Title: Pausanias' Description of Greece, Volume II.
Author: Pausânias
Language: English
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GREECE, VOLUME II. ***



_BOHN’S CLASSICAL LIBRARY._

PAUSANIAS’ DESCRIPTION OF GREECE.



PAUSANIAS’

DESCRIPTION OF GREECE,

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

WITH NOTES AND INDEX

BY ARTHUR RICHARD SHILLETO, M.A.,

_Sometime Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge_.


VOLUME II.


“Pausanias est un homme qui ne manque ni de bon sens ni de
bonne foi, mais qui croit ou au moins voudrait croire à ses dieux.”
--Champagny.


 LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS,
 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
 1886.


CHISWICK PRESS:--C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.



CONTENTS.


                         PAGE
 Book VII. Achaia           1
     VIII. Arcadia         61
       IX. Bœotia         151
        X. Phocis         219
           Index          299



ERRATA.


  Volume I.  Page 8, line 37, for “Atte” read “Attes.” As vii. 17, 20.
               (Catullus’ _Attis_.)
             Page 150, line 22, for “Auxesias” read “Auxesia.”
               As ii. 32.
             Page 165, lines 12, 17, 24, for “Philhammon”
               read “Philammon.”
             Page 191, line 4, for “Tamagra” read “Tanagra.”
             Page 215, line 35, for “Ye now enter” read “Enter ye now.”
             Page 227, line 5, for “the Little Iliad”
               read “_The Little Iliad_.”
             Page 289, line 18, for “the Babylonians” read “Babylon.”

  Volume II. Page 61, last line, for “earth” read “Earth.”
             Page 95, line 9, for “Camira” read “Camirus.”
             Page 169, line 1, for “and” read “for.”
             ---- ---- line 2, for “other kinds of flutes”
               read “other flutes.”
             Page 201, line 9, for “Lacenian” read “Laconian.”
             Page 264, line 10, for “Chilon” read “Chilo.” As iii. 16.
             Page 268, Note, for “I iad” read “Iliad.”



PAUSANIAS.

BOOK VII.--ACHAIA.



CHAPTER I.


Now the country between Elis and Sicyonia which borders on the
Corinthian Gulf is called in our day Achaia from its inhabitants, but
in ancient times was called Ægialus and its inhabitants Ægialians,
according to the tradition of the Sicyonians from Ægialeus, who was
king of what is now Sicyonia, others say from the position of the
country which is mostly on the sea-shore.[1] After the death of Hellen
his sons chased their brother Xuthus out of Thessaly, accusing him of
having privately helped himself to their father’s money. And he fled to
Athens, and was thought worthy to marry the daughter of Erechtheus, and
he had by her two sons Achæus and Ion. After the death of Erechtheus he
was chosen to decide which of his sons should be king, and, because he
decided in favour of Cecrops the eldest, the other sons of Erechtheus
drove him out of the country: and he went to Ægialus and there lived
and died. And of his sons Achæus took an army from Ægialus and Athens
and returned to Thessaly, and took possession of the throne of his
ancestors, and Ion, while gathering together an army against the
Ægialians and their king Selinus, received messengers from Selinus
offering him his only child Helice in marriage, and adopting him as his
son and heir. And Ion was very well contented with this, and after the
death of Selinus reigned over the Ægialians, and built Helice which
he called after the name of his wife, and called the inhabitants
of Ægialus Ionians after him. This was not a change of name but an
addition, for they were called the Ionian Ægialians. And the old name
Ægialus long prevailed as the name of the country. And so Homer in his
catalogue of the forces of Agamemnon was pleased to call the country by
its old name,

 “Throughout Ægialus and spacious Helice.”[2]

And at that period of the reign of Ion when the Eleusinians were at
war with the Athenians, and the Athenians invited Ion to be Commander
in Chief, death seized him in Attica, and he was buried at Potamos,
a village in Attica. And his descendants reigned after him till they
and their people were dispossessed by the Achæans, who in their turn
were driven out by the Dorians from Lacedæmon and Argos. The mutual
feuds between the Ionians and Achæans I shall relate when I have
first given the reason why, before the return of the Dorians, the
inhabitants of Lacedæmon and Argos only of all the Peloponnese were
called Achæans. Archander and Architeles, the sons of Achæus, came to
Argos from Phthiotis and became the sons in law of Danaus, Architeles
marrying Automate, and Archander Scæa. And that they were sojourners in
Argos is shewn very clearly by the name Metanastes (_stranger_) which
Archander gave his son. And it was when the sons of Achæus got powerful
in Argos and Lacedæmon that the name Achæan got attached to the whole
population. Their general name was Achæans, though the Argives were
privately called Danai. And now when they were expelled from Argos and
Lacedæmon by the Dorians, they and their king Tisamenus the son of
Orestes made the Ionians proposals to become their colonists without
war. But the Ionian Court was afraid that, if they and the Achæans were
one people, Tisamenus would be chosen as king over both nations for
his bravery and the lustre of his race. So the Ionians did not accept
the proposals of the Achæans but went to blows over it, and Tisamenus
fell in the battle, and the Achæans beat the Ionians, and besieged
them in Helice to which they had fled, but afterwards let them go upon
conditions. And the Achæans buried the body of Tisamenus at Helice,
but some time afterwards the Lacedæmonians, in accordance with an
oracle from Delphi, removed the remains to Sparta, and the tomb of
Tisamenus is now where the Lacedæmonians have their banquetings, at
the place called Phiditia. And when the Ionians migrated to Attica the
Athenians and their king, Melanthus the son of Andropompus, welcomed
them as settlers, in gratitude to Ion and his services to the Athenians
as Commander in Chief. But there is a tradition that the Athenians
suspected the Dorians, and feared that they would not keep their hands
off them, and received the Ionians therefore as settlers rather from
their formidable strength than from goodwill to them.

[1] Ægialus (αἰγιαλός) is Greek for sea-shore. In this last
view compare the names _Pomerania_, _Glamorganshire_.

[2] Iliad, ii. 575.



CHAPTER II.


And not many years afterwards Medon and Nileus, the eldest sons of
Codrus, quarrelled as to who should be king over the Athenians, and
Nileus said he would not submit to the rule of Medon, because Medon
was lame in one of his feet. But as they decided to submit the matter
to the oracle at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess assigned the kingdom to
Medon. So Nileus and the other sons of Codrus were sent on a colony,
and took with them whatever Athenians wished, and the Ionians formed
the largest part of the contingent. This was the third expedition
that had started from Greece under different kings and with different
peoples. The oldest expedition was that of Iolaus the Theban, the
nephew of Hercules, who led the Athenians and people of Thespiæ to
Sardinia. And, one generation before the Ionians sailed from Athens,
the Lacedæmonians and Minyæ who had been expelled by the Pelasgi
from Lemnos were led by Theras the Theban, the son of Autesion, to
the island henceforward called Theras after him, but formerly called
Calliste. And now thirdly the sons of Codrus were put at the head of
the Ionians, though they had no connection with them by race, being
as they were Messenians from Pylos as far as Codrus and Melanthus
were concerned, and Athenians only on their mother’s side. And the
following Greeks took part in this expedition of the Ionians, the
Thebans under Philotas, who was a descendant of Peneleus, and the
Minyæ from Orchomenus, who were kinsmen of the sons of Codrus. All the
Phocians also took part in it (except the people of Delphi), and the
Abantes from Eubœa. And to the Phocians the Athenians Philogenes and
Damon, the sons of Euctemon, gave ships to sail in, and themselves
led them to the colony. And when they had crossed over to Asia Minor,
different detachments went to different maritime towns, but Nileus and
his contingent to Miletus. The Milesians give the following account of
their early history. They say their country was for two generations
called Anactoria, during the reigns of Anax the Autochthon and Asterius
his son, and that, when Miletus put in there with an expedition of
Cretans, then the town and country changed its name to Miletus from
him. And Miletus and the force with him came from Crete fleeing from
Minos the son of Europa. And the Carians, who had settled earlier in
the neighbourhood of Miletus, admitted the Cretans to a joint share
with them. But now when the Ionians conquered the old inhabitants of
Miletus, they slew all the males except those that ran away from the
captured city, and married their wives and daughters. And the tomb of
Nileus is as you approach Didymi, not far from the gates on the left of
the road. And the temple and oracle of Apollo at Didymi are of earlier
date than the migration of the Ionians: as also is the worship of the
Ephesian Artemis. Not that Pindar in my opinion understood all about
the goddess, for he says that the Amazons who fought against Theseus
and Athens built the temple to her. Those women from Thermodon did
indeed sacrifice to the Ephesian Artemis, as having known her temple
of old, when they fled from Hercules and earlier still from Dionysus,
and sought refuge there: it was not however built by them, but by
Coresus, an Autochthon, and by Ephesus (who was they think the son of
the river Cayster, and gave his name to the city of Ephesus). And the
Leleges (who form part of Caria) and most of the Lydians inhabited the
district. And several people lived near the temple for the purpose of
supplication, and some women of the Amazonian race. And Androclus the
son of Codrus, who was appointed king of the Ionians that sailed to
Ephesus, drove the Leleges and Lydians who dwelt in the upper part of
the city out of the district; but of those who lived near the temple
no apprehensions were entertained, but they mutually gave and received
pledges with the Ionians without any hostilities. Androclus also took
Samos from the Samians, and for some time the Ephesians were masters of
Samos and the adjacent islands. And after the Samians returned to their
own possessions, Androclus assisted the people of Priene against the
Carians and, though the Greeks were victorious, fell in the battle. And
the Ephesians took up his corpse, and buried it in their own country
where the tomb is shewn to this day, on the way from the temple by the
Olympiæum to the Magnesian gates. The device on the tomb is a man in
full armour.

And the Ionians, when they inhabited Myus and Priene, drove the Carians
out from those cities. Cyaretus the son of Codrus colonized Myus, and
Priene was colonized by Thebans and Ionians mixed under Philotas, the
descendant of Peneleus, and Æpytus the son of Nileus. So Priene, which
had been ravaged by Tabalus the Persian, and afterwards by Hiero one
of its own citizens, at last became an Ionian city. But the dwellers
in Myus left their town in consequence of the following circumstance.
In the neighbourhood of Myus is a small bay: this was converted into
a marsh by the Mæander filling up the mouth of the bay with mud. And
as the water became foul and no longer sea, mosquitoes in endless
quantities bred in the marsh, till they compelled the poor people of
Myus to leave the place. And they went to Miletus and carried off with
them everything they could take and the statues of the gods: and in my
time there was at Myus only a temple of Dionysus in white marble. A
similar disaster fell upon the Atarnitæ near Pergamum.



CHAPTER III.


The Colophonians also regard the temple and oracle of Apollo at Claros
as most ancient, for, while the Carians were still in possession of the
country, they say that the first Greeks who came there were Cretans,
a large force powerful both by land and sea under Rhacius, and the
Carians remained still in possession of most of the country. But when
the Argives and Thersander the son of Polynices took Thebes, several
captives, and among others Manto were taken to Apollo at Delphi, but
Tiresias died on the road not far from Haliartus.[3] And when the
god sent them to form a colony they crossed over into Asia Minor,
and when they got to Claros the Cretans attacked them and took them
before Rhacius. And he, understanding from Manto who they were and
their errand, married Manto and made her companions fellow-settlers
with him. And Mopsus, the son of Rhacius and Manto, drove out all
the Carians altogether. And the Ionians on mutual conditions became
fellow-citizens upon equal terms with the Colophonian Greeks. And the
kingdom over the Ionians was usurped by their leaders Damasichthon and
Promethus the sons of Codrus. And Promethus afterwards slew his brother
Damasichthon and fled to Naxos, and died there, and his body was taken
home and buried by the sons of Damasichthon: his tomb is at a place
called Polytichides. And how Colophon came to be dispeopled I have
previously described in my account about Lysimachus: its inhabitants
were the only colonists at Ephesus that fought against Lysimachus and
the Macedonians. And the tombs of those from Colophon and Smyrna that
fell in the battle are on the left of the road to Claros.

Lebedus also was dispeopled by Lysimachus simply to add to the
population of Ephesus. It was a place in many respects favoured, and
especially for its very numerous and agreeable warm baths near the sea.
Originally it was inhabited by the Carians, till Andræmon, the son of
Codrus, and the Ionians drove them out. Andræmon’s tomb is on the left
of the road from Colophon, after you have crossed the river Calaon.

And Teos was colonized by the Minyæ from Orchomenus, who came with
Athamas; he is said to have been a descendant of Athamas the son of
Æolus. Here too the Carians were mixed up with the Greeks. And the
Ionians were conducted to Teos by Apœcus, the great-great-grandson of
Melanthus, who did no harm to either the Orchomenians or Teians. And
not many years afterwards came men from Attica and Bœotia, the former
under Damasus and Naoclus the sons of Codrus, the latter under the
Bœotian Geres, and both these new-comers were hospitably received by
Apœcus and the people of Teos.

The Erythræi also say that they came originally from Crete with
Erythrus (the son of Rhadamanthys) who was the founder of their city,
and when the Lycians Carians and Pamphylians occupied the city as well
as the Cretans, (the Lycians being kinsfolk of the Cretans, having
originally come from Crete when they fled from Sarpedon, and the
Carians having an ancient friendship with Minos, and the Pamphylians
also having Greek blood in their veins, for after the capture of Ilium
they wandered about with Calchas), when all those that I have mentioned
occupied Erythræ, Cleopus the son of Codrus gathered together from all
the towns in Ionia various people, whom he formed into a colony at
Erythræ.

And the people of Clazomenæ and Phocæa had no cities before the Ionians
came to Asia Minor: but when the Ionians arrived a detachment of them,
not knowing their way about the country, sent for one Parphorus a
Colophonian as their guide, and having built a city under Mount Ida
left it not long after, and returned to Ionia and built Scyppius in
Colophonia. And migrating of their own accord from Colophonia, they
occupied the territory which they now hold, and built on the mainland
the town of Clazomenæ. But afterwards from fear of the Persians they
crossed over into the island opposite. But in process of time Alexander
the son of Philip was destined to convert Clazomenæ into a peninsula,
by connecting the island with the mainland by an embankment. Most of
the inhabitants of Clazomenæ were not Ionians, but were from Cleonæ
and Phlius, and had left those cities when the Dorians returned to the
Peloponnese. And the people of Phocæa were originally from the country
under Mount Parnassus which is still to our day called Phocis, and
crossed over into Asia Minor with the Athenians Philogenes and Damon.
And they took territory not by war but on an understanding with the
people of Cyme. And as the Ionians would not receive them into the
Pan-Ionic confederacy unless they received kings from the descendants
of Codrus, they accepted from Erythræ and Teos Deœtes and Periclus and
Abartus.

[3] See Book ix. ch. 33.



CHAPTER IV.


And the cities of the Ionians in the islands were Samos near Mycale,
and Chios opposite Mimas. The Samian Asius, the son of Amphiptolemus,
has written in his poems that Phœnix had by Perimede (the daughter of
Œneus) Astypalæa and Europe, and that Poseidon had by Astypalæa a son
Ancæus, who was king over the Leleges, and married the daughter of the
river-god Mæander, her name was Samia, and their children were Perilaus
and Enudus and Samos and Alitherses and one daughter Parthenope, who
bare Lycomedes to Apollo. Such is the account of Asius in his poems.
Those who inhabited Samos at this time received the Ionian colonists
rather of necessity than goodwill. The Ionian leader was Procles the
son of Pityreus, an Epidaurian as also was a large number of his men,
they had been banished from Epidauria by Deiphontes and the Argives,
and Procles himself was a descendant of Ion the son of Xuthus. And
Androclus and the Ephesians marched against Leogorus the son of
Procles, who succeeded his father as king of Samos, and having defeated
him in battle drove the Samians out of the island, on the pretext that
they had joined the Carians in a plot against the Ionians. Of the
Samians that were thus driven out of Samos some took a colony to the
island near Thrace, which had been previously known as Dardania, but
was henceforth called Samothrace; others under Leogorus built a fort on
the mainland opposite at Anæa, and ten years afterwards crossed into
Samos, drove out the Ephesians and recovered the island.

The temple of Hera in Samos was according to the tradition of some
built by the Argonauts, who brought the statue of the goddess from
Argos. But the Samians themselves think that the goddess was born
in their island on the banks of the river Imbrasus, and under the
willow-tree that still grows in the temple of Hera. That this temple
could not have been very ancient one naturally infers from the
statue, which is by the Æginetan Smilis, the son of Euclides, who was
a contemporary of Dædalus, but has not acquired equal renown. For
Dædalus, an Athenian of the royal stock called Metionidæ, was most
remarkable of all men for his art and misfortunes. For having killed
his sister’s son, and knowing the vengeance that awaited him in his
country, he became a voluntary exile and fled to Minos and Crete, and
made works of art for Minos and his daughters, as Homer has described
in the Iliad. But being condemned for treason against Minos, and thrown
into prison with his son, he escaped from Crete and went to Inycus,
a city of Sicily, to the court of Cocalus, and caused a war between
the Sicilians and Cretans, because Cocalus would not give him up at
the request of Minos. And so much beloved was he by the daughters of
Cocalus for his art, that these ladies entered into a plot against the
life of Minos out of favour to Dædalus. And it is plain that his fame
extended over all Sicily, and most of Italy. While Smilis, except among
the Samians and at Elea, had no fame whatever out of his own country;
but he went to Samos, and there he made the statue of Hera.

About Chios Ion the Tragedian has recorded that Poseidon went to that
island when it was unoccupied, and had an intrigue there with a Nymph,
and when she was in labour some snow fell, and so Poseidon called the
boy Chios.[4] By another Nymph he had Agelus and Melas. And in process
of time Œnopion sailed to Chios from Crete with his sons Talus and
Euanthes and Melas and Salagus and Athamas. And during the reign of
Œnopion some Carians came to the island, and the Abantes from Eubœa.
And Œnopion and his sons were succeeded by Amphiclus, who came to Chios
from Histiæa in Eubœa in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. And
Hector the fourth in descent from Amphiclus, (for he too was king of
Chios), fought against the Abantes and Carians that were still in the
island, and slew some in various battles, and compelled others to leave
the island upon conditions of war. And after the Chians had finished
the war, then Hector bethought him that he and the Ionians ought to
jointly sacrifice to the welfare of the Pan-Ionic league. And Ion says
he received the present of a tripod from the community of the Ionians
for his prowess. But Ion has not told us how it was the Chians got
ranked as Ionians.

[4] The Greek for snow is _chion_. Hence the paronomasia.



CHAPTER V.


And Smyrna, which was one of the 12 cities of the Æolians, on the site
of what they now call the old city, was taken from the Æolians by the
Ionians who came from Colophon, but some time afterwards the Ionians
admitted its inhabitants to the Pan-Ionic league. But Alexander the
son of Philip built the modern Smyrna in consequence of a dream he
had. For on his return from hunting on Mount Pagus he went they say
to the temple of Nemesis, and there found a well, and a plane-tree in
front of the temple growing in the water. And they say he slept under
this plane-tree and the goddesses of Nemesis appeared to him and bade
him build a town on that site, and remove the people of Smyrna there
from the old Smyrna. And the people of Smyrna sent envoys to Claros to
consult the oracle in the present conjuncture, and the god gave the
following oracular response,

 “Thrice happy yea four times happy shall those men be, who shall dwell
 near Mount Pagus across the sacred Meles.”

So they willingly removed, and they worship two Nemeses instead of one,
and they say their mother was Night, but the Athenians who worship
Nemesis at Rhamnus say that she was the daughter of Oceanus.

The Ionians have a most magnificent country for the fruits of the
earth, and temples such as there are nowhere else, the finest that
of Ephesian Artemis for size and opulence, and next two to Apollo
not quite finished, one at Branchidæ in Milesia, the other at Claros
in Colophonia. Two temples in Ionia were burnt down by the Persians,
one of Hera in Samos, and one of Athene in Phocæa. They are still
wonderful though the fire has passed upon them. And you would be
delighted with the temple of Hercules at Erythræ, and with the temple
of Athene at Priene, the latter for the statue of the goddess, the
former for its great antiquity. And at Erythræ is a work of art
unlike the most ancient of Æginetan or Attic workmanship: its design
is perfect Egyptian. It is the wooden raft on which the god sailed
from Tyre in Phœnicia, why the people of Erythræ do not say. But to
prove that it came into the Ionian sea they say it was moored at the
promontory called Mid, which is on the mainland about half-way from the
harbour of Erythræ to the island of Chios. And when this raft was at
the promontory, the people of Erythræ and the Chians too had no small
trouble in trying to get it on shore. At last a native of Erythræ, who
got his living from the sea by catching fish, but had lost his eyesight
through some disease, Phormio by name, dreamed that the women of
Erythræ were to cut off their hair, and that the men making a rope out
of this hair were to drag the raft ashore. The women who were citizens
wouldn’t hear of it: but all the women who were slaves of Thracian
race, or who being free had yet to earn their own living, allowed their
hair to be cut off, and so at last the people of Erythræ got the raft
to shore. So Thracian women alone are allowed to enter the temple of
Hercules, and the rope made of hair is still kept by the people of
Erythræ. They also say that the fisherman recovered his sight, and
saw for the rest of his life. At Erythræ there is also a temple of
Athene Polias, and a huge wooden statue of the goddess seated on a
throne, in one hand a distaff in the other a globe. We conjecture it
to be by Endœus from several circumstances, especially looking at the
workmanship of the statue inside, and the Graces and Seasons in white
marble, which used to stand in the open air. The people of Smyrna also
had in my time a temple of Æsculapius between the mountain Coryphe and
the sea which is unmixed with any other water.

Ionia besides the temples and the salubrity of the air has several
other things worthy of record. Near Ephesus is the river Cenchrius,
and the fertile Mount Pion, and the well Halitæa. And in Milesia is
the well Biblis: of the love passages of Biblis they still sing. And
in Colophonia is the grove of Apollo, consisting of ash trees, and not
far from the grove the river Ales, the coldest river in Ionia. And
the people of Lebedus have baths which are both wonderful and useful
to men. The people of Teos also have baths at the promontory Macria,
some natural consisting of sea-water that bursts in at a crevice of
the rock, others built at wonderful cost. The people of Clazomenæ also
have baths. Agamemnon is honoured there. And there is a grotto called
the grotto of Pyrrhus’ mother, and they have a tradition about Pyrrhus
as a shepherd. The people of Erythræ have also a place called Chalcis,
from which the third of their tribes takes its name, where there is a
promontory extending to the sea, and some sea baths, which of all the
baths in Ionia are most beneficial to men. And the people of Smyrna
have the most beautiful river Meles and a cave near its springs, where
they say Homer wrote his Poems. The Chians also have a notable sight in
the tomb of Œnopion, about whose deeds they have several legends. The
Samians too on the way to the temple of Hera have the tomb of Rhadine
and Leontichus, which those are accustomed to visit who are melancholy
through love. The wonderful things indeed in Ionia are not far short of
those in Greece altogether.



CHAPTER VI.


After the departure of the Ionians the Achæans divided their land
and lived in their towns, which were 12 in number, and well known
throughout Greece. Dyme first near Elis, and then Olenus, and Pharæ,
and Tritea, and Rhypes, and Ægium, and Cerynea, and Bura, and Helice,
and Ægæ and Ægira, and last Pellene near Sicyonia. In these towns,
which had formerly been inhabited by the Ionians, the Achæans and
their kings dwelt. And those who had the greatest power among the
Achæans were the sons of Tisamenus, Däimenes and Sparton and Tellis and
Leontomenes. Cometes, the eldest of Tisamenus’ sons, had previously
crossed over into Asia Minor. These ruled over the Achæans as also
Damasias (the son of Penthilus, the son of Orestes), the brother of
Tisamenus. Equal authority to them had Preugenes and his son Patreus
from Lacedæmon; who were allowed by the Achæans to build a city in
their territory, which was called Patræ after Patreus.

The following were the wars of the Achæans. In the expedition of
Agamemnon against Ilium, as they inhabited both Lacedæmon and Argos,
they were the largest contingent from Greece. But when Xerxes and
the Medes invaded Greece, the Achæans as far as we know did not
join Leonidas at the pass of Thermopylæ, nor did they fight under
Themistocles and the Athenians in the sea-fights off Eubœa and Salamis,
nor were they in either the Lacedæmonian or Athenian list of allies.
They were also behind at Platæa: for otherwise they would certainly
have been mentioned among the other Greeks on the basement of the
statue of Zeus at Olympia.[5] I cannot but think they stayed behind
on each of these occasions to save their country, and also after the
Trojan War they did not think it befitting that the Lacedæmonians (who
were Dorians) should lead them. As they showed long afterwards. For
when the Lacedæmonians were at war with the Athenians, the Achæans
readily entered into an alliance with the people of Patræ, and were
equally friendly with the Athenians. And they took part in the wars
that were fought afterwards by Greece, as at Chæronea against Philip
and the Macedonians. But they admit that they did not go into Thessaly
or take part in the battle of Lamia, because they had not yet recovered
from their reverse in Bœotia. And the Custos Rotulorum at Patræ says
that the wrestler Chilon was the only Achæan present at the action at
Lamia. I know also myself that the Lydian Adrastus fought privately
(and not in any concert with the Lydians) for the Greeks. This Adrastus
had a brazen effigy erected to him by the Lydians in front of the
temple of Persian Artemis, and the inscription they wrote upon it
was that he died fighting for the Greeks against Leonnatus. And the
pass at Thermopylæ that admitted the Galati was overlooked by all the
Peloponnesians as well as by the Achæans: for as the barbarians had
no ships, they thought they had nothing to fear from them, if they
strongly fortified the Isthmus of Corinth, from Lechæum on the one sea
to Cenchreæ on the other.

This was the view at that time of all the Peloponnesians. And when the
Galati crossed over into Asia Minor in ships got somewhere or other,
then the Greeks were so situated that none of them were any longer
clearly the leading state. For as to the Lacedæmonians, their reverse
at Leuctra, and the gathering of the Arcadians at Megalopolis, and the
vicinity of the Messenians on their borders, prevented their recovering
their former prosperity. And the city of the Thebans had been so laid
waste by Alexander, that not many years afterwards when they were
reduced by Cassander, they were unable to protect themselves at all.
And the Athenians had indeed the good will of all Greece for their
famous actions, but that was no security to them in their war with the
Macedonians.

[5] See Book v. ch. 23.



CHAPTER VII.


