ARGOS besides helium, to which have been assigned the names of Neon, Krypton, and Xenon. These gases agree with Argon in respect of the ratio of the specific heats and in being non-oxidizable under the electric spark. As originally defined, Argon included small proportions of these gases, but it is now preferable to limit the name to the principal constituent and to regard the newer gases as “ companions of Argon.” The physical constants associated with the name will scarcely be changed, since the proportion of the “ companions ” is so small. Professor Pam say considers that probably the volume of all of them taken together does not exceed part of that of the Argon. The latest information with respect to the physical properties of these gases is conveyed in the following table (Proc,. Roy. Soc. 67, p. 331, 1900):— Krypton. Xenon. Helium. Neon. Rofractivities (air = l) Densities (0 = 1.) Boiling points at 760 mm. Critical temperatures Critical pressures Weight of 1 c.c of liquid
•1238 1-98 1
•2345 9-97 1
•968 19-96 86'9° abs.
below 155-e0 68° abs. abs.
1-
2-
40-
64.
121-33° 163-9° abs. abs. 210-5° abs.
287-7° abs.
43-5 4140-2 metres. metres. metres. 321-212 gm. gm. gm.
The glow obtained in vacuum tubes is highly characteristic, whether as seen directly or as analysed by the spectroscope. (R-) ArgOS.—Recent investigation has added considerably to our knowledge concerning the Argive Herseum or Heraion, the temple of Hera, which stood, according to Pausanias, “ on one of the lower slopes of Euboea.” The term Euboea did not designate the eminence upon which the Heraeum is placed, or the mountain-top behind the Heraeum only, but, as Pausanias distinctly indicates, the group of foothills of the hilly district adjoining the mountain. When once we admit that this designated not only the mountain, which is 532 metres high, but also the hilly district adjoining it, the general scale of distance for this site grows larger. The territory of the Hermum was divided into three parts, namely Euboea, Akraia, and Prosymna. Pausanias tells us that the Pferseum is 15 stadia from Mycenae. Strabo, on the other hand, says that the Heraeuin was 40 stadia from Argos and 10 from Mycenae. Both authors underestimate the distance from Mycenae, which is about 25 stadia, or a little more than 3 miles, while the distance from Argos is 45 stadia, or a little more than 5 miles. The distance from the Heraeum to the ancient Midea is slightly greater than to Mycenae, while that from the Heraeum to Tiryns is about 6 miles. The Argive Heraeum was the most important centre of Hera and Juno worship in the ancient world; it always remained the chief sanctuary of the Argive district, and was in all probability the earliest site of civilized life in the country inhabited by the Argive people. In fact, whereas the site of Hissarlik, the ancient Troy, is not. in Greece proper, but in Asia Minor, and can thus not furnish the most direct evidence for the earliest Hellenic civilization as such; and whereas Tiryns, Mycenae, and the city of Argos, each represent only one definite period in the successive stages of civilization, the Argive Heraeum, holding the central site of early civilization in Greece proper, not only retained, its importance during the three periods marked by the supremacy of Tiryns, Mycenae, and
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the city of Argos, but in all probability antedated them as a centre of civilized Argive life. These conditions alone account for the extreme archaeological importance of this ancient sanctuary. According to tradition the Heraeum was founded by Phoroneus at least thirteen generations before Agamemnon and the Achaeans ruled. It is highly probable that before it became important merely as a temple, it was the fortified centre uniting the Argive people dwelling in the plain, the citadel which was superseded in this function by Tiryns. There is ample evidence to show that it was the chief sanctuary during the Tirynthian period. When Mycenae was built under the Perseides it was still the chief sanctuary for that centre, which superseded Tiryns in its dominance over the district, and which this temple clearly antedated in construction. According to the Dictis Cretensis, it was at this Heraeum that Agamemnon assembled the leaders before setting out for Troy. In the period of 3 4 Dorian supremacy, in spite of the new cults which were 8 introduced by these people, the Heraeum maintained its supreme importance : it was here that the tablets recording the succession of priestesses were kept which served as a chronological standard for the Argive people, and even far beyond their borders; and it was here that Pheidon deposited the obeliskoi when he introduced coinage into Greece. 2 We learn from Strabo that the Heraeum -was the joint sanctuary for Mycenae and Argos. But in the 5th century 1 the city of Argos vanquished the Mycenaeans, and 5 from that time onwards the city of Argos becomes the political centre of the district, while the Heraeum remains the religious centre. And when in the year 423 B.c., through the negligence of the priestess Chryseis, the old temple was burnt down, the Argives erected a splendid new temple, built by Eupolemos, in which was placed the great gold and ivory statue of Hera, by the sculptor Polycleitus, the contemporary and rival of Phidias, which was one of the most perfect works of sculpture in antiquity. Pausanias describes the temple and its contents (ii. 17), and in his time he still saw the ruins of the older burnt temple above the temple of Eupolemos. All these facts have been verified and illustrated by the excavations of the American Archaeological Institute and School of Athens, which were carried on from 1892 to 1895. In 1854 Rhangabe made tentative excavations on this site, digging a trench along the north and east sides of the second temple. Of these excavations no trace was to be seen when those of 1892 were begun. The excavations have shown that the sanctuary, instead of consisting of but one temple with the ruins of the older one above it, contained at least eleven separate buildings, occupying an area of about 300 metres by 100 metres. On the uppermost terrace, defined by the great Cyclopean supporting wall, exactly as described by Pausanias, the excavations revealed a layer of ashes and charred wood, below which were found numerous objects of earliest date, together with some remains of the walls resting on a polygonal platform—all forming part of the earliest temple. Immediately adjoining the Cyclopean wall and below it were found traces of small houses of the rudest, earliest masonry which are pre-Mycensean, if not pre-Cyclopean. We then descend to the second terrace, in the centre of which the substructure of the great second temple was revealed, together with so much of the. walls, as well as the several architectural members forming the superstructure, that it will be possible for the architects to design a complete restoration of the temple. On the northern side of this terrace, between the second temple and the Cyclopean supporting wall, a long stoa or colonnade runs from east to west abutting at the west end in structures which evidently contained a well-house and waterworks ; while at the eastern end of this stoa a number of chambers were erected against the hill, in front of which were placed statues and inscriptions, the bases for which are still extant. At the easternmost end of this second terrace a large hall with three rows of columns in the interior, with a porch and entrance at the west end facing the temple, is built upon elaborate supporting walls of good masonry. Below the second terrace at the south-west end a large and complicated building, with an open courtyard surrounded on three
