Pausanias
c. 160 CE
Description of Greece
with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D. in 4 Volumes. Volume 1.Attica
and Cornith, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann
Ltd., 1918.
Book II: Corinth
[2.1.1] The Corinthian land is a portion of the Argive, and is named after Corinthus.
That Corinthus was a son of Zeus I have never known anybody say seriously except
the majority of the Corinthians. Eumelus, the son of Amphilytus,1 of the family
called Bacchidae, who is said to have composed the epic poem, says in his Corinthian
History (if indeed the history be his) that Ephyra, the daughter of Oceanus, dwelt
first in this land; that afterwards Marathon, the son of Epopeus, the son of Aloeus,
the son of Helius (Sun), fleeing from the lawless violence of his father migrated
to the sea coast of Attica; that on the death of Epopeus he came to Peloponnesus,
divided his kingdom among his sons, and returned to Attica; and that Asopia was
renamed after Sicyon, and Ephyraea after Corinthus.
[2.1.2] Corinth is no longer inhabited by any of the old Corinthians, but by
colonists sent out by the Romans. This change is due to the Achaean League.1 The
Corinthians, being members of it, joined in the war against the Romans, which Critolaus,
when appointed general of the Achaeans, brought about by persuading to revolt both
the Achaeans and the majority of the Greeks outside the Peloponnesus. When the Romans
won the war, they carried out a general disarmament of the Greeks2 and dismantled
the walls of such cities as were fortified. Corinth was laid waste by Mummius, who
at that time commanded the Romans in the field, and it is said that it was afterwards
refounded by Caesar,3 who was the author of the present constitution of Rome. Carthage,
too, they say, was refounded in his reign. [2.1.3] In the Corinthian territory is
also the place called Cromyon from Cromus the son of Poseidon. Here they say that
Phaea was bred; overcoming this sow was one of the traditional achievements of Theseus.
Farther on the pine still grew by the shore at the time of my visit, and there was
an altar of Melicertes. At this place, they say, the boy was brought ashore by a
dolphin; Sisyphus found him lying and gave him burial on the Isthmus, establishing
the Isthmian games in his honor.[2.1.4] At the beginning of the Isthmus is the place
where the brigand Sinis used to take hold of pine trees and draw them down. All
those whom he overcame in fight he used to tie to the trees, and then allow them
to swing up again. Thereupon each of the pines used to drag to itself the bound
man, and as the bond gave way in neither direction but was stretched equally in
both, he was torn in two. This was the way in which Sinis himself was slain by Theseus.
For Theseus rid of evildoers the road from Troezen to Athens, killing those whom
I have enumerated and, in sacred Epidaurus, Periphetes, thought to be the son of
Hephaestus, who used to fight with a bronze club.[2.1.5] The Corinthian Isthmus
stretches on the one hand to the sea at Cenchreae, and on the other to the sea at
Lechaeum. For this is what makes the region to the south mainland. He who tried
to make the Peloponnesus an island gave up before digging through the Isthmus. Where
they began to dig is still to be seen, but into the rock they did not advance at
all. So it still is mainland as its nature is to be. Alexander the son of Philip
wished to dig through Mimas, and his attempt to do this was his only unsuccessful
project. The Cnidians began to dig through their isthmus, but the Pythian priestess
stopped them. So difficult it is for man to alter by violence what Heaven has made.
[2.1.6] A legend of the Corinthians about their land is not peculiar to them,
for I believe that the Athenians were the first to relate a similar story to glorify
Attica. The Corinthians say that Poseidon had a dispute with Helius (Sun) about
the land, and that Briareos arbitrated between them, assigning to Poseidon the Isthmus
and the parts adjoining, and giving to Helius the height above the city.Ever since,
they say, the Isthmus has belonged to Poseidon.[2.1.7] Worth seeing here are a theater
and a white-marble race-course. Within the sanctuary of the god stand on the one
side portrait statues of athletes who have won victories at the Isthmian games,
on the other side pine trees growing in a row, the greater number of them rising
up straight. On the temple, which is not very large, stand bronze Tritons. In the
fore-temple are images, two of Poseidon, a third of Amphitrite, and a Sea, which
also is of bronze. The offerings inside were dedicated in our time by Herodes the
Athenian, four horses, gilded except for the hoofs, which are of ivory,[2.1.8] and
two gold Tritons beside the horses, with the parts below the waist of ivory. On
the car stand Amphitrite and Poseidon, and there is the boy Palaemon upright upon
a dolphin. These too are made of ivory and gold. On the middle of the base on which
the car is has been wrought a Sea holding up the young Aphrodite, and on either
side are the nymphs called Nereids. I know that there are altars to these in other
parts of Greece, and that some Greeks have even dedicated to them precincts by shores,
where honors are also paid to Achilles. In Gabala is a holy sanctuary of Doto, where
there was still remaining the robe by which the Greeks say that Eriphyle was bribed
to wrong her son Alcmaeon.[2.1.9] Among the reliefs on the base of the statue of
Poseidon are the sons of Tyndareus, because these too are saviours of ships and
of sea-faring men. The other offerings are images of Calm and of Sea, a horse like
a whale from the breast onward, Ino and Bellerophontes, and the horse Pegasus.
2,1,1,n1. 8th cent. B.C.
2,1,2,n1. A league of states in the northern Peloponnesus. It was most influential
in the second half of the third century B.C. Founded 280 B.C.
2,1,2,n2. 146 B.C.
2,1,2,n3. 44 B.C.
[2.2.1] Within the enclosure is on the left a temple of Palaemon, with images
in it of Poseidon, Leucothea and Palaemon himself. There is also what is called
his Holy of Holies, and an underground descent to it, where they say that Palaemon
is concealed. Whosoever, whether Corinthian or stranger, swears falsely here, can
by no means escape from his oath. There is also an ancient sanctuary called the
altar of the Cyclopes, and they sacrifice to the Cyclopes upon it.[2.2.2] The graves
of Sisyphus and of Neleus--for they say that Neleus came to Corinth, died of disease,
and was buried near the Isthmus--I do not think that anyone would look for after
reading Eumelus. For he says that not even to Nestor did Sisyphus show the tomb
of Neleus, because it must be kept unknown to everybody alike, and that Sisyphus
is indeed buried on the Isthmus, but that few Corinthians, even those of his own
day, knew where the grave was. The Isthmian games were not interrupted even when
Corinth had been laid waste by Mummius, but so long as it lay deserted the celebration
of the games was entrusted to the Sicyonians, and when it was rebuilt the honor
was restored to the present inhabitants.
[2.2.3] The names of the Corinthian harbors were given them by Leches and Cenchrias,
said to be the children of Poseidon and Peirene the daughter of Achelous, though
in the poem called The Great Eoeae1 Peirene is said to be a daughter of Oebalus.
In Lechaeum are a sanctuary and a bronze image of Poseidon, and on the road leading
from the Isthmus to Cenchreae a temple and ancient wooden image of Artemis. In Cenchreae
are a temple and a stone statue of Aphrodite, after it on the mole running into
the sea a bronze image of Poseidon, and at the other end of the harbor sanctuaries
of Asclepius and of Isis. Right opposite Cenchreae is Helen's Bath. It is a large
stream of salt, tepid water, flowing from a rock into the sea.[2.2.4] As one goes
up to Corinth are tombs, and by the gate is buried Diogenes1 of Sinope, whom the
Greeks surname the Dog. Before the city is a grove of cypresses called Craneum.
Here are a precinct of Bellerophontes, a temple of Aphrodite Melaenis and the grave
of Lais, upon which is set a lioness holding a ram in her fore-paws.
[2.2.5] There is in Thessaly another tomb which claims to be that of Lais, for
she went to that country also when she fell in love with Hippostratus. The story
is that originally she was of Hycara in Sicily. Taken captive while yet a girl by
Nicias and the Athenians, she was sold and brought to Corinth, where she surpassed
in beauty the courtesans of her time, and so won the admiration of the Corinthians
that even now they claim Lais as their own.[2.2.6] The things worthy of mention
in the city include the extant remains of antiquity, but the greater number of them
belong to the period of its second ascendancy. On the market-place, where most of
the sanctuaries are, stand Artemis surnamed Ephesian and wooden images of Dionysus,
which are covered with gold with the exception of their faces; these are ornamented
with red paint. They are called Lysius and Baccheus,[2.2.7] and I too give the story
told about them. They say that Pentheus treated Dionysus despitefully, his crowning
outrage being that he went to Cithaeron, to spy upon the women, and climbing up
a tree beheld what was done. When the women detected Pentheus, they immediately
dragged him down, and joined in tearing him, living as he was, limb from limb. Afterwards,
as the Corinthians say, the Pythian priestess commanded them by an oracle to discover
that tree and to worship it equally with the god. For this reason they have made
these images from the tree.
[2.2.8] There is also a temple of Fortune, with a standing image of Parian marble.
Beside it is a sanctuary for all the gods. Hard by is built a fountain, on which
is a bronze Poseidon; under the feet of Poseidon is a dolphin spouting water. There
is also a bronze Apollo surnamed Clarius and a statue of Aphrodite made by Hermogenes
of Cythera. There are two bronze, standing images of Hermes, for one of which a
temple has been made. The images of Zeus also are in the open; one had not a surname,
another they call Chthonius (of the Lower World) and the third Most High.
2,2,3,n1. Said to be a work of Hesiod.
2,2,4,n1. The "Cynic" philosopher
[2.3.1] In the middle of the market-place is a bronze Athena, on the pedestal
of which are wrought in relief figures of the Muses. Above the market-place is a
temple of Octavia the sister of Augustus, who was emperor of the Romans after Caesar,
the founder of the modern Corinth.[2.3.2] On leaving the market-place along the
road to Lechaeum you come to a gateway, on which are two gilded chariots, one carrying
Phaethon the son of Helius (Sun), the other Helius himself. A little farther away
from the gateway, on the right as you go in, is a bronze Heracles. After this is
the entrance to the water of Peirene. The legend about Peirene is that she was a
woman who became a spring because of her tears shed in lamentation for her son Cenchrias,
who was unintentionally killed by Artemis.
[2.3.3] The spring is ornamented with white marble, and there have been made
chambers like caves, out of which the water flows into an open-air well. It Is pleasant
to drink, and they say that the Corinthian bronze, when red-hot, is tempered by
this water, since bronze . . . the Corinthians have not. Moreover near Peirene are
an image and a sacred enclosure of Apollo; in the latter is a painting of the exploit
of Odysseus against the suitors.
[2.3.4] Proceeding on the direct road to Lechaeum we see a bronze image of a
seated Hermes. By him stands a ram, for Hermes is the god who is thought most to
care for and to increase flocks, as Homer puts it in the Iliad:--
Son was he of Phorbas, the dearest of Trojans to Hermes,
Rich in flocks, for the god vouchsafed him wealth in abundance.1
The story told at the mysteries of the Mother about Hermes and the ram I know
but do not relate. After the image of Hermes come Poseidon, Leucothea, and Palaemon
on a dolphin.[2.3.5] The Corinthians have baths in many parts of the city, some
put up at the public charge and one by the emperor Hadrian. The most famous of them
is near the Poseidon. It was made by the Spartan Eurycles,1 who beautified it with
various kinds of stone, especially the one quarried at Croceae in Laconia. On the
left of the entrance stands a Poseidon, and after him Artemis hunting. Throughout
the city are many wells, for the Corinthians have a copious supply of flowing water,
besides the water which the emperor Hadrian brought from Lake Stymphalus, but the
most noteworthy is the one by the side of the image of Artemis. Over it is a Bellerophontes,
and the water flows through the hoof of the horse Pegasus. [2.3.6] As you go along
another road from the market-place, which leads to Sicyon, you can see on the right
of the road a temple and bronze image of Apollo, and a little farther on a well
called the Well of Glauce. Into this they say she threw herself in the belief that
the water would be a cure for the drugs of Medea. Above this well has been built
what is called the Odeum (Music Hall), beside which is the tomb of Medea's children.
Their names were Mermerus and Pheres, and they are said to have been stoned to death
by the Corinthians owing to the gifts which legend says they brought to Glauce.
[2.3.7] But as their death was violent and illegal, the young babies of the Corinthians
were destroyed by them until, at the command of the oracle, yearly sacrifices were
established in their honor and a figure of Terror was set up. This figure still
exists, being the likeness of a woman frightful to look upon but after Corinth was
laid waste by the Romans and the old Corinthians were wiped out, the new settlers
broke the custom of offering those sacrifices to the sons of Medea, nor do their
children cut their hair for them or wear black clothes.[2.3.8] On the occasion referred
to Medea went to Athens and married Aegeus, but subsequently she was detected plotting
against Theseus and fled from Athens also; coming to the land then called Aria she
caused its inhabitants to be named after her Medes. The son, whom she brought with
her in her flight to the Arii, they say she had by Aegeus, and that his name was
Medus. Hellanicus,1 however, calls him Polyxenus and says that his father was Jason.[2.3.9]
The Greeks have an epic poem called Naupactia. In this Jason is represented as having
removed his home after the death of Pelias from Iolcus to Corcyra, and Mermerus,
the elder of his children, to have been killed by a lioness while hunting on the
mainland opposite. Of Pheres is recorded nothing. But Cinaethon1 of Lacedaemon,
another writer of pedigrees in verse, said that Jason's children by Medea were a
son Medeus and a daughter Eriopis; he too, however, gives no further information
about these children. [2.3.10] Eumelus said that Helius (Sun) gave the Asopian land
to Aloeus and Epliyraea to Aeetes. When Aeetes was departing for Colchis he entrusted
his land to Bunus, the son of Hermes and Alcidamea, and when Bunus died Epopeus
the son of Aloeus extended his kingdom to include the Ephyraeans. Afterwards, when
Corinthus, the son of Marathon, died childless, the Corinthians sent for Medea from
Iolcus and bestowed upon her the kingdom.
[2.3.11] Through her Jason was king in Corinth, and Medea, as her children were
born, carried each to the sanctuary of Hera and concealed them, doing so in the
belief that so they would be immortal. At last she learned that her hopes were vain,
and at the same time she was detected by Jason. When she begged for pardon he refused
it, and sailed away to Iolcus. For these reasons Medea too departed, and handed
over the kingdom to Sisyphus.
2,3,4,n1. Hom. Il. 14.490
2,3,5,n1. Probably a contemporary of Augustus.
2,3,8,n1. A writer of the fifth century B.C.
2,3,9,n1. An early epic writer.
[2.4.1] This is the account that I read, and not far from the tomb is the temple
of Athena Chalinitis (Bridler). For Athena, they say, was the divinity who gave
most help to Bellerophontes, and she delivered to him Pegasus, having herself broken
in and bridled him. The image of her is of wood, but face, hands and feet are of
white marble. [2.4.2] That Bellerophontes was not an absolute king, but was subject
to Proetus and the Argives is the belief of myself and of all who have read carefully
the Homeric poems.1 When Bellerophontes migrated to Lycia it is clear that the Corinthians
none the less were subject to the despots at Argos or Mycenae. By themselves they
provided no leader for the campaign against Troy, but shared in the expedition as
part of the forces, Mycenaean and other, led by Agamemnon. [2.4.3] Sisyphus had
other sons besides Glaucus, the father of Bellerophontes a second was Ornytion,
and besides him there were Thersander and Almus. Ornytion had a son Phocus, reputed
to have been begotten by Poseidon. He migrated to Tithorea in what is now called
Phocis, but Thoas, the younger son of Ornytion, remained behind at Corinth. Thoas
begat Damophon, Damophon begat Propodas, and Propodas begat Doridas and Hyanthidas.
While these were kings the Dorians took the field against Corinth, their leader
being Aletes, the son of Hippotas, the son of Phylas, the son of Antiochus, the
son of Heracles. So Doridas and Hyanthidas gave up the kingship to Aletes and remained
at Corinth, but the Corinthian people were conquered in battle and expelled by the
Dorians.[2.4.4] Aletes himself and his descendants reigned for five generations
to Bacchis, the son of Prumnis, and, named after him, the Bacchidae reigned for
five more generations to Telestes, the son of Aristodemus. Telestes was killed in
hate by Arieus and Perantas, and there were no more kings, but Prytanes (Presidents)
taken from the Bacchidae and ruling for one year, until Cypselus, the son of Eetion,
became tyrant and expelled the Bacchidae.1 Cypselus was a descendant of Melas, the
son of Antasus. Melas from Gonussa above Sicyon joined the Dorians in the expedition
against Corinth. When the god expressed disapproval Aletes at first ordered Melas
to withdraw to other Greeks, but afterwards, mistaking the oracle, he received him
as a settler.Such I found to be the history of the Corinthian kings. [2.4.5] Now
the sanctuary of Athena Chalinitis is by their theater, and near is a naked wooden
image of Heracles, said to be a work of Daedalus. All the works of this artist,
although rather uncouth to look at, are nevertheless distinguished by a kind of
inspiration. Above the theater is a sanctuary of Zeus surnamed in the Latin tongue
Capitolinus, which might be rendered into Greek "Coryphaeos". Not far from this
theater is the ancient gymnasium, and a spring called Lerna. Pillars stand around
it, and seats have been made to refresh in summer time those who have entered it.
By this gymnasium are temples of Zeus and Asclepius. The images of Asclepius and
of Health are of white marble, that of Zeus is of bronze.[2.4.6] The Acrocorinthus
is a mountain peak above the city, assigned to Helius by Briareos when he acted
as adjudicator, and handed over, the Corinthians say, by Helius to Aphrodite. As
you go up this Acrocorinthus you see two precincts of Isis, one if Isis surnamed
Pelagian (Marine) and the other of Egyptian Isis, and two of Serapis, one of them
being of Serapis called "in Canopus." After these are altars to Helius, and a sanctuary
of Necessity and Force, into which it is not customary to enter.
[2.4.7] Above it are a temple of the Mother of the gods and a throne; the image
and the throne are made of stone. The temple of the Fates and that of Demeter and
the Maid have images that are not exposed to view. Here, too, is the temple of Hera
Bunaea set up by Bunus the son of Hermes. It is for this reason that the goddess
is called Bunaea.
2,4,2,n1. Hom. Il. 6.159
2,4,4,n1. 655 B.C.
[2.5.1] On the summit of the Acrocorinthus is a temple of Aphrodite. The images
are Aphrodite armed, Helius, and Eros with a bow. The spring, which is behind the
temple, they say was the gift of Asopus to Sisyphus. The latter knew, so runs the
legend, that Zeus had ravished Aegina, the daughter of Asopus, but refused to give
information to the seeker before he had a spring given him on the Acrocorinthus.
When Asopus granted this request Sisyphus turned informer, and on this account he
receives--if anyone believes the story--punishment in Hades. I have heard people
say that this spring and Peirene are the same, the water in the city flowing hence
under-ground.[2.5.2] This Asopus rises in the Phliasian territory, flows through
the Sicyonian, and empties itself into the sea here. His daughters, say the Phliasians,
were Corcyra, Aegina, and Thebe. Corcyra and Aegina gave new names to the islands
called Scheria and Oenone, while from Thebe is named the city below the Cadmea.