The Achæans were most powerful in the days when the Greeks were not
banded together, but each looked after their own personal interests.
For none of their towns except Pellene had any experience of tyrants
at any time. And misfortunes from wars and the plague did not so much
touch the Achæans as all the other Greeks. Accordingly what is called
the Achæan League was by common consent the design and act of the
Achæans. And this League was formed at Ægium because, next to Helice
which had been swept away by a flood, it had been the foremost town in
Achaia in former times, and was at this time the most powerful. And
of the other Greeks the Sicyonians first joined this Achæan League.
And next to the Sicyonians some of the other Peloponnesians joined
it, some immediately, some rather later: and outside the Isthmus what
brought people in was seeing that the Achæan League was becoming more
and more powerful. And the Lacedæmonians were the only Greeks that
were unfriendly to the Achæans and openly took up arms against them.
For Pellene an Achæan town was taken by Agis, the son of Eudamidas,
King of Sparta, though he was soon driven out again by Aratus and
the Sicyonians. And Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas and grandson of
Cleonymus, a king of the other family, when Aratus and the Achæans were
gathered together at Dyme against him routed them badly in battle,
though he afterwards concluded peace with the Achæans and Antigonus.
Antigonus was at this time ruler of the Macedonians, being Regent for
Philip, the son of Demetrius, who was quite a boy; he was Philip’s
uncle and also stepfather. With him and the Achæans Cleomenes made
peace, but soon violated his engagements, and reduced to slavery
Megalopolis in Arcadia. And the reverse which the Lacedæmonians met
with at Sellasia at the hands of the Achæans and Antigonus was in
consequence of Cleomenes’ violation of his word. But Cleomenes we shall
mention again when we come to Arcadia. And Philip the son of Demetrius,
when he came to age, received the rule over the Macedonians from his
stepfather Antigonus, who was glad to surrender it, and inspired great
fear in all the Greeks by closely imitating Philip the son of Amyntas,
(who was no ancestor of his, but a true despot), as in bribing people
to betray their country. And at banquets he would offer the cup of
fellowship and kindness filled not with wine but deadly poison, a thing
which Philip the son of Amyntas in my opinion never thought of, but to
Philip the son of Demetrius poisoning appeared a very trifling crime.
And three towns he turned into garrison-towns as _points d’appui_
against Greece, and in his insolence and haughty disregard of the
Greeks he called these towns the keys of Greece. One was Corinth in the
Peloponnese, the citadel of which he strongly fortified, and for Eubœa
and Bœotia and Phocis he had Chalcis near the Euripus, and for Thessaly
and Ætolia he garrisoned Magnesia under Mount Pelion. And by perpetual
raids and plundering incursions he harassed the Athenians and Ætolians
especially. I have mentioned before in my account of Attica the Greeks
or barbarians who assisted the Athenians against Philip, and how in
consequence of the weakness of their allies the Athenians were obliged
to rely on an alliance with Rome. The Romans had sent some soldiers not
long before nominally to assist the Ætolians against Philip, but really
to spy out what the Macedonians were aiming at. But now they sent an
army under the command of Otilius, that was his best known name, for
the Romans are not called like the Greeks merely after their father’s
name, but have 3 names at least and sometimes more. This Otilius had
orders from the Romans to protect the Athenians and Ætolians against
Philip. Otilius in all other respects obeyed his orders, but did one
thing that the Romans were not pleased at. For he captured and rased
to the ground Hestiæa (a town in Eubœa) and Anticyra in Phocis, places
which had submitted to Philip simply from necessity. This was I think
the reason why the Senate when they heard of it superseded him by
Flaminius.



CHAPTER VIII.


Flaminius on his arrival immediately defeated the Macedonian garrison
at Eretria and plundered the town, and next marched to Corinth which
was occupied by Philip’s garrison, and sat down to a regular siege,
and sent to the Achæans urging them to come to Corinth with an army,
so as to be reckoned the allies of the Romans, and in friendship to
the Greeks generally. But the Achæans took it ill that Flaminius and
still earlier Otilius had handled so savagely old Greek cities, that
had committed no offence against Rome, and were under the Macedonians
against their wish. They foresaw also that instead of Philip and
the Macedonians they would merely have the Romans as dictators in
Greece. But after many speeches from different points of view had been
delivered in the council, at last the party friendly to the Romans
prevailed, and the Achæans joined Flaminius in the siege of Corinth.
And the Corinthians, being thus freed from the Macedonian yoke, at once
joined the Achæan League, which indeed they had formerly joined, when
Aratus and the Sicyonians drove out the garrison from the citadel of
Corinth and slew Persæus, who had been put in command of the garrison
by Antigonus. And from that time forward the Achæans were called the
allies of the Romans, and were devoted to them at all times, and
followed them into Macedonia against Philip, and joined them in an
expedition against the Ætolians, and fought on their side against
Antiochus and the Syrians.

In fighting against the Macedonians and Syrians the Achæans were
animated only by friendship to the Romans: but in fighting against the
Ætolians they were satisfying a long-standing grudge. And when the
power at Sparta of Nabis, a man of the most unrelenting cruelty, had
been overthrown, the Lacedæmonians became their own masters again, and
as time went on the Achæans got them into their League, and were very
severe with them, and rased to the ground the fortifications of Sparta,
which had been formerly run up hastily at the time of the invasion of
Demetrius and afterwards of Pyrrhus and the Epirotes, but during the
power of Nabis had been very strongly fortified. And not only did the
Achæans rase the walls of Sparta, but they prevented their youths from
training as Lycurgus had ordained, and made them train in the Achæan
way. I shall enter into all this in more detail in my account about
Arcadia. And the Lacedæmonians, being sorely vexed with these harassing
decrees of the Achæans, threw themselves into the arms of Metellus
and his colleagues, who had come on an embassy from Rome, not to try
and stir up war against Philip and the Macedonians, for a peace had
been previously solemnly concluded between Philip and the Romans, but
to try the charges made against Philip either by the Thessalians or
the Epirotes. Philip himself indeed and the Macedonian supremacy had
actually received a fatal blow from the Romans. For fighting against
Flaminius and the Romans on the range of hills called Cynoscephalæ
Philip got the worst of it, and having put forth all his strength in
the battle got so badly beaten that he lost the greater part of his
army, and was obliged by the Roman terms to remove his garrisons from
all the Greek towns which he had seized and reduced during the war.
The peace indeed with the Romans which he obtained sounded specious,
but was only procured by various entreaties and at great expenditure
of money. The Sibyl had indeed foretold not without the god the power
which the Macedonians would attain to in the days of Philip the son of
Amyntas, and how all this would crumble away in the days of another
Philip. These are the very words of her oracle--

 “Ye Macedonians, that boast in the Argeadæ as your kings, to you
 Philip as ruler shall be both a blessing and a curse. The first Philip
 shall make you ruler over cities and people, the last shall lose you
 all your honour, conquered by men both from the West and East.”

The Romans that overthrew the Macedonian Empire lived in the West of
Europe, and Attalus and the Mysian force that cooperated with them may
be said to have been Eastern Nations.



CHAPTER IX.


But now Metellus and his colleagues resolved not to neglect the
quarrels of the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, so they convened before
their council-board the most prominent Achæans, that they might
publicly advise them to treat the Lacedæmonians in a kindlier spirit.
And the Achæans returned answer that they would give no hearing to
them or anyone else, who should approach them on any subject whatever,
except they were armed with a decree from the Roman Senate. And
Metellus and his colleagues, thinking they were treated by the Achæans
with rather too much hauteur, on their return to Rome told the Senate
many things against the Achæans which were not all true. And further
charges still were brought against the Achæans by Areus and Alcibiades,
who were held in great repute at Sparta, but who did not act well
to the Achæans: for when they were exiled by Nabis the Achæans had
kindly received them, and after the death of Nabis had restored them
to Sparta contrary to the wish of the Lacedæmonian people. But now
being admitted before the Roman Senate they inveighed against the
Achæans with the greatest zeal. And the Achæans on their return from
Rome sentenced them to death in their Council. And the Roman Senate
sent Appius and some others to put the differences between the Achæans
and Lacedæmonians on a just footing. But this embassy was not likely
to please the Achæans, inasmuch as in Appius’ suite were Areus and
Alcibiades, whom the Achæans detested at this time. And when they
came into the council chamber they endeavoured by their words to
stir up rather the animosity of the Achæans than to win them over by
persuasion. Lycortas of Megalopolis, a man in merit behind none of the
Arcadians, and who had friendly relations with Philopœmen upon whom
he relied, put forward in his speech the just claims of the Achæans,
and at the same time covertly blamed the Romans. But Appius and his
suite jeered at Lycortas’ speech, and passed a vote that Areus and
Alcibiades had committed no crime against the Achæans, and allowed the
Lacedæmonians to send envoys to Rome, thus contravening the previous
convention between the Romans and Achæans. For it had been publicly
agreed that envoys of the Achæans might go to the Roman Senate, but
those states which were in the Achæan League were forbidden to send
envoys privately. And when the Achæans sent a counter-embassy to that
of the Lacedæmonians, and the speeches on both sides were heard in the
Senate, then the Romans despatched Appius and all his former suite
as plenipotentiaries between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans. And they
restored to Sparta those that had been exiled by the Achæans, and
they remitted the fines of those who had absconded before judgment,
and had been condemned in their absence. And they did not remove
the Lacedæmonians from the Achæan League, but they ordered that
_foreign_[6] courts were to try capital cases, but all other cases they
could themselves try, or submit them to the Achæan League. And the
Spartans again built walls all round their city from the foundation.
And those Lacedæmonians who were restored from exile meditated all
sorts of contrivances against the Achæans, hoping to injure them most
in the following way. The Messenians who were concerned in the death
of Philopœmen, and who were banished it was thought on that account by
the Achæans, these and other exiles of the Achæans they persuaded to
go and take their case to Rome. And they went with them and intrigued
for their return from exile. And as Appius greatly favoured the
Lacedæmonians, and on all occasions went against the Achæans, whatever
the Messenian or Achæan exiles wished was sure to come off without any
difficulty, and letters were sent by the Senate to Athens and Ætolia,
ordering them to restore the Messenians and Achæans to their rights.
This seemed the unkindest cut of all to the Achæans, who upon various
occasions were treated with great injustice by the Romans, and who
saw that all their past services went for nothing, for after having
fought against Philip and the Ætolians and Antiochus simply to oblige
the Romans, they were neglected for exiles whose lives were far from
pure. Still they thought they had better submit. Such was the state of
affairs up to this point.

[6] Meaning _Roman_ I take it.



CHAPTER X.


But the most impious of all crimes, the betrayal of one’s country and
fellow citizens for gain, was destined to bring about the destruction
of the Achæans, a crime that has ever troubled Greece. For in the
days of Darius (the son of Hystaspes) king of the Persians the Ionian
affairs were ruined by all the Samian captains but eleven treacherously
surrendering their ships. And after the subjugation of the Ionians the
Medes enslaved Eretria; when those held in highest repute in Eretria
played the traitor, as Philagras, the son of Cyneus, and Euphorbus,
the son of Alcimachus. And when Xerxes went on his expedition to
Greece, Thessaly was betrayed by the Aleuadæ, and Thebes was betrayed
by Attaginus and Timegenidas, its foremost men. And during the
Peloponnesian war Xenias, a native of Elis, endeavoured to betray Elis
to the Lacedæmonians and Agis. And those who were called Lysander’s
friends never ceased the attempt to betray their countries to Lysander.
And in the reign of Philip, the son of Amyntas, one will find that
Lacedæmon was not the only one of the Greek cities that were betrayed:
the cities of Greece were more ruined through treason than they had
been formerly by the plague. But Alexander the son of Philip had very
little success indeed by treason. And after the reverse to the Greeks
at Lamia Antipater, wishing to cross over with all despatch to the
war in Asia Minor, was content to patch up a peace speedily, as it
mattered nothing to him whether he left Athens or indeed all Greece
free. But Demades and other traitors at Athens persuaded Antipater
not to act friendly to the Greeks, and, by frightening the commonalty
of the Athenians, they were the means of the introduction into Athens
and most other towns of the Macedonian garrisons. What confirms my
account is that the Athenians after the reverse in Bœotia did not
become subject to Philip, though 1,000 were killed in the action, and
2,000 taken prisoners after: but at Lamia, although only 200 fell,
they became slaves of the Macedonians. Thus at no time were wanting to
Greece people afflicted with this itch for treason. And the Achæans at
this time were made subject to the Romans entirely through the Achæan
Callicrates. But the beginning of their troubles was the overthrow of
Perseus and the Macedonian Empire by the Romans.

Perseus the son of Philip was originally at peace with the Romans
according to the terms of agreement between them and his father Philip,
but he violated these conditions when he led an army against Abrupolis,
the king of the Sapæans, (who are mentioned by Archilochus in one of
his Iambic verses) and dispossessed them, though they were allies of
the Romans. And Perseus and the Macedonians having been beaten in
war on account of this outrage upon the Sapæans, ten Roman Senators
were sent to settle affairs in Macedonia according to the interests
of the Romans. And when they came to Greece Callicrates insinuated
himself among them, letting slip no occasion of flattering them either
in word or deed. And one of them, who was by no means remarkable for
justice, was so won over by Callicrates that he was persuaded by
him to enter the Achæan League. And he went to one of their general
meetings, and said that when Perseus was at war with the Romans the
most influential Achæans had furnished him with money, and assisted
him in other respects. He bade the Achæans therefore pass a sentence
of death against these men: and he said if they would do so, then he
would give them their names. This seemed an altogether unfair way of
putting it, and those present at the general meeting said that, if any
of the Achæans had acted with Perseus, their names must be mentioned
first, for it was not fair to condemn them before. And when the Roman
was thus confuted, he was so confident as to affirm that all the
Achæan Generals were implicated in the charge, for all were friendly
to Perseus and the Macedonians. This he said at the instigation of
Callicrates. And Xeno rose up next, a man of no small renown among
the Achæans, and spoke as follows. “As to this charge, I am a General
of the Achæans, and have neither acted against the Romans, nor shewn
any good will to Perseus. And I am ready to be tried on this charge
before either the Achæan League or the Romans.” This he said in the
boldness of a good conscience. But the Roman Senator at once seized
the opportunity his words suggested, and sent all whom Callicrates
accused of being friendly to Perseus to stand their trial at Rome.
Nothing of the kind had ever previously happened to the Greeks. For
the Macedonians in the zenith of their power, as under Philip, the son
of Amyntas, and Alexander, had never forced any Greeks who opposed
them to be sent into Macedonia, but had allowed them to be tried by
the Amphictyonic Council. But now every Achæan, however innocent, who
was accused by Callicrates, had to go to Rome, so it was decreed, and
more than 1,000 so went. And the Romans, treating them as if they had
been already condemned by the Achæans, imprisoned them in various
towns in Etruria, and, although the Achæans sent various embassies and
supplications about them, returned no answer. But 17 years afterwards
they released some 300 or even fewer, (who were all that remained in
Italy of the 1,000 and more Achæans), thinking they had been punished
sufficiently. And all those who escaped either on the journey to Rome
in the first instance, or afterwards from the towns to which they had
been sent by the Romans, were, if captured, capitally punished at once
and no excuse received.



CHAPTER XI.


And the Romans sent another Senator to Greece, Gallus by name, who
was sent to arbitrate on the disputes between the Lacedæmonians and
the Argives. This Gallus both spoke and acted with much hauteur
to the Greeks, and treated the Lacedæmonians and Argives with the
greatest contempt possible. For he disdained himself to arbitrate for
cities which had attained such great renown, and had fought for their
fatherland bravely and lavishly, and had previously submitted their
claims to no less an arbitrator than Philip the son of Amyntas, and
submitted the decision to Callicrates, the plague of all Greece. And
when the Ætolians who inhabit Pleuron came to Gallus, desiring release
from the Achæan League, they were allowed by him to send a private
embassy to Rome, and the Romans gave their consent to what they asked.
The Roman Senate also despatched to Gallus a decree, that he was at
liberty to release from the Achæan League as many towns as he liked.

And he carried out his orders, and meantime the Athenian people from
necessity rather than choice plundered Oropus which was a town subject
to them, for the Athenians had been reduced to a greater state of
poverty than any of the Greeks by the war with the Macedonians. The
Oropians appealed to the Senate at Rome, and they, thinking they
had not been treated well, ordered the Sicyonians to levy upon the
Athenians a fine proportionate to the harm they had done to the
Oropians. The Sicyonians, as the Athenians did not come into court
at the time of trial, fined them in their absence 500 talents, but
the Roman Senate at the request of the Athenians remitted all the
fine but 100 talents. And the Athenians did not pay even this, but
by promises and gifts prevailed upon the Oropians to agree, that an
Athenian garrison should occupy Oropus, and that the Athenians should
have hostages from the Oropians, and if the Oropians should bring
any further charges against the Athenians, then the Athenians were
to withdraw their garrison, and return their hostages. And no long
time elapsed when some of the garrison insulted some of the townsmen
of Oropus. They sent therefore envoys to Athens to demand back their
hostages, and at the same time to ask the Athenians to take away
their garrison according to their agreement. But the Athenians flatly
refused, on the plea that the outrage was committed by the garrison
and not the Athenian people, they promised however that those in
fault should be punished. And the Oropians appealed to the Achæans to
help them, but the Achæans refused out of friendship and respect to
the Athenians. Then the Oropians promised ten talents to Menalcidas,
a Lacedæmonian by birth but serving at this time as General of the
Achæans, if he would make the Achæans help them. And he promised half
the money to Callicrates, who because of his friendship with the Romans
had the greatest influence over the Achæans. And Callicrates responding
to the wishes of Menalcidas, it was determined to help the Oropians
against the Athenians. And some one announced news of this to the
Athenians, and they with all speed went to Oropus, and after plundering
whatever they had spared in former raids, withdrew their garrison.
And Menalcidas and Callicrates tried to persuade the Achæans who came
up too late for help, to make an inroad into Attica: but as they were
against it, especially those who had come from Lacedæmon, the army went
back again.



CHAPTER XII.


And the Oropians, though no help had come from the Achæans, yet had
to pay the money promised to Menalcidas. And he, when he had received
his bribe, thought it a misfortune that he would have to share any
part of it with Callicrates. So at first he practised putting off the
payment of the gift and other wiles, but soon afterwards he was so
bold as to deprive him of it altogether. My statement is confirmed
by the proverb, “One fire burns fiercer than another fire, and one
wolf is fiercer than other wolves, and one hawk flies swifter than
another hawk, since the most unscrupulous of all men, Callicrates, is
outdone in treachery by Menalcidas.” And Callicrates, who was never
superior to any bribe, and had got nothing out of his hatred to Athens,
was so vexed with Menalcidas that he deprived him of his office, and
prosecuted him on a capital charge before the Achæans, _viz._ that
he had tried to undermine the Achæans on his embassy to Rome, and
that he had endeavoured to withdraw Sparta from the Achæan league.
Menalcidas in this crisis gave 3 of the talents from Oropus to Diæus
of Megalopolis, who had been his successor as General of the Achæans,
and now, being zealous in his interest on account of his bribe, was
bent on saving Menalcidas in spite of the Achæans. But the Achæans
both privately and publicly were vexed with Diæus for the acquittal
of Menalcidas. But Diæus turned away their charges against him to the
hope of greater gain, by using the following wile as a pretext. The
Lacedæmonians had gone to the Senate at Rome about some debateable
land, and the Senate had told them to try all but capital cases before
the Achæan League. Such was their answer. But Diæus told the Achæans
what was not the truth, and deluded them by saying that the Roman
Senate allowed them to pass sentence of death upon a Spartan. They
therefore thought the Lacedæmonians could also pass sentence of life
and death on themselves: but the Lacedæmonians did not believe that
Diæus was speaking the truth, and wished to refer the matter to the
Senate at Rome. But the Achæans objected to this, that the cities
in the Achæan League had no right without common consent to send an
embassy privately to Rome. In consequence of these disputes war broke
out between the Achæans and the Lacedæmonians, and the Lacedæmonians,
knowing they were not able to fight the Achæans, sent embassies to
their cities and spoke privately to Diæus. All the cities returned
the same answer, that if their general ordered them to take the field
they could not disobey. For Diæus was in command, and he said that he
intended to fight not against Sparta but against all that troubled her.
And when the Spartan Senate asked who he thought were the criminals,
he gave them a list of 24 men who were prominent in Sparta. Thereupon
the opinion of Agasisthenes prevailed, a man previously held in good
repute, and who for the following advice got still more highly thought
of. He persuaded all those men whose names were mentioned to exile
themselves from Lacedæmon, and not by remaining there to bring on a
war on Sparta, and if they fled to Rome he said they would be soon
restored by the Romans. So they departed and were nominally tried
in their absence in the Spartan law-courts and condemned to death:
but Callicrates and Diæus were sent by the Achæans to Rome to plead
against these Spartan exiles before the Senate. And Callicrates died
on the road of some illness, nor do I know whether if he had gone on
to Rome he would have done the Achæans any good, or been to them the
source of greater evils. But Diæus carried on a bitter controversy
with Menalcidas before the Senate, not in the most decorous manner.
And the Senate returned answer that they would send Ambassadors, who
should arbitrate upon the differences between the Lacedæmonians and
Achæans. And the journey of these ambassadors from Rome was somehow
taken so leisurely, that Diæus had full time to deceive the Achæans,
and Menalcidas the Lacedæmonians. The Achæans were persuaded by Diæus
that the Lacedæmonians were directed by the Roman Senate to obey them
in all things. While Menalcidas deceived the Lacedæmonians altogether,
saying that they had been put by the Romans out of the jurisdiction of
the Achæan League altogether.



CHAPTER XIII.


In consequence of these differences with the Lacedæmonians the Achæans
made preparations again to go to war with them, and an army was
collected against Sparta by Damocritus, who was chosen General of
the Achæans at that time. And about the same time an army of Romans
under Metellus went into Macedonia, to fight against Andriscus, the
son of Perseus and grandson of Philip, who had revolted from the
Romans. And the war in Macedonia was finished by the Romans with
the greatest despatch. And Metellus gave his orders to the envoys,
who had been sent by the Roman Senate to see after affairs in Asia
Minor, to have a conference with the leaders of the Achæans before
they passed over into Asia Minor, and to forbid them to war against
Sparta, and to tell them they were to wait for the arrival from Rome
of the envoys who were despatched to arbitrate between them and the
Lacedæmonians. They gave these orders to Damocritus and the Achæans,
who were beforehand with them and had already marched to Lacedæmon, but
when they saw that the Achæans were not likely to pay any attention to
their orders, they crossed over into Asia Minor. And the Lacedæmonians,
out of spirit rather than from strength, took up arms and went out to
meet the enemy in defence of their country, but were in a short time
repulsed with the loss in the battle of about 1,000 who were in their
prime both in respect to age and bravery, and the rest of the army
fled pell mell into the town. And had Damocritus exhibited energy,
the Achæans might have pursued those who fled from the battle up to
the walls of Sparta: but he called them back from the pursuit at
once, and rather went in for raids and plundering than sat down to a
regular siege. He was therefore fined 50 talents by the Achæans as a
traitor for not following up his victory, and as he could not pay he
fled from the Peloponnese. And Diæus, who was chosen to succeed him
as General, agreed when Metellus sent a second message not to carry
on the war against the Lacedæmonians, but to wait for the arrival of
the arbitrators from Rome. After this he contrived another stratagem
against the Lacedæmonians: he won over all the towns round Sparta to
friendship with the Achæans, and introduced garrisons into them, so
as to make them _points d’appui_ against Sparta. And Menalcidas was
chosen by the Lacedæmonians as General against Diæus, and, as they were
badly off for all supplies of war and not least for money, and as their
soil had lain uncultivated, he persuaded them to violate the truce,
and took by storm and sacked the town Iasus, which was on the borders
of Laconia, but was at this time subject to the Achæans. And having
thus stirred up strife again between the Lacedæmonians and the Achæans
he was accused by the citizens, and, as he saw no hope of safety from
the danger that seemed imminent for the Lacedæmonians, he voluntarily
committed suicide by poison. Such was the end of Menalcidas, the most
imprudent General of the Lacedæmonians at this crisis, and earlier
still the most iniquitous person to the Achæans.



CHAPTER XIV.


At last the envoys, who had been sent from Rome to arbitrate between
the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, arrived in Greece, among others Orestes,
who summoned before him Diæus and the principal people in each city of
the Achæans. And when they came to his head-quarters,[7] he disclosed
to them all his views, _viz._ that the Roman Senate thought it just
that neither the Lacedæmonians nor Corinth should be forced into
the Achæan League, nor Argos, nor Heraclea under Mount Œta, nor the
Arcadians of Orchomenus, for they had no connection with the Achæans
by ancestry, but had been incorporated subsequently into the Achæan
League. As Orestes said this, the principal men of the Achæans would
not stay to listen to the end of his speech, but ran outside the
building and called the Achæans to the meeting. And they, when they
heard the decision of the Romans, immediately turned their fury on all
the Spartans who at that time resided at Corinth. And they plundered
everyone who they were sure was a Lacedæmonian, or whom they suspected
of being so by the way he wore his hair, or by his boots or dress
or name, and some who got the start of them, and fled for refuge to
Orestes’ head-quarters, they dragged thence by force. And Orestes
and his suite tried to check the Achæans from this outrage, and bade
them remember that they were acting outrageously against Romans. And
not many days afterwards the Achæans threw all the Lacedæmonians whom
they had arrested into prison, but dismissed all strangers whom they
had arrested on suspicion. And they sent Thearidas and several other
prominent Achæans as ambassadors to Rome, who after their departure
on meeting on the road some other envoys to settle the Lacedæmonian
and Achæan differences, who had been despatched later than Orestes,
turned back again. And after Diæus had served his time as General,
Critolaus was chosen as his successor by the Achæans; this Critolaus
was possessed with a grim unreasoning passion to fight against the
Romans, and, as the envoys from Rome to settle the disputes between
the Lacedæmonians and Achæans had just arrived, he went to Tegea in
Arcadia ostensibly to confer with them, but really because he did not
want the Achæans summoned to a general meeting, and, while in the
hearing of the Romans he sent messengers bidding the commissioners call
a general meeting of the Achæans, he privately urged the commissioners
not to attend the general meeting. And when the commissioners did
not come, then he displayed great guile to the Romans, for he told
them to wait for another general meeting of the Achæans that would be
held six months later, for he himself said that he could discuss no
question privately without the common consent of the Achæans. And the
Roman envoys, when they discovered they were being deceived, returned
to Rome. And Critolaus collected an army of Achæans at Corinth,
and persuaded them to war against Sparta, and also to wage war at
once against the Romans. When king and nation undertake war and are
unsuccessful, it seems rather the malignity of some divine power than
the fault of the originators of the war. But audacity and weakness
combined should rather be called madness than want of luck. And this
was the ruin of Critolaus and the Achæans. The Achæans were also
further incited against the Romans by Pytheas, who was at that time
Bœotarch at Thebes, and the Thebans undertook to take an eager part in
prosecuting the war. For the Thebans had been heavily punished by the
decision of Metellus, first they had to pay a fine to the Phocians for
invading Phocis, and secondly to the Eubœans for ravaging Eubœa, and
thirdly to the people of Amphissa for destroying their corn in harvest
time.

