[11]
Now it seems that Tiryns was used as a base of operations by Proetus, and was walled by him through the aid of the Cyclopes, who were seven in number, and were called "Bellyhands" because they got their food from their handicraft, and they came by invitation from Lycia. And perhaps the caverns near Nauplia and the works therein are named after them.1 The acropolis, Licymna, is named after Licymnius, and it is about twelve stadia distant from Nauplia; but it is deserted, and so is the neighboring Midea, which is different from the Boeotian Midea; for the former is Mídea,2 like Prónia,3 while the latter is Midéa, like Tegéa. And bordering on Midea is Prosymna, . . .4 this having a temple of Hera. But the Argives laid waste to most of the cities because of their disobedience; and of the inhabitants those from Tiryns migrated to Epidaurus, and those from . . .5 to Halïeis, as it is called; but those from Asine (this is a village in Argeia near Nauplia) were transferred by the Lacedaemonians to Messenia, where is a town that bears the same name as the Argolic Asine; for the Lacedaemonians, says Theopompos, took possession of much territory that belonged to other peoples and settled there all who fled to them and were taken in. And the inhabitants of Nauplia also withdrew to Messenia.
1 Cp. 8. 6. 2 (end).
2 i.e., accented on the first syllable.
3 The place and the name are still preserved in the modern Pronia near Nauplia.
4 The text is corrupt (see critical note); and scholars, including Waldstein (op. cit., p. 14, are still in doubt whether Strabo here refers to the same temple of Hera ("the common temple," "the Heraeum") previously mentioned or to an entirely different one. But the part of the clause that is unquestionably sound, together with other evidence, seems to prove that he is not referring to the Heraeum: (1) He says "a temple of Hera" and not "the temple" or "the Heraeum." (2) According to Paus. 2.17 Prosymna was the name of "the country below the Heraeum"; and therefore it did not include the Heraeum. (3) According to Stephanus Byzantinus, Prosymna was "a part of Argos," and its "founder" was "Prosymnaeus," which clearly indicates that it was an inhabited country. And since Strabo is now discussing only cities or towns (see last clause of section 10), one may infer that the country of Prosym (Waldstein, op. cit., p. 13, footnote 1), perhaps even including "the site of such modern villages as Chonica, Anaphi, and Pasia" (ibid., p. 14; see also map on p. 7). And one might further infer that the country even contained a town named Prosymna. In short, there seems to be no ground whatever for trying to identify the temple last mentioned with the Heraeum, though it is entirely possible that Strabo refers to some Prosyma, otherwise unknown, which had no connection with the Prosymna "below the Heraeum."
5 Either Hermione or Midea (see critical note), but the latter seems correct.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
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