The Thebans do not agree, but say that Thebe was the daughter of the Boeotian, and
not of the Phliasian, Asopus.[2.5.3] The other stories about the river are current
among both the Phliasians and the Sicyonians, for instance that its water is foreign
and not native, in that the Maeander, descending from Celaenae through Phrygia and
Caria, and emptying itself into the sea at Miletus, goes to the Peloponnesus and
forms the Asopus. I remember hearing a similar story from the Delians, that the
stream which they call Inopus comes to them from the Nile. Further, there is a story
that the Nile itself is the Euphrates, which disappears into a marsh, rises again
beyond Aethiopia and becomes the Nile.[2.5.4] Such is the account I heard of the
Asopus. When you have turned from the Acrocorinthus into the mountain road you see
the Teneatic gate and a sanctuary of Eilethyia. The town called Tenea is just about
sixty stades distant. The inhabitants say that they are Trojans who were taken prisoners
in Tenedos by the Greeks, and were permitted by Agamemnon to dwell in their present
home. For this reason they honor Apollo more than any other god.
[2.5.5] As you go from Corinth, not into the interior but along the road to Sicyon,
there is on the left not far from the city a burnt temple. There have, of course,
been many wars carried on in Corinthian territory, and naturally houses and sanctuaries
outside the wall have been fired. But this temple, they say, was Apollo's, and Pyrrhus
the son of Achilles burned it down. Subsequently I heard another account, that the
Corinthians built the temple for Olympian Zeus, and that suddenly fire from some
quarter fell on it and destroyed it.[2.5.6] The Sicyonians, the neighbours of the
Corinthians at this part of the border, say about their own land that Aegialeus
was its first and aboriginal inhabitant, that the district of the Peloponnesus still
called Aegialus was named after him because he reigned over it, and that he founded
the city Aegialea on the plain. Their citadel, they say, was where is now their
sanctuary of Athena; further, that Aegialeus begat Europs, Europs Telchis, and Telchis
Apis. [2.5.7] This Apis reached such a height of power before Pelops came to Olympia
that all the territory south of the Isthmus was called after him Apia. Apis begat
Thelxion, Thelxion Aegyrus, the Thurimachus, and Thurimachus Leucippus. Leucippus
had no male issue, only a daughter Calchinia. There is a story that this Calchinia
mated with Poseidon; her child was reared by Leucippus, who at his death handed
over to him the kingdom. His name was Peratus.
[2.5.8] What is reported of Plemnaeus, the son of Peratus, seemed to me very
wonderful. All the children borne to him by his wife died the very first time they
wailed. At last Demeter took pity on Plemnaeus, came to Aegialea in the guise of
a strange woman, and reared for Plemnaeus his son Orthopolis. Orthopolis had a daughter
Chrysorthe, who is thought to have borne a son named Coronus to Apollo. Coronus
had two sons, Corax and a younger one Lamedon.
[2.6.1] Corax died without issue, and at about this time came Epopeus from Thessaly
and took the kingdom. In his reign the first hostile army is said to have invaded
the land, which before this had enjoyed unbroken peace. The reason was this. Antiope,
the daughter of Nycteus, had a name among the Greeks for beauty, and there was also
a report that her father was not Nycteus but Asopus, the river that separates the
territories of Thebes and Plataea.[2.6.2] This woman Epopeus carried off but I do
not know whether he asked for her hand or adopted a bolder policy from the beginning.
The Thebans came against him in arms, and in the battle Nycteus was wounded. Epopeus
also was wounded, but won the day. Nycteus they carried back ill to Thebes, and
when he was about to die he appointed to be regent of Thebes his brother Lycus for
Labdacus, the son of Polydorus, the son of Cadmus, being still a child, was the
ward of Nycteus, who on this occasion entrusted the office of guardian to Lycus.
He also besought him to attack Aegialea with a larger army and bring vengeance upon
Epopeus; Antiope herself, if taken, was to be punished.[2.6.3] As to Epopeus, he
forthwith offered sacrifice for his victory and began a temple of Athena, and when
this was complete he prayed the goddess to make known whether the temple was finished
to her liking, and after the prayer they say that olive oil flowed before the temple.
Afterwards Epopeus also died of his wound, which he had neglected at first, so that
Lycus had now no need to wage war. For Lamedon, the son of Coronus, who became king
after Epopeus, gave up Antiope. As she was being taken to Thebes by way of Eleutherae,
she was delivered there on the road.[2.6.4] On this matter Asius the son of Amphiptolemus1
says in his poem:--
Zethus and Amphion had Antiope for their mother,
Daughter of Asopus, the swift, deep-eddying river,
Having conceived of Zeus and Epopeus, shepherd of peoples.2
Homer traces their descent to the more august side of their family, and says
that they were the first founders of Thebes, in my opinion distinguishing the lower
city from the Cadmea.[2.6.5] When Lamedon became king he took to wife an Athenian
woman, Pheno, the daughter of Clytius. Afterwards also, when war had arisen between
him and Archander and Architeles, the sons of Achaeus, he brought in as his ally
Sicyon from Attica, and gave him Zeuxippe his daughter to wife. This man became
king, and the land was named after him Sicyonia, and the city Sicyon instead of
Aegiale. But they say that Sicyon was not the son of Marathon, the son of Epopeus,
but of Metion the son of Erechtheus. Asius confirms their statement, while Hesiod
makes Sicyon the son of Erechtheus, and Ibycus says that his father was Pelops.[2.6.6]
Sicyon had a daughter Chthonophyle, and they say that she and Hermes were the parents
of Polybus. Afterwards she married Phlias, the son of Dionysus, and gave birth to
Androdamas. Polybus gave his daughter Lysianassa to Talaus the son of Bias, king
of the Argives; and when Adrastus fled from Argos he came to Polybus at Sicyon,
and afterwards on the death of Polybus he became king at Sicyon. When Adrastus returned
to Argos, Ianiscus, a descendant of Clytius the father-in-law of Lamedon, came from
Attica and was made king, and when Ianiscus died he was succeeded by Phaestus, said
to have been one of the children of Heracles.[2.6.7] After Phaestus in obedience
to an oracle migrated to Crete, the next king is said to have been Zeuxippus, the
son of Apollo and the nymph Syllis. On the death of Zeuxippus, Agamemnon led an
army against Sicyon and king Hippolytus, the son of Rhopalus, the son of Phaestus.
In terror of the army that was attacking him, Hippolytus agreed to become subject
to Agamemnon and the Mycenaeans. This Hippolytus was the father of Lacestades. Phalces
the son of Temenus, with the Dorians, surprised Sicyon by night, but did Lacestades
no harm, because he too was one of the Heracleidae, and made him partner in the
kingdom.
2,6,4,n1. fl. 640-617 B.C.
2,6,4,n2. Asius, unknown work
[2.7.1] From that time the Sicyonians became Dorians and their land a part of
the Argive territory. The city built by Aegialeus on the plain was destroyed by
Demetrius the son of Antigonus,1 who founded the modern city near what was once
the ancient citadel. The reason why the Sicyonians grew weak it would be wrong to
seek; we must be content with Homer's saying about Zeus:--
Many, indeed, are the cities of which he has levelled the strongholds.
When they had lost their power there came upon them an earthquake, which almost
depopulated their city and took from them many of their famous sights. It damaged
also the cities of Caria and Lycia, and the island of Rhodes was very violently
shaken, so that it was thought that the Sibyl had had her utterance about Rhodes2
fulfilled.
[2.7.2] When you have come from the Corinthian to the Sicyonian territory you
see the tomb of Lycus the Messenian, whoever this Lycus may be; for I can discover
no Messenian Lycus who practised the pentathlon1 or won a victory at Olympia. This
tomb is a mound of earth, but the Sicyonians themselves usually bury their dead
in a uniform manner. They cover the body in the ground, and over it they build a
basement of stone upon which they set pillars. Above these they put something very
like the pediment of a temple. They add no inscription, except that they give the
dead man's name without that of his father and bid him farewell.[2.7.3] After the
tomb of Lycus, but on the other side of the Asopus, there is on the right the Olympium,
and a little farther on, to the left of the road, the grave of Eupolis, 1 the Athenian
comic poet. Farther on, if you turn in the direction of the city, you see the tomb
of Xenodice, who died in childbirth. It has not been made after the native fashion,
but so as to harmonize best with the painting, which is very well worth seeing.
[2.7.4] Farther on from here is the grave of the Sicyonians who were killed at
Pellene, at Dyme of the Achaeans, in Megalopolis and at Sellasia.1 Their story I
will relate more fully presently. By the gate they have a spring in a cave, the
water of which does not rise out of the earth, but flows down from the roof of the
cave. For this reason it is called the Dripping Spring.[2.7.5] On the modern citadel
is a sanctuary of Fortune of the Height, and after it one of the Dioscuri. Their
images and that of Fortune are of wood. On the stage of the theater built under
the citadel is a statue of a man with a shield, who they say is Aratus, the son
of Cleinias. After the theater is a temple of Dionysus. The god is of gold and ivory,
and by his side are Bacchanals of white marble. These women they say are sacred
to Dionysus and maddened by his inspiration. The Sicyonians have also some images
which are kept secret. These one night in each year they carry to the temple of
Dionysus from what they call the Cosmeterium (Tiring-room), and they do so with
lighted torches and native hymns.
[2.7.6] The first is the one named Baccheus, set up by Androdamas, the son of
Phlias, and this is followed by the one called Lysius (Deliverer), brought from
Thebes by the Theban Phanes at the command of the Pythian priestess. Phanes came
to Sicyon when Aristomachus, the son of Cleodaeus, failed to understand the oracle1
given him, and therefore failed to return to the Peloponnesus. As you walk from
the temple of Dionysus to the market-place you see on the right a temple of Artemis
of the lake. A look shows that the roof has fallen in, but the inhabitants cannot
tell whether the image has been removed or how it was destroyed on the spot.[2.7.7]
Within the market-place is a sanctuary of Persuasion; this too has no image. The
worship of Persuasion was established among them for the following reason. When
Apollo and Artemis had killed Pytho they came to Aegialea to obtain purification.
Dread coming upon them at the place now named Fear, they turned aside to Carmanor
in Crete, and the people of Aegialea were smitten by a plague. When the seers bade
them propitiate Apollo and Artemis, [2.7.8] they sent seven boys and seven maidens
as suppliants to the river Sythas. They say that the deities, persuaded by these,
came to what was then the citadel, and the place that they reached first is the
sanctuary of Persuasion. Conformable with this story is the ceremony they perform
at the present day; the children go to the Sythas at the feast of Apollo, and having
brought, as they pretend, the deities to the sanctuary of Persuasion, they say that
they take them back again to the temple of Apollo. The temple stands in the modern
market-place, and was originally, it is said, made by Proetus, because in this place
his daughters recovered from their madness. [2.7.9] It is also said that in this
temple Meleager dedicated the spear with which he slew the boar. There is also a
story that the flutes of Marsyas are dedicated here. When the Silenus met with his
disaster, the river Marsyas carried the flutes to the Maeander; reappearing in the
Asopus they were cast ashore in the Sicyonian territory and given to Apollo by the
shepherd who found them. I found none of these offerings still in existence, for
they were destroyed by fire when the temple was burnt. The temple that I saw, and
its image, were dedicated by Pythocles.
2,7,1,n1. 303 B.C.
2,7,1,n2. That it should perish and he left destitute.
2,7,2,n1. See p. 157.
2,7,3,n1. Flourished at the time of the Peloponnesian war.
2,7,4,n1. 222 B.C.
2,7,6,n1. I To wait for "the third fruit," i.e. the third generation. It was
interpreted to mean the third year.
[2.8.1] The precinct near the sanctuary of Persuasion that is devoted to Roman
emperors was once the house of the tyrant Cleon. He became tyrant in the modern
city there was another tyranny while the Sicyonians still lived in the lower city,1
that of Cleisthenes, the son of Aristonymus, the son of Myron. Before this house
is a hero-shrine of Aratus,2 whose achievements eclipsed those of all contemporary
Greeks. His history is as follows.[2.8.2] After the despotism of Cleon, many of
those in authority were seized with such an ungovernable passion for tyranny that
two actually became tyrants together, Euthydemus and Timocleidas. These were expelled
by the people, who made Cleinias, the father of Aratus, their champion. A few years
afterwards Abantidas became tyrant. Before this time Cleinias had met his death,
and Aratus went into exile, either of his own accord or because he was compelled
to do so by Abantidas. Now Abantidas was killed by some natives, and his father
Paseas immediately became tyrant.[2.8.3] He was killed by Nicocles, who succeeded
him.1 This Nicocles was attacked by Aratus with a force of Sicyonian exiles and
Argive mercenaries. Making his attempt by night, he eluded some of the defenders
in the darkness; the others he overcame, and forced his way within the wall. Day
was now breaking, and taking the populace with him he hastened to the tyrant's house.
This he easily captured, but Nicocles himself succeeded in making his escape. Aratus
restored equality of political rights to the Sicyonians, striking a bargain for
those in exile; he restored to them their houses and all their other possessions
which had been sold, compensating the buyers out of his own purse.[2.8.4] Moreover,
as all the Greeks were afraid of the Macedonians and of Antigonus, the guardian
of Philip, the son of Demetrius, he induced the Sicyonians, who were Dorians, to
join the Achaean League. He was immediately elected general by the Achaeans, and
leading them against the Locrians of Amphissa and into the land of the Aetolians,
their enemies, he ravaged their territory. Corinth was held by Antigonus, and there
was a Macedonian garrison in the city, but he threw them into a panic by the suddenness
of his assault, winning a battle and killing among others Persaeus, the commander
of the garrison, who had studied philosophy under Zeno,1 the son of Mnaseas.[2.8.5]
When Aratus had liberated Corinth, the League was joined by the Epidaurians and
Troezenians inhabiting Argolian Acte, and by the Megarians among those beyond the
Isthmus, while Ptolemy made an alliance with the Achaeans. The Lacedaemonians and
king Agis, the son of Eudamidas, surprised and took Pellene by a sudden onslaught,
but when Aratus and his army arrived they were defeated in an engagement, evacuated
Pellene, and returned home under a truce.[2.8.6] After his success in the Peloponnesus,
Aratus thought it a shame to allow the Macedonians to hold unchallenged Peiraeus,
Munychia, Salamis, and Sunium; but not expecting to be able to take them by force
he bribed Diogenes, the commander of the garrisons, to give up the positions for
a hundred and fifty talents, himself helping the Athenians by contributing a sixth
part of the sum. He induced Aristomachus also, the tyrant of Argos, to restore to
the Argives their democracy and to join the Achaean League; he captured Mantinea
from the Lacedaemonians who held it. But no man finds all his plans turn out according
to his liking, and even Aratus was compelled to become an ally of the Macedonians
and Antigonus in the following way.
2,8,1,n1. c. 590 B.C.
2,8,1,n2. 271-213 B.C.
2,8,3,n1. 251 B.C.
2,8,4,n1. The Stoic philosopher (c. 360-270 B.C.).
[2.9.1] Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas, the son of Cleonymus, having succeeded
to the kingship at Sparta, resembled Pausanias1 in being dissatisfied with the established
constitution and in aiming at a tyranny. A more fiery man than Pausanias, and no
coward, he quickly succeeded by spirit and daring in accomplishing all his ambition.
He poisoned Eurydamidas, the king of the other2 royal house, while yet a boy, raised
to the throne by means of the ephors his brother Epicleidas, destroyed the power
of the senate, and appointed in its stead a nominal Council of Fathers. Ambitious
for greater things and for supremacy over the Greeks, he first attacked the Achaeans,
hoping if successful to have them as allies, and especially wishing that they should
not hinder his activities. [2.9.2] Engaging them at Dyme beyond Patrae, Aratus being
still leader of the Achaeans, he won the victory.1 In fear for the Achaeans and
for Sicyon itself, Aratus was forced by this defeat to bring in Antigouus as an
ally. Cleomenes had violated the peace which he had made with Antigonus and had
openly acted in many ways contrary to treaty, especially in laying waste Megalopolis.
So Antigonus crossed into the Peloponnesus and the Achaeans met Cleomenes at Sellasia.2
The Achaeans were victorious, the people of Sellasia were sold into slavery, and
Lacedaemon itself was captured. Antigonus and the Achaeans restored to the Lacedaemonians
the constitution of their fathers;[2.9.3] but of the children of Leonidas, Epicleidas
was killed in the battle, and Cleomenes fled to Egypt. Held in the highest honor
by Ptolemy, he came to be cast into prison, being convicted of inciting Egyptians
to rebel against their king. He made his escape from prison and began a riot among
the Alexandrians, but at last, on being captured, he fell by his own hand. The Lacedaemonians,
glad to be rid of Cleomenes, refused to be ruled by kings any longer, but the rest
of their ancient constitution they have kept to the present day. Antigonus remained
a constant friend of Aratus, looking upon him as a benefactor who hid helped him
to accomplish brilliant deeds.[2.9.4] But when Philip succeeded to the throne, since
Aratus did not approve of his violent treatment of his subjects, and in some cases
even opposed the accomplishment of his purposes, he killed Aratus by giving him
secretly a dose of poison. This fate came upon Aratus at Aegium, from which place
he was carried to Sicyon and buried, and there is still in that city the hero-shrine
of Aratus. Philip treated two Athenians, Eurycleides and Micon, in a similar way.
These men also, who were orators enjoying the confidence of the people, he killed
by poison.[2.9.5] After all, Philip himself in his turn was fated to suffer disaster
through the fatal cup. Philip's son, Demetrius, was poisoned by Perseus, his younger
son, and grief at the murder brought the father also to his grave. I mention the
incident in passing, with my mind turned to the inspired words of the poet Hesiod,1
that he who plots mischief against his neighbor directs it first to himself.
[2.9.6] After the hero-shrine of Aratus is an altar to Isthmian Poseidon, and
also a Zeus Meilichius (Gracious) and an Artemis named Patroa (Paternal), both of
them very inartistic works. The Meilichius is like a pyramid, the Artemis like a
pillar. Here too stand their council-chamber and a portico called Cleisthenean from
the name of him who built it. It was built from spoils by Cleisthenes, who helped
the Amphictyons in the war at Cirrha.1 In the market-place under the open sky is
a bronze Zeus, a work of Lysippus,2 and by the side of it a gilded Artemis.[2.9.7]
Hard by is a sanctuary of Apollo Lycius (Wolf-god), now fallen into ruins and not
worth any attention. For wolves once so preyed upon their flocks that there was
no longer any profit therefrom, and the god, mentioning a certain place where lay
a dry log, gave an oracle that the bark of this log mixed with meat was to be set
out for the beasts to eat. As soon as they tasted it the bark killed them, and that
log lay in my time in the sanctuary of the Wolf-god, but not even the guides of
the Sicyonians knew what kind of tree it was.[2.9.8] Next after this are bronze
portrait statues, said to be the daughters of Proetus, but the inscription I found
referred to other women. Here there is a bronze Heracles, made by Lysippus the Sicyonian,
and hard by stands Hermes of the Market-place.
2,9,1,n1. The victor of Plataea (479 B.C.). Afterwards put to death for treachery.
2,9,1,n2. There were two kings at Sparta, one from each of the two royal houses.
2,9,2,n1. 225 B.C.
2,9,2,n2. 222 B.C.
2,9,5,n1. Hes. WD 265
2,9,6,n1. c. 590 B.C.
2,9,6,n2. Contemporary of Alexander the Great.
[2.10.1] In the gymnasium not far from the market-place is dedicated a stone
Heracles made by Scopas.1 There is also in another place a sanctuary of Heracles.
The whole of the enclosure here they name Paedize; in the middle of the enclosure
is the sanctuary, and in it is an old wooden figure carved by Laphaes the Phliasian.
I will now describe the ritual at the festival. The story is that on coming to the
Sicyonian land Phaestus found the people giving offerings to Heracles as to a hero.