[7] Which were at Corinth, as we see in this chapter a little later.



CHAPTER XV.


And the Romans being informed of all this by the envoys whom they had
sent to Greece, and by the letters which Metellus wrote, passed a vote
against the Achæans that they were guilty of treason, and, as Mummius
had just been chosen consul, they ordered him to lead against them both
a naval and land force. And Metellus, directly he heard that Mummius
and the army with him had set out against the Achæans, made all haste
that he might win his laurels in the campaign first, before Mummius
could get up. He sent therefore messengers to the Achæans, bidding the
Lacedæmonians and all other cities mentioned by the Romans to leave
the Achæan League, and for the future he promised that there should
be no anger on the part of the Romans for any earlier disobedience.
At the same time that he made this Proclamation he brought his army
from Macedonia, marching through Thessaly and by the Lamiac Gulf. And
Critolaus and the Achæans, so far from accepting this proclamation
which tended to peace, sat down and blockaded Heraclea, because it
would not join the Achæan League. But when Critolaus heard from his
spies that Metellus and the Romans had crossed the Spercheus, then
he fled to Scarphea in Locris, not being bold enough to place the
Achæans in position between Heraclea and Thermopylæ, and there await
the attack of Metellus: for such a panic had seized him that he could
extract no hope from a spot where the Lacedæmonians had so nobly fought
for Greece against the Medes, and where at a later date the Athenians
displayed equal bravery against the Galati. And Metellus’ army came up
with Critolaus and the Achæans as they were in retreat a little before
Scarphea, and many they killed and about 1,000 they took alive. But
Critolaus was not seen alive after the battle, nor was he found among
the dead, but if he tried to swim across the muddy sea near Mount Œta,
he would have been very likely drowned without being observed. As to
his end therefore one may make various guesses. But the thousand picked
men from Arcadia, who had fought on Critolaus’ side in the action,
marched as far as Elatea in Phocis, and were received in that town
from old kinsmanship; but when the people of Phocis got news of the
reverse of Critolaus and the Achæans, they requested these Arcadians
to leave Elatea. And as they marched back to the Peloponnese Metellus
and the Romans met them at Chæronea. Then came the Nemesis of the Greek
gods upon the Arcadians, who were cut to pieces by the Romans, in the
very place where they had formerly left in the lurch the Greeks who
fought against Philip and the Macedonians.

And Diæus was again made Commander-in-Chief of the Achæan army, and he
imitated the action of Miltiades and the Athenians before Marathon by
manumitting the slaves, and made a levy of Achæans and Arcadians in
the prime of life from the various towns. And so his army altogether,
including the slaves, amounted to 600 cavalry, and 14,000 infantry.
Then he displayed the greatest want of strategy, for, though he knew
that Critolaus and all the Achæan host had crumbled away before
Metellus, yet he selected only 4,000 men, and put Alcamenes at their
head. They were despatched to Megara to garrison that town and, should
Metellus and the Romans come up, to stop their further progress. And
Metellus, after his rout of the Arcadian picked men at Chæronea, had
pushed on with his army to Thebes; for the Thebans had joined the
Achæans in besieging Heraclea, and had also taken part in the fight
near Scarphea. Then the inhabitants, men and women of all ages,
abandoned Thebes, and wandered about all over Bœotia, and fled to the
tops of the mountains. But Metellus would not allow his men either to
set on fire the temples of the gods or to pull down any buildings, or
to kill or take alive any of the fugitives except Pytheas, but him, if
they should capture him, they were to bring before him. And Pytheas
was forthwith found, and brought before Metellus, and executed. And
when the Roman army marched on Megara, then Alcamenes and his men were
seized with panic, and fled without striking a blow to Corinth, to the
camp of the Achæans. And the Megarians delivered up their town to the
Romans without a blow struck, and, when Metellus got to the Isthmus,
he issued a Proclamation, inviting the Achæans even now to peace and
harmony: for he had a strong desire that both Macedonia and Achaia
should be settled by him. But this intention of his was frustrated by
the folly of Diæus.



CHAPTER XVI.


Meantime Mummius, and with him Orestes, who was first sent from Rome
to settle the disputes between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, reached
the Roman army one morning, took over the command, and sent Metellus
and his forces back to Macedonia, and himself waited at the Isthmus
till he had concentrated all his forces. His cavalry amounted to
3,500, his infantry to 22,000. There were also some Cretan bowmen, and
Philopœmen had brought some soldiers from Attalus, from Pergamus across
the Caicus. Mummius placed some of the Italian troops and allies, so
as to be an advanced post for all his army, 12 stades in the van. And
the Achæans, as this vanguard was left without defence through the
confidence of the Romans, attacked them, and slew some, but drove still
more back to the camp, and captured about 500 shields. By this success
the Achæans were so elated that they attacked the Roman army without
waiting for them to begin the battle. But when Mummius led out his army
to battle in turn, then the Achæan cavalry, which was opposite the
Roman cavalry, ran immediately, not venturing to make one stand against
the attack of the enemy’s cavalry. And the infantry, though dejected
at the rout of the cavalry, stood their ground against the wedge-like
attack of the Roman infantry, and though outnumbered and fainting under
their wounds, yet resisted bravely, till 1,000 picked men of the Romans
took them in flank, and so turned the battle into a complete rout of
the Achæans. And had Diæus been bold enough to hurry into Corinth after
the battle, and receive within its walls the runaways from the fight
and shut himself up there, the Achæans might have obtained better terms
from Mummius, if the war had been lengthened out by a siege. But as
it was, directly the Achæans gave way before the Romans, Diæus fled
for Megalopolis, exhibiting to the Achæans none of that spirit which
Callistratus, the son of Empedus, had displayed to the Athenians. For
he being in command of the cavalry in Sicily, when the Athenians and
their allies were badly defeated at the river Asinarus, boldly cut his
way through the enemy at the head of the cavalry, and, after getting
safe through with most of them to Catana, turned back again on the road
to Syracuse, and finding the enemy still plundering the camp of the
Athenians killed five with his own hand and then expired, himself and
his horse having received fatal wounds. He won fair fame both for the
Athenians and himself, and voluntarily met death, having preserved the
cavalry whom he led. But Diæus after ruining the Achæans announced to
the people of Megalopolis their impending ruin, and after slaying his
wife with his own hand that she might not become a captive took poison
and so died, resembling Menalcidas as in his greed for money so also in
the cowardice of his death.

And those of the Achæans who got safe to Corinth after the battle fled
during the night, as also did most of the Corinthians. But Mummius did
not enter Corinth at first, though the gates were open, as he thought
some ambush lay in wait for him within the walls, not till the third
day did he take Corinth in full force and set it on fire. And most of
those that were left in the city were slain by the Romans, and the
women and children were sold by Mummius, as also were the slaves who
had been manumitted and had fought on the side of the Achæans, and
had not been killed in action. And the most wonderful of the votive
offerings and other ornaments he carried off _to Rome_, and those of
less value he gave to Philopœmen, the general of Attalus’ troops, and
these spoils from Corinth were in my time at Pergamus. And Mummius
rased the walls of all the cities which had fought against the Romans,
and took away their arms, before any advisers what to do were sent from
Rome. And when they arrived, then he put down all democracies, and
appointed chief-magistrates according to property qualifications.[8]
And taxes were laid upon Greece, and those that had money were
forbidden to have land over the borders, and all the general meetings
were put down altogether, as those in Achaia, or Phocis, or Bœotia,
or any other part of Greece. But not many years afterwards the Romans
took mercy upon Greece, and allowed them their old national meetings
and to have land over the borders. They remitted also the fines which
Mummius had imposed, for he had ordered the Bœotians to pay the
people of Heraclea and Eubœa 100 talents, and the Achæans to pay the
Lacedæmonians 200 talents. The Greeks got remission of these fines from
the Romans, and a prætor was sent out from Rome, and is still, who is
not called by the Romans prætor of all Greece but prætor of Achaia,
because they reduced Greece through Achaia, which was then the foremost
Greek power. Thus ended the war when Antitheus was Archon at Athens, in
the 160th Olympiad, when Diodorus of Sicyon was victor in the course.

[8] That is, wherever Mummius found a democratical form of government,
there he established an oligarchy. Cf. Plat. _Rep._ 550. C. Id. _Legg._
698. B.



CHAPTER XVII.


At this time Greece was reduced to extreme weakness, being partially
ruined, and altogether reduced to great straits, by the deity. For
Argos, which had been a town of the greatest importance in the days
of the so-called heroes, lost its good fortune with the overthrow of
the Dorians. And the Athenians, who had survived the Peloponnesian
War and the plague, and had even lift up their heads again, were not
many years later destined to be subdued by the Macedonian power at its
height. From Macedonia also came down on Thebes in Bœotia the wrath of
Alexander. And the Lacedæmonians were first reduced by Epaminondas the
Theban, and afterwards by the war with the Achæans. And when Achaia
with great difficulty, like a tree that had received some early injury,
grew to great eminence in Greece, then the folly of its rulers stopped
its growth. And some time after the Empire of Rome came to Nero, and
he made Greece entirely free, and gave to the Roman people instead of
Greece the most fertile island of Sardinia. When I consider this action
of Nero I cannot but think the words of Plato the son of Aristo most
true, that crimes remarkable for their greatness and audacity are not
committed by everyday kind of people, but emanate from a noble soul
corrupted by a bad bringing up.[9] Not that this gift long benefited
Greece. For in the reign of Vespasian, who succeeded Nero, it suffered
from intestine discord, and Vespasian made the Greeks a second time
subject to taxes and bade them obey the prætor, saying that Greece
had unlearnt how to use liberty. Such are the particulars which I
ascertained.

The boundaries between Achaia and Elis are the river Larisus (near
which river there is a temple of Larissæan Athene), and Dyme, a town
of the Achæans, about 30 stades from the Larisus. Dyme was the only
town in Achaia that Philip the son of Demetrius reduced in war. And for
this reason Sulpicius, the Roman Prætor, allowed his army to plunder
Dyme. And Augustus afterwards assigned it to Patræ. In ancient days it
was called Palea, but when the Ionians were in possession of it they
changed its name to Dyme, I am not quite certain whether from some
woman of the district called Dyme, or from Dymas the son of Ægimius.
One is reduced to a little uncertainty about the name of the place also
by the Elegiac couplet at Olympia on the statue of Œbotas, a native of
Dyme, who in the 6th Olympiad was victor in the course, and in the 80th
Olympiad was declared by the oracle at Delphi worthy of a statue at
Olympia. The couplet runs as follows:

“Œbotas here the son of Œnias was victor in the course, and so
immortalized his native place Palea in Achaia.”

But there is no need for any real confusion from the town being called
in the inscription Palea and not Dyme, for the older names of places
are apt to be introduced by the Greeks into poetry, as they call
Amphiaraus and Adrastus the sons of Phoroneus, and Theseus the son of
Erechtheus.

And a little before you come to the town of Dyme there is on the right
of the way the tomb of Sostratus, who was a youth in the neighbourhood,
and they say Hercules was very fond of him, and as he died while
Hercules was still among men, Hercules erected his sepulchre and
offered to him the first fruits of his hair. There is also still a
device and pillar on the tomb and an effigy of Hercules on it. And I
was told that the natives still offer sacrifices to Sostratus.

There is also at Dyme a temple of Athene and a very ancient statue,
there is also a temple built to the Dindymene Mother and Attes. Who
Attes was I could not ascertain it being a mystery. But according to
the Elegiac lines of Hermesianax he was the son of Calaus the Phrygian,
and was born incapable of procreation. And when he grew up he removed
to Lydia, and celebrated there the rites of the Dindymene Mother, and
was so honoured that Zeus in jealousy sent a boar among the crops of
the Lydians. Thereupon several of the Lydians and Attes himself were
slain by this boar: and in consequence of this the Galati who inhabit
Pessinus will not touch pork. However this is not the universal
tradition about Attes, but there is a local tradition that Zeus in his
sleep dropt seed into the ground, and that in process of time there
sprang up a Hermaphrodite whom they called Agdistis; and the gods bound
this Agdistis and cut off his male privities. And an almond-tree sprang
from them and bare fruit, and they say the daughter of the river-god
Sangarius took of the fruit. And as she put some in her bosom the fruit
immediately vanished, and she became pregnant, and bare a boy, Attes,
who was exposed and brought up by a goat. And as the lad’s beauty was
more than human, Agdistis grew violently in love with him. And when he
was grown up his relations sent him to Pessinus to marry the king’s
daughter. And the wedding song was being sung when Agdistis appeared,
and Attes in his rage cut off his private parts, and his father in law
cut off his. Then Agdistis repented of his action towards Attes: and
some contrivance was found out by Zeus so that the body of Attes should
not decay nor rot. Such is the most notable legend about Attes.

At Dyme is also the tomb of the runner Œbotas. He was the first Achæan
who had won the victory at Olympia, and yet had received no especial
reward from his own people. So he uttered a solemn imprecation that
no Achæan might henceforth win the victory. And, as one of the gods
made it his business to see that the imprecation of Œbotas should be
valid, the Achæans learnt why they failed to secure victory at Olympia
by consulting the oracle at Delphi. Then they not only conferred other
honours upon Œbotas, but put up his statue at Olympia, after which
Sostratus of Pellene won the race for boys in the course. And even
now the custom prevails amongst the Achæans who intend to compete at
Olympia to offer sacrifices to Œbotas, and, if they are victorious, to
crown his statue at Olympia.

[9] See Plato _Rep._ vi. 491. E.



CHAPTER XVIII.


About 40 stades from Dyme the river Pirus discharges itself into the
sea, near which river the Achæans formerly had a town called Olenus.
Those who have written about Hercules and his doings have not dwelt
least upon Dexamenus the king of Olenus, and the hospitality Hercules
received at his court. And that Olenus was originally a small town is
confirmed by the Elegy written by Hermesianax on the Centaur Eurytion.
But in process of time they say the people of Olenus left it in
consequence of its weakness, and betook themselves to Piræ and Euryteæ.

About 80 stades from the river Pirus is the town of Patræ, not far
from which the river Glaucus discharges itself into the sea. The
antiquarians at Patræ say that Eumelus, an Autochthon, was the first
settler, and was king over a few subjects. And when Triptolemus came
from Attica Eumelus received from him corn to sow, and under his
instructions built a town called Aroe, which he so called from tilling
the soil. And when Triptolemus had gone to sleep they say Antheas, the
son of Eumelus, yoked the dragons to the chariot of Triptolemus, and
tried himself to sow corn: but he died by falling out of the chariot.
And Triptolemus and Eumelus built in common the town Anthea, which they
called after him. And a third city called Mesatis was built between
Anthea and Aroe. And the traditions of the people of Patræ about
Dionysus, that he was reared at Mesatis, and was plotted against by
the Titans there and was in great danger, and the explanation of the
name Mesatis, all this I leave to the people of Patræ to explain, as
I don’t contradict them. And when the Achæans drove the Ionians out
later, Patreus the son of Preugenes and grandson of Agenor forbade the
Achæans to settle at Anthea and Mesatis, but made the circuit of the
walls near Aroe wider so as to include all that town, and called it
Patræ after his own name. And Agenor the father of Preugenes was the
son of Areus the son of Ampyx, and Ampyx was the son of Pelias, the
son of Æginetus, the son of Deritus, the son of Harpalus, the son of
Amyclas the son of Lacedæmon. Such was the genealogy of Patreus. And
in process of time the people of Patræ were the only Achæans that went
into Ætolia from friendship to the Ætolians, to join them in their war
against the Galati. But meeting most serious reverses in battle, and
most of them suffering also from great poverty, they left Patræ all
but a few. And those who remained got scattered about the country and
followed the pursuit of agriculture, and inhabited the various towns
outside Patræ, as Mesatis and Anthea and Boline and Argyra and Arba.
And Augustus, either because he thought Patræ a convenient place on the
coast or for some other reason, introduced into it people from various
towns. He incorporated also with it the Achæans from Rhypæ, after first
rasing Rhypæ to the ground. And to the people of Patræ alone of all the
Achæans he granted their freedom, and gave them other privileges as
well, such as the Romans are wont to grant their colonists.

And in the citadel of Patræ is the temple of Laphrian Artemis: the
goddess has a foreign title, and the statue also is foreign. For
when Calydon and the rest of Ætolia was dispeopled by the Emperor
Augustus, that he might people with Ætolians his city of Nicopolis
near Actium, then the people of Patræ got this statue of Laphrian
Artemis. And as he had taken many statues from Ætolia and Acarnania
for his city Nicopolis, so he gave to the people of Patræ various
spoils from Calydon, and this statue of Laphrian Artemis, which even
now is honoured in the citadel of Patræ. And they say the goddess was
called Laphrian from a Phocian called Laphrius, the son of Castalius
and grandson of Delphus, who they say made the old statue of Artemis.
Others say that the wrath of Artemis against Œneus fell lighter upon
the people of Calydon when this title was given to the goddess. The
figure in the statue is a huntress, and the statue is of ivory and
gold, and the workmanship is by Menæchmus and Soidas. It is conjectured
that they were not much later than the period of Canachus the Sicyonian
or the Æginetan Callon. And every year the people of Patræ hold
the festival called Laphria to Artemis, in which they observe their
national mode of sacrifice. Round the altar they put wood yet green in
a circle, and pile it up about 16 cubits high. And the driest wood lies
within this circle on the altar. And they contrive at the time of the
festival a smooth ascent to the altar, piling up earth so as to form a
kind of steps. First they have a most splendid procession to Artemis,
in which the virgin priestess rides last in a chariot drawn by stags,
and on the following day they perform the sacrificial rites, which both
publicly and privately are celebrated with much zeal. For they place
alive on the altar birds good to eat and all other kinds of victims,
as wild boars and stags and does, and moreover the young of wolves and
bears, and some wild animals fully grown, and they place also upon the
altar the fruit of any trees that they plant. And then they set fire
to the wood. And I have seen a bear or some other animal at the first
smell of the fire trying to force a way outside, some even actually
doing so by sheer strength. But they thrust them back again into the
blazing pile. Nor do they record any that were ever injured by the
animals on these occasions.



CHAPTER XIX.


And between the temple of Laphria and the altar is the sepulchre of
Eurypylus. Who he was and why he came into this country I shall relate,
when I have first described the condition of things when he came into
these parts. Those of the Ionians who dwelt at Aroe and Anthea and
Mesatis had in common a grove and temple of Artemis Triclaria, and the
Ionians kept her festival annually all night long. And the priestess of
the goddess was a maiden, who was dismissed when she married. They have
a tradition that once the priestess of the goddess was one Comætho,
a most beautiful maiden, and that Melanippus was deeply in love with
her, who in all other respects and in handsomeness of appearance outdid
all of his own age. And as Melanippus won the maiden’s love as well,
he asked her in marriage of her father. It is somehow common to old
age to be in most respects the very antipodes to youth, and especially
in sympathy with love, so that Melanippus, who loved and was beloved,
got no encouragement either from his own parents or from the parents
of Comætho. And it is evident from various other cases as well as this
that love is wont to confound human laws, and even to upset the honour
due to the gods, as in this case, for Melanippus and Comætho satisfied
their ardent love in the very temple of Artemis, and afterwards made
the temple habitually their bridal-chamber. And forthwith the wrath
of Artemis came on the people of the country, their land yielded no
fruit, and unusual sicknesses came upon the people, and the mortality
was much greater than usual. And when they had recourse to the oracle
at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess laid the blame on Melanippus and
Comætho, and the oracle ordered them to sacrifice to Artemis annually
the most handsome maiden and lad. It was on account of this sacrifice
that the river near the temple of Triclaria was called Amilichus
(_Relentless_): it had long had no name. Now all these lads and maidens
had done nothing against the goddess but had to die for Melanippus and
Comætho, and they and their relations suffered most piteously. I do not
put the whole responsibility for this upon Comætho and Melanippus, for
to human beings alone is love felt worth life. These human sacrifices
are said to have been stopped for the following reason. The oracle at
Delphi had foretold that a foreign king would come to their country,
and that he would bring with him a foreign god, and that he would stop
this sacrifice to Artemis Triclaria. And after the capture of Ilium,
when the Greeks shared the spoil, Eurypylus the son of Euæmon got a
chest, in which there was a statue of Dionysus, the work some say of
Hephæstus, and a gift of Zeus to Dardanus. But there are two other
traditions about this chest, one that Æneas left it behind him when he
fled from Ilium, the other that it was thrown away by Cassandra as a
misfortune to any Greek who found it. However this may be, Eurypylus
opened the chest and saw the statue, and was driven out of his mind
by the sight. And most of his time he remained mad, though he came
to himself a little at times. And being in that condition he did not
sail to Thessaly, but to Cirrha and the Cirrhæan Gulf; and he went
to Delphi and consulted the oracle about his disorder. And they say
the oracle told him, where he should find people offering a strange
sacrifice, to dedicate his chest and there dwell. And the wind drove
Eurypylus’ ships to the sea near Aroe, and when he went ashore he saw
a lad and maiden being led to the altar of Artemis Triclaria. And he
saw at once that the oracle referred to this sacrifice, the people of
the place also remembered the oracle, seeing a king whom they had never
before seen, and as to the chest they suspected that there was some
god in it. And so Eurypylus got cured of his disorder, and this human
sacrifice was stopped, and the river was now called Milichus (_Mild_).
Some indeed have written that it was not the Thessalian Eurypylus to
whom what I have just recorded happened, but they want people to think
that Eurypylus (the son of Dexamenus who was king at Olenus), who
accompanied Hercules to Ilium, received the chest from Hercules. The
rest of their tradition is the same as mine. But I cannot believe that
Hercules was ignorant of the contents of this chest, or that if he
knew of them he would have given the chest as a present to a comrade.
Nor do the people of Patras record any other Eurypylus than the son of
Euæmon, and to him they offer sacrifices every year, when they keep the
festival to Dionysus.



CHAPTER XX.


The name of the god inside the chest is Æsymnetes. Nine men, who are
chosen by the people for their worth, look after his worship, and the
same number of women. And one night during the festival the priest
takes the chest outside the temple. That night has special rites. All
the lads in the district go down to the Milichus with crowns on their
heads made of ears of corn: for so used they in old time to dress up
those whom they were leading to sacrifice to Artemis. But in our day
they lay these crowns of ears of corn near the statue of the goddess,
and after bathing in the river, and again putting on crowns this time
of ivy, they go to the temple of Æsymnetes. Such are their rites on
this night. And inside the grove of Laphrian Artemis is the temple of
Athene called Pan-Achæis, the statue of the goddess is of ivory and
gold.

And as you go to the lower part of the city you come to the temple of
the Dindymene Mother, where Attes is honoured. They do not show his
statue, but there is one of the Mother wrought in stone. And in the
market-place there is a temple of Olympian Zeus, he is on his throne
and Athene is standing by it. And next Olympian Zeus is a statue of
Hera, and a temple of Apollo, and a naked Apollo in brass, and sandals
are on his feet, and one foot is on the skull of an ox. Alcæus has
shown that Apollo rejoices especially in oxen in the Hymn that he
wrote about Hermes, how Hermes filched the oxen of Apollo, and Homer
still earlier than Alcæus has described how Apollo tended the oxen of
Laomedon for hire. He has put the following lines in the Iliad into
Poseidon’s mouth.

“I was drawing a spacious and handsome wall round the city of the
Trojans, that it might be impregnable, while you, Phœbus, were tending
the slow-paced cows with the crumpled horns.”[10]

That is therefore one would infer the reason why the god is represented
with his foot on the skull of an ox. And in the market-place in the
open air is a statue of Athene, and in front of it is the tomb of
Patreus.

And next to the market-place is the Odeum, and there is a statue of
Apollo there well worth seeing, it was made from the spoil that the
people of Patræ got, when they alone of the Achæans helped the Ætolians
against the Galati. And this Odeum is beautified in other respects more
than any in Greece except the one at Athens: that excels this both in
size and in all its fittings, it was built by the Athenian Herodes
in memory of his dead wife. In my account of Attica I passed that
Odeum over, because that part of my work was written before Herodes
began building it. And at Patræ, as you go from the market-place
where the temple of Apollo is, there is a gate, and the device on
the gate consists of golden effigies of Patreus and Preugenes and
Atherion, all three companions and contemporaries. And right opposite
the market-place at this outlet is the grove and temple of Artemis
Limnatis. While the Dorians were already in possession of Lacedæmon and
Argos, they say that Preugenes in obedience to a dream took the statue
of Artemis Limnatis from Sparta, and that the trustiest of his slaves
shared with him in the enterprize. And that statue from Lacedæmon they
keep generally at Mesoa, because originally it was taken by Preugenes
there, but when they celebrate the festival of Artemis Limnatis, one
of the servants of the goddess takes the old statue from Mesoa to the
sacred precincts at Patræ: in which are several temples, not built in
the open air, but approached by porticoes. The statue of Æsculapius
except the dress is entirely of stone, that of Athene is in ivory and
gold. And in front of the temple of Athene is the tomb of Preugenes, to
whom they offer funereal rites as to Patreus annually, at the time of
the celebration of the feast to Artemis Limnatis. And not far from the
theatre are temples of Nemesis and Aphrodite: their statues are large
and of white marble.

[10] Iliad, xxi. 446-448.



CHAPTER XXI.


