ntioned by Thyestes in Seneca as a wonderful performance.

[575]Cyclopum sacras
Turres, labore majus humano decus.

All these poetical histories were founded in original truths. Some of them
built Hermione, one of the most antient cities in Greece. The tradition
was, that it was built by [576]Hermion the son of Europs, or Europis, a
descendant of Phoroneus, and Niobe; and was inhabited by Dorians, who came
from Argos: in which history is more than at first appears. The city stood
near a stagnant lake, and a deep cavern; where was supposed to be the most
compendious passage to the shades below: [577][Greek: ten eis hadou
katabasin suntomon.] The lake was called the pool of Acherusia; near to
which and the yawning cavern the Cyclopians chose to take up their
habitation. They are said to have built [578]Tiryns; the walls of which
were esteemed no less a wonder than the [579]pyramids of Egypt. They must
have resided at Nauplia in Argolis; a place in situation not unlike
Hermione above-mentioned. Near this city were caverns in the earth, and
subterraneous passages, consisting of [580]labyrinths cut in the rock, like
the syringes in Upper Egypt, and the maze at the lake Maeris: and these too
were reputed the work of Cyclopians. Pausanias thinks very truly, that the
Nauplians were from Egypt. [581][Greek: Esan de hoi Nauplieis, emoi dokein,
Aiguptioi ta palaiotera.] _The Nauplians seem to me to have been a colony
from Egypt in the more early times_. He supposes that they were some of
those emigrants, who came over with Danaues. The nature of the works, which
the Cyclopians executed, and the lake, which they named Acherusia, shew
plainly the part of the world from whence they came. The next city to
Nauplia was Troezen, where Orus was said to have once reigned, from whom
the country was called Oraia: but Pausanias very justly thinks, that it was
an Egyptian history; and that the region was denominated from [582]Orus of
Egypt, whose worship undoubtedly had been here introduced. So that every
circumstance witnesses the country, from whence the Cyclopians came. Hence
when [583]Euripides speaks of the walls of antient Mycene, as built by the
Cyclopians after the Phenician rule and method: the Phenicians alluded to
were the [Greek: Phoinikes] of Egypt, to which country they are primarily
to be referred. Those who built Tiryns are represented as seven in number;
and the whole is described by Strabo in the following manner.