Phaestus then refused to do anything of the kind, but insisted on sacrificing to
him as to a god. Even at the present day the Sicyonians, after slaying a lamb and
burning the thighs upon the altar, eat some of the meat as part of a victim given
to a god, while the rest they offer as to a hero. The first day of the festival
in honor of Heracles they name . . . ; the second they call Heraclea.[2.10.2] From
here is a way to a sanctuary of Asclepius. On passing into the enclosure you see
on the left a building with two rooms. In the outer room lies a figure of Sleep,
of which nothing remains now except the head. The inner room is given over to the
Carnean Apollo; into it none may enter except the priests. In the portico lies a
huge bone of a sea-monster, and after it an image of the Dream-god and Sleep, surnamed
Epidotes (Bountiful), lulling to sleep a lion. Within the sanctuary on either side
of the entrance is an image, on the one hand Pan seated, on the other Artemis standing.
[2.10.3] When you have entered you see the god, a beardless figure of gold and
ivory made by Calamis.1 He holds a staff in one hand, and a cone of the cultivated
pine in the other. The Sicyonians say that the god was carried to them from Epidaurus
on a carriage drawn by two mules, that he was in the likeness of a serpent, and
that he was brought by Nicagora of Sicyon, the mother of Agasicles and the wife
of Echetimus. Here are small figures hanging from the roof. She who is on the serpent
they say is Aristodama, the mother of Aratus, whom they hold to be a son of Asclepius.
[2.10.4] Such are the noteworthy things that this enclosure presented to me, and
opposite is another enclosure, sacred to Aphrodite. The first thing inside is a
statue of Antiope. They say that her sons were Sicyonians, and because of them the
Sicyonians will have it that Antiope herself is related to themselves. After this
is the sanctuary of Aphrodite, into which enter only a female verger, who after
her appointment may not have intercourse with a man, and a virgin, called the Bath-bearer,
holding her sacred office for a year. All others are wont to behold the goddess
from the entrance, and to pray from that place.[2.10.5] The image, which is seated,
was made by the Sicyonian Canachus, who also fashioned the Apollo at Didyma of the
Milesians, and the Ismenian Apollo for the Thebans. It is made of gold and ivory,
having on its head a polos,1 and carrying in one hand a poppy and in the other an
apple. They offer the thighs of the victims, excepting pigs; the other parts they
burn for the goddess with juniper wood, but as the thighs are burning they add to
the offering a leaf of the paideros.
[2.10.6] This is a plant in the open parts of the enclosure, and it grows nowhere
else either in Sicyonia or in any other land. Its leaves are smaller than those
of the esculent oak, but larger than those of the holm; the shape is similar to
that of the oak-leaf. One side is of a dark color, the other is white. You might
best compare the color to that of white-poplar leaves.
[2.10.7] Ascending from here to the gymnasium you see in the right a sanctuary
of Artemis Pheraea. It is said that the wooden image was brought from Pherae. This
gymnasium was built for the Sicyonians by Cleinias, and they still train the youths
here. White marble images are here, an Artemis wrought only to the waist, and a
Heracles whose lower parts are similar to the square Hermae.
2,10,1,n1. Flourished first half of fourth century B.C.
2,10,3,n1. A famous early fifth century sculptor.
2,10,5,n1. A curiously shaped head-gear.
[2.11.1] Turning away from here towards the gate called Holy you see, not far
from the gate, a temple of Athena. Dedicated long ago by Epopeus, it surpassed all
its contemporaries in size and splendor. Yet the memory of even this was doomed
to perish through lapse of time--it was burnt down by lightning--but the altar there,
which escaped injury, remains down to the present day as Epopeus made it. Before
the altar a barrow has been raised for Epopeus himself, and near the grave are the
gods Averters of evil. Near them the Greeks perform such rites as they are wont
to do in order to avert misfortunes. They say that the neighboring sanctuary of
Artemis and Apollo was also made by Epopeus, and that of Hera after it by Adrastus.
I found no images remaining in either. Behind the sanctuary of Hera he built an
altar to Pan, and one to Helius (Sun) made of white marble.[2.11.2] On the way down
to the plain is a sanctuary of Demeter, said to have been founded by Plemnaeis as
a thank-offering to the goddess for the rearing of his son. A little farther away
from the sanctuary of Hera founded by Adrastus is a temple of the Carnean Apollo.
Only the pillars are standing in it; you will no longer find there walls or roof,
nor yet in that of Hera Pioneer. This temple was founded by Phalces, son of Temenus,
who asserted that Hera guided him on the road to Sicyon.[2.11.3] On the direct road
from Sicyon to Phlius, on the left of the road and just about ten stades from it,
is a grove called Pyraea, and in it a sanctuary of Hera Protectress and the Maid.
Here the men celebrate a festival by themselves, giving up to the women the temple
called Nymphon for the purposes of their festival. In the Nymphon are images of
Dionysus, Demeter, and the Maid, with only their faces exposed. The road to Titane
is sixty stades long, and too narrow to be used by carriages drawn by a yoke.[2.11.4]
At a distance along it, in my opinion, of twenty stades, to the left on the other
side of the Asopus, is a grove of holm oaks and a temple of the goddesses named
by the Athenians the August, and by the Sicyonians the Kindly Ones. On one day in
each year they celebrate a festival to them and offer sheep big with young as a
burnt offering, and they are accustomed to use a libation of honey and water, and
flowers instead of garlands. They practise similar rites at the altar of the Fates;
it is in an open space in the grove.[2.11.5] On turning back to the road, and having
crossed the Asopus again and reached the summit of the hill, you come to the place
where the natives say that Titan first dwelt. They add that he was the brother of
Helius (Sun), and that after him the place got the name Titane. My own view is that
he proved clever at observing the seasons of the year and the times when the sun
increases and ripens seeds and fruits, and for this reason was held to be the brother
of Helius. Afterwards Alexanor, the son of Machaon, the son of Asclepius, came to
Sicyonia and built the sanctuary of Asclepius at Titane.[2.11.6] The neighbors are
chiefly servants of the god, and within the enclosure are old cypress trees. One
cannot learn of what wood or metal the image is, nor do they know the name of the
maker, though one or two attribute it to Alexanor himself. Of the image can be seen
only the face, hands, and feet, for it has about it a tunic of white wool and a
cloak. There is a similar image of Health; this, too, one cannot see easily because
it is so surrounded with the locks of women, who cut them off and offer them to
the goddess, and with strips of Babylonian raiment. With whichever of these a votary
here is willing to propitiate heaven, the same instructions have been given to him,
to worship this image which they are pleased to call Health.[2.11.7] There are images
also of Alexanor and of Euamerion; to the former they give offerings as to a hero
after the setting of the sun; to Euamerion, as being a god, they give burnt sacrifices.
If I conjecture aright, the Pergamenes, in accordance with an oracle, call this
Euamerion Telesphorus (Accomplisher) while the Epidaurians call him Acesis (Cure).
There is also a wooden image of Coronis, but it has no fixed position anywhere in
the temple. While to the god are being sacrificed a bull, a lamb, and a pig, they
remove Coronis to the sanctuary of Athena and honor her there. The parts of the
victims which they offer as a burnt sacrifice, and they are not content with cutting
out the thighs, they burn on the ground, except the birds, which they burn on the
altar.
[2.11.8] In the gable at the ends are figures of Heracles and of Victories. In
the portico are dedicated images of Dionysus and Hecate, with Aphrodite, the Mother
of the gods, and Fortune. These are wooden, but Asclepius, surnamed Gortynian, is
of stone. They are unwilling to enter among the sacred serpents through fear, but
they place their food before the entrance and take no further trouble. Within the
enclosure is a bronze statue of a Sicyonian named Granianus, who won the following
victories at Olympia: the pentathlon1 twice, the foot-race, the double-course foot-race
twice, once without and once with the shield.
2,11,8,n1. See note on Paus. 1.29.5
[2.12.1] In Titane there is also a sanctuary of Athena, into which they bring
up the image of Coronis. In it is an old wooden figure of Athena, and I was told
that it, too, was struck by lightning. The sanctuary is built upon a hill, at the
bottom of which is an Altar of the Winds, and on it the priest sacrifices to the
winds one night in every year. He also performs other secret rites at four pits,
taming the fierceness of the blasts, and he is said to chant as well charms of Medea.
[2.12.2] On reaching Sicyon from Titane, as you go down to the shore you see
on the left of the road a temple of Hera having now neither image nor roof. They
say that its founder was Proetus, the son of Abas. When you have gone down to the
harbor called the Sicyonians' and turned towards Aristonautae, the Port of Pellene,
you see a little above the road on the left hand a sanctuary of Poseidon. Farther
along the highway is a river called the Helisson, and after it the Sythas, both
emptying themselves into the sea.[2.12.3] Phliasia borders on Sicyonia. The city
is just about forty stades distant from Titane, and there is a straight road to
it from Sicyon. That the Phliasians are in no way related to the Arcadians is shown
by the passage in Homer that deals with the list of the Arcadians, in which the
Sicyonians are not included among the Arcadian confederates. As my narrative progresses
it will become clear that they were Argive originally, and became Dorian later after
the return of the Heracleidae to the Peloponnesus. I know that most of the traditions
concerning the Phliasians are contradictory, but I shall make use of those which
have been most generally accepted. [2.12.4] They say that the first man in this
land was Aras, who sprang from the soil. He founded a city around that hillock which
even down to our day is called the Arantine Hill, not far distant from a second
hill on which the Phliasians have their citadel and their sanctuary of Hebe. Here,
then, he founded a city, and after him in ancient times both the land and the city
were called Arantia. While he was king, Asopus, said to be the son of Celusa and
Poseidon, discovered for him the water of the river which the present inhabitants
call after him Asopus. The tomb of Aras is in the place called Celeae, where they
say is also buried Dysaules of Eleusis.
[2.12.5] Aras had a son Aoris and a daughter Araethyrea, who, the Phliasians
say, were experienced hunters and brave warriors. Araethyrea died first, and Aoris,
in memory of his sister, changed the name of the land to Araethyrea. This is why
Homer, in making a list of Agamemnon's subjects, has the verse:
Orneae was their home and Araethyrea the delightful.1
The graves of the children of Aras are, in my opinion, on the Arantine Hill and
not in any other part of the land. On the top of them are far-seen gravestones,
and before the celebration of the mysteries of Demeter the people look at these
tombs and call Aras and his children to the libations.[2.12.6] The Argives say that
Phlias, who has given the land its third name, was the son of Ceisus, the son of
Temenus. This account I can by no means accept, but I know that he is called a son
of Dionysus, and that he is said to have been one of those who sailed on the Argo.
The verses of the Rhodian poet confirm me in my opinion:--
Came after these Phlias from Araethyrea to the muster;
Here did he dwell and prosper, because Dionysus his father
Cared for him well, and his home was near to the springs of Asopus.1
The account goes on to say that the mother of Phlias was Araethyrea and not Chthonophyle.
The latter was his wife and bore him Androdamas.
2,12,5,n1. Hom. Il. 2.571
2,12,6,n1. Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica 1.115-117.
[2.13.1] On the return of the Heracleidae disturbances took place throughout
the whole of the Peloponnesus except Arcadia, so that many of the cities received
additional settlers from the Dorian race, and their inhabitants suffered yet more
revolutions. The history of Phlius is as follows. The Dorian Rhegnidas, the son
of Phalces, the son of Temenus, attacked it from Argos and Sicyonia. Some of the
Phliasians were inclined to accept the offer of Rhegnidas, which was that they should
remain on their own estates and receive Rhegnidas as their king, giving the Dorians
with him a share in the land. [2.13.2] Hippasus and his party, on the other hand,
urged the citizens to defend themselves, and not to give up many advantages to the
Dorians without striking a blow. The people, however, accepted the opposite policy,
and so Hippasus and any others who wished fled to Samos. Great-grandson of this
Hippasus was Pythagoras,1 the celebrated sage. For Pythagoras was the son of Mnesarchus,
the son of Euphranor, the son of Hippasus. This is the account the Phliasians give
about themselves, and the Sicyonians in general agree with them. [2.13.3] I will
now add an account of the most remarkable of their famous sights. On the Phliasian
citadel is a grove of cypress trees and a sanctuary which from ancient times has
been held to be peculiarly holy. The earliest Phliasians named the goddess to whom
the sanctuary belongs Ganymeda; but later authorities call her Hebe, whom Homer1
mentions in the duel between Menelaus and Alexander, saying that she was the cup-bearer
of the gods; and again he says, in the descent of Odysseus to Hell,2 that she was
the wife of Heracles. Olen,3 in his hymn to Hera, says that Hera was reared by the
Seasons, and that her children were Ares and Hebe. Of the honors that the Phliasians
pay to this goddess the greatest is the pardoning of suppliants.[2.13.4] All those
who seek sanctuary here receive full forgiveness, and prisoners, when set free,
dedicate their fetters on the trees in the grove. The Phliasians also celebrate
a yearly festival which they call Ivy-cutters. There is no image, either kept in
secret or openly displayed, and the reason for this is set forth in a sacred legend
of theirs though on the left as you go out is a temple of Hera with an image of
Parian marble.
[2.13.5] On the citadel is another enclosure, which is sacred to Demeter, and
in it are a temple and statue of Demeter and her daughter. Here there is also a
bronze statue of Artemis, which appeared to me to be ancient. As you go down from
the citadel you see on the right a temple of Asclepius with an image of the god
as a beardless youth. Below this temple is built a theater. Not far from it is a
sanctuary of Demeter and old, seated images.[2.13.6] On the market-place is a votive
offering, a bronze she-goat for the most part covered with gold. The following is
the reason why it has received honors among the Phliasians. The constellation which
they call the Goat on its rising causes continual damage to the vines. In order
that they may suffer nothing unpleasant from it, the Phliasians pay honors to the
bronze goat on the market-place and adorn the image with gold. Here also is the
tomb of Aristias, the son of Pratinas.1 This Aristias and his father Pratinas composed
satyric plays more popular than any save those of Aeschylus.[2.13.7] Behind the
market-place is a building which the Phliasians name the House of Divination. Into
it Amphiaraus entered, slept the night there, and then first, say the Phliasians,
began to divine. According to their account Amphiaraus was for a time an ordinary
person and no diviner. Ever since that time the building has been shut up. Not far
away is what is called the Omphalos (Navel), the center of all the Peloponnesus,
if they speak the truth about it. Farther on from the Omphalos they have an old
sanctuary of Dionysus, a sanctuary of Apollo, and one of Isis. The image of Dionysus
is visible to all, and so also is that of Apollo, but the image of Isis only the
priests may behold.
[2.13.8] The Phliasians tell also the following legend. When Heracles came back
safe from Libya, bringing the apples of the Hesperides, as they were called, he
visited Phlius on some private matter. While he was staying there Oeneus came to
him from Aetolia. He had already allied himself to the family of Heracles, and after
his arrival on this occasion either he entertained Heracles or Heracles entertained
him. Be this as it may, displeased with the drink given him Heracles struck on the
head with one of his fingers the boy Cyathus, the cup-bearer of Oeneus, who died
on the spot from the blow. A chapel keeps the memory of the deed fresh among the
Phliasians; it is built by the side of the sanctuary of Apollo, and it contains
statues made of stone representing Cyathus holding out a cup to Heracles.
2,13,2,n1. The philosopher and mathematician.Fl. c. 527 B.C.
2,13,3,n1. Hom. Il. 4.2 foll.
2,13,3,n2. Hom. Od. 11.603
2,13,3,n3. A mythical poet of Greece, associated with Apollo.
2,13,6,n1. fl. c. 500 B.C.
[2.14.1] Celeae is some five stades distant from the city, and here they celebrate
the mysteries in honor of Demeter, not every year but every fourth year. The initiating
priest is not appointed for life, but at each celebration they elect a fresh one,
who takes, if he cares to do so, a wife. In this respect their custom differs from
that at Eleusis, but the actual celebration is modelled on the Eleusinian rites.
The Phliasians themselves admit that they copy the "performance" at Eleusis.[2.14.2]
They say that it was Dysaules, the brother of Celeus, who came to their land and
established the mysteries, and that he had been expelled from Eleusis by Ion, when
Ion, the son of Xuthus, was chosen by the Athenians to be commander-in-chief in
the Eleusinian war. Now I cannot possibly agree with the Phliasians in supposing
that an Eleusinian was conquered in battle and driven away into exile, for the war
terminated in a treaty before it was fought out, and Eumolpus himself remained at
Eleusis.[2.14.3] But it is possible that Dysaules came to Phlius for some other
reason than that given by the Phliasians. I do not believe either that he was related
to Celeus, or that he was in any way distinguished at Eleusis, otherwise Homer would
never have passed him by in his poems. For Homer is one of those who have written
in honor of Demeter, and when he is making a list of those to whom the goddess taught
the mysteries he knows nothing of an Eleusinian named Dysaules. These are the verses:--
She to Triptolemus taught, and to Diocles, driver of horses,
Also to mighty Eumolpus, to Celeus, leader of peoples,
Cult of the holy rites, to them all her mystery telling.1
[2.14.4] At all events, this Dysaules, according to the Phliasians, established
the mysteries here, and he it was who gave to the place the name Celeae. I have
already said that the tomb of Dysaules is here. So the grave of Aras was made earlier,
for according to the account of the Phliasians Dysaules did not arrive in the reign
of Aras, but later. For Aras, they say, was a contemporary of Prometheus, the son
of Iapetus, and three generations of men older than Pelasgus the son of Arcas and
those called at Athens aboriginals. On the roof of what is called the Anactorum
they say is dedicated the chariot of Pelops.
2,14,3,n1. HH Dem. 474-476
[2.15.1] These are the things that I found most worthy of mention among the Phliasians.
On the road from Corinth to Argos is a small city Cleonae. They say that Cleones
was a son of Pelops, though there are some who say that Cleone was one of the daughters
of Asopus, that flows by the side of Sicyon. Be this as it may, one or other of
these two accounts for the name of the city. Here there is a sanctuary of Athena,
and the image is a work of Scyllis and Dipoenus.1 Some hold them to have been the
pupils of Daedalus, but others will have it that Daedalus took a wife from Gortyn,
and that Dipoenus and Scyllis were his sons by this woman. Cleonae possesses this
sanctuary and the tomb of Eurytus and Cteatus. The story is that as they were going
as ambassadors from Elis to the Isthmian contest they were here shot by Heracles,
who charged them with being his adversaries in the war against Augeas.[2.15.2] From
Cleonae to Argos are two roads; one is direct and only for active men, the other
goes along the pass called Tretus (Pierced), is narrow like the other, being surrounded
by mountains, but is nevertheless more suitable for carriages. In these mountains
is still shown the cave of the famous lion, and the place Nemea is distant some
fifteen stades. In Nemea is a noteworthy temple of Nemean Zeus, but I found that
the roof had fallen in and that there was no longer remaining any image. Around
the temple is a grove of cypress trees, and here it is, they say, that Opheltes
was placed by his nurse in the grass and killed by the serpent.[2.15.3] The Argives
offer burnt sacrifices to Zeus in Nemea also, and elect a priest of Nemean Zeus;
moreover they offer a prize for a race in armour at the winter celebration of the
Nemean games. In this place is the grave of Opheltes; around it is a fence of stones,
and within the enclosure are altars. There is also a mound of earth which is the
tomb of Lycurgus, the father of Opheltes. The spring they call Adrastea for some
reason or other, perhaps because Adrastus found it. The land was named, they say,
after Nemea, who was another daughter of Asopus. Above Nemea is Mount Apesas, where
they say that Perseus first sacrificed to Zeus of Apesas.[2.15.4] Ascending to Tretus,
and again going along the road to Argos, you see on the left the ruins of Mycenae.