In this part of the city there is also a temple to Dionysus under the
title of Calydonian: because the statue of the god was brought from
Calydon. And when Calydon was still inhabited, among other Calydonians
who were priests to the god was one Coresus, who of all men suffered
most grievously from love. He was enamoured of the maiden Callirhoe,
but in proportion to the greatness of his love was the dislike of the
maiden to him. And as by all his wooing and promises and gifts the
maiden’s mind was not in the least changed, he went as a suppliant to
the statue of Dionysus. And the god heard the prayer of his priest, and
the Calydonians forthwith became insane as with drink, and died beside
themselves. They went therefore in their consternation to consult
the oracle at Dodona: for those who dwell on this mainland, as the
Ætolians and their neighbours the Acarnanians and Epirotes, believe in
the oracular responses they get from doves and the oak there. And they
were oracularly informed at Dodona that it was the wrath of Dionysus
that had caused this trouble, which would not end till Coresus either
sacrificed to Dionysus Callirhoe or somebody who should volunteer to
die instead of her. And as the maiden found no means of escape, she
fled to those who had brought her up, but obtaining no aid from them,
she had nothing now left but to die. But when all the preliminary
sacrificial rites that had been ordered at Dodona had taken place, and
she was led to the altar as victim, then Coresus took his place as
sacrificial priest, and yielding to love and not to anger slew himself
instead of her. And when she saw Coresus lying dead the poor girl
repented, and, moved by pity and shame at his fate, cut her own throat
at the well in Calydon not far from the harbour, which has ever since
been called Callirhoe after her.

And near the theatre is the sacred enclosure of some woman who was a
native of Patræ. And there are here some statues of Dionysus of the
same number and name as the ancient towns of the Achæans, for the god
is called Mesateus and Antheus and Aroeus. These statues during the
festival of Dionysus are carried to the temple of Æsymnetes, which
is near the sea on the right as you go from the market-place. And as
you go lower down from the temple of Æsymnetes there is a temple and
stone statue to Recovery, originally they say erected by Eurypylus when
he recovered from his madness. And near the harbour is a temple of
Poseidon, and his statue erect in white stone. Poseidon, besides the
names given to him by poets to deck out their poetry, has several local
names privately given to him, but his universal titles are Pelagæus
and Asphalius and Hippius. One might urge several reasons why he was
called Hippius, but I conjecture he got the name because he was the
inventor of riding. Homer at any rate in that part of his Iliad about
the horse-races has introduced Menelaus invoking this god in an oath.

“Touch the horses, and swear by the Earth-Shaker Poseidon that you did
not purposely with guile retard my chariot.”[11]

And Pamphus, the most ancient Hymn-writer among the Athenians, says
that Poseidon was “the giver of horses and ships with sails.” So he
got the name Hippius probably from riding and for no other reason.

Also at Patræ not very far from that of Poseidon are temples of
Aphrodite. One of the statues a generation before my time was fished up
by some fishermen in their net. There are also some statues very near
the harbour, as Ares in bronze, and Apollo, and Aphrodite. She has a
sacred enclosure near the harbour, and her statue is of wood except the
fingers and toes and head which are of stone. At Patræ there is also
a grove near the sea, which is a most convenient race-course, and a
most salubrious place of resort in summer time. In this grove there are
temples of Apollo and Aphrodite, their statues also in stone. There is
also a temple of Demeter, she and Proserpine are standing, but Earth
is seated. And in front of the temple of Demeter is a well, which has
a stone wall on the side near the temple, but there is a descent to it
outside. And there is here an unerring oracle, not indeed for every
matter, but in the case of diseases. They fasten a mirror to a light
cord and let it down into this well, poising it so as not to be covered
by the water, but that the rim of the mirror only should touch the
water. And then they look into the mirror after prayer to the goddess
and burning of incense. And it shews them whether the sick person will
die or recover. Such truth is there in this water. Similarly very near
Cyaneæ in Lycia is the oracle of Apollo Thyrxis, and the water there
shows anyone looking into the well whatever he wants to see. And near
the grove at Patræ are two temples of Serapis, and in one of them the
statue of the Egyptian Belus. The people of Patræ say that he fled to
Aroe from grief at the death of his sons, and that he shuddered at
the name of Argos, and was still more afraid of Danaus. There is also
a temple of Æsculapius at Patræ above the citadel and near the gates
which lead to Mesatis.

And the women at Patræ are twice as numerous as the men, and devoted to
Aphrodite if any women are. And most of them get their living by the
flax that grows in Elis, which they make into nets for the hair and
other parts of dress.

[11] Iliad, xxiii. 584, 5.



CHAPTER XXII.


And Pharæ, a town in Achaia, is reckoned with Patræ since the days of
Augustus, and the road to Pharæ from Patræ is about 150 stades, and
from the sea to the mainland about 70 stades. And the river Pierus
flows near Pharæ, the same river I think which flows by the ruins of
Olenus, and is called Pirus by the men who live near the sea. Near
the river is a grove of plane-trees, most of them hollow from old
age, and of such a size that whoever chooses can eat and sleep inside
them.[12] The circuit of the market-place is large at Pharæ according
to ancient custom, and in the middle of the market-place is a stone
statue of bearded Hermes; it is on the ground, no great size, and of
square shape. And the inscription on it says that it was an offering
of the Messenian Simylus. It is called Hermes of the Market-place,
and near it is an oracle. And before the statue is a hearth made of
stone, and some brazen lamps are fastened with lead to the hearth.
He that wants to consult the oracle of the god comes at eventide and
burns some frankincense on the hearth, and when he has filled the lamps
with oil and lit them, he lays on the altar on the right of the statue
the ordinary piece of money, a brass coin, and whispers his question
whatever it is in the ear of the statue of the god. Then he departs
from the market-place and stops up his ears. And when he has gone a
little distance off he takes his hands from his ears, and whatever he
next hears is he thinks the oracular response. The Egyptians have a
similar kind of oracle in the temple of Apis. And at Pharæ the water
is sacred, Hermes’ well is the name they give to it, and the fish in
it they do not catch, because they think them sacred to the god. And
very near the statue are 30 square stones, which the people of Pharæ
venerate highly, calling each by the name of one of the gods. And in
early times all the Greeks paid to unhewn stones, and not statues, the
honours due unto the gods. And about 15 stades from Pharæ is a grove of
Castor and Pollux. Bay trees chiefly grow in it, and there is neither
temple in it nor any statues. The people of the place say the statues
were removed to Rome. And in the grove at Pharæ is an altar of unhewn
stones. But I could not learn whether Phares, the son of Phylodamia,
the daughter of Danaus, or some one of the same name was the founder of
the town.

And Tritea, also a town of Achaia, is built in the interior of the
country, and reckoned with Patræ by Imperial order. The distance from
Pharæ to Tritea is about 120 stades. And before you get to it there
is a tomb in white stone, well worth seeing in other respects and not
least for the paintings on it, which are by Nicias. There is a throne
of ivory and a young and good-looking woman seated on it, and a maid
is standing by with a sun-shade. And a young man without a beard is
standing up clad in a tunic, with a scarlet cloak over the tunic. And
near him is a servant with some javelins, driving some hunting dogs.
I could not ascertain their names; but everybody infers that they are
husband and wife buried together. The founder of Tritea was some say
Celbidas, who came from Cumæ in the Opic land, others say that Ares had
an intrigue with Tritea the daughter of Triton, who was a priestess of
Athene, and Melanippus their son when he was grown up built the town,
and called it after the name of his mother. At Tritea there is a temple
to what are called the Greatest Gods, their statues are made of clay:
a festival is held to them annually, like the festival the Greeks hold
to Dionysus. There is also a temple of Athene, and a stone statue still
to be seen: the old statue was taken to Rome according to the tradition
of the people of Tritea. The people of the place are accustomed to
sacrifice both to Ares and Tritea.

These towns are at some distance from the sea and well inland: but as
you sail from Patræ to Ægium you come to the promontory of Rhium, about
50 stades from Patræ, and 15 stades further you come to the harbour of
Panormus. And about as many stades from Panormus is what is called the
wall of Athene, from which to the harbour of Erineus is 90 stades’ sail
along the coast, and 60 to Ægium from Erineus, but by land it is about
40 stades less. And not far from Patræ is the river Milichus, and the
temple of Triclaria (with no statue) on the right. And as you go on
from Milichus there is another river called Charadrus, and in summer
time the herds that drink of it mostly breed male cattle, for that
reason the herdsmen keep all cattle but cows away from it. These they
leave by the river, because both for sacrifices and work bulls are more
convenient than cows, but in all other kinds of cattle the female is
thought most valuable.

[12] See the wonderful account of Pliny. _Nat. Hist._ xii. 1.



CHAPTER XXIII.


And next to the river Charadrus are some ruins not very easy to trace
of the town of Argyra, and the well Argyra on the right of the high
road, and the river Selemnus that flows into the sea. The local account
is that Selemnus was a handsome youth who fed his flocks here, and they
say the sea-nymph Argyra was enamoured of him, and used to come up from
the sea and sleep with him. But in a short time Selemnus lost all his
good looks, and the Nymph no longer came to visit him, and Aphrodite
turned the poor lad Selemnus, who was deprived of Argyra and dying for
love, into a river. I tell the tale as the people of Patræ told it me.
And when he became a river he was still enamoured of Argyra, (as the
story goes about Alpheus that he still loved Arethusa,) but Aphrodite
at last granted him forgetfulness of Argyra. I have also heard another
tradition, _viz._ that the water of the Selemnus is a good love-cure
both for men and women, for if they bathe in this water they forget
their love. If there is any truth in this tradition, the water of
Selemnus would be more valuable to mankind than much wealth.

And at a little distance from Argyra is the river called Bolinæus, and
a town once stood there called Bolina. Apollo they say was enamoured
of a maiden called Bolina, and she fled from him and threw herself
into the sea, and became immortal through his favour. And there is
a promontory here jutting out into the sea, about which there is a
tradition that it was here that Cronos threw the sickle into the
sea, with which he had mutilated his father Uranus, so they call the
promontory Drepanum (_sickle_). And a little above the high road are
the ruins of Rhypæ, which is about 30 stades from Ægium. And the
district round Ægium is watered by the river Phœnix and another river
Miganitas, both of which flow into the sea. And a portico near the town
was built for the athlete Strato, (who conquered at Olympia on the
same day in the pancratium and in the wrestling), to practise in. And
at Ægium they have an ancient temple of Ilithyia, her statue is veiled
from her head to her toes with a finely-woven veil, and is of wood
except the face and fingers and toes, which are of Pentelican marble.
One of the hands is stretched out straight, and in the other she holds
a torch. One may symbolize Ilithyia’s torches thus, that the throes of
travail are to women as it were a fire. Or the torches may be supposed
to symbolize that Ilithyia brings children to the light. The statue is
by the Messenian Damophon.

And at no great distance from the temple of Ilithyia is the sacred
enclosure of Æsculapius, and statues in it of Hygiea and Æsculapius.
The iambic line on the basement says that they were by the Messenian
Damophon. In this temple of Æsculapius I had a controversy with a
Sidonian, who said that the Phœnicians had more accurate knowledge
generally about divine things than the Greeks, and their tradition was
that Apollo was the father of Æsculapius, but that he had no mortal
woman for his mother, and that Æsculapius was nothing but the air which
is beneficial for the health of mankind and all beasts, and that Apollo
was the Sun, and was most properly called the father of Æsculapius,
because the Sun in its course regulates the Seasons and gives health to
the air. All this I assented to, but was obliged to point out that this
view was as much Greek as Phœnician, since at Titane in Sicyonia the
statue of Æsculapius was called Health, and that it was plain even to
a child that the course of the sun on the earth produces health among
mankind.

At Ægium there is also a temple to Athene and another to Hera, and
Athene has two statues in white stone, but the statue of Hera may be
looked upon by none but women, and those only the priestesses. And
near the theatre is a temple and statue of beardless Dionysus. There
are also in the market-place sacred precincts of Zeus Soter, and two
statues on the left as you enter both of brass, the one without a beard
seemed to me the older of the two. And in a building right opposite
the road are brazen statues of Poseidon, Hercules, Zeus, and Athene,
and they call them the Argive gods, because the Argive tradition says
they were made at Argos, but the people of Ægium say it was because the
statues were deposited with them by the Argives. And they say further
that they were ordered to sacrifice to these statues every day: and
they found out a trick by which they could sacrifice as required, but
without any expense by feasting on the victims: and eventually these
statues were asked back by the Argives, and the people of Ægium asked
for the money they had spent on the sacrifices first, so the Argives
(as they could not pay this) left the statues with them.



CHAPTER XXIV.


At Ægium there is also near the market-place a temple in common to
Apollo and Artemis, and in the market-place is a temple to Artemis
alone dressed like a huntress, and the tomb of Talthybius the herald.
Talthybius has also a monument erected to him at Sparta, and both
cities perform funeral rites in his honour. And near the sea at Ægium
Aphrodite has a temple, and next Poseidon, and next Proserpine the
daughter of Demeter, and fourthly Zeus Homagyrius (_the Gatherer_).
There are statues too of Zeus and Aphrodite and Athene. And Zeus was
surnamed Homagyrius, because Agamemnon gathered together at this place
the most famous men in Greece, to deliberate together in common how to
attack the realm of Priam. Agamemnon has much renown generally, but
especially because with the army that accompanied him first, without
any reinforcements, he sacked Ilium and all the surrounding cities. And
next to Zeus Homagyrius is the temple of Pan-Achæan Demeter. And the
sea-shore at Ægium, where these temples just described are, furnishes
abundantly water good to drink from a well. There is also a temple to
Safety, the statue of the goddess may be seen by none but the priests,
but the rites are as follows. They take from the altar of the goddess
cakes made after the fashion of the country and throw them into the
sea, and say that they send them to Arethusa in Syracuse. The people at
Ægium have also several brazen statues as Zeus as a boy, and Hercules
without a beard, by Ageladas the Argive. Priests are chosen annually
for these gods, and each of the statues remains in the house of the
priest. And in older times the most beautiful boy was chosen as priest
to Zeus, and when their beards grew then the priest’s office passed
to some other beautiful boy. And Ægium is the place where the general
meeting of the Achæans is still held, just as the Amphictyonic Council
is held at Thermopylæ and Delphi.

As you go on you come to the river Selinus, and about 40 stades from
Ægium is a place called Helice near the sea. It was once an important
city, and the Ionians had there the most holy temple of Poseidon of
Helice. The worship of Poseidon of Helice still remained with them,
both when they were driven by the Achæans to Athens, and when they
afterwards went from Athens to the maritime parts of Asia Minor. And
the Milesians as you go to the well Biblis have an altar of Poseidon
of Helice before their city, and similarly at Teos the same god has
precincts and an altar. Even Homer has written of Helice, and of
Poseidon of Helice.[13] And later on the Achæans here, who drove some
suppliants from the temple and slew them, met with quick vengeance from
Poseidon, for an earthquake coming over the place rapidly overthrew
all the buildings, and made the very site of the city difficult for
posterity to find. Previously in earthquakes, remarkable for their
violence or extent, the god has generally given previous intimation
by signs. For either continuous rain or drought are mostly wont to
precede their approach: and in winter the air is hotter, and in summer
the disk of the sun is misty and has a different colour to its usual
colour, being either redder or slightly inclining to black. And the
springs are generally deficient in water, and gusts of wind sweeping
over the district uproot the trees, and in the sky are meteors with
flames of fire, and the appearance of the stars is unusual and excites
consternation in the beholders, and moreover vapours and exhalations
rise up out of the ground. And many other indications does the god
give in the case of violent earthquakes. And earthquakes are not
all similar, but those who have paid attention to such things from
the first or been instructed by others have been able to recognize
the following phenomena. The mildest of them, if indeed the word
mildness is applicable to any of them, is when simultaneously with the
first motion of the earth and with the rocking of buildings to their
foundation a counter motion restores them to their former position. And
in such an earthquake you may see pillars nearly rooted up falling into
their places again, and walls that gaped asunder joining again: and
beams that slipped out of their fittings slipping back again: so too in
the pipes of conduits, if any pipe bursts from the pressure of water,
the broken parts weld together again better than any workmen could
adjust them. Another kind of earthquake destroys everything within its
range, and, on whatever it spends its force, forthwith batters it down,
like the military engines employed in sieges. But the most deadly kind
of earthquake may be recognized by the following concomitants. The
breath of a man in a long-continued fever comes thicker and with much
effort, and this is marked in other parts of the body, but especially
by feeling the pulse. Similarly this kind of earthquake they say
undermines the foundations of buildings, and makes them rock to and
fro, like the effect produced by the burrowing of moles in the earth.
And this is the only kind of earthquake that leaves no trace in the
earth of previous habitation. This was the kind of earthquake that
rased Helice to the ground. And they say another misfortune happened
to the place in the winter at the same time. The sea encroached over
much of the district and quite flooded Helice with water: and the grove
of Poseidon was so submerged that the tops of the trees alone were
visible. And so the god suddenly sending the earthquake, and the sea
encroaching simultaneously, the inundation swept away Helice and its
population. A similar catastrophe happened to the town of Sipylus which
was swallowed up by a landslip. And when this landslip occurred in the
rock water came forth, and became a lake called Saloe, and the ruins
of Sipylus were visible in the lake, till the water pouring down hid
them from view. Visible too are the ruins of Helice, but not quite as
clearly as formerly, because they have been effaced by the action of
the sea.

[13] Hom. Iliad, ii. 575; viii. 203; xx. 404.



CHAPTER XXV.


One may learn not only from this ruin of Helice but also from other
cases that the vengeance of heaven for outrages upon suppliants
is sure. Thus the god at Dodona plainly exhorted men to respect
suppliants. For to the Athenians in the days of Aphidas came the
following message from Zeus at Dodona.

“Think of the Areopagus and the smoking altars of the Eumenides, for
you must treat as suppliants the Lacedæmonians conquered in battle.
Slay them not with the sword, harm not suppliants. Suppliants are
inviolable.”

This the Greeks remembered when the Peloponnesians came to Athens,
in the reign of Codrus the son of Melanthus. All the rest of the
Peloponnesian army retired from Attica, when they heard of the death
of Codrus and the circumstances attending it. For they did not any
longer expect victory, as Codrus had devoted himself in accordance with
the oracle at Delphi. But some of the Lacedæmonians got stealthily
into the city by night, and at daybreak perceived that their friends
had retired, and, as the Athenians began to muster against them, fled
for safety to the Areopagus and to the altars of the goddesses called
the August.[14] And the Athenians allowed the suppliants to depart
scot-free on this occasion, but some years later the authorities
destroyed the suppliants of Athene, those of Cylo’s party who had
occupied the Acropolis, and both the murderers and their children were
considered accursed by the goddess. Upon the Lacedæmonians too who had
killed some suppliants in the temple of Poseidon at Tænarum came an
earthquake so long-continued and violent, that no house in Lacedæmon
could stand against it. And the destruction of Helice happened when
Asteus was Archon at Athens, in the 4th year of the 101st Olympiad, in
which Damon of Thuria was victor. And as there were none left remaining
at Helice the people of Ægium occupied their territory.

And next to Helice, as you turn from the sea to the right, you will
come to the town of Cerynea, built on a hill above the high-road. It
got its name either from some local ruler or from the river Cerynites,
which rises in Arcadia in the Mountain Cerynea, and flows through
the district of those Achæans, who came from Argolis and dwelt there
through the following mischance. The fort of Mycenæ could not be
captured by the Argives owing to its strength, (for it had been built
by the Cyclopes as the wall at Tiryns also), but the people of Mycenæ
were obliged to evacuate their city because their supplies failed,
and some of them went to Cleonæ, but more than half took refuge with
Alexander in Macedonia, who had sent Mardonius the son of Gobryas
on a mission to the Athenians, and the rest went to Cerynea, and
Cerynea became more powerful through this influx of population, and
more notable in after times through this coming into the town of
the people of Mycenæ. And at Cerynea is a temple of the Eumenides,
built they say by Orestes. Whatever wretch, stained with blood or
any other defilement, comes into this temple to look round, he is
forthwith driven frantic by his fears. And for this reason people are
not admitted into this temple indiscriminately. The statues of the
goddesses in the temple are of wood and not very large: but the statues
of some women in the vestibule are of stone and artistically carved:
the natives say that they are some priestesses of the Eumenides.

And as you return from Cerynea to the high road, and proceed along it
no great distance, the second turn to the right from the sea takes
you by a winding road to Bura, which lies on a hill. The town got its
name they say from Bura the daughter of Ion, the Son of Xuthus by
Helice. And when Helice was totally destroyed by the god, Bura also
was afflicted by a mighty earthquake, so that none of the old statues
were left in the temples. And those that happened to be at that time
away on military service or some other errand were the only people of
Bura preserved. There are temples here to Demeter, and Aphrodite, and
Dionysus, and Ilithyia. Their statues are of Pentelican marble by the
Athenian Euclides. Demeter is robed. There is also a temple to Isis.

And as you descend from Bura to the sea is the river called Buraicus,
and a not very big Hercules in a cave, surnamed Buraicus, whose
oracular responses are ascertained by dice on a board. He that consults
the god prays before his statue, and after prayer takes dice, plenty
of which are near Hercules, and throws four on the board. And on every
dice is a certain figure inscribed, which has its interpretation in
a corresponding figure on the board. It is about 30 stades from this
temple of Hercules to Helice by the direct road. And as you go on your
way from the temple of Hercules you come to a perennial river, that has
its outlet into the sea, and rises in an Arcadian mountain, its name
is Crathis as also the name of the mountain, and from this Crathis the
river near Croton in Italy got its name. And near the Crathis in Achaia
was formerly the town Ægæ, which they say was eventually deserted from
its weakness. Homer has mentioned this Ægæ in a speech of Hera,

 “They bring you gifts to Helice and Ægæ,”[15]

plainly therefore Poseidon had gifts equally at Helice and Ægæ. And
at no great distance from Crathis is a tomb on the right of the road,
and on it you will find a rather indistinct painting of a man standing
by a horse. And the road from this tomb to what is called Gaius is
30 stades: Gaius is a temple of Earth called the Broad-breasted. The
statue is very ancient. And the woman who becomes priestess remains
henceforth in a state of chastity, and before she must only have been
married once. And they are tested by drinking bull’s blood, whoever of
them is not telling the truth is detected at once and punished. And
if there are several competitors, the woman who obtains most lots is
appointed priestess.

[14] A euphemism for the Eumenides.

[15] Iliad, viii. 203.



CHAPTER XXVI.


And the seaport at Ægira (both town and seaport have the same name) is
72 stades from the temple of Hercules Buraicus. Near the sea there is
nothing notable at Ægira, from the port to the upper part of the town
is 12 stades. In Homer[16] the town is called Hyperesia, the present
name was given to it by the Ionian settlers for the following reason.
A hostile band of Sicyonians was going to invade their land. And they,
not thinking themselves a match for the Sicyonians, collected together
all the goats in the country, and fastened torches to their horns,
and directly night came on lit these torches. And the Sicyonians, who
thought that the allies of the Hyperesians were coming up, and that
this light was the campfires of the allied force, went home again: and
the Hyperesians changed the name of their city because of these goats,
and at the place where the goat that was most handsome and the leader
of the rest had crouched down there they built a temple to Artemis the
Huntress, thinking that this stratagem against the Sicyonians would
not have occurred to them but for Artemis. Not that the name Ægira
prevailed at once over Hyperesia. Even in my time there are still some
who call Oreus in Eubœa by its old name of Hestiæa. At Ægira there
is a handsome temple of Zeus, and his statue in a sitting posture in
Pentelican marble by the Athenian Euclides. The head and fingers and
toes are of ivory, and the rest is wood gilt and richly variegated.
There is also a temple of Artemis, and a statue of the goddess which is
of modern art. A maiden is priestess, till she grows to a marriageable
age. And the old statue that stands there is, according to the
tradition of the people at Ægira, Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon:
and if they state what is correct, the temple must originally have been
built to Iphigenia. There is also a very ancient temple of Apollo,
ancient is the temple, ancient are the gables, ancient is the statue
of the god, which is naked and of great size. Who made it none of the
natives could tell: but whoever has seen the Hercules at Sicyon, would
conjecture that the Apollo at Ægira was by the same hand as that,
namely by Laphaes of Phlius. And there are some statues of Æsculapius
in the temple in a standing position, and of Serapis and Isis apart in
Pentelican marble. And they worship most of all Celestial Aphrodite:
but men must not enter her temple. But into the temple of the Syrian
goddess they may enter on stated days, but only after the accustomed
rites and fasting. I have also seen another building in Ægira, in which
there is a statue of Fortune with the horn of Amalthea, and next it
a Cupid with wings: to symbolize to men that success in love is due
to chance rather than beauty. I am much of the opinion of Pindar in
his Ode that Fortune is one of the Fates, and more powerful than her
sisters. And in this building at Ægira is a statue of a man rather old
and evidently in grief, and 3 women are taking off their bracelets,
and there are 3 young men standing by, and one has a breastplate on.
The tradition about him is that he died after fighting most bravely of
all the people of Ægira against the Achæans, and his brothers brought
home the news of his death, and his sisters are stripping off their
bracelets out of grief at his loss, and the people of the place call
the old man his father Sympathetic, because he is clearly grieving in
the statue.

And there is a direct road from Ægira starting from the temple of Zeus
over the mountains. It is a hilly road, and about 40 stades bring you
to Phelloe, not a very important place, nor inhabited at all when
the Ionians still occupied the land. The neighbourhood of Phelloe is
very good for vine-growing, and in the rocky parts are trees and wild
animals, as wild deer and wild boars. And if any places in Greece are
well situated in respect of abundance of water, Phelloe is one of them.
And there are temples to Dionysus and Artemis, the goddess is in bronze
in the act of taking a dart out of her quiver, and Dionysus’ statue is
decorated with vermilion. As you go down towards the seaport from Ægira
and forward a little there is, on the right of the road, a temple of
Artemis the Huntress, where they say the goat crouched down.

And next to Ægira is Pellene: the people of Pellene are the last of
the Achæans near Sicyon and Argolis. Their town was called according to
their own tradition from Pallas who they say was one of the Titans, but
according to the tradition of the Argives from the Argive Pellen, who
was they say the son of Phorbas and grandson of Triopas. And between
Ægira and Pellene there is a town subject to Sicyon called Donussa,
which was destroyed by the Sicyonians, and which they say is mentioned
by Homer in his Catalogue of Agamemnon’s forces in the line,

    “And those who inhabited Hyperesia and steep Donoessa.”
                                              Il. ii. 573.

But when Pisistratus collected the verses of Homer, that had been
scattered about and had to be got together from various quarters,
either he or some of his companions in the task changed the name
inadvertently.[17] The people of Pellene call their seaport
Aristonautæ. To it from Ægira on the sea is a distance of 120 stades,
and it is half this distance to Pellene from the seaport. The name
Aristonautæ was given they say to their seaport because the Argonauts
put in at the harbour.

