahead. On the wedding night every daughter killed her husband except Hypermestra, who spared Lynceus. Their descendants included Acrisius and Proetus, twin brothers said to have fought even in the womb. They divided the Argolid between them. Acrisius kept Argos, and Proetus took Tiryns, whose huge walls the Greeks believed the Cyclopes had built. Homer's word "Danaans" for the Greeks comes from Danaus, and later writers explained the springs of Lerna through his daughter Amymone, whom Poseidon loved and to whom he revealed the water.
The daughters of Proetus went mad, and in some versions the madness spread to all the women of Argos. Apollodorus says the cause was Hera, while Hesiod, as reported later, blamed Dionysus. The seer Melampus cured them, and his price was a share of the kingdom for himself and his brother Bias. Herodotus knew this story too. It explains why later Argos had three royal lines, including the descendants of Melampus, among them the seer Amphiaraus.
The Seven Against Thebes and Diomedes' Inheritance
Argos was the starting point for the war of the Seven Against Thebes. King Adrastus married his daughters to two exiles who had turned up at his palace on the same night. One was Polynices of Thebes and the other was Tydeus of Calydon. To restore Polynices to his throne, Adrastus led seven champions against Thebes, and only Adrastus came back alive. Ten years later the Epigoni, the sons of the fallen, captured the city. One of them was Tydeus' son Diomedes, which is why the Argos of the Iliad is ruled by a young king with a point to prove. Homer's geography takes some care, though. In the Iliad "Argos" can mean Diomedes' city, Agamemnon's wider realm, or even the Peloponnese as a whole. Athenian tragedians, Aeschylus in particular, moved Agamemnon's palace from Mycenae to Argos, partly because Mycenae had been destroyed by Argos in the 460s BC.
The Argolid is also where several of Heracles' labours took place. The Lernaean Hydra lived in the marshes of Lerna on the Argive coast, and the Nemean lion lived in the hills to the north. See the Twelve Labours.
Hera's Sanctuary and Festivals
The Argive Heraion stood between Argos and Mycenae, and Argos controlled it. After an earlier temple burned in 423 BC, a new one received a gold-and-ivory statue of Hera by Polykleitos. Pausanias says she was seated, holding a pomegranate in one hand and a sceptre topped with a cuckoo in the other. The cuckoo recalled the bird whose form Zeus took to court her. The Heraia festival included a procession from the city to the sanctuary and athletic contests whose prize was a bronze shield. Herodotus tells how Cleobis and Biton, two young Argives, pulled their mother, a priestess of Hera, all the way to the festival in an ox-cart. She prayed that the goddess give them the best thing a mortal can have, and they died peacefully in the temple that night. The Argives dedicated statues of them at Delphi. Two archaic kouroi found there are often identified with them, but that identification is disputed. Argos also had a major temple of Apollo Lykeios, said to have been founded by Danaus, and the Larisa citadel still looms over the modern town.
Ancient sources
- Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 2 — Pausanias tours Argos and the Heraion. He records the judgement of Inachus between Hera and Poseidon, the fire of Phoroneus, and Polykleitos' statue of Hera.
- Apollodorus, Library 2.1–2.4 — Apollodorus gives the fullest genealogy of the Argive kings from Inachus and Phoroneus through Io, Danaus, Proetus and Acrisius to Perseus.
- Aeschylus, Suppliants — The play shows the daughters of Danaus asking the king of Argos for protection from their Egyptian cousins.
- Herodotus, Histories 1.31 — Solon tells Croesus the story of Cleobis and Biton and their mother at the Heraion.
- Homer, Iliad 2.559–568 and Book 5 — The Catalogue of Ships lists Diomedes' contingent from Argos and Tiryns, and Book 5 describes his aristeia.
Frequently asked questions
Is Argos the same as Argus the hundred-eyed giant?
No. The city's eponym was Argos, son of Zeus and Niobe. Argus Panoptes was a separate many-eyed watchman whom Hera set over Io. Both belong to Argive legend, but they are different figures.
Why are the Greeks called Argives and Danaans in Homer?
Homer uses "Argives", "Danaans" and "Achaeans" for the Greek army as a whole. "Argives" comes from Argos, which in epic can mean the wider Peloponnese, and "Danaans" comes from Danaus, the legendary king of Argos.
Did Agamemnon rule Argos or Mycenae?
Homer places Agamemnon at Mycenae and Diomedes at Argos. Athenian tragedy, especially Aeschylus' Oresteia, sets Agamemnon's palace in Argos, so both versions appear in ancient literature.
Can you visit the Argive Heraion today?
Yes. The foundations of the temples and their terraces survive on a hillside a few kilometres from modern Argos, near the road to Mycenae. Argos itself has its ancient theatre and the Larisa castle.