The Greeks are aware that the founder of Mycenae was Perseus, so I will narrate
the cause of its foundation and the reason why the Argives afterwards laid Mycenae
waste. The oldest tradition in the region now called Argolis is that when Inachus
was king he named the river after himself and sacrificed to Hera.
[2.15.5] There is also another legend which says that Phoroneus was the first
inhabitant of this land, and that Inachus, the father of Phoroneus, was not a man
but the river. This river, with the rivers Cephisus and Asterion, judged concerning
the land between Poseidon and Hera. They decided that the land belonged to Hera,
and so Poseidon made their waters disappear. For this reason neither Inachus nor
either of the other rivers I have mentioned provides any water except after rain.
In summer their streams are dry except those at Lerna. Phoroneus, the son of Inachus,
was the first to gather together the inhabitants, who up to that time had been scattered
and living as isolated families. The place into which they were first gathered was
named the City of Phoroneus.
2,15,1,n1. fl. sixth cent. B.C.
[2.16.1] Argus, the grandson of Phoroneus, succeeding to the throne after Phoroneus,
gave his name to the land. Argus begat Peirasus and Phorbas, Phorbas begat Triopas,
and Triopas begat Iasus and Agenor. Io, the daughter of Iasus, went to Egypt, whether
the circumstances be as Herodotus records or as the Greeks say. After Iasus, Crotopus,
the son of Agenor, came to the throne and begat Sthenelas, but Danaus sailed from
Egypt against Gelanor, the son of Sthenelas, and stayed the succession to the kingdom
of the descendants of Agenor. What followed is known to all alike: the crime the
daughters of Danaus committed against their cousins, and how, on the death of Danaus,
Lynceus succeeded him. [2.16.2] But the sons of Abas, the son of Lynceus, divided
the kingdom between themselves; Acrisius remained where he was at Argos, and Proetus
took over the Heraeum, Mideia, Tiryns, and the Argive coast region. Traces of the
residence of Proetus in Tiryns remain to the present day. Afterwards Acrisius, learning
that Perseus himself was not only alive but accomplishing great achievements, retired
to Larisa on the Peneus. 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 his inventing the quoit, he gave displays before
all, and Acrisius, as luck would have it, stepped unnoticed into the path of the
quoit.[2.16.3] So the prediction of the god to Acrisius found its fulfillment, nor
was his fate prevented by his precautions against his daughter and grandson. Perseus,
ashamed because of the gossip about the homicide, on his return to Argos induced
Megapenthes, the son of Proetus, to make an exchange of kingdoms; taking over himself
that of Megapenthes, he founded Mycenae. For on its site the cap (myces) fell from
his scabbard, and he regarded this as a sign to found a city. I have also heard
the following account. He was thirsty, and the thought occurred to him to pick up
a mushroom (myces) from the ground. Drinking with joy water that flowed from it,
he gave to the place the name of Mycenae.[2.16.4] Homer in the Odyssey mentions
a woman Mycene in the following verse:--
Tyro and Alcmene and the fair-crowned lady Mycene.1
She is said to have been the daughter of Inachus and the wife of Arestor in the
poem which the Greeks call the Great Eoeae. So they say that this lady has given
her name to the city. But the account which is attributed to Acusilaus, that Myceneus
was the son of Sparton, and Sparton of Phoroneus, I cannot accept, because the Lacedaemonians
themselves do not accept it either. For the Lacedaemonians have at Amyclae a portrait
statue of a woman named Sparte, but they would be amazed at the mere mention of
a Sparton, son of Phoroneus.[2.16.5] It was jealousy which caused the Argives to
destroy Mycenae. For at the time of the Persian invasion the Argives made no move,
but the Mycenaeans sent eighty men to Thermopylae who shared in the achievement
of the Lacedaemonians. This eagerness for distinction brought ruin upon them by
exasperating the Argives. There still remain, however, parts of the city wall, including
the gate, upon which stand lions. These, too, are said to be the work of the Cyclopes,
who made for Proetus the wall at Tiryns.[2.16.6] In the ruins of Mycenae is a fountain
called Persea; there are also underground chambers of Atreus and his children, in
which were stored their treasures. There is the grave of Atreus, along with the
graves of such as returned with Agamemnon from Troy, and were murdered by Aegisthus
after he had given them a banquet. As for the tomb of Cassandra, it is claimed by
the Lacedaemonians who dwell around Amyclae. Agamemnon has his tomb, and so has
Eurymedon the charioteer, while another is shared by Teledamus and Pelops, twin
sons, they say, of Cassandra,
[2.16.7] whom while yet babies Aegisthus slew after their parents. Electra has
her tomb, for Orestes married her to Pylades. Hellanicus adds that the children
of Pylades by Electra were Medon and Strophius. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus were
buried at some little distance from the wall. They were thought unworthy of a place
within it, where lay Agamemnon himself and those who were murdered with him.
2,16,4,n1. Hom. Od., unknown line
[2.17.1] Fifteen stades distant from Mycenae is on the left the Heraeum. Beside
the road flows the brook called Water of Freedom. The priestesses use it in purifications
and for such sacrifices as are secret. The sanctuary itself is on a lower part of
Euboea. Euboea is the name they give to the hill here, saying that Asterion the
river had three daughters, Euboea, Prosymna, and Acraea, and that they were nurses
of Hera. [2.17.2] The hill opposite the Heraeum they name after Acraea, the environs
of the sanctuary they name after Euboea, and the land beneath the Heraeum after
Prosymna. This Asterion flows above the Heraeum, and falling into a cleft disappears.
On its banks grows a plant, which also is called asterion. They offer the plant
itself to Hera, and from its leaves weave her garlands.[2.17.3] It is said that
the architect of the temple was Eupolemus, an Argive. The sculptures carved above
the pillars refer either to the birth of Zeus and the battle between the gods and
the giants, or to the Trojan war and the capture of Ilium. Before the entrance stand
statues of women who have been priestesses to Hera and of various heroes, including
Orestes. They say that Orestes is the one with the inscription, that it represents
the Emperor Augustus. In the fore-temple are on the one side ancient statues of
the Graces, and on the right a couch of Hera and a votive offering, the shield which
Menelaus once took from Euphorbus at Troy. [2.17.4] The statue of Hera is seated
on a throne; it is huge, made of gold and ivory, and is a work of Polycleitus. She
is wearing a crown with Graces and Seasons worked upon it, and in one hand she carries
a pomegranate and in the other a sceptre. About the pomegranate I must say nothing,
for its story is somewhat of a holy mystery. The presence of a cuckoo seated on
the sceptre they explain by the story that when Zeus was in love with Hera in her
maidenhood he changed himself into this bird, and she caught it to be her pet. This
tale and similar legends about the gods I relate without believing them, but I relate
them nevertheless.[2.17.5] By the side of Hera stands what is said to be an image
of Hebe fashioned by Naucydes; it, too, is of ivory and gold. By its side is an
old image of Hera on a pillar. The oldest image is made of wild-pear wood, and was
dedicated in Tiryns by Peirasus, son of Argus, and when the Argives destroyed Tiryns
they carried it away to the Heraeum. I myself saw it, a small, seated image.[2.17.6]
Of the votive offerings the following are noteworthy. There is an altar upon which
is wrought in relief the fabled marriage of Hebe and Heracles. This is of silver,
but the peacock dedicated by the Emperor Hadrian is of gold and gleaming stones.
He dedicated it because they hold the bird to be sacred to Hera. There lie here
a golden crown and a purple robe, offerings of Nero.[2.17.7] Above this temple are
the foundations of the earlier temple and such parts of it as were spared by the
flames. It was burnt down because sleep overpowered Chryseis, the priestess of Hera,
when the lamp before the wreaths set fire to them. Chryseis went to Tegea and supplicated
Athena Alea. Although so great a disaster had befallen them the Argives did not
take down the statue of Chryseis; it is still in position in front of the burnt
temple.
[2.18.1] By the side of the road from Mycenae to Argos there is on the left hand
a hero-shrine of Perseus. The neighboring folk, then, pay him honors here, but the
greatest honors are paid to him in Seriphus and among the Athenians, who have a
precinct sacred to Perseus and an altar of Dictys and Clymene, who are called the
saviours of Perseus. Advancing a little way in the Argive territory from this hero-shrine
one sees on the right the grave of Thyestes. On it is a stone ram, because Thyestes
obtained the golden lamb after debauching his brother's wife. But Atreus was not
restrained by prudence from retaliating, but contrived the slaughter of the children
of Thyestes and the banquet of which the poets tell us.[2.18.2] But as to what followed,
I cannot say for certain whether Aegisthus began the sin or whether Agamemnon sinned
first in murdering Tantalus, the son of Thyestes. It is said that Tantalus had received
Clytaemnestra in marriage from Tyndareus when she was still a virgin. I myself do
not wish to condemn them of having been wicked by nature; but if the pollution of
Pelops and the avenging spirit of Myirtilus dogged their steps so long, it was after
all only consistent that the Pythian priestess said to the Spartan Glaucus, the
son of Epicydes, who consulted her about breaking his oath, that the punishment
for this also comes upon the descendants of the sinner.
[2.18.3] A little beyond the Rams--this is the name they give to the tomb of
Thyestes--there is on the left a place called Mysia and a sanctuary of Mysian Demeter,
so named from a man Mysius who, say the Argives, was one of those who entertained
Demeter. Now this sanctuary has no roof, but in it is another temple, built of burnt
brick, and wooden images of the Maid, Pluto and Demeter. Farther on is a river called
Inachus, and on the other side of it an altar of Helius (the Sun). After this you
will come to a gate named after the sanctuary near it. This sanctuary belongs to
Eileithyia.[2.18.4] The Argives are the only Greeks that I know of who have been
divided into three kingdoms. For in the reign of Anaxagoras, son of Argeus, son
of Megapenthes, the women were smitten with madness, and straying from their homes
they roamed about the country, until Melampus the son of Amythaon cured them of
the plague on condition that he himself and his brother Bias had a share of the
kingdom equal to that of Anaxagoras. Now descended from Bias five men, Neleids on
their mother's side, occupied the throne for four generations down to Cyanippus,
son of Aegialeus, and descended from Melampus six men in six generations down to
Amphilochus, son of Amphiaraus.[2.18.5] But the native house of the family of Anaxagoras
ruled longer than the other two. For Iphis, son of Alector, son of Anaxagoras, left
the throne to Sthenelus, son of Capaneus his brother. After the capture of Troy,
Amphilochus migrated to the people now called the Amphilochians, and, Cyanippus
having died without issue, Cylarabes, son of Sthenelus, became sole king. However,
he too left no offspring, and Argos was seized by Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who
was a neighbor. Besides his ancestral dominion, he had extended his rule over the
greater part of Arcadia and had succeeded to the throne of Sparta; he also had a
contingent of Phocian allies always ready to help him.[2.18.6] When Orestes became
king of the Lacedaemonians, they themselves consented to accept him for they considered
that the sons of the daughter of Tyndareus had a claim to the throne prior to that
of Nicostratus and Megapenthes, who were sons of Menelaus by a slave woman. On the
death of Orestes, there succeeded to the throne Tisamenus, the son of Orestes and
of Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus. The mother of Penthilus, the bastard son
of Orestes, was, according to the poet Cinaethon, Erigone, the daughter of Aegisthus.
[2.18.7] It was in the reign of this Tisamenus that the Heracleidae returned to
the Peloponnesus; they were Temenus and Cresphontes, the sons of Aristomachus, together
with the sons of the third brother, Aristodemus, who had died. Their claim to Argos
and to the throne of Argos was, in my opinion, most just, because Tisamenus was
descended from Pelops, but the Heracleidae were descendants of Perseus. Tyndareus
himself, they made out, had been expelled by Hippocoon, and they said that Heracles,
having killed Hippocoon and his sons, had given the land in trust to Tyndareus.
They gave the same kind of account about Messenia also, that it had been given in
trust to Nestor by Heracles after he had taken Pylus.[2.18.8] So they expelled Tisamenus
from Lacedaemon and Argos, and the descendants of Nestor from Messenia, namely Alcmaeon,
son of Sillus, son of Thrasymedes, Peisistratus, son of Peisistratus, and the sons
of Paeon, son of Antilochus, and with them Melanthus, son of Andropompus, son of
Borus, son of Penthilus, son of Periclymenus. So Tisamenus and his sons went with
his army to the land that is now Achaia.
[2.18.9] To what people Peisistratus retreated I do not know, but the rest of
the Neleidae went to Athens, and the clans of the Paeonidae and of the Alcmaeonidae
were named after them. Melanthus even came to the throne, having deposed Thymoetes
the son of Oxyntes; for Thymoetes was the last Athenian king descended from Theseus.
[2.19.1] It is not to my purpose that I should set forth here the history of
Cresphontes and of the sons of Aristodemus. But Temenus openly employed, instead
of his sons, Delphontes, son of Antimachus, son of Thrasyanor, son of Ctesippus,
son of Heracles, as general in war and as adviser on all occasions. Even before
this he had made him his son-in-law, while Hyrnetho was his favorite daughter; he
was accordingly suspected of intending to divert the throne to her and Delphontes.
For this reason his sons plotted against him, and Ceisus, the eldest of them, seized
the kingdom.[2.19.2] But from the earliest times the Argives have loved freedom
and self-government, and they limited to the utmost the authority of their kings,
so that to Medon, the son of Ceisus, and to his descendants was left a kingdom that
was such only in name. Meltas, the son of Lacedas, the tenth descendant of Medon,
was condemned by the people and deposed altogether from the kingship.[2.19.3] The
most famous building in the city of Argos is the sanctuary of Apollo Lycius (Wolf-god).
The modern image was made by the Athenian Attalus,1 but the original temple and
wooden image were the offering of Danaus. I am of opinion that in those days all
images, especially Egyptian images, were made of wood. The reason why Danaus founded
a sanctuary of Apollo Lycius was this. On coming to Argos he claimed the kingdom
against Gelanor, the son of Sthenelas. Many plausible arguments were brought forward
by both parties, and those of Sthenelas were considered as fair as those of his
opponent; so the people, who were sitting in judgment, put off, they say, the decision
to the following day. [2.19.4] At dawn a wolf fell upon a herd of oxen that was
pasturing before the wall, and attacked and fought with the bull that was the leader
of the herd. It occurred to the Argives that Gelanor was like the bull and Danaus
like the wolf, for as the wolf will not live with men, so Danaus up to that time
had not lived with them. It was because the wolf overcame the bull that Danaus won
the kingdom. Accordingly, believing that Apollo had brought the wolf on the herd,
he founded a sanctuary of Apollo Lycius. [2.19.5] Here is dedicated the throne of
Danaus, and here Is placed a statue of Biton, in the form of a man carrying a bull
on his shoulders. According to the poet Lyceas, when the Argives were holding a
sacrifice to Zeus at Nemea, Biton by sheer physical strength took up a bull and
carried it there. Next to this statue is a fire which they keep burning, calling
it the fire of Phoroneus. For they do not admit that fire was given to mankind by
Prometheus, but insist in assigning the discovery of fire to Phoroneus.[2.19.6]
As to the wooden images of Aphrodite and Hermes, the one they say was made by Epeus,
while the other is a votive offering of Hypermnestra. She was the only one of the
daughters of Danaus who neglected his command,1 and was accordingly brought to justice
by him, because be considered that his life was in danger so long as Lynceus was
at large, and that the refusal to share in the crime of her sisters increased the
disgrace of the contriver of the deed. On her trial she was acquitted by the Argives,
and to commemorate her escape she dedicated an image of Aphrodite, the Bringer of
Victory.
[2.19.7] Within the temple is a statue of Ladas, the swiftest runner of his time,
and one of Hermes with a tortoise which he has caught to make a lyre. Before the
temple is a pit1 with a relief representing a fight between a bull and a wolf, and
with them a maiden throwing a rock at the bull. The maiden is thought to be Artemis.
Danaus dedicated these, and some pillars hard by and wooden images of Zeus and Artemis.
[2.19.8] Here are graves; one is that of Linus, the son of Apollo by Psamathe,
the daughter of Crotopus; the other, they say, is that of Linus the poet. The story
of the latter Linus is more appropriate to another part of my narrative, and so
I omit it here, while I have already given the history of the son of Psamathe in
my account of Megara. After these is an image of Apollo, God of Streets, and an
altar of Zeus, God of Rain, where those who were helping Polyneices in his efforts
to be restored to Thebes swore an oath together that they would either capture Thebes
or die. As to the tomb of Prometheus, their account seems to me to be less probable
than that of the Opuntians,1 but they hold to it nevertheless.
2,19,3,n1. A sculptor of unknown date
2,19,6,n1. To kill their husbands.
2,19,7,n1. Or (readingbathron pepoienandechon) "pedestal."
2,19,8,n1. i.e. both peoples claimed to have the grave.
[2.20.1] Passing over a statue of Creugas, a boxer, and a trophy that was set
up to celebrate a victory over the Corinthians, you come to a seated image of Zeus
Meilichius (Gracious), made of white marble by Polycleitus.1 I discovered that it
was made for the following reason. Ever since the Lacedaemonians began to make war
upon the Argives there was no cessation of hostilities until Philip, the son of
Amyntas, forced them to stay within the original boundaries of their territories.
Before this, if the Lacedaemonians were not engaged on some business outside the
Peloponnesus, they were always trying to annex a piece of Argive territory; or if
they were busied with a war beyond their borders it was the turn of the Argives
to retaliate. [2.20.2] When the hatred of both sides was at its height, the Argives
resolved to maintain a thousand picked men. The commander appointed over them was
the Argive Bryas. His general behavior to the men of the people was violent, and
a maiden who was being taken to the bridegroom he seized from those who were escorting
her and ravished. When night came on, the girl waited until he was asleep and put
out his eyes. Detected in the morning, she took refuge as a suppliant with the people.
When they did not give her up to the Thousand for punishment both sides took up
arms; the people won the day, and in their anger left none of their opponents alive.1
Subsequently they had recourse to purifications for shedding kindred blood; among
other things they dedicated an image of Zeus Meilichius.[2.20.3] Hard by are Cleobis
and Biton carved in relief on stone, themselves drawing the carriage and taking
in it their mother to the sanctuary of Hera. Opposite them is a sanctuary of Nemean
Zeus, and an upright bronze statue of the god made by Lysippus.1 Going forward from
this you see on the right the grave of Phoroneus, to whom even in our time they
bring offerings as to a hero. Over against the Nemean Zeus is a temple of Fortune,
which must be very old if it be the one in which Palamedes dedicated the dice that
he had invented.[2.20.4] The tomb near this they call that of the maenad Chorea,
saying that she was one of the women who joined Dionysus in his expedition against
Argos, and that Perseus, being victorious in the battle, put most of the women to
the sword. To the rest they gave a common grave, but to Chorea they gave burial
apart because of her high rank.[2.20.5] A little farther on is a sanctuary of the
Seasons. On coming back from here you see statues of Polyneices, the son of Oedipus,
and of all the chieftains who with him were killed in battle at the wall of Thebes.