[16] Iliad, ii. 573.

[17] To _Gonoessa_, the reading to be found in modern texts of Homer.



CHAPTER XXVII.


And the town of Pellene is on a hill which is very steep in its topmost
peak, (indeed precipitous and therefore uninhabited), and is built
upon its more level parts not continuously, but is cut as it were into
two parts by the peak which lies between. And as you approach Pellene
you see a statue of Hermes on the road called Dolios (_wily_), he is
very ready to accomplish the prayers of people: it is a square statue,
the god is bearded and has a hat on his head. On the way to the town
there is also a temple of Athene made of the stone of the country, her
statue is of ivory and gold by they say Phidias, who earlier still made
statues of Athene at Athens and Platæa. And the people of Pellene say
that there is a shrine of Athene deep underground under the base of
her statue, and that the air from it is damp and therefore good for
the ivory. And above the temple of Athene is a grove with a wall built
round it to Artemis called the Saviour, their greatest oath is by her.
No one may enter this grove but the priests, who are chiefly chosen out
of the best local families. And opposite this grove is the temple of
Dionysus called the Lighter, for when they celebrate his festival they
carry torches into his temple by night, and place bowls of wine all
over the city. At Pellene there is also a temple of Apollo Theoxenius,
the statue is of bronze, and they hold games to Apollo called
Theoxenia, and give silver as a prize for victory, and the men of the
district contend. And near the temple of Apollo is one of Artemis,
she is dressed as an archer. And there is a conduit built in the
market-place, their baths have to be of rain-water for there are not
many wells with water to drink below the city, except at a place called
Glyceæ. And there is an old gymnasium chiefly given up to the youths to
practise in, nor can any be enrolled as citizens till they have arrived
at man’s estate. Here is the statue of Promachus of Pellene, the son of
Dryon, who won victories in the pancratium, one at Olympia, three at
the Isthmus, and two at Nemea, and the people of Pellene erected two
statues to him, one at Olympia, and one in the gymnasium, the latter in
stone and not in brass. And it is said that in the war between Corinth
and Pellene Promachus slew most of the enemy opposed to him. It is
said also that he beat at Olympia Polydamas of Scotussa, who contended
a second time at Olympia, after coming home safe from the King of the
Persians. But the Thessalians do not admit that Polydamas was beaten,
and they bring forward to maintain their view the line about Polydamas,

    “O Scotoessa, nurse of the invincible Polydamas.”

However the people of Pellene hold Promachus in the highest honour. But
Chæron, though he won two victories in wrestling, and 4 at Olympia,
they do not even care to mention, I think because he destroyed the
constitution of Pellene, receiving a very large bribe from Alexander
the son of Philip to become the tyrant of his country. At Pellene
there is also a temple of Ilithyia, built in the smaller half of the
town. What is called Poseidon’s chapel was originally a parish room,
but is not used in our day, but it still continues to be held sacred to
Poseidon, and is under the gymnasium.

And about 60 stades from Pellene is Mysæum, the temple of Mysian
Demeter. It was built they say by Mysius an Argive, who also received
Demeter into his house according to the tradition of the Argives. There
is a grove at Mysæum of all kinds of trees, and plenty of water springs
up from some fountains. And they keep the feast here to Demeter 7 days,
and on the third day of the feast the men withdraw from the temple, and
the women perform there alone during the night their wonted rites, and
not only are the men banished but even male dogs. And on the following
day, when the men return to the temple, the women and men mutually jest
and banter one another. And at no great distance from Mysæum is the
temple of Æsculapius called Cyros, where men are healed by the god.
Water too flows freely there, and by the largest of the fountains is
a statue of Æsculapius. And some rivers have their rise in the hills
above Pellene: one of them, called Crius from the Titan Crius, flows
in the direction of Ægira.... There is another river Crius which rises
at the mountain Sipylus and is a tributary of the Hermus. And on the
borders between Pellene and Sicyonia is the river Sythas, the last
river in Achaia, which has its outlet in the Sicyonian sea.



BOOK VIII.--ARCADIA.



CHAPTER I.


The parts of Arcadia near Argolis are inhabited by the people of Tegea
and Mantinea. They and the other Arcadians are the inland division of
the Peloponnese. For the Corinthians come first at the Isthmus: and
next them by the sea are the Epidaurians: and by Epidaurus and Trœzen
and Hermion is the Gulf of Argolis, and the maritime parts of Argolis:
and next are the states of the Lacedæmonians, and next comes Messenia,
which touches the sea at Mothone and Pylos and near Cyparissiæ. At
Lechæum the Sicyonians border upon the Corinthians, being next to
Argolis on that side: and next to Sicyon are the Achæans on the
sea-shore, and the other part of the Peloponnese opposite the Echinades
is occupied by Elis. And the borders between Elis and Messenia are by
Olympia and the mouth of the Alpheus, and between Elis and Achaia the
neighbourhood of Dyme. These states that I have mentioned border on the
sea, but the Arcadians live in the interior and are shut off from the
sea entirely: from which circumstance Homer describes them as having
come to Troy not in their own ships but in transports provided by
Agamemnon.[18]

The Arcadians say that Pelasgus was the first settler in their land.
It is probable that others also came with Pelasgus and that he did not
come alone. For in that case what subjects would he have had? I think
moreover that Pelasgus was eminent for strength and beauty and judgment
beyond others, and that was why he was appointed king over them. This
is the description of him by Asius.

    “Divine Pelasgus on the tree-clad hills
    Black Earth brought forth, to be of mortal race.”

And Pelasgus when he became king contrived huts that men should be free
from cold and rain, and not be exposed to the fierce sun, and also
garments made of the hides of pigs, such as the poor now use in Eubœa
and Phocis. He was the inventor of these comforts. He too taught people
to abstain from green leaves and grass and roots that were not good to
eat, some even deadly to those who eat them. He discovered also that
the fruit of some trees was good, especially acorns. And several since
Pelasgus’ time have adopted this diet, so much so that the Pythian
Priestess, when she forbade the Lacedæmonians to touch Arcadia, did
so in the following words, “Many acorn-eating warriors are there in
Arcadia, who will keep you off. I tell you the truth, I bear you no
grudge.”

And it was they say during the reign of Pelasgus that Arcadia was
called Pelasgia.

[18] Iliad, ii. 612.



CHAPTER II.


And Lycaon the son of Pelasgus devised even wiser things than his
father. For he founded the town Lycosura on the Mountain Lycæus, and
called Zeus Lycæus, and established a festival to him called the
Lycæa. I do not think the Pan-Athenæa was established by the Athenians
earlier, for their games were called Athenæa till the time of Theseus,
when they were called Pan-Athenæa, because when they were then
celebrated all the Athenians were gathered together into one city. As
to the Olympian games--which they trace back to a period earlier than
man, and in which they represent Cronos and Zeus wrestling, and the
Curetes as the first competitors in running--for these reasons they may
be passed over in the present account. And I think that Cecrops, king
of Athens, and Lycaon were contemporaries, but did not display equal
wisdom to the deity. For Cecrops was the first to call Zeus supreme,
and did not think it right to sacrifice anything that had life, but
offered on the altar the national cakes, which the Athenians still call
by a special name, (_pelani_). But Lycaon brought a baby to the altar
of Lycæan Zeus, and sacrificed it upon it, and sprinkled its blood on
the altar. And they say directly after this sacrifice he became a wolf
instead of a man. This tale I can easily credit, as it is a very old
tradition among the Arcadians, and probable enough in itself. For the
men who lived in those days were guests at the tables of the gods in
consequence of their righteousness and piety, and those who were good
clearly met with honour from the gods, and similarly those who were
wicked with wrath, for the gods in those days were sometimes mortals
who are still worshipped, as Aristæus, and Britomartis of Crete, and
Hercules the son of Alcmena, and Amphiaraus the son of Œcles, and
besides them Castor and Pollux. So one might well believe that Lycaon
became a wolf, and Niobe the daughter of Tantalus a stone. But in our
day, now wickedness has grown and spread all over the earth in all
towns and countries, no mortal any longer becomes a god except in the
language of excessive flattery,[19] and the wicked receive wrath from
the gods very late and only after their departure from this life. And
in every age many curious things have happened, and some of them have
been made to appear incredible to many, though they really happened,
by those who have grafted falsehood on to truth. For they say that
after Lycaon a person became a wolf from a man at the Festival of
Lycæan Zeus, but not for all his life: for whenever he was a wolf if
he abstained from meat ten months he became a man again, but if he
tasted meat he remained a beast. Similarly they say that Niobe on Mount
Sipylus weeps in summer time. And I have heard of other wonderful
things, as people marked like vultures and leopards, and of the Tritons
speaking with a human voice, who sing some say through a perforated
shell. Now all that listen with pleasure to such fables are themselves
by nature apt to exaggerate the wonderful, and so mixing fiction with
truth they get discredited.

[19] _e.g._, as used to the Roman Emperors, _divus_.



CHAPTER III.


The third generation after Pelasgus Arcadia advanced in population and
cities. Nyctimus was the eldest son of Lycaon and succeeded to all
his power, and his brothers built cities where each fancied. Pallas
and Orestheus and Phigalus built Pallantium, and Orestheus built
Oresthasium, and Phigalus built Phigalia. Stesichorus of Himera has
mentioned a Pallantium in Geryoneis, and Phigalia and Oresthasium in
process of time changed their names, the latter got called Oresteum
from Orestes the son of Agamemnon, and the former Phialia from
Phialus the son of Bucolion. And Trapezeus and Daseatas and Macareus
and Helisson and Thocnus built Thocnia, and Acacus built Acacesium.
From this Acacus, according to the tradition of the Arcadians, Homer
invented a surname for Hermes. And from Helisson the city and river
Helisson got their names. Similarly also Macaria and Dasea and Trapezus
got their names from sons of Lycaon. And Orchomenus was founder of
Methydrium and Orchomenus, which is called rich in cattle by Homer
in his Iliad.[20] And Hypsus built Melæneæ and Hypsus and Thyræum
and Hæmoniæ: and according to the Arcadians Thyrea in Argolis and
the Thyreatic Gulf got their name from Thyreates. And Mænalus built
Mænalus, in ancient times the most famous town in Arcadia, and Tegeates
built Tegea, and Mantineus built Mantinea. And Cromi got its name from
Cromus, and Charisia from Charisius its founder, and Tricoloni from
Tricolonus, and Peræthes from Peræthus, and Asea from Aseatas, and
Lycoa from Lyceus, and Sumatia from Sumateus. And both Alipherus and
Heræus gave their names to towns. And Œnotrus, the youngest of the sons
of Lycaon, having got money and men from his brother Nyctimus, sailed
to Italy, and became king of the country called after him Œnotria. This
was the first colony that started from Greece, for if one accurately
investigates one will find that no foreign voyages for the purpose of
colonization were ever made before Œnotrus.

With so many sons Lycaon had only one daughter Callisto. According to
the tradition of the Greeks Zeus had an intrigue with her. And when
Hera detected it she turned Callisto into a she-bear, whom Artemis shot
to please Hera. And Zeus sent Hermes with orders to save the child that
Callisto was pregnant with. And her he turned into the Constellation
known as the Great Bear, which Homer mentions in the voyage of Odysseus
from Calypso,

 “Looking on the Pleiades and late-setting Bootes, and the Bear, which
 they also call Charles’ wain.”[21]

But perhaps the Constellation merely got its name out of honour to
Callisto, for the Arcadians shew her grave.

[20] Iliad, ii. 605.

[21] Odyssey, v. 272, 273.



CHAPTER IV.


And after the death of Nyctimus Arcas the son of Callisto succeeded
him in the kingdom. And he introduced sowing corn being taught by
Triptolemus, and showed his people how to make bread, and to weave
garments and other things, having learnt spinning from Adristas. And in
his reign the country was called Arcadia instead of Pelasgia, and the
inhabitants were called Arcadians instead of Pelasgi. And they say he
mated with no mortal woman but with a Dryad Nymph. For the Nymphs used
to be called Dryades, and Epimeliades, and sometimes Naiades, Homer in
his poems mainly mentions them as Naiades.[22] The name of this Nymph
was Erato, and they say Arcas had by her Azan and Aphidas and Elatus:
he had had a bastard son Autolaus still earlier. And when they grew up
Arcas divided the country among his 3 legitimate sons, Azania took its
name from Azan, and they are said to be colonists from Azania who dwell
near the cave in Phrygia called Steunos and by the river Pencala. And
Aphidas got Tegea and the neighbouring country, and so the poets call
Tegea the lot of Aphidas. And Elatus had Mount Cyllene, which had no
name then, and afterwards he migrated into what is now called Phocis,
and aided the Phocians who were pressed hard in war by the Phlegyes,
and built the city Elatea. And Azan had a son Clitor, and Aphidas had
a son called Aleus, and Elatus had five sons, Æpytus and Pereus and
Cyllen and Ischys and Stymphelus. And when Azan died funeral games
were first established, I don’t know whether any other but certainly
horseraces. And Clitor the son of Azan lived at Lycosora, and was
the most powerful of the kings, and built the city which he called
Clitor after his own name. And Aleus inherited his father’s share. And
Mount Cyllene got its name from Cyllen, and from Stymphelus the well
and city by the well were both called Stymphelus. The circumstances
attending the death of Ischys, the son of Elatus, I have already given
in my account of Argolis. And Pereus had no male offspring but only a
daughter Neæra, who married Autolycus, who dwelt on Mount Parnassus,
and was reputed to be the son of Hermes, but was really the son of
Dædalion.

And Clitor the son of Azan had no children, so the kingdom of Arcadia
devolved upon Æpytus the son of Elatus. And as he was out hunting he
was killed not by any wild animal but by a serpent, little expecting
such an end. I have myself seen the particular kind of serpent. It is a
very small ash-coloured worm, marked with irregular stripes, its head
is broad and its neck narrow, it has a large belly and small tail, and,
like the serpent they call the horned serpent, walks sideways like the
crab. And Æpytus was succeeded in the kingdom by Aleus, for Agamedes
and Gortys, the sons of Stymphelus, were great-grandsons of Arcas,
but Aleus was his grandson, being the son of Aphidas. And Aleus built
the old temple to Athene Alea at Tegea, which he made the seat of his
kingdom. And Gortys, the son of Stymphelus, built the town Gortys by
the river called Gortynius. And Aleus had three sons, Lycurgus and
Amphidamas and Cepheus, and one daughter Auge. According to Hecatæus
Hercules, when he came to Tegea, had an intrigue with this Auge, and
at last she was discovered to be with child by him, and Aleus put her
and the child in a chest and let it drift to sea. And she got safely
to Teuthras, a man of substance in the plain of Caicus, and he fell in
love with her and married her. And her tomb is at Pergamus beyond the
Caicus, a mound of earth with a stone wall round it, and on the tomb a
device in bronze, a naked woman. And after the death of Aleus Lycurgus
his son succeeded to the kingdom by virtue of being the eldest. He
did nothing very notable except that he slew by guile and not fairly
Areithous a warrior. And of his sons Epochus died of some illness,
but Ancæus sailed to Colchi with Jason, and afterwards, hunting with
Meleager the wild boar in Calydon, was killed by it. Lycurgus lived to
an advanced old age, having survived both his sons.

[22] _e.g._ Odyssey, xiii. 104.



CHAPTER V.


And after the death of Lycurgus Echemus, the son of Aeropus the son of
Cepheus the son of Aleus, became king of the Arcadians. In his reign
the Dorians, who were returning to the Peloponnese under the leadership
of Hyllus the son of Hercules, were beaten in battle by the Achæans
near the Isthmus of Corinth, and Echemus slew Hyllus in single combat
being challenged by him. For this seems more probable to me now than
my former account, in which I wrote that Orestes was at this time king
of the Achæans, and that it was during his reign that Hyllus ventured
his descent upon the Peloponnese. And according to the later tradition
it would seem that Timandra, the daughter of Tyndareus, married
Echemus after he had killed Hyllus. And Agapenor, the son of Ancæus
and grandson of Lycurgus, succeeded Echemus and led the Arcadians to
Troy. And after the capture of Ilium the storm which fell on the Greeks
as they were sailing home carried Agapenor and the Arcadian fleet to
Cyprus, and he became the founder of Paphos, and erected the temple of
Aphrodite in that town, the goddess having been previously honoured by
the people of Cyprus in the place called Golgi. And afterwards Laodice,
the daughter of Agapenor, sent to Tegea a robe for Athene Alea, and the
inscription on it gives the nationality of Laodice.

“This is the robe which Laodice gave to her own Athene, sending it
from sacred Cyprus to her spacious fatherland.”

And as Agapenor did not get home from Ilium, the kingdom devolved
upon Hippothous, the son of Cercyon, the son of Agamedes, the son of
Stymphelus. Of him they record nothing notable, but that he transferred
the seat of the kingdom from Tegea to Trapezus. And Æpytus the son of
Hippothous succeeded his father, and Orestes the son of Agamemnon,
in obedience to the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, migrated to Arcadia
from Mycenæ. And Æpytus the son of Hippothous presuming to go into the
temple of Poseidon at Mantinea, (though men were not allowed to enter
it either then or now,) was struck blind on his entrance, and died not
long afterwards.

And during the reign of Cypselus, his son and successor, the Dorians
returned to the Peloponnese in ships, landing near the Promontory of
Rhium, not as three generations earlier attempting to return by way
of the Isthmus of Corinth, and Cypselus, hearing of their return,
gave his daughter in marriage to Cresphontes, the only unmarried son
of Aristomachus, and thus won him over to his interests, and he and
the Arcadians had now nothing to fear. And the son and successor of
Cypselus was Olæas, who, in junction with the Heraclidæ from Lacedæmon
and Argos, restored his sister’s son Æpytus to Messene. The next king
was Bucolion, the next Phialus, who deprived Phigalus, (the founder
of Phigalia, and the son of Lycaon), of the honour of giving his name
to that town, by changing its name to Phialia after his own name,
though the new name did not universally prevail. And during the reign
of Simus, the son of Phialus, the old statue of Black Demeter that
belonged to the people of Phigalia was destroyed by fire. This was a
portent that not long afterwards Simus himself would end his life.
And during the reign of Pompus his successor the Æginetans sailed to
Cyllene for purposes of commerce. There they put their goods on beasts
of burden and took them into the interior of Arcadia. For this good
service Pompus highly honoured the Æginetans, and out of friendship
to them gave the name of Æginetes to his son and successor: who was
succeeded by his son Polymestor during whose reign Charillus and
the Lacedæmonians first invaded the district round Tegea, and were
beaten in battle by the men of Tegea, and also by the women who
put on armour, and Charillus and his army were taken prisoners. We
shall give a further account of them when we come to Tegea. And as
Polymestor had no children Æchmis succeeded, the son of Briacas, and
nephew of Polymestor. Briacas was the son of Æginetes but younger
than Polymestor. And it was during the reign of Æchmis that the war
broke out between the Lacedæmonians and Messenians. The Arcadians had
always had a kindly feeling towards the Messenians, and now they openly
fought against the Lacedæmonians in conjunction with Aristodemus king
of Messenia. And Aristocrates, the son of Æchmis, acted insolently to
his fellow-countrymen in various ways, but his great impiety to the
gods I cannot pass over. There is a temple of Artemis Hymnia on the
borders between Orchomenus and Mantinea. She was worshipped of old by
all the Arcadians. And her priestess at this time was a maiden. And
Aristocrates, as she resisted all his attempts to seduce her, and fled
at last for refuge to the altar near the statue of Artemis, defiled
her there. And when his wickedness was reported to the Arcadians they
stoned him to death, and their custom was thenceforward changed.
For instead of a maiden as priestess of Artemis they had a woman
who was tired of the company of men. His son was Hicetas, who had a
son Aristocrates, of the same name as his grandfather, and who met
with the same fate, for he too was stoned to death by the Arcadians,
who detected him receiving bribes from Lacedæmon, and betraying the
Messenians at the great reverse they met with at the Great Trench. This
crime was the reason why all the descendants of Cypselus were deposed
from the sovereignty of Arcadia.



CHAPTER VI.


In all these particulars about their kings, as I was curious, the
Arcadians gave me full information. And as to the nation generally,
their most ancient historical event is the war against Ilium, and
next their fighting against the Lacedæmonians in conjunction with the
Messenians; they also took part in the action against the Medes at
Platæa. And rather from compulsion than choice they fought under the
Lacedæmonians against the Athenians, and crossed into Asia Minor with
Agesilaus, and were present at the battle of Leuctra in Bœotia. But on
other occasions they exhibited their suspicion of the Lacedæmonians,
and after the reverse of the Lacedæmonians at Leuctra they at once left
them and joined the Thebans. They did not join the Greeks in fighting
against Philip and the Macedonians at Chæronea, or in Thessaly against
Antipater, nor did they fight against them, but they remained neutral.
And they did not (they say) share in fighting against the Galati at
Thermopylæ, only because they were afraid that, in the absence from
home of the flower of their young men, the Lacedæmonians would ravage
their land. And the Arcadians were of all the Greeks the most zealous
members of the Achæan League. And all that happened to them that I
could ascertain, not publicly but privately in their several cities, I
shall describe as I come to each part of the subject.

The passes into Arcadia from Argolis are by Hysiæ and across the
mountain Parthenium into the district of Tegea, and two by Mantinea
through what are called _Holm-Oak_ and _Ladder_. _Ladder_ is the
broadest, and has steps cut in it. And when you have crossed that pass
you come to Melangea, which supplies the people of Mantinea with water
to drink. And as you advance from Melangea, about seven stades further,
you come to a well called the well of the Meliastæ. These Meliastæ
have orgies to Dionysus, and they have a hall of Dionysus near the
well, and a temple to Aphrodite Melænis (_Black_). There seems no other
reason for this title of the goddess, than that men generally devote
themselves to love in the darkness of night, not like the animals in
broad daylight. The other pass over Artemisium is far narrower than
_Ladder-pass_. I mentioned before that Artemisium has a temple and
statue of Artemis, and that in it are the sources of the river Inachus,
which as long as it flows along the mountain road is the boundary
between the Argives and Mantineans, but when it leaves this road flows
thenceforward through Argolis, and hence Æschylus and others call it
the Argive river.



CHAPTER VII.


As you cross over Artemisium into the district of Mantinea the plain
Argum (_unfruitful_) will receive you, rightly so called. For the rain
that comes down from the mountains makes the plain unfruitful, and
would have prevented it being anything but a swamp, had not the water
disappeared in a cavity in the ground. It reappears at a place called
Dine. This Dine is at a place in Argolis called Genethlium, and the
water is sweet though it comes up from the sea. At Dine the Argives
used formerly to offer to Poseidon horses ready bridled. Sweet water
comes up from the sea plainly here in Argolis, and also in Thesprotia
at a place called Chimerium. More wonderful still is the hot water of
Mæander, partly flowing from a rock which the river surrounds, partly
coming up from the mud of the river. And near Dicæarchia (_Puteoli_) in
Tyrrhenia the sea water is hot, and an island has been constructed, so
as for the water to afford warm baths.

There is a mountain on the left of the plain Argum, where there are
ruins of the camp of Philip, the son of Amyntas, and of the village
Nestane. For it was at this village they say that Philip encamped, and
the well there they still call Philip’s well. He went into Arcadia to
win over the Arcadians to his side, and at the same time to separate
them from the other Greeks. Philip one can well believe displayed the
greatest valour of all the Macedonian kings before or after him, but
no rightminded person could call him a good man, seeing that he trod
under foot the oaths he had made to the gods, and on all occasions
violated truces, and dishonoured good faith among men. And the
vengeance of the deity came upon him not late, but early. For Philip
had only lived 46 years when the oracle at Delphi was made good by his
death, given to him they say when he inquired about the Persian war,

 “The bull is crowned, the end is come, the sacrificer’s near.”

This as the god very soon showed did not refer to the Mede, but to
Philip himself. And after the death of Philip his baby boy by Cleopatra
the niece of Attalus was put by Olympias with his mother into a brazen
vessel over a fire, and so killed. Olympias also subsequently killed
Aridæus. The deity also intended as it seems to mow down all the family
of Cassander by untimely ends. For Cassander married Thessalonica
the daughter of Philip, and Thessalonica and Aridæus had Thessalian
mothers. As to Alexander all know of his early death. But if Philip
had considered the eulogium passed upon Glaucus the Spartan, and had
remembered that line in each of his actions,

 “The posterity of a conscientious man shall be fortunate,”[23]

I do not think that there would have been any reason for any of the
gods to have ended at the same time the life of Alexander and the
Macedonian supremacy. But this has been a digression.

[23] See Herod. vi. 86. Hesiod, 285.



CHAPTER VIII.


And next to the ruins of Nestane is a temple sacred to Demeter, to whom
the Mantineans hold a festival annually. And under Nestane is much of
the plain Argum, and the place called Mæras, which is 10 stades from
the plain. And when you have gone on no great distance you will come
to another plain, in which near the high road is a fountain called
Arne. The following is the tradition of the Arcadians about it. When
Rhea gave birth to Poseidon, the little boy was deposited with the
flocks and fed with the lambs, and so the fountain was called Arne,
(_lamb fountain_). And Rhea told Cronos that she had given birth to
a foal, and gave him a foal to eat up instead of the little boy,
just as afterwards instead of Zeus she gave him a stone wrapt up in
swaddling-clothes. As to these fables of the Greeks I considered them
childish when I began this work, but when I got as far as this book I
formed this view, that those who were reckoned wise among the Greeks
spoke of old in riddles and not directly, so I imagine the fables about
Cronos to be Greek wisdom. Of the traditions therefore about the gods I
shall state such as I meet with.

Mantinea is about 12 stades from this fountain. Mantineus, the son
of Lycaon, seems to have built the town of Mantinea, (which name the
Arcadians still use), on another site, from which it was transferred to
its present site by Antinoe, the daughter of Cepheus the son of Aleus,
who according to an oracle made a serpent (what kind of serpent they
do not record) her guide. And that is why the river which flows by the
town got its name Ophis (_serpent_). And if we may form a judgment
from the Iliad of Homer this serpent was probably a dragon. For when
in the Catalogue of the Ships Homer describes the Greeks leaving
Philoctetes behind in Lemnos suffering from his ulcer,[24] he did not
give the title serpent to the watersnake, but he did give that title to
the dragon whom the eagle dropped among the Trojans.[25] So it seems
probable that Antinoe was led by a dragon.

