Tiryns

Dictionary: Tir·yns (tîr'ĭnz, tī'rĭnz)

An ancient city of southern Greece in the eastern Peloponnesus. It contains the ruins of pre-Homeric palaces as well as prehistoric structures.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Tiryns

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Ancient city, eastern Peloponnese, southern Greece. Inhabited from Neolithic times, it developed as an important Mycenaean centre in the Bronze Age, reaching its height c. 1400 BC. It declined as Argos grew in power after 1100 BC. The Argives destroyed it c. 468 BC. Ruins of its palace and massive walls date from the 15th – 12th centuries BC. The term cyclopean masonry derives from the huge stones used in its construction, supposedly by the Cyclops for Proteus. The city is also connected with Perseus and Heracles.

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Classical Literature Companion: Tiryns

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Tiryns, ancient Greek city in the southern part of the plain of Argos, inhabited from the early Bronze Age (before 2200 BC). The huge Cyclopean walls, built c.1400 BC of roughly hewn blocks of stone, are still standing (see CYCLOPES). The city is associated in myth with Mycenae, some fifteen kilometres to the north, and with the story of Heracles.

Archaeology Dictionary: Tiryns, Greece

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[Si]

A strongly fortified Mycenaean settlement and palace in southern Greece. The site was investigated by H. Schliemann intermittently between 1876 and 1885. Although the site was occupied during the early Bronze Age, the palace and an accompanying defensive wall were not built until about 1400 bc. The palace was of typical Mycenaean form with a central megaron opening onto a porticoed courtyard. Frescoes on the walls show Minoan influences. Tiryns was destroyed about 1200 bc, subsequent occupation being on a small scale and rather poor compared with earlier times.

[Rep.: H. Schliemann, 1886, Tiryns. London: John Murray]

Columbia Encyclopedia: Tiryns

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Tiryns (tī'rĭnz), ancient city of Greece, in the NE Peloponnesus, 2.5 mi (4 km) N of Nauplia (now Návplion) and near Argos. The site seems to have been inhabited since the 3d millennium B.C. It was a city of splendor from c.1600 to c.1100 B.C. Excavations begun by Heinrich Schliemann and Wilhelm Dörpfeld in 1884-85 revealed not only extensive pre-Homeric palaces of the Mycenaean period but also remains going far back in prehistory. The old city was prominent in Greek legend.

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	Eurystheus
	Cȳclōpēs
	Heinrich Schliemann (person)

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		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more
		Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more
		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more