These men Aeschylus has reduced to the number of seven only, although there were
more chiefs than this in the expedition, from Argos, from Messene, with some even
from Arcadia. But the Argives have adopted the number seven from the drama of Aeschylus,
and near to their statues are the statues of those who took Thebes: Aegialeus, son
of Adrastus; Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus, son of Talaus; Polydorus, son of Hippomedon;
Thersander; Alcmaeon and Amphilochus, the sons of Amphiaraus; Diomedes, and Sthenelus.
Among their company were also Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, and Adrastus and Timeas,
sons of Polyneices.[2.20.6] Not far from the statues are shown the tomb of Danaus
and a cenotaph of the Argives who met their death at Troy or on the journey home.
Here there is also a sanctuary of Zeus the Saviour. Beyond it is a building where
the Argive women bewail Adonis. On the right of the entrance is the sanctuary of
Cephisus. It is said that the water of this river was not utterly destroyed by Poseidon,
but that just in this place, where the sanctuary is, it can be heard flowing under
the earth.
[2.20.7] Beside the sanctuary of Cephisus is a head of Medusa made of stone,
which is said to be another of the works of the Cyclopes. The ground behind it is
called even at the present time the Place of Judgment, because it was here that
they say Hypermnestra was brought to judgment by Danaus. Not far from this is a
theater. In it are some noteworthy sights, including a representation of a man killing
another, namely the Argive Perilaus, the son of Alcenor, killing the Spartan Othryadas.
Before this, Perilaus had succeeded in winning the prize for wrestling at the Nemean
games.[2.20.8] Above the theater is a sanctuary of Aphrodite, and before the image
is a slab with a representation wrought on it in relief of Telesilla, the lyric
poetess. Her books lie scattered at her feet, and she herself holds in her hand
an helmet, which she is looking at and is about to place on her head. Telesilla
was a distinguished woman who was especially renowned for her poetry. It happened
that the Argives had suffered an awful defeat at the hands of Cleomenes, the son
of Anaxandrides, and the Lacedaemonians. Some fell in the actual fighting; others,
who had fled to the grove of Argus, also perished. At first they left sanctuary
under an agreement, which was treacherously broken, and the survivors, when they
realized this, were burnt to death in the grove. So when Cleomenes led his troops
to Argos there were no men to defend it.1 [2.20.9] But Telesilla mounted on the
wall all the slaves and such as were incapable of bearing arms through youth or
old age, and she herself, collecting the arms in the sanctuaries and those that
were left in the houses, armed the women of vigorous age, and then posted them where
she knew the enemy would attack. When the Lacedaemonians came on, the women were
not dismayed at their battle-cry, but stood their ground and fought valiantly. Then
the Lacedaemonians, realizing that to destroy the women would be an invidious success
while defeat would mean a shameful disaster, gave way before the women.
[2.20.10] This fight had been foretold by the Pythian priestess in the oracle
quoted by Herodotus, who perhaps understood to what it referred and perhaps did
not:--
But when the time shall come that the female conquers in battle,
Driving away the male, and wins great glory in Argos,
Many an Argive woman will tear both cheeks in her sorrow.1
Such are the words of the oracle referring to the exploit of the women.
2,20,1,n1. c. 480-410 B.C.
2,20,2,n1. 418 B.C.
2,20,3,n1. See p. 297.
2,20,8,n1. 510 B.C.
2,20,10,n1. Hdt. 6.77
[2.21.1] Having descended thence, and having turned again to the market-place,
we come to the tomb of Cerdo, the wife of Phoroneus, and to a temple of Asclepius.
The sanctuary of Artemis, surnamed Persuasion, is another offering of Hypermnestra
after winning the trial to which she was brought by her father because of Lynceus.
Here there is also a bronze statue of Aeneas, and a place called Delta. I intentionally
do not discuss the origin of the name, because I could not accept the traditional
accounts.[2.21.2] In front of it stands an altar of Zeus Phyxius (God of Fight),
and near is the tomb of Hypermnestra, the mother of Amphiaraus, the other tomb being
that of Hypermnestra, the daughter of Danaus, with whom is also buried Lynceus.
Opposite these is the grave of Talaus, the son of Bias; the history of Bias and
his descendants I have already given. [2.21.3] A sanctuary of Athena Trumpet they
say was founded by Hegeleos. This Hegeleos, according to the story, was the son
of Tyrsenus, and Tyrsenus was the son of Heracles and the Lydian woman; Tyrsenus
invented the trumpet, and Hegeleos, the son of Tyrsenus, taught the Dorians with
Temenus how to play the instrument, and for this reason gave Athena the surname
Trumpet. Before the temple of Athena is, they say, the grave of Epimenides. The
Argive story is that the Lacedaemonians made war upon the Cnossians and took Epimenides
alive; they then put him to death for not prophesying good luck to them, and the
Argives taking his body buried it here.[2.21.4] The building of white marble in
just about the middle of the marketplace is not, as the Argives declare, a trophy
in honor of a victory over Pyrrhus of Epeirus, but it can be shown that his body
was burnt here, and that this is his monument, on which are carved in relief the
elephants and his other instruments of warfare. This building then was set up where
the pyre stood, but the bones of Pyrrhus lie in the sanctuary of Demeter, beside
which, as I have shown in my account of Attica, his death occurred. At the entrance
to this sanctuary of Demeter you can see a bronze shield of Pyrrhus hanging dedicated
over the door.[2.21.5] Not far from the building in the market-place of Argos is
a mound of earth, in which they say lies the head of the Gorgon Medusa. I omit the
miraculous, but give the rational parts of the story about her. After the death
of her father, Phorcus, she reigned over those living around Lake Tritonis, going
out hunting and leading the Libyans to battle. On one such occasion, when she was
encamped with an army over against the forces of Perseus, who was followed by picked
troops from the Peloponnesus, she was assassinated by night. Perseus, admiring her
beauty even in death, cut off her head and carried it to show the Greeks.[2.21.6]
But Procles, the son of Eucrates, a Carthaginian, thought a different account more
plausible than the preceding. It is as follows. Among the incredible monsters to
be found in the Libyan desert are wild men and wild women. Procles affirmed that
he had seen a man from them who had been brought to Rome. So he guessed that a woman
wandered from them, reached Lake Tritonis, and harried the neighbours until Perseus
killed her; Athena was supposed to have helped him in this exploit, because the
people who live around Lake Tritonis are sacred to her.[2.21.7] In Argos, by the
side of this monument of the Gorgon, is the grave of Gorgophone (Gorgon-kilIer),
the daughter of Perseus. As soon as you hear the name you can understand the reason
why it was given her. On the death of her husband, Perieres, the son of Aeolus,
whom she married when a virgin, she married Oebalus, being the first woman, they
say, to marry a second time; for before this wives were wont, on the death of their
husbands, to live as widows.
[2.21.8] In front of the grave is a trophy of stone made to commemorate a victory
over an Argive Laphaes. When this man was tyrant I write what the Argives themselves
say concerning themselves--the people rose up against him and cast him out. He fled
to Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians tried to restore him to power, but were defeated
by the Argives, who killed the greater part of them and Laphaes as well.Not far
from the trophy is the sanctuary of Leto; the image is a work of Praxiteles.[2.21.9]
The statue of the maiden beside the goddess they call Chloris (Pale), saying that
she was a daughter of Niobe, and that she was called Meliboea at the first. When
the children of Amphion were destroyed by Apollo and Arternis, she alone of her
sisters, along with Amyclas, escaped; their escape was due to their prayers to Leto.
Meliboea was struck so pale by her fright, not only at the time but also for the
rest of her life, that even her name was accordingly changed from Meliboea to Chloris.[2.21.10]
Now the Argives say that these two built originally the temple to Leto, but I think
that none of Niobe's children survived, for I place more reliance than others on
the poetry of Homer, one of whose verses bears out my view:--
Though they were only two, yet they gave all to destruction.1
So Homer knows that the house of Amphion was utterly overthrown.
2,21,10,n1. Hom. Il. 24.609
[2.22.1] The temple of Hera Anthea (Flowery) is on the right of the sanctuary
of Leto, and before it is a grave of women. They were killed in a battle against
the Argives under Perseus, having come from the Aegean Islands to help Dionysus
in war; for which reason they are surnamed Haliae (Women of the Sea). Facing the
tomb of the women is a sanctuary of Demeter, surnamed Pelasgian from Pelasgus, son
of Triopas, its founder, and not far from the sanctuary is the grave of Pelasgus.[2.22.2]
Opposite the grave is a small bronze vessel supporting ancient images of Artemis,
Zeus, and Athena. Now Lyceas in his poem says that the image is of Zeus Mechaneus
(Contriver), and that here the Argives who set out against Troy swore to hold out
in the war until they either took Troy or met their end fighting. Others have said
that in the bronze vessel lie the bones of Tantalus.[2.22.3] Now that the Tantalus
is buried here who was the son of Thyestes or Broteas (both accounts are given)
and married Clytaemnestra before Agamemnon did, I will not gainsay; but the grave
of him who legend says was son of Zeus and Pluto--it is worth seeing--is on Mount
Sipylus. I know because I saw it. Moreover, no constraint came upon him to flee
from Sipylus, such as afterwards forced Pelops to run away when Ilus the Phrygian
launched an army against him.But I must pursue the inquiry no further. The ritual
performed at the pit hard by they say was instituted by Nicostratus, a native. Even
at the present day they throw into the pit burning torches in honor of the Maid
who is daughter of Demeter.[2.22.4] Here is a sanctuary of Poseidon, surnamed Prosclystius
(Flooder), for they say that Poseidon inundated the greater part of the country
because Inachus and his assessors decided that the land belonged to Hera and not
to him. Now it was Hera who induced Poseidon to send the sea back, but the Argives
made a sanctuary to Poseidon Prosclystius at the spot where the tide ebbed.[2.22.5]
Going on a little further you see the grave of Argus, reputed to be the son of Zeus
and Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus. After these comes a temple of the Dioscuri. The
images represent the Dioscuri themselves and their sons, Anaxis and Mnasinous, and
with them are their mothers, Hilaeira and Phoebe. They are of ebony wood, and were
made by Dipoenus and Scyllis.1 The horses, too, are mostly of ebony, but there is
a little ivory also in their construction.[2.22.6] Near the Lords is a sanctuary
of Eilethyia, dedicated by Helen when, Theseus having gone away with Peirithous
to Thesprotia, Aphidna had been captured by the Dioscuri and Helen was being brought
to Lacedaemon. For it is said that she was with child, was delivered In Argos, and
founded there the sanctuary of Eilethyia, giving the daughter she bore to Clytaemnestra,
who was already wedded to Agamemnon, while she herself subsequently married Menelaus.[2.22.7]
And on this matter the poets Euphorion of Chalcis and Alexander of Pleuron, and
even before them, Stesichorus of Himera, agree with the Argives in asserting that
Iphigenia was the daughter of Theseus.1 Over against the sanctuary of Eilethyia
is a temple of Hecate, and the image is a work of Scopas. This one is of stone,
while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by Polycleitus2
and his brother Naucydes, son of Mothon.[2.22.8] As you go along a straight road
to a gymnasium, called Cylarabis after the son of Sthenelus, you come to the grave
of Licymnius, the son of Electryon, who, Homer says, was killed by Tleptolemus,
the son of Heracles for which homicide Tleptolemus was banished from Argos. On turning
a little aside from the road to Cylarabis and to the gate there, you come to the
tomb of Sacadas, who was the first to play at Delphi the Pythian flute-tune;[2.22.9]
the hostility of Apollo to flute-players, which had lasted ever since the rivalry
of Marsyas the Silenus, is supposed to have stayed because of this Sacadas. In the
gymnasium of Cylarabes is an Athena called Pania; they show also the graves of Sthenelus
and of Cylarabes himself. Not far from the gymnasium has been built a common grave
of those Argives who sailed with the Athenians to enslave Syracuse and Sicily.
2,22,5,n1. Sixth cent. B.C.
2,22,7,n1. c. 610-550 B.C.
2,22,7,n2. It is uncertain who this Polycleitus was or when he lived. He was
not the great Polycleitus, and flourished probably after 400 B.C.
[2.23.1] As you go from here along a road called Hollow there is on the right
a temple of Dionysus; the image, they say, is from Euboea. For when the Greeks,
as they were returning from Troy, met with the shipwreck at Caphereus, those of
the Argives who were able to escape to land suffered from cold and hunger. Having
prayed that someone of the gods should prove himself a saviour in their present
distress, straightway as they advanced they came upon a cave of Dionysus; in the
cave was an image of the god, and on this occasion wild she-goats had gathered there
to escape from the storm. These the Argives killed, using the flesh as food and
the skins as raiment. When the storm was over and the Argives, having refitted their
ships, were returning home, they took with them the wooden image from the cave,
and continue to honor it to the present day.[2.23.2] Very near to the temple of
Dionysus you will see the house of Adrastus, farther on a sanctuary of Amphiaraus,
and opposite the sanctuary the tomb of Eriphyle. Next to these is a precinct of
Asclepius, and after them a sanctuary of Baton. Now Baton belonged to the same family
as Amphiaraus, to the Melampodidae, and served as his charioteer when he went forth
to battle. When the rout took place at the wall of Thebes, the earth opened and
received Amphiaraus and his chariot, swallowing up this Baton at the same time.
[2.23.3] Returning from Hollow Street, you see what they say is the grave of Hyrnetho.
If they allow that it is merely a cenotaph erected to the memory of the lady, their
account is likely enough but if they believe that the corpse lies here I cannot
credit it, and leave anyone to do so who has not learnt the history of Epidaurus.
[2.23.4] The most famous sanctuary of Asclepius at Argos contains at the present
day a white-marble image of the god seated, and by his side stands Health. There
are also seated figures of Xenophilus and Straton, who made the images. The original
founder of the sanctuary was Sphyrus, son of Machaon and brother of the Alexanor
who is honored among the Sicyonians in Titane. [2.23.5] The Argives, like the Athenians
and Sicyorians, worship Artemis Pheraea, and they, too, assert that the image of
the goddess was brought from Pherae in Thessaly. But I cannot agree with them when
they say that in Argos are the tombs of Deianeira, the daughter of Oeneus, and of
Helenus, son of Priam, and that there is among them the image of Athena that was
brought from Troy, thus causing the capture of that city. For the Palladium, as
it is called, was manifestly brought to Italy by Aeneas. As to Deianeira, we know
that her death took place near Trachis and not in Argos, and her grave is near Heraclea,
at the foot of Mount Oeta. [2.23.6] The story of Helenus, son of Priam, I have already
given: that he went to Epeirus with Pyrrhus, the son of. Achilles; that, wedded
to Andromache, he was guardian to the children of Pyrrhus and that the district
called Cestrine received its name from Cestrinus, son of Helenus. Now even the guides
of the Argives themselves are aware that their account is not entirely correct.
Nevertheless they hold to their opinion, for it is not easy to make the multitude
change their views. The Argives have other things worth seeing; [2.23.7] for instance,
an underground building over which was the bronze chamber which Acrisius once made
to guard his daughter. Perilaus, however, when he became tyrant, pulled it down.
Besides this building there is the tomb of Crotopus and a temple of Cretan Dionysus.
For they say that the god, having made war on Perseus, afterwards laid aside his
enmity, and received great honors at the hands of the Argives, including this precinct
set specially apart for himself.
[2.23.8] It was afterwards called the precinct of the Cretan god, because, when
Ariadne died, Dionysus buried her here. But Lyceas says that when the temple was
being rebuilt an earthenware coffin was found, and that it was Ariadne's. He also
said that both he himself and other Argives had seen it. Near the temple of Dionysus
is a temple of Heavenly Aphrodite.
[2.24.1] The citadel they call Larisa, after the daughter of Pelasgus. After
her were also named two of the cities in Thessaly, the one by the sea and the one
on the Peneus. As you go up the citadel you come to the sanctuary of Hera of the
Height, and also a temple of Apollo, which is said to have been first built by Pythaeus
when he came from Delphi. The present image is a bronze standing figure called Apollo
Deiradiotes, because this place, too, is called Deiras (Ridge). Oracular responses
are still given here, and the oracle acts in the following way. There is a woman
who prophesies, being debarred from intercourse with a man. Every month a lamb is
sacrificed at night, and the woman, after tasting the blood, becomes inspired by
the god.[2.24.2] Adjoining the temple of Apollo Deiradiotes is a sanctuary of Athena
Oxyderces (Sharp-sighted), dedicated by Diomedes, because once when he was fighting
at Troy the goddess removed the mist from his eyes. Adjoining it is the race-course,
in which they hold the games in honor of Nemean Zeus and the festival of Hera. As
you go to the citadel there is on the left of the road another tomb of the children
of Aegyptus. For here are the heads apart from the bodies, which are at Lerna. For
it was at Lerna that the youths were murdered, and when they were dead their wives
cut off their heads, to prove to their father that they had done the dreadful deed.[2.24.3]
On the top of Larisa is a temple of Zeus, surnamed Larisaean, which has no roof;
the wooden image I found no longer standing upon its pedestal. There is also a temple
of Athena worth seeing. Here are placed votive offerings, including a wooden image
of Zeus, which has two eyes in the natural place and a third on its forehead. This
Zeus, they say, was a paternal god of Priam, the son of Laomedon, set up in the
uncovered part of his court, and when Troy was taken by the Greeks Priam took sanctuary
at the altar of this god. When the spoils were divided, Sthenelus, the son of Capaneus,
received the image, and for this reason it has been dedicated here. [2.24.4] The
reason for its three eyes one might infer to be this. That Zeus is king in heaven
is a saying common to all men. As for him who is said to rule under the earth, there
is a verse of Homer which calls him, too, Zeus:--
Zeus of the Underworld, and the august Persephonea.1
The god in the sea, also, is called Zeus by Aeschylus, the son of Euphorion.
So whoever made the image made it with three eyes, as signifying that this same
god rules in all the three "allotments" of the Universe, as they are called. [2.24.5]
From Argos are roads to various parts of the Peloponnesus, including one to Teges
on the side towards Arcadia. On the right is Mount Lycone, which has trees on it,
chiefly cypresses. On the top of the mountain is built a sanctuary of Artemis Orthia
(of the Steep), and there have been made white-marble images of Apollo, Leto, and
Artemis, which they say are works of Polycleitus. On descending again from the mountain
you see on the left of the highway a temple of Artemis.[2.24.6] A little farther
on there is on the right of the road a mountain called Chaon. At its foot grow cultivated
trees, and here the water of the Erasinus rises to the surface. Up to this point
it flows from Stymphalus in Arcadia, just as the Rheiti, near the sea at Eleusis,
flow from the Euripus. At the places where the Erasinus gushes forth from the mountain
they sacrifice to Dionysus and to Pan, and to Dionysus they also hold a festival
called Tyrbe (Throng).
[2.24.7] On returning to the road that leads to Tegea you see Cenchreae on the
right of what is called the Wheel. Why the place received this name they do not
say. Perhaps in this case also it was Cenchrias, son of Peirene, that caused it
to be so called. Here are common graves of the Argives who conquered the Lacedaemonians
in battle at Hysiae.1 This fight took place, I discovered, when Peisistratus was
archon at Athens, in the fourth year of the twenty-seventh Olympiad, in which the
Athenian, Eurybotus, won the foot-race. On coming down to a lower level you reach
the ruins of Hysiae, which once was a city in Argolis, and here it is that they
say the Lacedaemonians suffered their reverse.
2,24,4,n1. Hom. Il. 9.457
2,24,7,n1. 669-8 B.C.