The Mantineans did not fight against the Lacedæmonians at Dipæa with
the other Arcadians, but in the Peloponnesian war they joined the
people of Elis against the Lacedæmonians, and fought against them,
with some reinforcements from the Athenians, and also took part in
the expedition to Sicily out of friendship to the Athenians. And
some time afterwards a Lacedæmonian force under King Agesipolis, the
son of Pausanias, invaded the territory of Mantinea. And Agesipolis
was victorious in the battle, and shut the Mantineans up in their
fortress, and captured Mantinea in no long time, not by storm, but
by turning the river Ophis into the city through the walls which were
built of unbaked brick. As to battering rams brick walls hold out
better even than those made of stone, for the stones get broken and
come out of position, so that brick walls suffer less, but unbaked
brick is melted by water just as wax by the sun. This stratagem which
Agesipolis employed against the walls of Mantinea was formerly employed
by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, when he was besieging Boges the Mede
and the Persians at Eion on the Strymon. So Agesipolis merely imitated
what he had heard sung of by the Greeks. And when he took Mantinea,
he left part of it habitable, but most of it he rased to the ground,
and distributed the inhabitants in the various villages. The Thebans
after the battle of Leuctra intended to restore the Mantineans from
these villages to Mantinea. But though thus restored they were not
at all faithful to the Thebans. For when they were besieged by the
Lacedæmonians they made private overtures to them for peace, without
acting in concert with the other Arcadians, and from fear of the
Thebans openly entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with
the Lacedæmonians, and in the battle fought on Mantinean territory
between the Thebans under Epaminondas and the Lacedæmonians they ranged
themselves with the Lacedæmonians. But after this the Mantineans and
Lacedæmonians were at variance, and the former joined the Achæan
League. And when Agis, the son of Eudamidas, was king of Sparta they
defeated him in self defence by the help of an Achæan force under
Aratus. They also joined the Achæans in the action against Cleomenes,
and helped them in breaking down the power of the Lacedæmonians. And
when Antigonus in Macedonia was Regent for Philip, the father of
Perseus, who was still a boy, and was on most friendly terms with the
Achæans, the Mantineans did several other things in his honour, and
changed the name of their city to Antigonea. And long afterwards, when
Augustus was about to fight the sea fight off the promontory of Apollo
at Actium, the Mantineans fought on his side, though the rest of the
Arcadians took part with Antony, for no other reason I think than that
the Lacedæmonians were on the side of Augustus. And ten generations
afterwards when Adrian was Emperor, he took away from the Mantineans
the imported name of Antigonea and restored the old name of Mantinea.

[24] Iliad, ii. 721-723.

[25] Iliad, xii. 200-208.



CHAPTER IX.


And the Mantinæans have a double temple divided in the middle by a wall
of partition, on one side is the statue of Æsculapius by Alcamenes,
on the other is the temple of Leto and her children. Praxiteles made
statues the third generation after Alcamenes. In the basement are the
Muse and Marsyas with his pipe. There also on a pillar is Polybius
the son of Lycortas, whom we shall mention hereafter. The Mantineans
have also several other temples, as one to Zeus Soter, and another to
Zeus surnamed Bountiful because he gives all good things to mankind,
also one to Castor and Pollux, and in another part of the city one to
Demeter and Proserpine. And they keep a fire continually burning here,
taking great care that it does not go out through inadvertence. I also
saw a temple of Hera near the theatre: the statues are by Praxiteles,
Hera is seated on a throne, and standing by her are Athene and Hebe the
daughter of Hera. And near the altar of Hera is the tomb of Arcas, the
son of Callisto: his remains were brought from Mænalus in accordance
with the oracle at Delphi.

    “Cold is Mæenalia, where Arcas lies
    Who gave his name to all Arcadians.
    Go there I bid you, and with kindly mind
    Remove his body to the pleasant city,
    Where three and four and even five roads meet,
    There build a shrine and sacrifice to Arcas.”

And the place where the tomb of Arcas is they call the altars of the
Sun. And not far from the theatre are some famous tombs, Vesta called
Common a round figure, and they say Antinoe the daughter of Cepheus
lies here. And there is a pillar above another tomb, and a man on
horseback carved on the pillar, Gryllus the son of Xenophon. And behind
the theatre are ruins of a temple of Aphrodite Symmachia and her
statue, and the inscription on the basement of it states that Nicippe
the daughter of Paseas offered it. And this temple was erected by the
Mantineans as a record to posterity of the seafight off Actium fought
by them in conjunction with the Romans. And they worship Athene Alea,
and have a temple and statue of her. They also regard Antinous as a
god, his temple is the latest in Mantinea, he was excessively beloved
by the emperor Adrian. I never saw him alive but have seen statues
and paintings of him. He has also honours elsewhere, and there is a
city near the Nile in Egypt called after him, and the following is
the reason why he was honoured at Mantinea. He belonged by birth to
the town Bithynium in Bithynia beyond the river Sangarius, and the
Bithynians were originally Arcadians from Mantinea. That is why the
Emperor assigned him divine honours at Mantinea, and his rites are
annual, and games are held to him every fifth year. And the Mantineans
have a room in the Gymnasium which has statues of Antinous, and is in
other respects well worth a visit for the precious stones with which
it is adorned and the paintings, most of which are of Antinous and
make him resemble young Dionysus. And moreover there is an imitation
here of the painting at Ceramicus of the action of the Athenians at
Mantinea. And in the market-place the Mantineans have the brazen image
of a woman, who they say is Diomenea the daughter of Arcas, and they
have also the hero-chapel of Podares, who they say fell in the battle
against Epaminondas and the Thebans. But three generations before my
time they changed the inscription on the tomb to suit a descendant and
namesake of Podares, who lived at the period when one could become a
Roman Citizen. But it was the old Podares that the Mantineans in my
time honoured, saying that the bravest (whether of their own men or
their allies) in the battle was Gryllus the son of Xenophon, and next
Cephisodorus of Marathon, who was at that time the Commander of the
Athenian Cavalry, and next Podares.



CHAPTER X.


There are roads leading from Mantinea to the other parts of Arcadia, I
will describe the most notable things to see on each of them. As you
go to Tegea on the left of the highroad near the walls of Mantinea
is a place for horseracing, and at no great distance is the course
where the games to Antinous take place. And above this course is the
Mountain Alesium, so called they say from the wanderings of Rhea, and
on the mountain is a grove of Demeter. And at the extreme end of the
mountain is the temple of Poseidon Hippius, not far from the course
in Mantinea. As to this temple I write what I have heard and what
others have recorded about it. It was built in our day by the Emperor
Adrian, who appointed overseers over the workmen, that no one might
spy into the old temple nor move any portion of its ruins, and he
ordered them to build the new temple round the old one, which was they
say originally built to Poseidon by Agamedes and Trophonius, who made
beams of oak and adjusted them together. And when they kept people
from entering into this temple they put up no barrier in front of the
entrance, but only stretched across a woollen thread, whether they
thought this would inspire fear as people then held divine things in
honour, or that there was some efficacy in this thread. And Æpytus the
son of Hippothous neither leapt over this thread nor crept under it
but broke through it and so entered the temple, and having acted with
impiety was struck blind, (sea water bursting into his eyes from the
outraged god), and soon after died. There is an old tradition that sea
water springs up in this temple. The Athenians have a similar tradition
about their Acropolis, and so have the Carians who dwell at Mylasa
about the temple of their god, whom they call in their native dialect
Osogo. The Athenians are only about 20 stades distant from the sea at
Phalerum, and the seaport for Mylasa is 80 stades from that town, but
the Mantineans are at such a very long distance from the sea that this
is plainly supernatural there.

When you have passed the temple of Poseidon you come to a trophy
in stone erected for a victory over the Lacedæmonians and Agis.
This was the disposition of the battle. On the right wing were the
Mantineans themselves, with an army of all ages under the command of
Podares, the great grandson of that Podares who had fought against
the Thebans. They had also with them the seer from Elis, Thrasybulus
the son of Æneas of the family of the Iamidæ, who prophesied victory
for the Mantineans, and himself took part in the action. The rest
of the Arcadians were posted on the left wing, each town had its
own commander, and Megalopolis had two, Lydiades and Leocydes. And
Aratus with the Sicyonians and Achæans occupied the centre. And Agis
and the Lacedæmonians extended their line of battle that they might
not be outflanked by the enemy, and Agis and his staff occupied the
centre. And Aratus according to preconcerted arrangement with the
Arcadians fell back (he and his army) when the Lacedæmonians pressed
them hard, and as they fell back they formed the shape of a crescent.
And Agis and the Lacedæmonians were keen for victory, and _en masse_
pressed fiercely on Aratus and his division. And they were followed
by the Lacedæmonians on the wings, who thought it would be a great
stepping stone to victory to rout Aratus and his division. But the
Arcadians meanwhile stole upon their flanks, and the Lacedæmonians
being surrounded lost most of their men, and their king Agis the son of
Eudamidas fell. And the Mantineans said that Poseidon appeared helping
them, and that is why they erected their trophy as a votive offering
to Poseidon. That the gods have been present at war and slaughter has
been represented by those who have described the doings and sufferings
of the heroes at Ilium, the Athenian poets have sung also that the gods
took part in the battles at Marathon and Salamis. And manifestly the
army of the Galati perished at Delphi through Apollo and the evident
assistance of divine beings. So the victory here of the Mantineans may
have been largely due to Poseidon. And they say that Leocydes, who with
Lydiades was the general of the division from Megalopolis, was the
ninth descendant from Arcesilaus who lived at Lycosura, of whom the
Arcadians relate the legend that he saw a stag (which was sacred to the
goddess Proserpine) of extreme old age, on whose neck was a collar
with the following inscription,

 “I was a fawn and captured, when Agapenor went to Ilium.”

This tradition shews that the stag is much longer-lived than the
elephant.



CHAPTER XI.


Next to the temple of Poseidon you will come to a place full of oak
trees called Pelagos; there is a road from Mantinea to Tegea through
these oak trees. And the boundary between the districts of Mantinea
and Tegea is the round altar on the highroad. And if you should turn
to the left from the temple of Poseidon, in about five stades you will
come to the tombs of the daughters of Pelias. The people of Mantinea
say they dwelt here to avoid the vituperations which came upon them
for the death of their father. For as soon as Medea came to Iolcos she
forthwith plotted against Pelias, really working for Jason’s interest,
while ostensibly hostile to him. She told the daughters of Pelias
that, if they liked, she could make their father a young man instead
of an old man. So she slew a ram and boiled his flesh with herbs in a
caldron, and she brought the old ram out of the caldron in the shape
of a young man alive. After this she took Pelias to boil and cut him
up, but his daughters got hardly enough of him to take to burial. This
compelled them to go and live in Arcadia, and when they died their
sepulchres were raised here. No poet has given their names so far as I
know, but Mico the painter has written under their portraits the names
Asteropea and Antinoe.

And the place called Phœzon is about 20 stades from these tombs, where
is a tomb with a stone base, rising up somewhat from the ground.
The road is very narrow at this place, and they say it is the tomb
of Areithous, who was called Corynetes from the club which he used
in battle. As you go about 30 stades along the road from Mantinea
to Pallantium, the oak plantation called Pelagos extends along the
highroad, and here the cavalry of the Mantineans and Athenians fought
against the Bœotian cavalry. And the Mantineans say that Epaminondas
was killed here by Machærion a Mantinean, but the Lacedæmonians say
that the Machærion who killed Epaminondas was a Spartan. But the
Athenian account, corroborated by the Thebans, is that Epaminondas was
mortally wounded by Gryllus: and this corresponds with the painting of
the action at Mantinea. The Mantineans also seem to have given Gryllus
a public funeral, and erected to him his statue on a pillar where he
fell as the bravest man in the allied army: whereas Machærion, though
the Lacedæmonians mention him, had no special honours paid to him as a
brave man, either at Sparta or at Mantinea. And when Epaminondas was
wounded they removed him yet alive out of the line of battle. And for a
time he kept his hand on his wound, and gasped for breath, and looked
earnestly at the fight, and the place where he kept so looking they
called ever after Scope, (_Watch_), but when the battle was over then
he took his hand from the wound and expired, and they buried him on the
field of battle. And there is a pillar on his tomb, and a shield above
it with a dragon as its device. The dragon is intended to intimate that
Epaminondas was one of those who are called the Sparti, the seed of
the dragon’s teeth. And there are two pillars on his tomb, one ancient
with a Bœotian inscription, and the other erected by the Emperor Adrian
with an inscription by him upon it. As to Epaminondas one might praise
him as one of the most famous Greek generals for talent in war, indeed
second to none. For the Lacedæmonian and Athenian generals were aided
by the ancient renown of their states and the spirit of their soldiers:
but the Thebans were dejected and used to obey other Greek states when
Epaminondas in a short time put them into a foremost position.

Epaminondas had been warned by the oracle at Delphi before this to
beware of Pelagos. Taking this word in its usual meaning of the sea
he was careful not to set foot on a trireme or transport: but Apollo
evidently meant this oak plantation Pelagos and not the sea. Places
bearing the same name deceived Hannibal the Carthaginian later on, and
the Athenians still earlier. For Hannibal had an oracle from Ammon
that he would die and be buried in Libyssa. Accordingly he hoped that
he would destroy the power of Rome, and return home to Libya and die
there in old age. But when Flaminius the Roman made all diligence to
take him alive, he went to the court of Prusias as a suppliant, and
being rejected by him mounted his horse, and in drawing his sword
wounded his finger. And he had not gone on many stades when a fever
from the wound came on him, and he died the third day after, and the
place where he died was called Libyssa by the people of Nicomedia.
The oracle at Dodona also told the Athenians to colonize Sicily. Now
not far from Athens is a small hill called Sicily. And they, not
understanding that it was this Sicily that the oracle referred to, were
induced to go on expeditions beyond their borders and to engage in the
fatal war against Syracuse. And one might find other similar cases to
these.



CHAPTER XII.


And about a stade from the tomb of Epaminondas is a temple of Zeus
surnamed Charmo. In the Arcadian oak-plantations there are different
kinds of oaks, some they call broadleaved, and others they call fegi. A
third kind have a thin bark so light, that they make of it floats for
anchors and nets. The bark of this kind of oak is called cork by some
of the Ionians and by Hermesianax the Elegiac Poet.

From Mantinea a road leads to the village Methydrium, formerly a town,
now included in Megalopolis. When you have gone 30 stades further
you come to the plain called Alcimedon, and above it is the mountain
Ostracina, where the cave is where Alcimedon, one of the men called
Heroes, used to dwell. Hercules according to the tradition of the
Phigalians had an intrigue with Phialo, the daughter of this Alcimedon.
When Alcimedon found out she was a mother he exposed her and her boy
immediately after his birth on the mountain. Æchmagoras was the name
given to the boy according to the Arcadians. And the boy crying out
when he was exposed, the bird called the jay heard his wailing and
imitated it. And Hercules happening to pass by heard the jay, and
thinking it was the cry of his boy and not the bird, turned at the
sound, and when he perceived Phialo he loosed her from her bonds and
saved the boy’s life. From that time the well has been called Jay
from the bird. And about 40 stades from this well is the place called
Petrosaca, the boundary between Megalopolis and Mantinea.

Besides the roads I have mentioned there are two that lead to
Orchomenus, and in one of them is what is called Ladas’ course, where
he used to practise for running, and near it is a temple of Artemis,
and on the right of the road a lofty mound which they say is the tomb
of Penelope, differing from what is said about her in the Thesprotian
Poem. For in it she is represented as having borne a son Ptoliporthes
to Odysseus after his return from Troy. But the tradition of the
Mantineans about her is that she was detected by Odysseus in having
encouraged the suitors to the house, and therefore sent away by him,
and that she forthwith departed to Lacedæmon, and afterwards migrated
to Mantinea, and there died. And near this tomb is a small plain, and
a hill on it with some ruins still remaining of old Mantinea, and the
place is called _The Town_ to this day. And as you go on in a Northerly
direction, you soon come to the well of Alalcomenea. And about 30
stades from _The Town_ are the ruins of a place called Mæra, if indeed
Mæra was buried here and not at Tegea: for the most probable tradition
is that Mæra, the daughter of Atlas, was buried at Tegea and not at
Mantinea. But perhaps it was another Mæra, a descendant of the Mæra
that was the daughter of Atlas, that came to Mantinea.

There still remains the road which leads to Orchomenus, on which is
the mountain Anchisia, and the tomb of Anchises at the foot of the
mountain. For when Æneas was crossing to Sicily he landed in Laconia,
and founded the towns Aphrodisias and Etis, and his father Anchises
for some reason or other coming to this place and dying there was also
buried at the foot of the mountain called Anchisia after him. And this
tradition is confirmed by the fact that the Æolians who now inhabit
Ilium nowhere shew in their country the tomb of Anchises. And near the
tomb of Anchises are ruins of a temple of Aphrodite, and Anchisia is
the boundary between the districts of Mantinea and Orchomenus.



CHAPTER XIII.


In the part belonging to Orchomenus, on the left of the road from
Anchisia, on the slope of the mountain is a temple to Hymnian Artemis,
in whose worship the Mantineans also share. The goddess has both a
priestess and priest, who not only have no intercourse with one another
by marriage, but all their life long keep separate in other respects.
They have neither baths nor meals together as most people do, nor do
they ever go into a stranger’s house. I know that similar habits are
found among the priests of Ephesian Artemis, called by themselves
Histiatores but by the citizens Essenes, but they are only kept up for
one year and no longer. To Hymnian Artemis they also hold an annual
festival.

The old town of Orchomenus was on the top of a hill, and there are
still ruins of the walls and market-place. But the town in our day
is under the circuit of the old walls. And among the notable sights
are a well, from which they get their water, and temples of Poseidon
and Aphrodite, and their statues in stone. And near the town is a
wooden statue of Artemis in a large cedar-tree, whence the goddess is
called Artemis of the Cedar-tree. And below the town are some heaps
of stones apart from one another, which were erected to some men who
fell in war, but who they fought against, whether Arcadians or any
other Peloponnesians, neither do the inscriptions on the tombs nor any
traditions of the people of Orchomenus record.

And opposite the town is the mountain called Trachys. And rainwater
flows through a hollow ravine between Orchomenus and Mount Trachys,
and descends into another plain belonging to Orchomenus. This plain
is not very large, and most of it is marsh. And as you go on about
three stades from Orchomenus, a straight road takes you to the town
of Caphya by the ravine, and after that on the left hand by the marsh.
And another road, after you have crossed the water that flows through
the ravine, takes you under the mountain Trachys. And on this road the
first thing you come to is the tomb of Aristocrates, who violated the
priestess of Artemis Hymnia. And next to the tomb of Aristocrates are
the wells called Teneæ, and about 7 stades further is a place called
Amilus, which they say was formerly a town. At this place the road
branches off into two directions, one towards Stymphelus, and the
other towards Pheneus. And as you go to Pheneus a mountain will lie
before you, which is the joint boundary for Orchomenus and Pheneus and
Caphya. And a lofty precipice called the Caphyatic rock projects from
the mountain. Next to the boundary I have mentioned is a ravine, and a
road leads through it to Pheneus. And in the middle of this ravine some
water comes out from a fountain, and at the end of the ravine is the
town of Caryæ.



CHAPTER XIV.


And the plain of Pheneus lies below Caryæ, and they say the old
Pheneus was destroyed by a deluge: even in our day there are marks
on the hills where the water rose to. And about 5 stades from Caryæ
are the mountains Oryxis and Sciathis, at the bottom of each of which
mountains is a pit which receives the water from the plain. And these
pits the people of Pheneus say are wrought by hand, for they were
made by Hercules when he lived at Pheneus with Laonome, the mother
of Amphitryon, for Amphitryon was the son of Alcæus by Laonome, the
daughter of Gyneus a woman of Pheneus, and not by Lysidice the daughter
of Pelops. And if Hercules really dwelt at Pheneus, one may easily
suppose that, when he was expelled from Tiryns by Eurystheus, he did
not go immediately to Thebes but first to Pheneus. Hercules also dug
through the middle of the plain of Pheneus a channel for the river
Olbius, which river some of the Arcadians call Aroanius and not Olbius.
The length of this canal is about 50 stades, and the depth where the
banks have not fallen in about 30 feet. The river however does not
now follow this channel, but has returned to its old channel, having
deserted Hercules’ canal.

And from the pits dug at the bottom of the mountains I have mentioned
to Pheneus is about 50 stades. The people of Pheneus say that Pheneus
an Autochthon was their founder. Their citadel is precipitous on all
sides, most of it is left undefended, but part of it is carefully
fortified. On the citadel is a temple of Athene Tritonia, but only in
ruins. And there is a brazen statue of Poseidon Hippius, an offering
they say of Odysseus. For he lost his horses and went all over Greece
in quest of them, and finding them on this spot in Pheneus he erected
a temple there to Artemis under the title of Heurippe, and offered the
statue of Poseidon Hippius. They say also that when Odysseus found
his horses here he thought he would keep them at Pheneus, as he kept
his oxen on the mainland opposite Ithaca. And the people of Pheneus
shew some letters written on the base of the statue, which are the
orders of Odysseus to those who looked after his horses. In all other
respects there seems probability in the tradition of the people of
Pheneus, but I cannot think that the brazen statue of Poseidon is an
offering of Odysseus, for they did not in those days know how to make
statues throughout in brass as you weave a garment. Their mode of
making statues in brass I have already shewn in my account of Sparta in
reference to the statue of Zeus Supreme. For the first who fused and
made statues of cast brass were Rhœcus the son of Philæus and Theodorus
the son of Telecles both of Samos. The most famous work of Theodorus
was the seal carved out of an Emerald, which Polycrates the tyrant of
Samos very frequently wore and was very proud of.

And as you descend about a stade from the citadel you come to the tomb
of Iphicles, the brother of Hercules and the father of Iolaus, on an
eminence. Iolaus according to the tradition of the Greeks assisted
Hercules in most of his Labours. And Iphicles the father of Iolaus,
when Hercules fought his first battle against Augeas and the people of
Elis, was wounded by the sons of Actor who were called Molinidæ from
their mother Moline, and his relations conveyed him to Pheneus in a
very bad condition, and there Buphagus (a native of Pheneus) and his
wife Promne took care of him, and buried him as he died of his wound.
And to this day they pay him the honours they pay to heroes. And of
the gods the people of Pheneus pay most regard to Hermes, and they
call their games Hermæa. And they have a temple of Hermes, and a stone
statue of the god made by the Athenian Euchir the son of Eubulides.
And behind the temple is the tomb of Myrtilus. This Myrtilus was, the
Greeks say, the son of Hermes, and charioteer to Œnomaus, and when
any one came to court the daughter of Œnomaus, Myrtilus ingeniously
spurred the horses of Œnomaus, and, whenever he caught up any suitor
in the race, he hurled a dart at him and so killed him. And Myrtilus
himself was enamoured of Hippodamia, but did not venture to compete
for her hand, but continued Œnomaus’ charioteer. But eventually they
say he betrayed Œnomaus, seduced by the oaths that Pelops made to him,
that if he won he would let Myrtilus enjoy Hippodamia one night. But
when he reminded Pelops of his oath he threw him out of a ship into the
sea. And the dead body of Myrtilus was washed ashore, and taken up and
buried by the people of Pheneus, so they say, and annually by night
they pay him honours. Clearly Pelops cannot have had much sea to sail
on, except from the mouth of the Alpheus to the seaport of Elis. The
Myrtoan Sea cannot therefore have been named after this Myrtilus, for
it begins at Eubœa and joins the Ægean by the desert island of Helene,
but those who seem to me to interpret best the antiquities of Eubœa say
that the Myrtoan Sea got its name from a woman called Myrto.



CHAPTER XV.


At Pheneus they have also a temple of Eleusinian Demeter, and they
celebrate the rites of the goddess just the same as at Eleusis,
according to their statement. For they say that Naus, who was the
great grandson of Eumolpus, came to them in obedience to the oracle
at Delphi, _and brought these mysteries_. And near the temple of
Eleusinian Demeter is what is called Petroma, two large stones fitting
into one another. And they celebrate here annually what they call
their great rites, they detach these stones, and take from them some
writings relative to these rites, and when they have read them in the
ears of the initiated they replace them again the same night. And
I know that most of the inhabitants of Pheneus regard “By Petroma”
their most solemn oath. And there is a round covering on Petroma with
a likeness of Cidarian Demeter inside, the priest puts this likeness
on his robes at what they call the great rites, when according to the
tradition he strikes the earth with rods and summons the gods of the
lower world. The people of Pheneus also have a tradition that before
Naus Demeter came here in the course of her wanderings, and to all
the people of Pheneus that received her hospitably the goddess gave
other kinds of pulse but no beans. Why they do not consider beans a
pure kind of pulse, is a sacred tradition. Those who according to the
tradition of the people of Pheneus received the goddess were Trisaules
and Damithales, and they built a temple to Demeter Thesmia under Mount
Cyllene, where they established her rites as they are now celebrated.
And this temple is about 15 stades from Pheneus.

As you go on about 15 stades from Pheneus in the direction of Pellene
and Ægira in Achaia, you come to a temple of Pythian Apollo, of which
there are only ruins, and a large altar in white stone. The people
of Pheneus still sacrifice here to Apollo and Artemis, and say that
Hercules built the temple after the capture of Elis. There are also
here the tombs of the heroes who joined Hercules in the expedition
against Elis and were killed in the battle. And Telamon is buried
very near the river Aroanius, at a little distance from the temple of
Apollo, and Chalcodon not far from the well called Œnoe’s well. As one
was the father of that Elephenor who led the Eubœans to Ilium, and
the other the father of Ajax and Teucer, no one will credit that they
fell in this battle. For how could Chalcodon have assisted Hercules in
this affair, since Amphitryon is declared to have slain him earlier
according to Theban information that we can rely on? And how would
Teucer have founded Salamis in Cyprus, if nobody had banished him from
home on his return from Troy? And who but Telamon could have banished
him? Manifestly therefore Chalcodon from Eubœa and Telamon from Ægina
could not have taken part with Hercules in this expedition against
Elis: they must have been obscure men of the same name as those famous
men, a casual coincidence such as has happened in all ages.

