Ἥρας … ναός. The site of the Heraeum, discovered by General Gordon in 1831, is about a mile and three quarters S. E. of Mycenae, and about five miles N. E. of Argos. E. Itcan be seen from Argos, but is hidden from Mycenae by a projecting spur of the hills. The temple stood on a rocky eminence under Mount Euboea, one of the heights which bound the Argive plain on the east. The streams “Ἐλευθερίων” and “Ἀρτερίων” flowed on either side of it. Beneath it was a grassy tract known as “Πρόσυμνα” (Statius 3. 325 “viridis devexa Prosymnae”); whence the goddess was sometimes styled “Προσυμναία” ( Fluv. 18. 3). This oldest and greatest of Argive shrines is fitly mentioned here; for within its walls Agamemnon was said to have taken the oaths of the chiefs whom he led to Troy (Dictys Cretensis, 1. 15. 6). Here, too, the Spartan Cleomenes received the omen which caused him to retire from Argolis (c. 496 B.C.: Her. 6. 81). The ancient temple was burnt down in 423 B.C. ( Thuc. 4. 133). A new Heraeum was built on a lower terrace of the same hill; and could boast among its treasures a chryselephantine statue of Hera by Polycleitus ( Paus. 2. 17. 4). The site of this later Heraeum has recently been excavated by members of the American School at Athens (1892).
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part VI: The Electra. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1894.
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