[2.25.1] The road from Argos to Mantinea is not the same as that to Tegea, but
begins from the gate at the Ridge. On this road is a sanctuary built with two rooms,
having an entrance on the west side and another on the east. At the latter is a
wooden image of Aphrodite, and at the west entrance one of Ares. They say that the
images are votive offerings of Polyneices and of the Argives who joined him in the
campaign to redress his wrongs.[2.25.2] Farther on from here, across the torrent
called Charadrus (Gully), is Oenoe, named, the Argives say, after Oeneus. The story
is that Oeneus, who was king in Aetolia, on being driven from his throne by the
sons of Agrius, took refuge with Diomedes at Argos, who aided him by an expedition
into Calydonia, but said that he could not remain with him, and urged Oeneus to
accompany him, if he wished, to Argos. When he came, he gave him all the attention
that it was right to give a father's father, and on his death buried him here. After
him the Argives name the place Oenoe. [2.25.3] Above Oenoe is Mount Artemisius,
with a sanctuary of Artemis on the top. On this mountain are also the springs of
the river Inachus. For it really has springs, though the water does not run far.[2.25.4]
Here I found nothing else that is worth seeing. There is another road, that leads
to Lyrcea from the gate at the Ridge. The story is that to this place came Lynceus,
being the only one of the fifty brothers to escape death, and that on his escape
he raised a beacon here. Now to raise the beacon was the signal he had agreed with
Hypermnestra to give if he should escape Danaus and reach a place of safety. She
also, they say, lighted a beacon on Larisa as a sign that she too was now out of
danger. For this reason the Argives hold every year a beacon festival.[2.25.5] At
the first the place was called Lyncea; its present name is derived from Lyrcus,
a bastard son of Abas, who afterwards dwelt there. Among the ruins are several things
not worth mentioning, besides a figure of Lyrcus upon a slab. The distance from
Argos to Lyrcea is about sixty stades, and the distance from Lyrcea to Orneae is
the same. Homer in the Catalogue makes no mention of the city Lyrcea, because at
the time of the Greek expedition against Troy it already lay deserted; Omeae, however,
was inhabited, and in his poem he places it1 on the list before Phlius and Sicyon,
which order corresponds to the position of the towns in the Argive territory.
[2.25.6] The name is derived from Orneus, the son of Erechtheus. This Orneus
begat Peteos, and Peteos begat Menestheus, who, with a body of Athenians, helped
Agamemnon to destroy the kingdom of Priam. From him then did Omeae get its name,
and afterwards the Argives removed all its citizens, who thereupon came to live
at Argos. At Orneae are a sanctuary and an upright wooden image of Artemis; there
is besides a temple devoted to all the gods in common. On the further side of Orneae
are Sicyonia and Phliasia.
[2.25.7] On the way from Argos to Epidauria there is on the right a building
made very like a pyramid, and on it in relief are wrought shields of the Argive
shape. Here took place a fight for the throne between Proetus and Acrisius; the
contest, they say, ended in a draw, and a reconciliation resulted afterwards, as
neither could gain a decisive victory. The story is that they and their hosts were
armed with shields, which were first used in this battle. For those that fell on
either side was built here a common tomb, as they were fellow citizens and kinsmen.[2.25.8]
Going on from here and turning to the right, you come to the ruins of Tiryns. The
Tirynthians also were removed by the Argives, who wished to make Argos more powerful
by adding to the population. The hero Tiryns, from whom the city derived its name,
is said to have been a son of Argus, a son of Zeus. The wall, which is the only
part of the ruins still remaining, is a work of the Cyclopes made of unwrought stones,
each stone being so big that a pair of mules could not move the smallest from its
place to the slightest degree. Long ago small stones were so inserted that each
of them binds the large blocks firmly together.[2.25.9] Going down seawards, you
come to the chambers of the daughters of Proetus. On returning to the highway you
will reach Medea on the left hand. They say that Electryon, the father of Alcmena,
was king of Medea, but in my time nothing was left of it except the foundations.
[2.25.10] On the straight road to Epidaurus is a village Lessa, in which is a
temple of Athena with a wooden image exactly like the one on the citadel Larisa.
Above Lessa is Mount Arachnaeus, which long ago, in the time of Inachus, was named
Sapyselaton.1 On it are altars to Zeus and Hera. When rain is needed they sacrifice
to them here.
2,25,5,n1. Hom. Il. 2.571
2,25,10,n1. See the Greek text, in which the name Sapyselaton is formed from
the two wordssapus elat.
[2.26.1] At Lessa the Argive territory joins that of Epidaurus. But before you
reach Epidaurus itself you will come to the sanctuary of Asclepius. Who dwelt in
this land before Epidaurus came to it I do not know, nor could I discover from the
natives the descendants of Epidaurus either. But the last king before the Dorians
arrived in the Peloponnesus was, they say, Pityreus, a descendant of Ion, son of
Xuthus, and they relate that he handed over the land to Deiphontes and the Argives
without a struggle. [2.26.2] He went to Athens with his people and dwelt there,
while Deiphontes and the Argives took possession of Epidauria. These on the death
of Temenus seceded from the other Argives; Deiphontes and Hyrnetho through hatred
of the sons of Temenus, and the army with them, because it respected Deiphontes
and Hyrnetho more than Ceisus and his brothers. Epidaurus, who gave the land its
name, was, the Eleans say, a son of Pelops but, according to Argive opinion and
the poem the Great Eoeae,1 the father of Epidaurus was Argus, son of Zeus, while
the Epidaurians maintain that Epidaurus was the child of Apollo.[2.26.3] That the
land is especially sacred to Asclepius is due to the following reason. The Epidaurians
say that Phlegyas came to the Peloponnesus, ostensibly to see the land, but really
to spy out the number of the inhabitants, and whether the greater part of them was
warlike. For Phlegyas was the greatest soldier of his time, and making forays in
all directions he carried off the crops and lifted the cattle.[2.26.4] When he went
to the Peloponnesus, he was accompanied by his daughter, who all along had kept
hidden from her father that she was with child by Apollo. In the country of the
Epidaurians she bore a son, and exposed him on the mountain called Nipple at the
present day, but then named Myrtium. As the child lay exposed he was given milk
by one of the goats that pastured about the mountain, and was guarded by the watch-dog
of the herd. And when Aresthanas (for this was the herdsman's name)[2.26.5] discovered
that the tale of the goats was not full, and that the watch-dog also was absent
from the herd, he left, they say, no stone unturned, and on finding the child desired
to take him up. As he drew near he saw lightning that flashed from the child, and,
thinking that it was something divine, as in fact it was, he turned away. Presently
it was reported over every land and sea that Asclepius was discovering everything
he wished to heal the sick, and that he was raising dead men to life.[2.26.6] There
is also another tradition concerning him. Coronis, they say, when with child with
Asclepius, had intercourse with Ischys, son of Elatus. She was killed by Artemis
to punish her for the insult done to Apollo, but when the pyre was already lighted
Hermes is said to have snatched the child from the flames.[2.26.7] The third account
is, in my opinion, the farthest from the truth; it makes Asclepius to be the son
of Arsinoe, the daughter of Leucippus. For when Apollophanes the Arcadian, came
to Delphi and asked the god if Asclepius was the son of Arsinoe and therefore a
Messenian, the Pythian priestess gave this response:--
0 Asclepius, born to bestow great joy upon mortals,
Pledge of the mutual love I enjoyed with Phlegyas' daughter,
Lovely Coronis, who bare thee in rugged land Epidaurus.1
This oracle makes it quite certain that Asclepius was not a son of Arsinoe, and
that the story was a fiction invented by Hesiod, or by one of Hesiod's interpolators,
just to please the Messenians.[2.26.8] There is other evidence that the god was
born in Epidaurus for I find that the most famous sanctuaries of Asclepius had their
origin from Epidaurus. In the first place, the Athenians, who say that they gave
a share of their mystic rites to Asclepius, call this day of the festival Epidauria,
and they allege that their worship of Asclepius dates from then. Again, when Archias,
son of Aristaechmus, was healed in Epidauria after spraining himself while hunting
about Pindasus, he brought the cult to Pergamus.[2.26.9] From the one at Pergamus
has been built in our own day the sanctuary of Asclepius by the sea at Smyrna. Further,
at Balagrae of the Cyreneans there is an Asclepius called Healer, who like the others
came from Epidaurus. From the one at Cyrene was founded the sanctuary of Asclepius
at Lebene, in Crete. There is this difference between the Cyreneans and the Epidaurians,
that whereas the former sacrifice goats, it is against the custom of the Epidaurians
to do so.[2.26.10] That Asclepius was considered a god from the first, and did not
receive the title only in course of time, I infer from several signs, including
the evidence of Homer, who makes Agamemnon say about Machaon:--
Talthybius, with all speed go summon me hither Machaon,
Mortal son of Asclepius.1
As who should say, "human son of a god."
2,26,2,n1. A poem attributed to Hesiod.
2,26,7,n1. Unknown
2,26,10,n1. Hom. Il. 4.193
[2.27.1] The sacred grove of Asclepius is surrounded on all sides by boundary
marks. No death or birth takes place within the enclosure the same custom prevails
also in the island of Delos. All the offerings, whether the offerer be one of the
Epidaurians themselves or a stranger, are entirely consumed within the bounds. At
Titane too, I know, there is the same rule.[2.27.2] The image of Asclepius is, in
size, half as big as the Olympian Zeus at Athens, and is made of ivory and gold.
An inscription tells us that the artist was Thrasymedes, a Parian, son of Arignotus.
The god is sitting on a seat grasping a staff; the other hand he is holding above
the head of the serpent; there is also a figure of a dog lying by his side. On the
seat are wrought in relief the exploits of Argive heroes, that of Bellerophontes
against the Chimaera, and Perseus, who has cut off the head of Medusa. Over against
the temple is the place where the suppliants of the god sleep.[2.27.3] Near has
been built a circular building of white marble, called Tholos (Round House), which
is worth seeing. In it is a picture by Pausias1 representing Love, who has cast
aside his bow and arrows, and is carrying instead of them a lyre that he has taken
up. Here there is also another work of Pausias, Drunkenness drinking out of a crystal
cup. You can see even in the painting a crystal cup and a woman's face through it.
Within the enclosure stood slabs; in my time six remained, but of old there were
more. On them are inscribed the names of both the men and the women who have been
healed by Asclepius, the disease also from which each suffered, and the means of
cure. The dialect is Doric.[2.27.4] Apart from the others is an old slab, which
declares that Hippolytus dedicated twenty horses to the god. The Aricians tell a
tale that agrees with the inscription on this slab, that when Hippolytus was killed,
owing to the curses of Theseus, Asclepius raised him from the dead. On coming to
life again he refused to forgive his father rejecting his prayers, he went to the
Aricians in Italy. There he became king and devoted a precinct to Artemis, where
down to my time the prize for the victor in single combat was the priesthood of
the goddess. The contest was open to no freeman, but only to slaves who had run
away from their masters.[2.27.5] The Epidaurians have a theater within the sanctuary,
in my opinion very well worth seeing. For while the Roman theaters are far superior
to those anywhere else in their splendor, and the Arcadian theater at Megalopolis
is unequalled for size, what architect could seriously rival Polycleitus in symmetry
and beauty? For it was Polycleitus1 who built both this theater and the circular
building. Within the grove are a temple of Artemis, an image of Epione, a sanctuary
of Aphrodite and Themis, a race-course consisting, like most Greek race-courses,
of a bank of earth, and a fountain worth seeing for its roof and general splendour.[2.27.6]
A Roman senator, Antoninus, made in our own day a bath of Asclepius and a sanctuary
of the gods they call Bountiful.1 He made also a temple to Health, Asclepius, and
Apollo, the last two surnamed Egyptian. He moreover restored the portico that was
named the Portico of Cotys, which, as the brick of which it was made had been unburnt,
had fallen into utter ruin after it had lost its roof. As the Epidaurians about
the sanctuary were in great distress, because their women had no shelter in which
to be delivered and the sick breathed their last in the open, he provided a dwelling,
so that these grievances also were redressed. Here at last was a place in which
without sin a human being could die and a woman be delivered.
[2.27.7] Above the grove are the Nipple and another mountain called Cynortium;
on the latter is a sanctuary of Maleatian Apollo. The sanctuary itself is an ancient
one, but among the things Antoninus made for the Epidaurians are various appurtenances
for the sanctuary of the Maleatian, including a reservoir into which the rain-water
collects for their use.
2,27,3,n1. 1. A famous painter of Sicyon.
2,27,5,n1. Probably the younger artist of that name.
2,27,6,n1. 138 or 161 A.D.
[2.28.1] The serpents, including a peculiar kind of a yellowish color, are considered
sacred to Asclepius, and are tame with men. These are peculiar to Epidauria, and
I have noticed that other lands have their peculiar animals. For in Libya only are
to be found land crocodiles at least two cubits long; from India alone are brought,
among other creatures, parrots. But the big snakes that grow to more than thirty
cubits, such as are found in India and in Libya, are said by the Epidaurians not
to be serpents, but some other kind of creature.[2.28.2] As you go up to Mount Coryphum
you see by the road an olive tree called Twisted. It was Heracles who gave it this
shape by bending it round with his hand, but I cannot say whether he set it to be
a boundary mark against the Asinaeans in Argolis, since in no land, which has been
depopulated, is it easy to discover the truth about the boundaries. On the Top of
the mountain there is a sanctuary of Artemis Coryphaea (of the Peak), of which Telesilla1
made mention in an ode.[2.28.3] On going down to the city of the Epidaurians, you
come to a place where wild olives grow; they call it Hyrnethium. I will relate the
story of it, which is probable enough, as given by the Epidaurians. Ceisus and the
other sons of Temenus knew that they would grieve Deiphontes most if they could
find a way to part him and Hyrnetho. So Cerynes and Phalces (for Agraeus, the youngest,
disapproved of their plan) came to Epidaurus. Staying their chariot under the wall,
they sent a herald to their sister, pretending that they wished to parley with her.
[2.28.4] When she obeyed their summons, the young men began to make many accusations
against Deiphontes, and besought her much that she would return to Argos, promising,
among other things, to give her to a husband in every respect better than Deiphontes,
one who ruled over more subjects and a more prosperous country. But Hyrnetho, pained
at their words, gave as good as she had received, retorting that Deiphontes was
a dear husband to her, and had shown himself a blameless son-in-law to Temenus;
as for them, they ought to be called the murderers of Temenus rather than his sons.[2.28.5]
Without further reply the youths seized her, placed her in the chariot, and drove
away. An Epidaurian told Deiphontes that Cerynes and Phalces had gone, taking with
them Hyrnetho against her will; he himself rushed to the rescue with all speed,
and as the Epidaurians learned the news they reinforced him. On overtaking the runaways,
Deiphontes shot Cerynes and killed him, but he was afraid to shoot at Phalces, who
was holding Hyrnetho, lest he should miss him and become the slayer of his wife;
so he closed with them and tried to get her away. But Phalces, holding on and dragging
her with greater violence, killed her, as she was with child.[2.28.6] Realizing
what he had done to his sister, he began to drive the chariot more recklessly, as
he was anxious to gain a start before all the Epidaurians could gather against him.
Deiphontes and his children--for before this children had been born to him, Antimenes,
Xanthippus, and Argeus, and a daughter, Orsobia, who, they say, after-wards married
Pamphylus, son of Aegimius--took up the dead body of Hyrnetho and carried it to
this place, which in course of time was named Hyrnethium.
[2.28.7] They built for her a hero-shrine, and bestowed upon her various honors;
in particular, the custom was established that nobody should carry home, or use
for any purpose, the pieces that break off the olive trees, or any other trees,
that grow there; these are left there on the spot to be sacred to Hyrnetho.
[2.28.8] Not far from the city is the tomb of Melissa, who married Periander,
the son of Cypselus, and another of Procles, the father of Melissa. He, too, was
tyrant of Epidaurus, as Periander, his son-in-law, was tyrant of Corinth.1
2,28,2,n1. A famous lyric poetess. See p. 355.
2,28,8,n1. c. 600 B.C.
[2.29.1] The most noteworthy things which I found the city of Epidaurus itself
had to show are these. There is, of course, a precinct of Asclepius, with images
of the god himself and of Epione. Epione, they say, was the wife of Asclepius. These
are of Parian marble, and are set up in the open. There is also in the city a temple
of Dionysus and one of Artemis. The figure of Artemis one might take to be the goddess
hunting. There is also a sanctuary of Aphrodite, while the one at the harbor, on
a height that juts out into the sea, they say is Hera's. The Athena on the citadel,
a wooden image worth seeing, they surname Cissaea (Ivy Goddess).[2.29.2] The Aeginetans
dwell in the island over against Epidauria. It is said that in the beginning there
were no men in it; but after Zeus brought to it, when uninhabited, Aegina, daughter
of Asopus, its name was changed from Oenone to Aegina; and when Aeacus, on growing
up, asked Zeus for settlers, the god, they say, raised up the inhabitants out of
the earth. They can mention no king of the island except Aeacus, since we know of
none even of the sons of Aeacus who stayed there; for to Peleus and Telamon befell
exile for the murder of Phocus, while the sons of Phocus made their home about Parnassus,
in the land that is now called Phocis. [2.29.3] This name had already been given
to the land, at the time when Phocus, son of Ornytion, came to it a generation previously.
In the time, then, of this Phocus only the district about Tithorea and Parnassus
was called Phocis, but in the time of Aeacus the name spread to all from the borders
of the Minyae at Orchomenos to Scarphea among the Locri.[2.29.4] From Peleus sprang
the kings in Epeirus; but as for the sons of Telamon, the family of Ajax is undistinguished,
because he was a man who lived a private life; though Miltiades, who led the Athenians
to Marathon,1 and Cimon, the son of Miltiades, achieved renown; but the family of
Teucer continued to be the royal house in Cyprus down to the time of Evagoras. Asius
the epic poet says that to Phocus were born Panopeus and Crisus. To Panopeus was
born Epeus, who made, according to Homer, the wooden horse; and the grandson of
Crisus was Pylades, whose father was Strophius, son of Crisus, while his mother
was Anaxibi ,sister of Agamemnon. Such was the pedigree of the Aeacidae (family
of. Aeacus), as they are called, but they departed from the beginning to other lands.
[2.29.5] Subsequently a division of the Argives who, under Deiphontes, had seized
Epidaurus, crossed to Aegina, and, settling among the old Aeginetans, established
in the island Dorian manners and the Dorian dialect. Although the Aeginetans rose
to great power, so that their navy was superior to that of Athens, and in the Persian
war supplied more ships than any state except Athens, yet their prosperity was not
permanent but when the island was depopulated by the Athenians,1 they took up their
abode at Thyrea, in Argolis, which the Lacedaemonians gave them to dwell in. They
recovered their island when the Athenian warships were captured in the Hellespont,2
yet it was never given them to rise again to their old wealth or power.[2.29.6]
Of the Greek islands, Aegina is the most difficult of access, for it is surrounded
by sunken rocks and reefs which rise up. The story is that Aeacus devised this feature
of set purpose, because he feared piratical raids by sea, and wished the approach
to be perilous to enemies. Near the harbor in which vessels mostly anchor is a temple
of Aphrodite, and in the most conspicuous part of the city what is called the shrine
of Aeacus, a quadrangular enclosure of white marble. [2.29.7] Wrought in relief
at the entrance are the envoys whom the Greeks once dispatched to Aeacus. The reason
for the embassy given by the Aeginetans is the same as that which the other Greeks
assign. A drought had for some time afflicted Greece, and no rain fell either beyond
the Isthmus or in the Peloponnesus, until at last they sent envoys to Delphi to
ask what was the cause and to beg for deliverance from the evil. The Pythian priestess
bade them propitiate Zeus, saying that he would not listen to them unless the one
to supplicate him were Aeacus.[2.29.8] And so envoys came with a request to Aeacus
from each city. By sacrifice and prayer to Zeus, God of all the Greeks (Panellenios),
he caused rain to fall upon the earth, and the Aeginetans made these likenesses
of those who came to him. Within the enclosure are olive trees that have grown there
from of old, and there is an altar which is raised but a little from the ground.