The people of Pheneus have more than one boundary between them and
Achaia. One is the river called Porinas in the direction of Pellene,
the other is a temple sacred to Artemis in the direction of Ægira. And
in the territory of Pheneus after the temple of Pythian Apollo you will
soon come to the road that leads to the mountain Crathis, in which the
river Crathis has its rise, which flows into the sea near Ægæ, a place
deserted in our day but in older days a town in Achaia. And from this
Crathis the river in Italy in the district of Bruttii gets its name.
And on Mount Crathis there is a temple to Pyronian Artemis: from whose
shrine the Argives in olden times introduced fire into the district
about Lerne.



CHAPTER XVI.


And as you go eastwards from Pheneus you come to the promontory of
Geronteum, and by it is a road. And Geronteum is the boundary between
the districts of Pheneus and Stymphelus. And as you leave Geronteum
on the left and go through the district of Pheneus you come to the
mountains called Tricrena, where there are three wells. In these they
say the mountain nymphs washed Hermes when he was born, and so they
consider these wells sacred to Hermes. And not far from Tricrena is
another hill called Sepia, and here they say Æpytus the son of Elatus
died of the bite of a serpent, and here they buried him, for they
could not carry his dead body further. These serpents are still (the
Arcadians say) to be found on the hill but in no great quantity, for
every year much of it is covered with snow, and those serpents that
the snow catches outside of their holes are killed by it, and if
they first get back to their holes, yet the snow kills part of them
even there, as the bitter cold sometimes penetrates to their holes.
I was curious to see the tomb of Æpytus, because Homer mentions it
in his lines about the Arcadians.[26] It is a pile of earth not very
high, surrounded by a coping of stone. It was likely to inspire wonder
in Homer as he had seen no more notable tomb. For when he compared
the dancing-ground wrought by Hephæstus on Achilles’ shield to the
dancing-ground made by Dædalus for Ariadne,[27] it was because he had
seen nothing more clever. And though I know many wonderful tombs I
will only mention two, one in Halicarnassus and one in the land of
the Hebrews. The one in Halicarnassus was built for Mausolus king of
Halicarnassus, and is so large and wonderful in all its adornation,
that the Romans in their admiration of it call all notable tombs
Mausoleums. And the Hebrews have in the city of Jerusalem, which has
been rased to the ground by the Roman Emperor, a tomb of Helen a
woman of that country, which is so contrived that the door, which is
of stone like all the rest of the tomb, cannot be opened except on
one particular day and month of the year. And then it opens by the
machinery alone, and keeps open for some little time and then shuts
again. But at any other time of the year anyone trying to open it could
not do so, you would have to smash it before you could open it.



CHAPTER XVII.


Not far from the tomb of Æpytus is Cyllene the highest of the mountains
in Arcadia, and the ruins of a temple of Cyllenian Hermes on the top
of the mountain. It is clear that both the mountain and god got their
title from Cyllen the son of Elatus. And men of old, as far as we can
ascertain, had various kinds of wood out of which they made statues,
as ebony, cypress, cedar, oak, yew, lotus. But the statue of Cyllenian
Hermes is made of none of these but of the wood of the juniper tree.
It is about 8 feet high I should say. Cyllene has the following
phenomenon. Blackbirds all-white lodge in it. Those that are called
by the Bœotians by the same name are a different kind of bird, and
are not vocal. The white eagles that resemble swans very much and are
called swan-eagles I have seen on Sipylus near the marsh of Tantalus,
and individuals have got from Thrace before now white boars and white
bears. And white hares are bred in Libya, and white deer I have myself
seen and admired in Rome, but where they came from, whether from the
mainland or islands, it did not occur to me to inquire. Let this much
suffice relative to the blackbirds of Mount Cyllene, that no one may
discredit what I have said about their colour.

And next to Cyllene is another mountain called Chelydorea, where Hermes
found the tortoise, which he is said to have skinned and made a lyre
of. Chelydorea is the boundary between the districts of Pheneus and
Pellene, and the Achæans graze their flocks on most of it.

And as you go westwards from Pheneus the road to the left leads to the
city Clitor, that to the right to Nonacris and the water of the Styx.
In old times Nonacris, which took its name from the wife of Lycaon, was
a small town in Arcadia, but in our day it is in ruins, nor are many
portions even of the ruins easy to trace. And not far from the ruins
is a cliff, I do not remember to have seen another so high. And water
drops from it which the Greeks call the Styx.

[26] Iliad, ii. 604.

[27] Iliad, xviii. 590-592.



CHAPTER XVIII.


Hesiod has represented Styx in his Theogony, (for there are some who
assign the Theogony to Hesiod), as the daughter of Oceanus and the wife
of Pallas. Linus too they say has represented the same. But the verses
of Linus (all of which I have read) seem to me spurious. Epimenides the
Cretan also has represented Styx as the daughter of Oceanus, but not
as the wife of Pallas, but of Piras, whoever he was, to whom she bare
Echidna. And Homer has frequently introduced the Styx into his poetry.
For example in the oath of Hera,

    “Witness me now Earth and high Heaven above
    And water of the Styx, that trickles down.”[28]

Here he represents the water of the Styx dripping down as you may see
it. But in the catalogue of those who went with Guneus he makes the
water of the Styx flow into the river Titaresius.[29] He has also
represented the Styx as a river of Hades, and Athene says that Zeus
does not remember that she saved Hercules in it in one of the Labours
imposed by Eurystheus.

    “For could I have foreseen what since has chanced,
    When he was sent to Hades jailor dread
    To bring from Erebus dread Hades’ Cerberus,
    He would not have escaped the streams of Styx.”
                                   (Il. viii. 366-369.)

Now the water that drips from the cliff near Nonacris falls first upon
a lofty rock, and oozes through it into the river Crathis, and its
water is deadly both to man and beast. It is said also that it was
deadly to goats who first drank of the water. But in time this was well
known, as well as other mysterious properties of the water. Glass and
crystal and porcelain, and various articles made of stone, and pottery
ware, are broken by the water of the Styx. And things made of horn,
bone, iron, brass, lead, tin, silver, and amber, melt when put into
this water. Gold also suffers from it as all other metals, although one
can purify gold from rust, as the Lesbian poetess Sappho testifies, and
as anyone can test by experiment. The deity has as it seems granted to
things which are least esteemed the property of being masters of things
held in the highest value. For pearls are melted by vinegar, and the
adamant, which is the hardest of stones, is melted by goat’s blood.
A horse’s hoof alone is proof against the water of the Styx, for if
poured into a hoof the hoof is not broken. Whether Alexander the son of
Philip really died of this poisonous water of the Styx I do not know,
but there is a tradition to that effect.

Beyond Nonacris there are some mountains called Aroania and a cave
in them, into which they say the daughters of Prœtus fled when they
went mad, till Melampus brought them back to a place called Lusi,
and cured them by secret sacrifices and purifications. The people of
Pheneus graze their flocks on most of the mountains Aroania, but Lusi
is on the borders of Clitor. It was they say formerly a town, and
Agesilaus a native of it was proclaimed victor with a race-horse, when
the Amphictyones celebrated the eleventh Pythiad, but in our days there
are not even any ruins of it in existence. So the daughters of Prœtus
were brought back by Melampus to Lusi, and healed of their madness in
the temple of Artemis, and ever since the people of Clitor call Artemis
Hemerasia.

[28] Iliad, xv. 36, 37.

[29] Iliad, ii. 748-751.



CHAPTER XIX.


And there are some of Arcadian race who live at Cynætha, who erected
at Olympia a statue of Zeus with a thunderbolt in each hand. Cynætha
is about 40 stades from the temple of Artemis, and in the market-place
are some altars of the gods, and a statue of the Emperor Adrian. But
the most memorable thing there is a temple of Dionysus. They keep the
festival of the god in wintertime, when men smeared all over with oil
pick a bull from the herd, which the god puts it into their mind to
take and convey to the temple, where they offer it in sacrifice. And
there is a well there of cold water, about two stades from the town,
and a plane-tree growing by it. Whoever is bitten by a mad dog, or has
received any other hurt, if he drinks of this water gets cured, and
for this reason they call the well Alyssus. Thus the water called Styx
near Pheneus in Arcadia is for man’s hurt, whereas the water at Cynætha
is exactly the reverse for man’s cure. Of the roads in a westward
direction from Pheneus there remains that on the left which leads to
Clitor, and is by the canal which Hercules dug for the river Aroanius.
The road along this canal goes to Lycuria, which is the boundary
between the districts of Pheneus and Clitor.



CHAPTER XX.


And after having advanced from Lycuria about 50 stades you will come
to the springs of the river Ladon. I have heard that the water of the
marsh at Pheneus, after falling into the pits under the mountains,
reappears here, and forms the springs of Ladon. I am not prepared to
say whether this is so or not. But the river Ladon excels all the
rivers in Greece for the beauty of its stream, and is also famous
in connection with what poets have sung about Daphne. The tradition
current about Daphne among those who live on the banks of the Orontes
I pass over, but the following is the tradition both in Arcadia and
Elis. Œnomaus the ruler at Pisa had a son Leucippus who was enamoured
of Daphne, and hotly wooed her for his wife, but discovered that she
had a dislike to all males. So he contrived the following stratagem.
He let his hair grow to the Alpheus,[30] and put on woman’s dress and
went to Daphne with his hair arranged like a girl’s, and said he was
the daughter of Œnomaus, and would like to go a hunting with Daphne.
And being reckoned a girl, and excelling all the other girls in the
lustre of his family and skill in hunting, and paying the greatest
possible attention to Daphne, he soon won her strong friendship. But
they who sing of Apollo’s love for Daphne add that Apollo was jealous
of Leucippus’ happiness in love. So when Daphne and the other maidens
desired to bathe in the Ladon and swim about, they stripped Leucippus
against his will, and discovering his sex they stabbed him and killed
him with javelins and daggers. So the story goes.



CHAPTER XXI.


From the springs of Ladon it is 60 stades to the town of Clitor, the
road is a narrow path by the river Aroanius. And near the town you
cross a river called Clitor, which flows into the Aroanius about 7
stades from the town. There are various kinds of fish in the river
Aroanius, especially some variegated ones which have they say a voice
like the thrush. I have seen them caught but never heard their voice,
though I have waited by the riverside till sunset, when they are said
to be most vocal.

The town of Clitor got its name from the son of Azan, and is situated
in a plain with hills not very high all round it. The most notable
temples are those to Demeter, and Æsculapius, and to Ilithyia. Homer
says there are several Ilithyias, but does not specify their number.
But the Lycian Olen, who was earlier than Homer, and wrote Hymns to
Ilithyia and for the Delians, says that she was the same as Fate, and
older than Cronos. And he calls her Eulinus. The people of Clitor have
also a temple, about 4 stades from the town, to Castor and Pollux under
the name of the Great Gods, their statues are of brass. And on the
crest of a hill about 30 stades from Clitor is a temple and statue of
Athene Coria.

[30] Probably on the pretext that he meant to shear his hair to the
Alpheus. See i. 37; viii. 41.



CHAPTER XXII.


I return to Stymphelus and to Geronteum, the boundary between the
districts of Pheneus and Stymphelus. The people of Stymphelus are no
longer ranked as Arcadians, but are in the Argolic League from their
own choice. But that they are of Arcadian race is testified by Homer,
and Stymphelus, the founder of the town, was great grandson of Arcas,
the son of Callisto. He is said originally to have built the town on
another site than that it now occupies. In old Stymphelus lived they
say Temenus the son of Pelasgus, who brought up Hera, and built three
temples to the goddess and called her by three titles, when she was
still a maiden the Child-goddess, and after she was married to Zeus
he called her the Full-grown, and after she broke with Zeus for some
reason or other and returned to Stymphelus he called her the Widow.
This is the tradition about the goddess at Stymphelus. But the town
in our day has none of these temples, though it has the following
remarkable things. There is a spring from which the Emperor Adrian
conveyed water to the town of Corinth. In winter this spring converts
a small marsh into the river Stymphelus, but in summer the marsh is
dry, and the river is only fed by the spring. This river soaks into the
ground, and comes up again in Argolis, where its name is changed to
Erasinus. About this river Stymphelus there is a tradition that some
man-eating birds lived on its banks, whom Hercules is said to have
killed with his arrows. But Pisander of Camirus says that Hercules did
not kill them but only frightened them away with the noise of rattles.
The desert of Arabia has among other monsters some birds called
Stymphelides, who are as savage to men as lions and leopards. They
attack those who come to capture them, and wound them with their beaks
and kill them. They pierce through coats of mail that men wear, and
if they put on thick robes of mat, the beaks of these birds penetrate
them too, as the wings of little birds stick in bird-lime. Their size
is about that of the crane, and they are like storks, but their beaks
are stronger and not crooked like those of storks. Whether these birds
now in Arabia, that have the same name as those formerly in Arcadia,
are similar in appearance I do not know, but if there have been in all
time these Stymphelides like hawks and eagles, then they are probably
of Arabian origin, and some of them may formerly have flown from Arabia
to Stymphelus in Arcadia. They may also have been originally called
some other name than Stymphelides by the Arabians: and the fame of
Hercules, and the superiority of the Greeks to the barbarians, may
have made the name Stymphelides prevail to our day over their former
name in the desert of Arabia. At Stymphelus there is also an ancient
temple of Stymphelian Artemis, the statue is wooden but most of it
gilt over. And on the roof of the temple is a representation of these
birds called Stymphelides. It is difficult to decide whether it is in
wood or plaster, but I conjecture more likely in wood than plaster.
There are also represented some maidens in white stone with legs like
birds, standing behind the temple. And in our days a wonderful thing
is said to have happened. They were celebrating at Stymphelus the
festival of Stymphelian Artemis rather negligently, and violating most
of the established routine, when a tree fell at the opening of the
cavity where the river Stymphelus goes underground, and blocked up the
passage, so that the plain became a marsh for 400 stades. And they
say that a hunter was pursuing a fleeing deer, and it jumped into the
swamp, and the hunter in the heat of the chase jumped in after it: and
it swallowed up both deer and man. And they say the water of the river
followed them, so that in a day the whole water in the plain was dried
up, _they having opened a way for it_. And since that time they have
celebrated the festival of Artemis with greater ardour.



CHAPTER XXIII.


And next to Stymphelus comes Alea a town in the Argolic league, founded
they say by Aleus the son of Aphidas. There are temples here of
Ephesian Artemis and Alean Athene, and a temple and statue of Dionysus.
They celebrate annually the festival of Dionysus called Scieria, in
which according to an oracle from Delphi the women are flogged, as the
Spartan boys are flogged at the temple of Orthia.

I have shewn in my account of Orchomenus that the straight road is by
the ravine, and that there is another on the left of the lake. And
in the plain of Caphyæ there is a reservoir, by which the water from
the territory of Orchomenus is kept in, so as not to harm the fertile
district. And within this reservoir some other water, in volume nearly
as large as a river, is absorbed in the ground and comes up again at
what is called Nasi, near a village called Rheunos, and it forms there
the perennial river called Tragus. The town gets its name clearly from
Cepheus the son of Aleus, but the name Caphyæ has prevailed through the
Arcadian dialect. And the inhabitants trace their origin to Attica,
they say they were expelled by Ægeus from Athens and fled to Arcadia,
and supplicated Cepheus to allow them to dwell there. The town is at
the end of the plain at the foot of some not very high hills, and has
temples of Poseidon and of Cnacalesian Artemis, so called from the
mountain Cnacalus where the goddess has annual rites. A little above
the town is a well and by it a large and beautiful plane-tree, which
they call Menelaus’, for they say that when he was mustering his army
against Troy he came here and planted it by the well, and in our day
they call the well as well as the plane-tree Menelaus’. And if we may
credit the traditions of the Greeks about old trees still alive and
flourishing, the oldest is the willow in the temple of Hera at Samos,
and next it the oak at Dodona, and the olive in the Acropolis and at
Delos, and the Syrians would assign the third place for its antiquity
to their laurel, and of all others this plane-tree is the most ancient.

About a stade from Caphyæ is the place Condylea, where was a grove
and temple in olden times to Artemis of Condylea. But the goddess
changed her title they say for the following reason. Some children
playing about the temple, how many is not recorded, came across a rope,
and bound it round the neck of the statue, and said that they would
strangle Artemis. And the people of Caphyæ when they found out what
had been done by the children stoned them, and in consequence of this
a strange disorder came upon the women, who prematurely gave birth
to dead children, till the Pythian Priestess told them to bury the
children who had been stoned, and annually to bestow on them funeral
rites, for they had not been slain justly. The people of Caphyæ obeyed
the oracle and still do, and ever since call the goddess, (this they
also refer to the oracle), Apanchomene (_strangled_). When you have
ascended from Caphyæ seven stades you descend to Nasi, and fifty
stades further is the river Ladon. And when you have crossed it you
will come to the oak-coppice Soron, between Argeathæ and Lycuntes and
Scotane. Soron is on the road to Psophis, and it and all the Arcadian
oak-coppices shelter various wild animals, as boars and bears, and
immense tortoises, from which you could make lyres as large as those
made from the Indian tortoise. And at the end of Soron are the ruins of
a village called Paus, and at no great distance is what is called Siræ,
the boundary between the districts of Clitor and Psophis.



CHAPTER XXIV.


The founder of Psophis was they say Psophis the son of Arrho, (the
son of Erymanthus, the son of Aristas, the son of Parthaon, the son
of Periphetes, the son of Nyctimus): others say Psophis the daughter
of Xanthus, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Arcas. This is the
Arcadian account. But the truest tradition is that Psophis was the
daughter of Eryx, the ruler in Sicania, who would not receive her
into his house as she was pregnant, but intrusted her to Lycortas,
a friend of his who dwelt at Phegia, which was called Erymanthus
before the reign of Phegeus: and Echephron and Promachus (her sons by
Hercules) who were brought up there changed the name of Phegia into
Psophis after their mother’s name. The citadel at Zacynthus is also
named Psophis, for the first settler who sailed over to that island
was from Psophis, Zacynthus the son of Dardanus. From Siræ Psophis is
about 30 stades, and the river Aroanius, and at a little distance the
Erymanthus, flow by the town. The Erymanthus has its sources in the
mountain Lampea, which is they say sacred to Pan, and may be a part
of Mount Erymanthus. Homer has represented Erymanthus as a hunter on
Taygetus and Erymanthus, and a lover of Lampea, and as passing through
Arcadia, (leaving the mountain Pholoe on the right and Thelpusa on the
left), and becoming a tributary of the Alpheus. And it is said that
Hercules at the orders of Eurystheus hunted the boar (which exceeded
all others in size and strength), on the banks of the Erymanthus. And
the people of Cumæ in the Opic territory say that some boar’s teeth
which they have stored up in the temple of Apollo are the teeth of this
Erymanthian boar, but their tradition has little probability in it.
And the people of Psophis have a temple of Aphrodite surnamed Erycina,
which is now only in ruins, and was built (so the story goes) by the
sons of Psophis, which is not improbable. For there is in Sicily in
the country near Mount Eryx a temple of Aphrodite Erycina, most holy
from its hoary antiquity and as wealthy as the temple at Paphos. And
there are still traces of hero-chapels of Promachus and Echephron
the sons of Psophis. And at Psophis Alcmæon the son of Amphiaraus is
buried, whose tomb is neither very large nor beautified, except by some
cypress trees which grow to such a height, that the hill near is shaded
by them. These trees are considered sacred to Alcmæon so that the
people will not cut them down, and the people of the place call them
Maidens. Alcmæon came to Psophis, when he fled from Argos after slaying
his mother, and there married Alphesibœa the daughter of Phegeus,
(from whom Psophis was still called Phegia), and gave her gifts as
was usual and among others the famous necklace. And as while he dwelt
in Arcadia his madness became no better, he consulted the oracle at
Delphi, and the Pythian Priestess informed him that the Avenger of
his mother Eriphyle would follow him to every place except to a spot
which was most recent, and made by the action of the sea since he had
stained himself with his mother’s blood. And he found a place which the
Achelous had made by silting and dwelt there, and married Callirhoe the
daughter of Achelous according to the tradition of the Acarnanians,
and had by her two sons Acarnan and Amphoterus, from the former of
whom the Acarnanians on the mainland got their present name, for they
were before called Curetes. And many men and still more women come to
grief through foolish desires. Callirhoe desired that the necklace of
Eriphyle should be hers, and so she sent Alcmæon against his will into
Phegia, where his death was treacherously compassed by Temenus and
Axion, the sons of Phegeus, who are said to have offered the necklace
to Apollo at Delphi. And it was during their reign in the town then
called Phegia that the Greeks went on the expedition against Troy, in
which the people of Psophis say they took no part, because the leaders
of the Argives had an hostility with their kings, as most of them
were relations of Alcmæon and had shared in his expedition against
Thebes. And the reason why the islands called the Echinades formed by
the Achelous got separated from the mainland, was because when the
Ætolians were driven out the land became deserted, and, as Ætolia was
uncultivated, the Achelous did not deposit as much mud as usual. What
confirms my account is that the Mæander, that flowed for so many
years through the arable parts of Phrygia and Caria, in a short time
converted the sea between Priene and Miletus into mainland. The people
of Psophis also have a temple and statue on the banks of the Erymanthus
to the River-God Erymanthus. Except the Nile in Egypt all River-Gods
have statues in white stone, but the Nile, as it flows through Ethiopia
to the sea, has its statues generally made of black stone.

The tradition that I have heard at Psophis about Aglaus, a native of
the town who was a contemporary of the Lydian Crœsus, that he was happy
all his life, I cannot credit. No doubt one man will have less trouble
than another, as one ship will suffer less from tempests than another
ship: but that a man should always stand aloof from misfortune, or
that a ship should never encounter a storm, is a thing which does not
answer to human experience. Even Homer has represented one jar placed
by Zeus full of blessings, and another full of woes,[31] instructed
by the oracle at Delphi, which had informed him that he would be both
unfortunate and fortunate, as born for both fortunes.

[31] Iliad, xxiv. 527-533.



CHAPTER XXV.


On the road from Psophis to Thelpusa the first place you come to is on
the left of the river Ladon and called Tropæa, and close to it is the
oak-coppice called Aphrodisium, and thirdly you come to some ancient
writing on a pillar which forms the boundary between the territory of
Psophis and Thelpusa. In the district of Thelpusa is a river called
Arsen, after crossing which you will come about 25 stades further to
the ruins of a village called Caus, and a temple of Causian Æsculapius
built by the wayside. Thelpusa is about 40 stades from this temple, and
was called they say after the River-Nymph Thelpusa, the daughter of
Ladon. The river Ladon has its source, as I have already stated, in the
neighbourhood of Clitor, and flows first by Lucasium and Mesoboa and
Nasi to Oryx and what is called Halus, and thence to Thaliades and the
temple of Eleusinian Demeter close to Thelpusa, which has statues in it
no less than 7 feet high of Demeter, Proserpine, and Dionysus, all in
stone. And next to this temple of Eleusinian Demeter the river Ladon
flows on leaving Thelpusa on the left, which lies on a lofty ridge,
and has now few inhabitants, indeed the market-place which is now at
the end of the town was originally they say in the very centre. There
is also at Thelpusa a temple of Æsculapius, and a temple of the twelve
gods mostly in ruins. And after passing Thelpusa the Ladon flows on to
the temple of Demeter at Onceum: and the people of Thelpusa call the
goddess Erinys, as Antimachus also in his description of the expedition
of the Argives to Thebes, in the line,

 “Where they say was the seat of Demeter Erinys.”

Oncius was the son of Apollo according to tradition, and reigned in
Thelpusa at the place called Onceum. And the goddess Demeter got the
name Erinys in this way: when she was wandering about in quest of
her daughter Proserpine, Poseidon they say followed her with amatory
intentions, and she changed herself into a mare and grazed with the
other horses at Onceum, and Poseidon found out her metamorphosis and
changed himself into a horse and so got his ends, and Demeter was
furious at this outrage, but afterwards they say ceased from her anger
and bathed in the river Ladon. So the goddess got two surnames, Erinys
(_Fury_) from her furious anger, for the Arcadians call being angry
being a Fury, and Lusia from her bathing in the Ladon. The statues
in the temple are of wood, but the heads and fingers and toes are of
Parian marble. The statue of Erinys has in her left hand a cist and in
her right a torch, and is one conjectures about nine feet in height,
while the statue of Lusia seems six feet high. Let those who think
the statue is Themis, and not Demeter Lusia, know that their idea is
foolish. And they say that Demeter bare a daughter to Poseidon, (whose
name they will not reveal to the uninitiated), and the foal Arion, and
that was why Poseidon was called Hippius there first in Arcadia. And
they introduce some lines from the Iliad and Thebaid in confirmation of
this: in the Iliad the lines about Arion.

“Not if one were to drive from behind the godlike Arion, swift courser
of Adrastus, who was of the race of the Immortals.”[32] And in the
Thebaid when Adrastus fled from Thebes, “Dressed in sad-coloured
clothes with Arion dark-maned courser.”

They want to make the lines indicate in an ambiguous way that Poseidon
was the father of Arion. But Antimachus says he was the son of earth:

“Adrastus, the son of Talaus and grandson of Cretheus, was the first of
the Danai who drove a pair of much praised horses, the swift Cærus and
Thelpusian Arion, whom near the grove of Oncean Apollo the earth itself
gave birth to, a wonder for mortals to look upon.”

And though this horse sprung out of the ground it may have been of
divine origin, and its mane and colour may have been dark. For there is
a tradition that Hercules when he was warring with the people of Elis
asked Oncus for a horse, and captured Elis riding into the battle upon
Arion, and that afterwards he gave the horse to Adrastus. Antimachus
also has written about Arion, “He was broken in thirdly by king
Adrastus.”

The river Ladon next leaves in its course on its left the temple of
Erinys as also the temple of Oncean Apollo, and on its right the temple
of the Boy Æsculapius, which also contains the tomb of Trygon, who they
say was the nurse of Æsculapius. For Æsculapius as a boy was exposed at
Thelpusa, and found by Autolaus the bastard son of Arcas and brought
up by him, and that is I think the reason why a temple was erected to
the Boy Æsculapius, as I have set forth in my account of Epidaurus.
And there is a river called Tuthoa, which flows into the Ladon near
the boundary between the districts of Thelpusa and Heræa called by the
Arcadians Plain. And where the Ladon flows into the Alpheus is what
is called the Island of Crows. Some think that Enispe and Stratie and
Rhipe mentioned by Homer were islands formed by the Ladon and formerly
inhabited, but let them know the idea is a foolish one, for the Ladon
could never form islands such as a boat could pass. For though in
beauty it is second to no Greek or barbarian river, it is not wide
enough to make islands as the Ister or Eridanus.

[32] Iliad, xxiii. 346, 7.



