ABSTRACT
Pausanias visited the Argolid, at many places which had been flourishing and even famous communities in earlier times he found only the local temple surviving, the cult continuing long after the population which had originally created it had left. This phenomenon demonstrates the longevity and the capacity for survival of the Greek cults. The cults should not be regarded as being in competition or any form of rivalry, though doubtless, because of the regional significance which a particular cult might attain, it could come to have a political significance. The cult most particularly associated with the Argolid was undoubtedly that of the goddess Hera. Her chief sanctuary, on the eastern side of the Argolid, an hour's walk south-east of Mycenae, attracted worshippers from all over the Argolid. Although the Argolid belonged to Hera, Apollo was the chief god of Argos itself. Finally, Pausanias mentions in the agora at Argos an altar of Zeus Phyxios, Zeus who puts to flight.