That this altar is also the tomb of Aeacus is told as a holy secret. [2.29.9] Beside
the shrine of Aeacus is the grave of Phocus, a barrow surrounded by a basement,
and on it lies a rough stone. When Telamon and Peleus had induced Phocus to compete
at the pentathlon, and it was now the turn of Peleus to hurl the stone, which they
were using for a quoit, he intentionally hit Phocus. The act was done to please
their mother; for, while they were both born of the daughter of Sciron, Phocus was
not, being, if indeed the report of the Greeks be true, the son of a sister of Thetis.
I believe it was for this reason, and not only out of friendship for Orestes, that
Pylades plotted the murder of Neoptolemus.[2.29.10] When this blow of the quoit
killed Phocus, the sons of Endeis boarded a ship and fled. Afterwards Telamon sent
a herald denying that he had plotted the death of Phocus. Aeacus, however, refused
to allow him to land on the island, and bade him make his defence standing on board
ship, or if he wished, from a mole raised in the sea. So he sailed into the harbor
called Secret, and proceeded to make a mole by night. This was finished, and still
remains at the present day. But Telamon, being condemned as implicated in the murder
of Phocus, sailed away a second time and came to Salamis.
[2.29.11] Not far from the Secret Harbor is a theater worth seeing; it is very
similar to the one at Epidaurus, both in size and in style. Behind it is built one
side of a race-course, which not only itself holds up the theater, but also in turn
uses it as a support.
2,29,4,n1. 490 B.C.
2,29,5,n1. 431 B.C.
2,29,5,n2. 405 B.C.
[2.30.1] There are three temples close together, one of Apollo, one of Artemis,
and a third of Dionysus. Apollo has a naked wooden image of native workmanship,
but Artemis is dressed, and so, too, is Dionysus, who is, moreover, represented
with a beard. The sanctuary of Asclepius is not here, but in another place, and
his image is of stone, and seated.[2.30.2] Of the gods, the Aeginetans worship most
Hecate, in whose honor every year they celebrate mystic rites which, they say, Orpheus
the Thracian established among them. Within the enclosure is a temple; its wooden
image is the work of Myron,1 and it has one face and one body. It was Alcamenes,2
in my opinion, who first made three images of Hecate attached to one another, a
figure called by the Athenians Epipurgidia (on the Tower); it stands beside the
temple of the Wingless Victory.[2.30.3] In Aegina, as you go towards the mountain
of Zeus, God of all the Greeks, you reach a sanctuary of Aphaea, in whose honor
Pindar composed an ode for the Aeginetans. The Cretans say (the story of Aphaea
is Cretan) that Carmanor, who purified Apollo alter he had killed Pytho, was the
father of Lubulus, and that the daughter of Zeus and of Carme, the daughter of Eubulus,
was Britomartis. She took delight, they say, in running and in the chase, and was
very dear to Artemis. Fleeing from Minos, who had fallen in love with her, she threw
herself into nets which had been cast (aphemena) for a draught of fishes. She was
made a goddess by Artemis, and she is worshipped, not only by the Cretans, but also
by the Aeginetans, who say that Britomartis shows herself in their island. Her surname
among the Aeginetans is Aphaea; in Crete it is Dictynna (Goddess of Nets).[2.30.4]
The Mount of all the Greeks, except for the sanctuary of Zeus, has, I found, nothing
else worthy of mention. This sanctuary, they say, was made for Zeus by Aeacus. The
story of Auxesia and Damia, how the Epidaurians suffered from drought, how in obedience
to an oracle they had these wooden images made of olive wood that they received
from the Athenians, how the Epidaurians left off paying to the Athenians what they
had agreed to pay, on the ground that the Aeginetans had the images, how the Athenians
perished who crossed over to Aegina to fetch them--all this, as Herodotus1 has described
it accurately and in detail, I have no intention of relating, because the story
has been well told already; but I will add that I saw the images, and sacrificed
to them in the same way as it is customary to sacrifice at Eleusis.[2.30.5] So much
I must relate about Aegina, for the sake of Aeacus and his exploits. Bordering on
Epidauria are the Troezenians, unrivalled glorifiers of their own country. They
say that Orus was the first to be born in their land. Now, in my opinion, Orus is
an Egyptian name and utterly un-Greek; but they assert that he became their king,
and that the land was called Oraea after him and that Althepus, the son of Poseidon
and of Leis, the daughter of Orus, inheriting the kingdom after Orus, named the
land Althepia.[2.30.6] During his reign, they say, Athena and Poseidon disputed
about the land, and after disputing held it in common, as Zeus commanded them to
do. For this reason they worship both Athena, whom they name both Polias (Urban)
and Sthenias (Strong), and also Poseidon, under the surname of King. And moreover
their old coins have as device a trident and a face of Athena.[2.30.7] After Althepus,
Saron became king. They said that this man built the sanctuary for Saronian Artemis
by a sea which is marshy and shallow, so that for this reason it was called the
Phoebaean lagoon. Now Saron was very fond of hunting. As he was chasing a doe, it
so chanced that it dashed into the sea and he dashed in alter it. The doe swam further
and further from the shore, and Saron kept close to his prey, until his ardor brought
him to the open ocean. Here his strength failed, and he was drowned in the waves.
The body was cast ashore at the grove of Artemis by the Phoebaean lagoon, and they
buried it within the sacred enclosure, and after him they named the sea in these
parts the Saronic instead of the Phoebaean lagoon.[2.30.8] They know nothing of
the later kings down to Hyperes and Anthas. These they assert to be sons of Poseidon
and of Alcyone, daughter of Atlas, adding that they founded in the country the cities
of Hyperea and Anthea; Aetius, however, the son of Anthas, on inheriting the kingdoms
of his father and of his uncle, named one of the cities Poseidonias. When Troezen
and Pittheus came to Aetius there were three kings instead of one, but the sons
of Pelops enjoyed the balance of power.[2.30.9] Here is evidence of it. When Troezen
died, Pittheus gathered the inhabitants together, incorporating both Hyperea and
Anthea into the modem city, which he named Troezen after his brother. Many years
afterwards the descendants of Aetius, son of Anthas, were dispatched as colonists
from Troezen, and founded Halicarnassus and Myndus in Caria. Anaphlystus and Sphettus,
sons of Troezen, migrated to Attica, and the parishes are named after them. As my
readers know it already, I shall not relate the story of Theseus, the grandson of
Pittheus. There is, however, one incident that I must add.
[2.30.10] On the return of the Heracleidae, the Troezenians too received Dorian
settlers from Argos. They had been subject at even an earlier date to the Argives;
Homer, too, in the Catalogue, says that their commander was Diomedes. For Diomedes
and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, who were guardians of the boy Cyanippus, son of
Aegialeus, led the Argives to Troy. Sthenelus, as I have related above, came of
a more illustrious family, called the Anaxagoridae, and he had the best claim to
the Kingdom of Argos. Such is the story of the Troezenians, with the exception of
the cities that claim to be their colonies. I will now proceed to describe the appointments
of their sanctuaries and the remarkable sights of their country.
2,30,2,n1. fl. c. 460 B.C.
2,30,2,n2. A contemporary of Pheidias.
2,30,4,n1. Hdt. 5.82-87
[2.31.1] In the market-place of Troezen is a temple of Artemis Saviour, with
images of the goddess. It was said that the temple was founded and the name Saviour
given by Theseus when he returned from Crete after overcoming Asterion the son of
Minos. This victory he considered the most noteworthy of his achievements, not so
much, in my opinion, because Asterion was the bravest of those killed by Theseus,
but because his success in unravelling the difficult Maze and in escaping unnoticed
after the exploit made credible the saying that it was divine providence that brought
Theseus and his company back in safety.[2.31.2] In this temple are altars to the
gods said to rule under the earth. It is here that they say Semele was brought out
of Hell by Dionysus, and that Heracles dragged up the Hound of Hell.1 But I cannot
bring myself to believe even that Semele died at all, seeing that she was the wife
of Zeus; while, as for the so-called Hound of Hell, I will give my views in another
place.2 [2.31.3] Behind the temple is the tomb of Pittheus, on which are placed
three seats of white marble. On them they say that Pittheus and two men with him
used to sit in judgment. Not far off is a sanctuary of the Muses, made, they told
me, by Ardalus, son of Hephaestus. This Ardalus they hold to have invented the flute,
and after him they name the Muses Ardalides. Here, they say, Pittheus taught the
art of rhetoric, and I have myself read a book purporting to be a treatise by Pittheus,
published by a citizen of Epidaurus. Not far from the Muses' Hall is an old altar,
which also, according to report, was dedicated by Ardalus. Upon it they sacrifice
to the Muses and to Sleep, saying that Sleep is the god that is dearest to the Muses.[2.31.4]
Near the theater a temple of Artemis Lycea (Wolfish) was made by Hippolytus. About
this surname I could learn nothing from the local guides, but I gathered that either
Hippolytus destroyed wolves that were ravaging the land of Troezen, or else that
Lycea is a surname of Artemis among the Amazons, from whom he was descended through
his mother. Perhaps there may be another explanation that I am unaware of. The stone
in front of the temple, called the Sacred Stone, they say is that on which nine
men of Troezen once purified Orestes from the stain of matricide.[2.31.5] Not far
from Artemis Lycea are altars close to one another. The first of them is to Dionysus,
surnamed, in accordance with an oracle, Saotes (Saviour); the second is named the
altar of the Themides (Laws), and was dedicated, they say, by Pittheus. They had
every reason, it seems to me, for making an altar to Helius Eleutherius (Sun, God
of Freedom), seeing that they escaped being enslaved by Xerxes and the Persians.[2.31.6]
The sanctuary of Thearian Apollo, they told me, was set up by Pittheus; it is the
oldest I know of. Now the Phocaeans, too, in Ionia have an old temple of Athena,
which was once burnt by Harpagus the Persian, and the Samians also have an old one
of Pythian Apollo; these, however, were built much later than the sanctuary at Troezen.
The modern image was dedicated by Auliscus, and made by Hermon of Troezen. This
Hermon made also the wooden images of the Dioscuri.[2.31.7] Under a portico in the
market-place are set up women; both they and their children are of stone. They are
the women and children whom the Athenians gave to the Troezenians to be kept safe,
when they had resolved to evacuate Athens and not to await the attack of the Persians
by land. They are said to have dedicated likenesses, not of all the women--for,
as a matter of fact, the statues are not many--but only of those who were of high
rank.[2.31.8] In front of the sanctuary of Apollo is a building called the Booth
of Orestes. For before he was cleansed for shedding his mother's blood, no citizen
of Troezen would receive him into his home; so they lodged him here and gave him
entertainment while they cleansed him, until they had finished the purification.
Down to the present day the descendants of those who cleansed Orestes dine here
on appointed days. A little way from the booth were buried, they say, the means
of cleansing, and from them grew up a bay tree, which, indeed, still remains, being
the one before this booth.
[2.31.9] Among the means of cleansing which they say they used to cleanse Orestes
was water from Hippocrene (Horse's Fount) for the Troezenians too have a fountain
called the Horse's, and the legend about it does not differ from the one which prevails
in Boeotia. For they, too, say that the earth sent up the water when the horse Pegasus
struck the ground with his hoof, and that Bellerophontes came to Troezen to ask
Pittheus to give him Aethra to wife, but before the marriage took place he was banished
from Corinth.
[2.31.10] Here there is also a Hermes called Polygius. Against this image, they
say, Heracles leaned his club. Now this club, which was of wild olive, taking root
in the earth (if anyone cares to believe the story), grew up again and is still
alive; Heracles, they say, discovering the wild olive by the Saronic Sea, cut a
club from it. There is also a sanctuary of Zeus surnamed Saviour, which, they say,
was made by Aetius, the son of Anthas, when he was king. To a water they give the
name River of Gold. They say that when the land was afflicted with a drought for
nine years, during which no rain fell, all the other waters dried up, but this River
of Gold even then continued to flow as before.
2,31,2,n1. Cerberus, the fabulous watch-dog.
2,31,2,n2. Paus. 3.25.6.
[2.32.1] To Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, is devoted a very famous precinct,
in which is a temple with an old image. Diomedes, they say, made these, and, moreover,
was the first to sacrifice to Hippolytus. The Troezenians have a priest of Hippolytus,
who holds his sacred office for life, and annual sacrifices have been established.
They also observe the following custom. Every maiden before marriage cuts off a
lock for Hippolytus, and, having cut it, she brings it to the temple and dedicates
it. They will not have it that he was dragged to death by his horses, and, though
they know his grave, they do not show it. But they believe that what is called the
Charioteer in the sky is the Hippolytus of the legend, such being the honor he enjoys
from the gods.[2.32.2] Within this enclosure is a temple of Apollo Seafaring, an
offering of Diomedes for having weathered the storm that came upon the Greeks as
they were returning from Troy. They say that Diomedes was also the first to hold
the Pythian games in honor of Apollo. Of Damia and Auxesia (for the Troezenians,
too, share in their worship) they do not give the same account as the Epidaurians
and Aeginetans, but say that they were maidens who came from Crete. A general insurrection
having arisen in the city, these too, they say, were stoned to death by the opposite
party; and they hold a festival in their honor that they call Stoning.[2.32.3] In
the other part of the enclosure is a race-course called that of Hippolytus, and
above it a temple of Aphrodite Spy. For from here, whenever Hippolytus practised
his exercises, Phaedra, who was in love with him, used to gaze upon him. Here there
still grew the myrtle, with its leaves, as I have described above, pierced with
holes. When Phaedra was in despair and could find no relief for her passion, she
used to vent her spleen upon the leaves of this myrtle.[2.32.4] There is also the
grave of Phaedra, not far from the tomb of Hippolytus, which is a barrow near the
myrtle. The image of Asclepius was made by Timotheus, but the Troezenians say that
it is not Asclepius, but a likeness of Hippolytus. I remember, too, seeing the house
of Hippolytus; before it is what is called the Fountain of Heracles, for Heracles,
say the Troezenians, discovered the water.[2.32.5] On the citadel is a temple of
Athena, called Sthenias. The wooden image itself of the goddess I was made by CalIon,
of Aegina.1 Callon was a pupil of Tectaeus and Angelion, who made the image of Apollo
for the Delians. Angelion and Tectaeus were trained in the school of Dipoenus and
Scyllis.[2.32.6] On going down from here you come to a sanctuary of Pan Lyterius
(Releasing), so named because he showed to the Troezenian magistrates dreams which
supplied a cure for the epidemic that had afflicted Troezenia, and the Athenians
more than any other people. Having crossed the sanctuary, you can see a temple of
Isis, and above it one of Aphrodite of the Height. The temple of Isis was made by
the Halicarnassians in Troezen, because this is their mother-city, but the image
of Isis was dedicated by the people of Troezen.[2.32.7] On the road that leads through
the mountains to Hermione is a spring of the river Hyllicus, originally called Taurius
(Bull-like), and a rock called the Rock of Theseus; when Theseus took up the boots
and sword of Aegeus under it, it, too, changed its name, for before it was called
the altar of Zeus Sthenius (Strong). Near the rock is a sanctuary of Aphrodite Nymphia
(Bridal), made by Theseus when he took Helen to wife.[2.32.8] Outside the wall there
is also a sanctuary of Poseidon Nurturer (Phytalmios). For they say that, being
wroth with them, Poseidon smote the land with barrenness, brine (halme) reaching
the seeds and the roots of the plants (phyta),1 until, appeased by sacrifices and
prayers, he ceased to send up the brine upon the earth. Above the temple of Poseidon
is Demeter Lawbringer (Thesmophoros), set up, they say, by Althepus.[2.32.9] On
going down to the harbor at what is called Celenderis, you come to a place called
Birthplace (Genethlion), where Theseus is said to have been born. Before this place
is a temple of Ares, for here also did Theseus conquer the Amazons in battle. These
must have belonged to the army that strove in Attica against Theseus and the Athenians.
[2.32.10] As you make your way to the Psiphaean Sea you see a wild olive growing,
which they call the Bent Rhacos. The Troezenians call rhacos every kind of barren
olive--cotinos, phylia, or elaios--and this tree they call Bent because it was when
the reins caught in it that the chariot of Hippolytus was upset. Not far from this
stands the sanctuary of Saronian Artemis, and I have already given an account of
it. I must add that every year they hold in honor of Artemis a festival called Saronia.
2,32,5,n1. early fifth cent. B.C.
2,32,8,n1. The epithet phytalmios means nourishing, but to judge from the story
he gives, Pausanias must have connected it with the Greek words for brine and plant.
[2.33.1] The Troezenians possess islands, one of which is near the mainland,
and it is possible to wade across the channel. This was formerly called Sphaeria,
but its name was changed to Sacred Island for the following reason. In it is the
tomb of Sphaerus, who, they say, was charioteer to Pelops. In obedience forsooth
to a dream from Athena, Aethra crossed over into the island with libations for Sphaerus.
After she had crossed, Poseidon is said to have had intercourse with her here. So
for this reason Aethra set up here a temple of Athena Apaturia,1 and changed the
name from Sphaeria to Sacred Island. She also established a custom for the Troezenian
maidens of dedicating their girdles before wedlock to Athena Apaturia.[2.33.2] Calaurea,
they say, was sacred to Apollo of old, at the time when Delphi was sacred to Poseidon.
Legend adds that the two gods exchanged the two places. They still say this, and
quote an oracle:--
Delos and Calaurea alike thou lovest to dwell in,
Pytho, too, the holy, and Taenarum swept by the high winds.1
At any rate, there is a holy sanctuary of Poseidon here, and it is served by
a maiden priestess until she reaches an age fit for marriage.[2.33.3] Within the
enclosure is also the tomb of Demosthenes. His fate, and that of Homer before him,
have, in my opinion, showed most plainly how spiteful the deity is; for Homer, after
losing his sight, was, in addition to this great affliction, cursed with a second--a
poverty which drove him in beggary to every land; while to Demosthenes it befell
to experience exile in his old age and to meet with such a violent end. Now, although
concerning him, not only others, but Demosthenes himself, have again and again declared
that assuredly he took no part of the money that Harpalus brought from Asia, [2.33.4]
yet I must relate the circumstances of the statement made subsequently. Shortly
after Harpalus ran away from Athens and crossed with a squadron to Crete, he was
put to death by the servants who were attending him, though some assert that he
was assassinated by Pausanias, a Macedonian. The steward of his money fled to Rhodes,
and was arrested by a Macedonian, Philoxenus, who also had demanded Harpalus from
the Athenians. Having this slave in his power, he proceeded to examine him, until
he learned everything about such as had allowed themselves to accept a bribe from
Harpalus. On obtaining this information he sent a dispatch to Athens,[2.33.5] in
which he gave a list of such as had taken a bribe from Harpalus, both their names
and the sums each had received. Demosthenes, however, he never mentioned at all,
although Alexander held him in bitter hatred, and he himself had a private quarrel
with him.So Demosthenes is honored in many parts of Greece, and especially by the
dwellers in Calaurea.
