2.16.1 Argos, the maternal grandson of Phoroneus became king [basileus] after Phoroneus andgave his own name to the land. Argos fathered Peirasos and Phorbas, Phorbas fathered Triopas, and Triopas fathered Iasos and Agenor. Io, the daughter of Iasos, went to Egypt, whether the circumstances be as Herodotus writes or as the Greeks say. After Iasos, Krotopos the son of Agenor came to power [arkhē] and fathered Sthenelas, but Danaos sailed from Egypt against Gelanor the son of Sthenelasand put a stop to the succession of the descendants of Agenor to kingship. What followed is known to all alike the crime that the daughters of Danaos committed against their male cousins, and how, after the death of Danaos, Lynkeus succeeded him.

2.16.2 Then there was Abas the son of Lynkeus, and his own sons Akrisios and Proitos divided the kingship [basileiā] between themselves. Akrisios remained where he was at Argos, and Proitos took over the Hēraion, Mideiā, Tiryns, and the Argive coastal region. Traces [sēmeia] of the residence [oikēsis] of Proitos in Tiryns remain to the present day. Afterwards Akrisios, learning that Perseus himself was not only alive but accomplishing [apodeiknusthai] great deeds, withdrew to Larisa, by [the river] Pēneios. And Perseus, wishing at all costs to see the father of his mother and to greet him with fair words and deeds, visited him at Larisa. Being in the prime of life and proud of being the inventor of the discus, he showed off [apodeiknusthai] [his skill in throwing the discus] in front of everybody, and Akrisios, through the agency of some superhuman force [daimōn], stepped unnoticed into the path of the discus.

2.16.3 So the prediction of the god to Akrisios found its fulfillment [telos], nor was the-thing-that-had-been-prophesied [tò khreōn] prevented by his precautions against his daughter and the son of his daughter. Perseus felt shame because of what-was-said [phēmē] about the homicide, and so, on his return to Argos, he induced Megapenthes, the son of Proitos, to make an exchange of kingdoms; taking over for himself the rule [arkhē] of the kindom of Megapenthes, he founded [ktizein] Mycenae. For on its site the pommel [myces = mukēs] fell out of his sword, and he regarded this as a sign [sēmeion] to establish the foundation [oikismos] of a citadel [polis]. I have also heard the following account. He was thirsty, and the thought occurred to him to pick up a mushroom [myces = mukēs] from the ground. Water flowed from that spot, and, taking delight in drinking from it, he gave to the place the name of Mycenae.

2.16.4 Homer in the Odyssey [2.120] mentions a woman [gunē] named Mycene [Mukēnē] in the following verse:

2.16.5 It was envy that caused the Argives to destroy Mycenae. For at the time of the Persian invasion the Argives made-no-move [hēsukhazein], but the Mycenaeans sent eighty men to Thermopylae who shared in the achievement [ergon] of the Lacedaemonians. This act-of-eagerness-for-distinction [philo-tīmēma] brought ruin upon them by aggravating the Argives. There still remain, however, parts of the enclosing-wall [peribolos], including the gate [pulē], on top of which stand lions. These [walls], too, are said to be the work [erga] of the Cyclopes, who made for Proitos the [circumference-] wall [teikhos] at Tiryns.

2.16.6 Inside the ruins [ereipia] of Mycenae is a spring [krēnē] called Perseiā; there are also underground chambers [hupo-gaia oikodomēmata] of Atreus and his offspring [paides], in which were stored the treasuries [thēsauroi] of their possessions. The tomb [taphos] of Atreus is there, along with the tombs of those who, besides Agamemnon, returned with him from Troy and were slaughtered by Aigisthos after they had been wined and dined by him at a banquet. As for the tomb [mnēma] of Cassandra [Kassandrā], there is a rival claim to it by the Lacedaemonians who dwell [oikeîn] in the vicinity of Amyklai. There is [at Mycenae] another tomb [mnēma] [besides the tombs in the Treasury of Atreus] that specifically belongs to Agamemnon, and there is also another tomb belonging to Eurymedon his charioteer, while still another one is shared by Teledāmos and Pelops, twin sons, they say, of Cassandra,

2.16.7 whom while they were still infants [nēpioi] Aigisthos slaughtered after he slaughtered their parents. As for Electra … Orestes married her off to Pylades, and Hellanicus adds that the children of Pylades by Electra were Medon and Strophios. Clytemnestra and Aigisthos were buried at some little distance from the [circumference-]wall [teikhos]. They were thought unworthy of a place inside it [= the circumference-wall], which is where Agamemnon himself and those who were slaughtered with him had been placed.