2,33,1,n1. Apparently here derived from the Greek word for deceit.
2,33,2,n1. Unknown
[2.34.1] Stretching out far into the sea from Troezenia is a peninsula, on the
coast of which has been founded a little town called Methana. Here there is a sanctuary
of Isis, and on the market-place is an image of Hermes, and also one of Heracles.
Some thirty stades distant from the town are hot baths. They say that it was when
Antigonus, son of Demetrius, was king of Macedon that the water first appeared,
and that what appeared at once was not water, but fire that gushed in great volume
from the ground, and when this died down the water flowed; indeed, even at the present
day it wells up hot and exceedingly salt. A bather here finds no cold water at hand,
and if he dives into the sea his swim is full of danger. For wild creatures live
in it, and it swarms with sharks. [2.34.2] I will also relate what astonished me
most in Methana. The wind called Lips,1 striking the budding vines from the Saronic
Gulf, blights their buds. So while the wind is still rushing on, two men cut in
two a cock whose feathers are all white, and run round the vines in opposite directions,
each carrying half of the cock. When they meet at their starting place, they bury
the pieces there.[2.34.3] Such are the means they have devised against the Lips.
The islets, nine in number, lying off the land are called the Isles of Pelops, and
they say that when it rains one of them is not touched. If this be the case I do
not know, though the people around Methana said that it was true, and I have seen
before now men trying to keep off hail by sacrifices and spells.
[2.34.4] Methana, then, is a peninsula of the Peloponnesus. Within it, bordering
on the land of Troezen, is Hermione. The founder of the old city, the Hermionians
say, was Hermion, the son of Europs. Now Europs, whose father was certainly Phoroneus,
Herophanes of Troezen said was an illegitimate child. For surely the kingdom of
Argos would never have devolved upon Argus, Niobe's son, the grandchild of Phoroneus,
in the presence of a legitimate son.[2.34.5] But even supposing that Europs was
a legitimate child who died before Phoroneus, I am quite sure that his son was not
likely to stand a fair chance against Niobe's child, whose father was supposed to
be Zeus. Subsequently the Dorians from Argos settled, among other places, at Hermion,
but I do not think there was war between the two peoples, or it would have been
spoken of by the Argives.
[2.34.6] There is a road from Troezen to Hermion by way of the rock which aforetime
was called the altar of Zeus Sthenius (Strong) but afterwards Theseus1 took up the
tokens, and people now call it the Rock of Theseus. As you go, then, along a mountain
road by way of this rock, you reach a temple of Apollo surnamed Platanistius (God
of the Plane-tree Grove), and a place called Eilei, where are sanctuaries of Demeter
and of her daughter Core (Maid). Seawards, on the borders of Hermionis, is a sanctuary
of Demeter surnamed Thermasia (Warmth).[2.34.7] Just about eighty stades away is
a headland Scyllaeum, which is named alter the daughter of Nisus. For when, owing
to her treachery,1 Minos had taken Nisaea and Megara, he said that now he would
not have her to wife, and ordered his Cretans to throw her from the ship. She was
drowned, and the waves cast up her body on this headland. They do not show a grave
of her, but say that the sea birds were allowed to tear the corpse to pieces.[2.34.8]
As you sail from Scyllaeum in the direction of the city, you reach another headland,
called Bucephala (Ox-head), and, after the headland, islands, the first of which
is Haliussa (Salt Island). This provides a harbor where there is good anchorage.
After it comes Pityussa (Pine Island), and the third they call Aristerae. On sailing
past these you come to another headland, Colyergia, jutting out from the mainland,
and after it to an island, called Tricrana (Three Heads), and a mountain, projecting
into the sea from the Peloponnesus, called Buporthmus (Oxford). On Buporthmus has
been built a sanctuary of Demeter and her daughter, as well as one of Athena, surnamed
Promachorma (Champion of the Anchorage).[2.34.9] Before Buporthmus lies an island
called Aperopia, not far from which is another island, Hydrea. After it the mainland
is skirted by a crescent-shaped beach and after the beach there is a spit of land
up to a sanctuary of Poseidon, beginning at the sea on the east and extending westwards.
1 It possesses harbors, and is some seven stades in length, and not more than three
stades in breadth where it is broadest.[2.34.10] Here the Hermionians had their
former city. They still have sanctuaries here: one of Poseidon at the east end of
the spit, and a temple of Athena further inland by the side of the latter are the
foundations of a race-course, in which legend says the sons of Tyndareus contended.
There is also another sanctuary of Athena, of no great size, the roof of which has
fallen in. There is a temple to Helius (Sun), another to the Graces, and a third
to Serapis and Isis. There are also circuits of large unhewn stones, within which
they perform mystic ritual to Demeter.
[2.34.11] Such are the possessions of the Hermionians in these parts. The modern
city is just about four stades distant from the headland, upon which is the sanctuary
of Poseidon, and it lies on a site which is level at first, gently rising up a slope,
which presently merges into Pron, for so they name this mountain. A wall stands
all round Hermione, a city which I found afforded much to write about, and among
the things which I thought I myself must certainly mention are a temple of Aphrodite,
surnamed both Pontia (of the Deep Sea) and Limenia (of the Harbor), and a white-marble
image of huge size, and worth seeing for its artistic excellence.[2.34.12] There
is also another temple of Aphrodite. Among the honors paid her by the Hermionians
is this custom: maidens, and widows about to remarry, all sacrifice to her before
wedding. Sanctuaries have also been built of Demeter Thermasia (Warmth), one at
the border towards Troezenia, as I have stated above, while there is another in
Hermione itself.
2,34,2,n1. A S.W. wind.
2,34,6,n1. See Paus. 1.27.8, and Paus. 2.32.7.
2,34,7,n1. See Paus. 1.19.
2,34,9,n1. i.e. the spit runs eastward into the sea from the west.
[2.35.1] Near the latter is a temple of Dionysus of the Black Goatskin. In his
honor every year they hold a competition in music, and they offer prizes for swimming-races
and boat-races. There is also a sanctuary of Artemis surnamed Iphigenia, and a bronze
Poseidon with one foot upon a dolphin. Passing by this into the sanctuary of Hestia,
we see no image, but only an altar, and they sacrifice to Hestia upon it.[2.35.2]
Of Apollo there are three temples and three images. One has no surname; the second
they call Pythaeus, and the third Horius (of the Borders). The name Pythaeus they
have learned from the Argives, for Telesilla1 tells us that they were the first
Greeks to whose country came Pythaeus, who was a son of Apollo. I cannot say for
certain why they call the third Horius, but I conjecture that they won a victory,
either in war or by arbitration, in a dispute concerning the borders (horoi) of
their land, and for this reason paid honors to Apollo Horius.[2.35.3] The sanctuary
of Fortune is said by the Hermionians to be the newest in their city; a colossus
of Parian marble stands there. Of their wells, one is very old; nobody can see the
water flowing into it, but it would never run dry, even if everybody descended and
drew water from it. Another well they made in our own day, and the name of the place
from which the water flows into it is Leimon (Meadow).
[2.35.4] The object most worthy of mention is a sanctuary of Demeter on Pron.
This sanctuary is said by the Hermionians to have been founded by Clymenus, son
of Phoroneus, and Chthonia, sister of Clymenus. But the Argive account is that when
Demeter came to Argolis, while Atheras and Mysius afforded hospitality to the goddess,
Colontas neither received her into his home nor paid her any other mark of respect.
His daughter Chthoia disapproved of this conduct. They say that Colontas was punished
by being burnt up along with his house, while Chthonia was brought to Hermion by
Demeter, and made the sanctuary for the Hermionians.[2.35.5] At any rate, the goddess
herself is called Chthonia, and Chthonia is the name of the festival they hold in
the summer of every year. The manner of it is this. The procession is headed by
the priests of the gods and by all those who hold the annual magistracies; these
are followed by both men and women. It is now a custom that some who are still children
should honor the goddess in the procession. These are dressed in white, and wear
wreaths upon their heads. Their wreaths are woven of the flower called by the natives
cosmosandalon, which, from its size and color, seems to me to be an iris; it even
has inscribed upon it the same letters of mourning.1 [2.35.6] Those who form the
procession are followed by men leading from the herd a full-grown cow, fastened
with ropes, and still untamed and frisky. Having driven the cow to the temple, some
loose her from the ropes that she may rush into the sanctuary, others, who hitherto
have been holding the doors open, when they see the cow within the temple, close
the doors. [2.35.7] Four old women, left behind inside, are they who dispatch the
cow. Whichever gets the chance cuts the throat of the cow with a sickle. Afterwards
the doors are opened, and those who are appointed drive up a second cow, and a third
after that, and yet a fourth. All are dispatched in the same way by the old women,
and the sacrifice has yet another strange feature. On whichever of her sides the
first cow falls, all the others must fall on the same.[2.35.8] Such is the manner
in which the sacrifice is performed by the Hermionians. Before the temple stand
a few statues of the women who have served Demeter as her priestess, and on passing
inside you see seats on which the old women wait for the cows to be driven in one
by one, and images, of no great age, of Athena and Demeter. But the thing itself
that they worship more than all else, I never saw, nor yet has any other man, whether
stranger or Hermionian. The old women may keep their knowledge of its nature to
themselves.
[2.35.9] There is also another temple, all round which stand statues. This temple
is right opposite that of Chthonia, and is called that of Clymenus, and they sacrifice
to Clymenus here. I do not believe that Clymenus was an Argive who came to Hermion
"Clymenus" is the surname of the god, whoever legend says is king in the underworld.[2.35.10]
Beside this temple is another; it is of Ares, and has an image of the god, while
to the right of the sanctuary of Chthonia is a portico, called by the natives the
Portico of Echo. It is such that if a man speaks it reverberates at least three
times. Behind the temple of Chthonia are three places which the Hermionians call
that of Clymenus, that of Pluto, and the Acherusian Lake. All are surrounded by
fences of stones, while in the place of Clymenus there is also a chasm in the earth.
Through this, according to the legend of the Hermionians, Heracles brought up the
Hound of Hell.[2.35.11] At the gate through which there is a straight road leading
to Mases, there is a sanctuary of Eileithyia within the wall. Every day, both with
sacrifices and with incense, they magnificently propitiate the goddess, and, moreover,
there is a vast number of votive gifts offered to Eileithyia. But the image no one
may see, except, perhaps, the priestesses.
2,35,2,n1. See Paus. 2.27.8.
2,35,5,n1. The letters AI, an exclamation of woe supposed to be inscribed on
the flower.
[2.36.1] Proceeding about seven stades along the straight road to Mases, you
reach, on turning to the left, a road to Halice. At the present day Halice is deserted,
but once it, too, had inhabitants, and there is mention made of citizens of Halice
on the Epidaurian slabs on which are inscribed the cures of Asclepius. I know, however,
no other authentic document in which mention is made either of the city Halice or
of its citizens. Well, to this city also there is a road, which lies midway between
Pron and another mountain, called in old days Thornax; but they say that the name
was changed because, according to legend, it was here that the transformation of
Zeus into a cuckoo took place. [2.36.2] Even to the present day there are sanctuaries
on the tops of the mountains: on Mount Cuckoo one of Zeus, on Pron one of Hera.
At the foot of Mount Cuckoo is a temple, but there are no doors standing, and I
found it without a roof or an image inside. The temple was said to be Apollo's.
by the side of it runs a road to Mases for those who have turned aside from the
straight road. Mases was in old days a city, even as Homer1 represents it in the
catalogue of the Argives, but in my time the Hermionians were using it as a seaport.[2.36.3]
From Mases there is a road on the right to a headland called Struthus (Sparrow Peak).
From this headland by way of the summits of the mountains the distance to the place
called Philanorium and to the Boleoi is two hundred and fifty stades. These Boleoi
are heaps of unhewn stones. Another place, called Twins, is twenty stades distant
from here. There is here a sanctuary of Apollo, a sanctuary of Poseidon, and in
addition one of Demeter. The images are of white marble, and are upright.
[2.36.4] Next comes a district, belonging to the Argives, that once was called
Asinaea, and by the sea are ruins of Asine. When the Lacedaemonians and their king
Nicander, son of Charillus, son of Polydectes, son of Eunomus, son of Prytanis,
son of Eurypon, invaded Argolis with an army, the Asinaeans joined in the invasion,
and with them ravaged the land of the Argives. When the Lacedaemonian expedition
departed home, the Argives under their king Eratus attacked Asine.[2.36.5] For a
time the Asinaeans defended themselves from their wall, and killed among others
Lysistratus, one of the most notable men of Argos. But when the wall was lost, the
citizens put their wives and children on board their vessels and abandoned their
own country; the Argives, while levelling Asine to the ground and annexing its territory
to their own, left the sanctuary of Apollo Pythaeus, which is still visible, and
by it they buried Lysistratus.
[2.36.6] Distant from Argos forty stades and no more is the sea at Lerna. On
the way down to Lerna the first thing on the road is the Erasinus, which empties
itself into the Phrixus, and the Phrixus into the sea between Temenium and Lerna.
About eight stades to the left from the Erasinus is a sanctuary of the Lords Dioscuri
(Sons of Zeus). Their wooden images have been made similar to those in the city.[2.36.7]
On returning to the straight road, you will cross the Erasinus and reach the river
Cheimarrus (Winter-torrent). Near it is a circuit of stones, and they say that Pluto,
after carrying off, according to the story, Core, the daughter of Demeter, descended
here to his fabled kingdom underground. Lerna is, I have already stated, by the
sea, and here they celebrate mysteries in honor of Lernaean Demeter.
[2.36.8] There is a sacred grove beginning on the mountain they call Pontinus.
Now Mount Pontinus does not let the rain-water flow away, but absorbs it into itself.
From it flows a river, also called Pontinus. Upon the top of the mountain is a sanctuary
of Athena Saitis, now merely a ruin; there are also the foundations of a house of
Hippomedon, who went to Thebes to redress the wrongs of Polyneices, son of Oedipus.
2,36,2,n1. Hom. Il. 2.562
[2.37.1] At this mountain begins the grove, which consists chiefly of plane trees,
and reaches down to the sea. Its boundaries are, on the one side the river Pantinus,
on the other side another river, called Amymane, after the daughter of Danaus. Within
the grave are images of Demeter Prosymne and of Dionysus. Of Demeter there is a
seated image of no great size.[2.37.2] Both are of stone, but in another temple
is a seated wooden image of Dionysus Saotes (Savior), while by the sea is a stone
image of Aphrodite. They say that the daughters of Danaus dedicated it, while Danaus
himself made the sanctuary of Athena by the Pontinus. The mysteries of the Lernaeans
were established, they say, by Philammon. Now the words which accompany the ritual
are evidently of no antiquity[2.37.3] and the inscription also, which I have heard
is written on the heart made of orichalcum, was shown not to be Philammon's by Arriphon,
an Aetolian of Triconium by descent, who now enjoys a reputation second to none
among the Lycians; excellent at original research, he found the clue to this problem
in the following way: the verses, and the prose interspersed among the verses, are
all written in Doric. But before the return of the Heracleidae to the Peloponnesus
the Argives spoke the same dialect as the Athenians, and in Philammon's day I do
not suppose that even the name Dorians was familiar to all Greek ears.
[2.37.4] All this was proved in the demonstration. At the source of the Amymone
grows a plane tree, beneath which, they say, the hydra (water-snake) grew. I am
ready to believe that this beast was superior in size to other water-snakes, and
that its poison had something in it so deadly that Heracles treated the points of
his arrows with its gall. It had, however, in my opinion, one head, and not several.
It was Peisander1 of Camirus who, in order that the beast might appear more frightful
and his poetry might be more remarkable, represented the hydra with its many heads.[2.37.5]
I saw also what is called the Spring of Amphiaraus and the Alcyonian Lake, through
which the Argives say Dionysus went down to Hell to bring up Semele, adding that
the descent here was shown him by Palymnus. There is no limit to the depth of the
Alcyonian Lake, and I know of nobody who by any contrivance has been able to reach
the bottom of it since not even Nero, who had ropes made several stades long and
fastened them together, tying lead to them, and omitting nothing that might help
his experiment, was able to discover any limit to its depth.[2.37.6] This, too,
I heard. The water of the lake is, to all appearance, calm and quiet but, although
it is such to look at, every swimmer who ventures to cross it is dragged down, sucked
into the depths, and swept away. The circumference of the lake is not great, being
about one-third of a stade. Upon its banks grow grass and rushes. The nocturnal
rites performed every year in honor of Dionysus I must not divulge to the world
at large.
2,37,4,n1. Peisander wrote a poem on the labors of Heracles. His date is uncertain,
but perhaps he flourished about 645 B.C.
[2.38.1] Temenium is in Argive territory, and was named after Temenus, the son
of Aristomachus. For, having seized and strengthened the position, he waged therefrom
with the Dorians the war against Tisamenus and the Achaeans. On the way to Temenium
from Lerna the river Phrixus empties itself into the sea, and in Temenium is built
a sanctuary of Poseidon, as well as one of Aphrodite; there is also the tomb of
Temenus, which is worshipped by the Dorians in Argos.[2.38.2] Fifty stades, I conjecture,
from Temenium is Nauplia, which at the present day is uninhabited; its founder was
Nauplius, reputed to be a son of Poseidon and Amymone. Of the walls, too, ruins
still remain and in Nauplia are a sanctuary of Poseidon, harbors, and a spring called
Canathus. Here, say the Argives, Hera bathes every year and recovers her maidenhood.
[2.38.3] This is one of the sayings told as a holy secret at the mysteries which
they celebrate in honor of Hera. The story told by the people in Nauplia about the
ass, how by nibbling down the shoots of a vine he caused a more plenteous crop of
grapes in the future, and how for this reason they have carved an ass on a rock,
because he taught the pruning of vines--all this I pass over as trivial.
[2.38.4] From Lerna there is also another road, which skirts the sea and leads
to a place called Genesium. By the sea is a small sanctuary of Poseidon Genesius.
Next to this is another place, called Apobathmi (Steps). The story is that this
is the first place in Argolis where Danaus landed with his daughters. From here
we pass through what is called Anigraea, along a narrow and difficult road, until
we reach a tract on the left which stretches down to the sea;[2.38.5] it is fertile
in trees, especially the olive. As you go up inland from this is a place where three
hundred picked Argives fought for this land with an equal number of specially chosen
Lacedaemonian warriors1. All were killed except one Spartan and two Argives, and
here were raised the graves for the dead. But the Lacedaemonians, having fought
against the Argives with all their forces, won a decisive victory; at first they
themselves enjoyed the fruits of the land, but afterwards they assigned it to the
Aeginetans, when they were expelled from their island by the Athenians2. In my time
Thyreatis was inhabited by the Argives, who say that they recovered it by the award
of an arbitration36"[2.38.6] As you go from these common graves you come to Athene,
where Aeginetans once made their home, another village Neris, and a third Eua, the
largest of the villages, in which there is a sanctuary of Polemocrates. This Polemocrates
is one of the sons of Machaon, and the brother of Alexanor; he cures the people
of the district, and receives honors from the neighbours.[2.38.7] Above the villages
extends Mount Parnon, on which the Lacedaemonian border meets the borders of the
Argives and Tegeatae. On the borders stand stone figures of Hermes, from which the
name of the place is derived. A river called Tanaus, which is the only one descending
from Mount Parnon, flows through the Argive territory and empties itself into the
Gulf of Thyrea.