CHAPTER XXVI.


The founder of Heræa was Heræus the son of Lycaon, and the town lies on
the right of the Alpheus, most of it on a gentle eminence, but part of
it extending to the river. Near the river are race-courses separated
from each other by myrtle trees and other planted trees, and there are
baths, and two temples of Dionysus, one called Polites, and the other
Auxites. And they have a building where they celebrate the orgies of
Dionysus. There is also at Heræa a temple of Pan, who was a native of
Arcadia. And there are some ruins of a temple of Hera, of which the
pillars still remain. And of all the Arcadian athletes Damaretus of
Heræa was the foremost, and the first who conquered at Olympia in the
race in heavy armour. And as you go from Heræa to Elis, you will cross
the Ladon about 15 stades from Heræa, and from thence to Erymanthus is
about 20 stades. And the boundary between Heræa and Elis is according
to the Arcadian account the Erymanthus, but the people of Elis say
that the boundary is the tomb of Corœbus, who was victor when Iphitus
restored the Olympian games that had been for a long time discontinued,
and offered prizes only for racing. And there is an inscription on his
tomb that he was the first victor at Olympia, and that his tomb was
erected on the borders of Elis.

There is a small town also called Aliphera, which was abandoned by
many of its inhabitants at the time the Arcadian colony was formed at
Megalopolis. To get to Aliphera from Heræa you cross the Alpheus, and
when you have gone along the plain about 10 stades you arrive at a
mountain, and about 30 stades further you will get to Aliphera over the
mountain. The town got its name from Alipherus the son of Lycaon, and
has temples of Æsculapius and Athene. The latter they worship most, and
say that she was born and reared among them; they have also built an
altar here to Zeus Lecheates, so called because he gave birth to Athene
here. And they call their fountain Tritonis, adopting as their own the
tradition about the river Triton. And there is a statue of Athene in
bronze, the work of Hypatodorus, notable both for its size and artistic
merit. They have also a public festival to one of the gods, who I think
must be Athene. In this public festival they sacrifice first of all to
Muiagrus (_Flycatcher_), and offer to him vows and call upon him, and
when they have done this they think they will no longer be troubled
by flies. And on the road from Heræa to Megalopolis is Melæneæ, which
was founded by Melæneus the son of Lycaon, but is deserted in our day,
being swamped with water. And 40 stades higher is Buphagium, where the
river Buphagus rises, which falls into the Alpheus. And the sources of
the Buphagus are the boundary between the districts of Megalopolis and
Heræa.



CHAPTER XXVII.


Megalopolis is the most recent city not only in Arcadia but in all
Greece, except those which have been filled by settlers from Rome in
the changes made by the Roman Empire. And the Arcadians crowded into
it to swell its strength, remembering that the Argives in older days
had run almost daily risk of being reduced in war by the Lacedæmonians,
but when they had made Argos strong by an influx of population then
they were able to reduce Tiryns, and Hysiæ, and Orneæ, and Mycenæ, and
Midea, and other small towns of no great importance in Argolis, and had
not only less fear of the Lacedæmonians but were stronger as regards
their neighbours generally. Such was the idea which made the Arcadians
crowd into Megalopolis. The founder of the city might justly be called
Epaminondas the Theban: for he it was that stirred up the Arcadians
to this colonization, and sent 1,000 picked Thebans, with Parmenes as
their leader, to defend the Arcadians should the Lacedæmonians attempt
to prevent the colonization. And the Arcadians chose as founders of the
colony Lycomedes and Opoleas from Mantinea, and Timon and Proxenus
from Tegea, and Cleolaus and Acriphius from Clitor, and Eucampidas
and Hieronymus from Mænalus, and Possicrates and Theoxenus from
Parrhasium. And the towns which were persuaded by the Arcadians (out
of liking for them and hatred to the Lacedæmonians) to leave their own
native places were Alea, Pallantium, Eutæa, Sumateum, Iasæa, Peræthes,
Helisson, Oresthasium, Dipæa, Lycæa, all these from Mænalus. And of
the Entresii Tricoloni, and Zœtium, and Charisia, and Ptolederma,
and Cnausus, and Parorea. And of the Ægytæ Scirtonium, and Malæa,
and Cromi, and Blenina, and Leuctrum. And of the Parrhasii Lycosura,
and Thocnia, and Trapezus, and Proses, and Acacesium, and Acontium,
and Macaria, and Dasea. And of the Cynuræans in Arcadia Gortys, and
Thisoa near Mount Lycæus, and Lycæatæ, and Aliphera. And of those which
were ranked with Orchomenus Thisoa, and Methydrium, and Teuthis, and
moreover the town called Tripolis, and Dipœna, and Nonacris. And the
rest of Arcadia fell in with the general plan, and zealously gathered
into Megalopolis. The people of Lycæatæ and Tricolonus and Lycosura
and Trapezus were the only Arcadians that changed their minds, and,
as they did not agree to leave their old cities, some of them were
forced into Megalopolis against their will, and the people of Trapezus
evacuated the Peloponnese altogether, all that is that were not killed
by the Arcadians in their fierce anger, and those that got away safe
sailed to Pontus, and were received as colonists by those who dwelt
at Trapezus on the Euxine, seeing that they came from the mother-city
and bare the same name. But the people of Lycosura though they had
refused compliance yet, as they had fled for refuge to their temple,
were spared from awe of Demeter and Proserpine. And of the other towns
which I have mentioned some are altogether without inhabitants in our
day, and others are villages under Megalopolis, as Gortys, Dipœna,
Thisoa near Orchomenus, Methydrium, Teuthis, Calliæ, and Helisson. And
Pallantium was the only town in that day that seemed to find the deity
mild. But Aliphera has continued a town from of old up to this day.

Megalopolis was colonized a year and a few months after the reverse
of the Lacedæmonians at Leuctra, when Phrasiclides was Archon at
Athens, in the second year of the 102nd Olympiad, when Damon of
Thuria was victor in the course. And the people of Megalopolis, after
being enrolled in alliance with Thebes, had nothing to fear from the
Lacedæmonians. So they thought. But when the Thebans commenced what is
called the Sacred War and the people of Phocis attacked them, who were
on the borders of Bœotia, and had plenty of money as they had seized
on the temple stores at Delphi, then the Lacedæmonians in their zeal
tried to drive out the people of Megalopolis and the other Arcadians,
but as they stoutly defended themselves, and were openly assisted by
their neighbours, nothing very remarkable happened on either side.
But the hostility between the Arcadians and the Lacedæmonians tended
to increase greatly the power of the Macedonians and Philip the son
of Amyntas, as neither at Chæronea nor again in Thessaly did the
Arcadians fight on the side of the Greeks. And no long time after
Aristodemus seized the chief power in Megalopolis. He was a Phigalian
by race and the son of Artylas, but had been adopted by Tritæus, one
of the leading men in Megalopolis. This Aristodemus, in spite of his
seizing the chief power, was yet called Good man and True. For when he
was in power the Lacedæmonians marched with an army into the district
of Megalopolis under Acrotatus, the eldest of the sons of their king
Cleomenes--I have already given his genealogy and that of all the
kings of Sparta--and in a fierce battle that ensued, in which many
were slain on both sides, the men of Megalopolis were victorious, and
among the Spartans who fell was Acrotatus, who thus lost his chance of
succession. And two generations after the death of Aristodemus Lydiades
seized the chief power: he was of no obscure family, and by nature very
ambitious, (as he showed himself afterwards), and yet a patriot. For he
was very young when he had the chief power, and when he came to years
of discretion he voluntarily abdicated his power, though it was quite
firmly established. And, when the people of Megalopolis joined the
Achæan League, Lydiades was held in such high honour, both by his own
city and by all the Achæans, that his fame was equal to that of Aratus.
And again the Lacedæmonians in full force under the king of the other
family, Agis the son of Eudamidas, marched against Megalopolis, with a
larger and better-equipped army than that which Acrotatus had gathered
together, and defeated the people of Megalopolis who came out to meet
them, and bringing a mighty battering-ram against the walls gave the
tower a strong shake, and the next day hoped to batter it down all
together. But the North Wind was it seems destined to be a benefactor
to all the Greeks, for it shattered most of the Persian ships at the
rocks called Sepiades,[33] and the same Wind prevented the capture of
Megalopolis, for it broke in pieces Agis’ battering-ram by a strong
continuous and irresistible blast. This Agis, whom the North Wind thus
prevented taking Megalopolis, is the same who was driven out of Pellene
in Achaia by the Sicyonians under Aratus[34] and who afterwards died
at Mantinea. And no long time afterwards Cleomenes the son of Leonidas
took Megalopolis in time of peace. And some of the inhabitants bravely
defending their city in the night were driven out, and Lydiades fell in
the action fighting in a manner worthy of his renown: and Philopœmen
the son of Craugis saved about two-thirds of the lads and grown
men, and fled with the women to Messenia. And Cleomenes slew all he
captured, and rased the city to the ground, and burnt it with fire. How
the people of Megalopolis recovered their city, and what they did after
their restoration to it, I shall narrate when I come to Philopœmen. And
the Lacedæmonian nation had no share in the sufferings of the people of
Megalopolis, for Cleomenes had changed the constitution from a kingdom
to an autocracy.

As I have before said, the boundary between the districts of
Megalopolis and Heræa is the source of the river Buphagus, named they
say after the hero Buphagus, the son of Iapetus and Thornax. There is
also a Thornax in Laconia. And they have a tradition that Artemis slew
Buphagus with an arrow at the mountain Pholoe because he attempted her
chastity.

[33] See Herodotus vii. 188, 189.

[34] See Book vii. ch. 7.



CHAPTER XXVIII.


And as you go from the sources of the Buphagus you will first come to
a place called Maratha, and next to Gortys, a village in our day but
formerly a town. There is there a temple of Æsculapius in Pentelican
marble, his statue has no beard, there is also a statue of Hygiea, both
statues are by Scopas. And the people of the place say that Alexander
the son of Philip offered his breastplate and spear to Æsculapius, in
my day the breastplate was still to be seen and the tip of the spear.

Gortys has a river called Lusius flowing by it, so called in the
neighbourhood from the tradition of Zeus being washed there after his
birth. But those who live at some distance call the river Gortynius
from the name of the village Gortys. This Gortynius is one of the
coldest of streams. The Ister, the Rhine, the Hypanis, the Borysthenes,
and other rivers that are congealed in winter, one might rightly call
in my opinion winter rivers: for they flow through country mostly lying
in snow, and the air in their neighbourhood is generally frosty. But
those rivers which flow in a temperate climate, and refresh men in
summer both in drinking and bathing, and in winter are not unpleasant,
these are the rivers which I should say furnish cold water. Cold is the
water of Cydnus that flows through the district of Tarsus, cold is the
water of Melas by Side in Pamphylia: while the coldness of the river
Ales near Colophon has been celebrated by elegiac poets. But Gortynius
is colder still especially in summer. It has its sources at Thisoa on
the borders of Methydrium, the place where it joins the Alpheus they
call Rhæteæ.

Near the district of Thisoa is a village called Teuthis, formerly a
town. In the war against Ilium it furnished a leader whose name was
Teuthis, or according to others Ornytus. But when the winds were
unfavourable to the Greeks at Aulis, and a contrary wind detained them
there some time, Teuthis had some quarrel with Agamemnon, and was going
to march back with his detachment of Arcadians. Then they say Athene
in the semblance of Melas the son of Ops tried to divert Teuthis from
his homeward march. But he in his boiling rage ran his spear into the
goddess’ thigh, and marched his army back from Aulis. And when he got
back home he thought the goddess shewed him her wounded thigh. And
from that time a wasting disease seized on Teuthis, and that was the
only part of Arcadia where the land produced no fruit. And some time
after several oracular responses were given from Dodona, shewing them
how to propitiate the goddess, and they made a statue of Athene with a
wound in her thigh. I have seen this statue with the thigh bound with
a purple bandage. In Teuthis there are also temples of Aphrodite and
Artemis. So much for Teuthis.

On the road from Gortys to Megalopolis is erected a monument to those
who fell in the battle against Cleomenes. This monument the people of
Megalopolis call the Treaty Violation, because Cleomenes violated the
treaty. Near this monument is a plain 60 stades in extent, and on the
right are the ruins of the town of Brenthe, and the river Brentheates
flows from thence, and joins the Alpheus about 5 stades further.



CHAPTER XXIX.


After crossing the Alpheus you come to the district of Trapezus, and
the ruins of the town of Trapezus, and again as you turn to the Alpheus
on the left from Trapezus is a place not far from the river called
Bathos, where every third year they have rites to the Great Goddesses.
And there is a spring there called Olympias, which flows only every
other year, and near it fire comes out of the ground. And the Arcadians
say that the fabled battle between the giants and the gods took place
here, and not at Pallene in Thrace, and they sacrifice here to thunder
and lightning and storms. In the Iliad Homer has not mentioned the
Giants, but in the Odyssey[35] he has stated that the Læstrygones who
attacked the ships of Odysseus were like giants and not men, he has
also represented the king of the Phæacians saying that the Phæacians
are near the gods as the Cyclopes and the race of giants.[36] But in
the following lines he shews very clearly that the giants are mortal
and not a divine race:

    “Who ruled once o’er the overweening Giants:
    But that proud race destroyed, and died himself.”[37]

The word used for race (λαὸς) here in Homer means a good many.
The fable that the giants had dragons instead of feet is shewn both
here and elsewhere to be merely a fable. Orontes a river in Syria,
(which does not flow to the sea throughout through a level plain, but
pours down along precipitous rocks), the Roman Emperor wanted to make
navigable for ships from the sea as far as Antioch. So with great
labour and expenditure of money he dug a canal fit for this purpose,
and diverted the river into it. And when the old channel was dry, an
earthenware coffin was discovered in it more than 11 cubits in length,
and that was the size of the corpse in it which was a perfect man. This
corpse the god in Clarus, when some Syrians consulted the oracle, said
was Orontes of Indian race. And if the earth which was originally moist
and damp first produced mortals by the warmth of the sun, what part of
the world is likely to have produced mortals either earlier or bigger
than India, which even up to our day produces beasts excelling ours
both in strange appearance and in size?

And about 10 stades from the place called Bathos is Basilis, whose
founder was Cypselus, who married his daughter to Cresphontes the son
of Aristomachus. Basilis is now in ruins, and there are remains of
a temple to Eleusinian Demeter. As you go on from thence and cross
the Alpheus again you will come to Thocnia, which gets its name from
Thocnus the son of Lycaon, and is quite deserted in our day. Thocnus is
said to have built his town on the hill. And the river Aminius flows
past this hill and falls into the Helisson, and at no great distance
the Helisson flows into the Alpheus.

[35] Odyssey, x. 119, 120.

[36] Odyssey, vii. 205, 206.

[37] Id. vii. 59, 60.



CHAPTER XXX.


The river Helisson rises in a village of the same name, and flows
through the districts of Dipæa and Lycæatæ and Megalopolis, and falls
into the Alpheus about 30 stades from Megalopolis. And near the city is
a temple of Watching Poseidon, the head of the statue is all that now
remains.

The river Helisson divides Megalopolis into two parts, as Cnidos and
Mitylene are divided by their channels, and the market-place is built
in a northerly direction, on the right of the river’s course. There are
precincts and a stone temple to Lycæan Zeus. But there is no approach
to it, for the inside is visible, there are altars to the god and two
tables and as many eagles. And there is a stone statue of Pan, surnamed
Œnois from the Nymph Œnoe, who used to be with the other Nymphs, and
was privately Pan’s nurse. And in front of the sacred precincts is
a brazen statue of Apollo, very fine, about 12 feet high, it was a
contribution from Phigalia towards the beautifying of Megalopolis. And
the place where the statue was originally put by the people of Phigalia
was called Bassæ. Epicurius, the title of the god, accompanied the
statue from Phigalia, the origin of that title I shall explain when I
come to Phigalia. And on the right of the statue of Apollo is a small
statue of the Mother of the Gods, but no remains of the temple except
the pillars. In front of the temple is no statue of the Mother, but
the bases on which statues are put are visible. And an elegiac couplet
on one of the bases says that the effigy there was Diophanes the son
of Diæus, who first ranged all the Peloponnese into what is called the
Achæan League. And the portico in the market-place called Philip’s was
not erected by Philip the son of Amyntas, but the people of Megalopolis
to gratify him named it after him. And a temple was built close to it
to Hermes Acacesius, of which nothing now remains but a stone tortoise.
And near Philip’s portico is another not so large, which contains six
public offices for the magistrates of Megalopolis: in one of them is a
statue of Ephesian Artemis, and in another a brazen Pan a cubit high
surnamed Scolitas. Pan got this title from the hill Scolitas, which is
inside the walls, and from which water flows into the Helisson from a
spring. And behind these public offices is a temple of Fortune, and a
stone statue five feet high. And the portico which they call Myropolis
is in the market-place, it was built out of the spoils taken from the
Lacedæmonians under Acrotatus the son of Cleomenes, who were defeated
fighting against Aristodemus, who at that time had the chief power in
Megalopolis. And in the market-place behind the precincts sacred to
Lycæan Zeus is the statue on a pillar of Polybius the son of Lycortas.
Some elegiac verses are inscribed stating that he travelled over every
land and sea, and was an ally of the Romans and appeased their wrath
against Greece. This was the Polybius that wrote the history of Rome,
and the origin and history of the Carthaginian war, and how at last
not without a mighty struggle Scipio, whom they called Africanus, put
an end to the war and rased Carthage to the ground. And when the Roman
General followed the advice that Polybius gave, things went well, when
he did not he met they say with misfortune. And all the Greek cities
that joined the Achæan League got the Romans to allow Polybius to fix
their constitution and frame their laws. And the council chamber is on
the left of Polybius’ statue.

And the portico in the market-place called Aristandreum was they say
built by Aristander, one of the citizens. Very near this portico
towards the east is the temple of Zeus Soter, adorned with pillars all
round. Zeus is represented seated on his throne, and by him stands
Megalopolis, and on the left is a statue of Artemis Preserver. All
these are in Pentelican marble, and were carved by the Athenians
Cephisodotus and Xenophon.



CHAPTER XXXI.


And the west end of the portico has precincts sacred to the Great
Goddesses. They are Demeter and Proserpine, as I have already set forth
in my account of Messenia, and Proserpine is called by the Arcadians
Preserver. And on figures in relief at the entrance are Artemis,
Æsculapius, and Hygiea. And of the Great Goddesses Demeter is in stone
throughout, Proserpine has the parts under her dress of wood, the
height of both statues is about 15 feet. The statues in front of 2
moderate-sized maidens, in tunics that come down to their ankles, are
they say the daughters of Damophon, each of them has a basket on her
head full of flowers. But those who think they are divinities take
them to be Athene and Artemis gathering flowers with Proserpine. There
is also a Hercules by Demeter about a cubit high, Onomacritus in his
verses says that this Hercules was one of the Idæan Dactyli. There is a
table in front of him, and on it are carved two Seasons, and Pan with
his reed-pipe, and Apollo with his lyre. There is also an inscription
stating that they were among the earliest gods. On the table are also
carved the following Nymphs, Neda carrying Zeus while still a baby, and
Anthracia one of the Arcadian Nymphs with a torch, and Hagno with a
water-pot in one hand and in the other a bowl, Archirhoe and Myrtoessa
also are carrying water-pots and water is trickling from them. And
inside the precincts is the temple of Friendly Zeus, the statue is like
Dionysus and is by the Argive Polycletus. The god has buskins on, and
a cup in one hand, and in the other a thyrsus, and an eagle perched
on the thyrsus. This last is the only thing which does not harmonize
with the legendary Dionysus. And behind this temple is a small grove of
trees surrounded by a wall, into which men may not enter. And before
it are statues of Demeter and Proserpine about 3 feet high. And inside
the precincts is a temple of the Great Goddesses and of Aphrodite.
Before the entrance are some old wooden statues of Hera and Apollo and
the Muses, brought they say from Trapezus. The statues in the temple
were made by Damophon, Hermes’ in wood, and Aphrodite’s in wood, except
her hands and head and toes, which are of stone. And they surname the
Goddess Inventive, most properly in my opinion, for most inventions
come from Aphrodite whether in word or deed. There are also in a room
some statues of Callignotus and Mentas and Sosigenes and Polus, who
are said to have first instituted at Megalopolis the worship of the
Great Goddesses, which is an imitation of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
And within the precincts are square figures of several gods, as Hermes
surnamed Agetor, and Apollo, and Athene, and Poseidon, and the Sun
surnamed Soter, and Hercules. A large temple has been built to them, in
which are celebrated the rites of the Great Goddesses.

And on the right of the temple of the Great Goddesses is the temple
of Proserpine; her statue is of stone about 8 feet high, and there
are fillets on the base throughout. Into this temple women have at
all times right of entrance, but men only once a year. And there is a
gymnasium in the market-place built facing west. And behind the portico
which they call after Macedonian Philip are two hills not very high;
and on one are ruins of a temple of Athene Polias, and on the other
ruins of a temple of full-grown Hera. Under this hill the spring called
Bathyllus swells the stream of the river Helisson. Such are the things
worthy of mention here.



CHAPTER XXXII.


The part of the city on the other side of the river faces south, and
has one of the most remarkable theatres in Greece, and in it is a
perennial spring. And not far from the theatre are the foundations of a
council-chamber, which was built for 10,000 Arcadians, and called from
its builder Thersilium. And next is a house which in my time belonged
to a private man, but was originally built for Alexander the son of
Philip. And there is a statue of Ammon near it, like the square Hermæ,
with ram’s horns on its head. And there is a temple built in common
for the Muses and Apollo and Hermes, of which a few foundations only
remain. There are also statues of one of the Muses, and of Apollo,
like the square Hermæ. There are also ruins of a temple of Aphrodite,
of which nothing remains but the vestibule and three statues of the
goddess, one called the Celestial, the second the Common, the third
has no title. And at no great distance is an altar of Ares, who had
also it is said a temple there originally. There is also a racecourse
beyond the temple of Aphrodite, in one direction extending towards the
theatre, (and there is a spring of water there which they hold sacred
to Dionysus,) and in another part of it there was said to be a temple
of Dionysus, struck with lightning by the god two generations before
my time, and there are still a few vestiges of it. But a joint-temple
to Hercules and Hermes is no longer in existence, except the Altar.
And in this direction there is a hill towards the east, and on it a
temple of the Huntress Artemis, the votive offering of Aristodemus,
and on the right are precincts sacred to the Huntress Artemis. Here
too are a temple and statues of Æsculapius and Hygiea, and as you
descend a little there are gods in a square shape called Workers, as
Athene Ergane and Apollo Agyieus. And Hermes, Hercules, and Ilithyia,
have special fame from Homer, for Hermes is the messenger of Zeus and
conveys the souls of the departed to Hades, and Hercules is famous for
the accomplishment of his many Labours, and Ilithyia is represented in
the Iliad as presiding over childbirth. There is also another temple
under this hill, of Æsculapius as a Boy, the statue of the god is erect
and about a cubit in height, and there is also an Apollo seated on a
throne about six feet high. There are here also stored up some bones
too large to belong to a man, they are said to have belonged to one of
the giants, whom Hopladamus called in to aid Rhea, the circumstances
I shall narrate later on. And near this temple is a well, which
contributes its water to the Helisson.



CHAPTER XXXIII.


That Megalopolis, peopled with such zeal on the part of all the
Arcadians and with the best wishes from all Greece, has lost all its
ancient prestige and felicity and is in our day mostly ruins, I nothing
marvel at, knowing that the deity ever likes to introduce changes, and
that fortune in like manner changes things strong and weak, present
and past, reducing with a high hand everything in subjection to her.
Witness Mycenæ, which in the days of the war against Ilium was the
leading power in Greece, and Nineveh the seat of the Assyrian empire,
and Thebes in Bœotia, which was once reckoned worthy to be at the
head of Greece: the two former are in ruins and without inhabitants,
while the name of Thebes has come down to a citadel only and a few
inhabitants. And of the cities which were excessively wealthy of old,
as Thebes in Egypt, and Orchomenus belonging to the Minyæ, and Delos
the emporium of all Greece, the two former are hardly as wealthy as a
man moderately well off, while Delos is actually without a population
at all, if you do not reckon the Athenians who come to guard the
temple. And of Babylon nothing remains but the temple of Bel and the
walls, though it was the greatest city once that the sun shone upon, as
nothing but its walls remain to Tiryns in Argolis. All these the deity
has reduced to nothing. Whereas Alexandria in Egypt and Seleucia on
the Orontes, that were built only yesterday, have attained to such a
size and felicity, that fortune seems to lavish her favours upon them.
Fortune also exhibits her power more mightily and wonderfully than in
the good or bad fortune of cities in the following cases. No long sail
from Lemnos is the island Chryse, in which they say Philoctetes met
with his bite from the watersnake. This island was entirely submerged
by the waves, so that it went to the bottom of the sea. And another
island called Hiera, which did not then exist, has been formed by the
action of the sea. So fleeting and unstable are human affairs!



CHAPTER XXXIV.


As you go from Megalopolis to Messene, you will come in about 7 stades
to a temple of some goddesses on the left of the high road. They
call both goddesses and place Maniæ, which is I fancy a title of the
Eumenides, for they say Orestes was driven mad here after the murder
of his mother. And not far from the temple is a small mound, with a
stone finger upon it, the mound is called Finger’s tomb, because here
they say Orestes in his madness gnawed off one of his fingers. And
there is another place contiguous called Ace, because there Orestes
was healed of his madness: there too is a temple to the Eumenides.
These goddesses, they say, when they wanted to drive Orestes mad,
appeared black to him, and when he had gnawed off his finger then they
appeared white, and this sight made him sane, and he turned away their
wrath by offering to them expiations, and he sacrificed to these white
goddesses; they usually sacrifice to them and the Graces together. And
near the place Ace is a temple called Shearing-place, because Orestes
cut off his hair inside it. And the Antiquarians of the Peloponnese say
that this pursuit of Orestes by the Furies of his mother Clytæmnestra
happened prior to the trial before the Areopagus, when his accuser was
not Tyndareus, for he was no longer alive, but Perilaus the cousin of
Clytæmnestra, who asked for vengeance for the murder of his kinswoman.
Perilaus was the son of Icarius, who afterwards had daughters born to
him.

From Maniæ to the Alpheus is about 15 stades, to the place where the
river Gatheatas flows into the Alpheus, as earlier still the river
Carnion falls into the Gatheatas. The sources of the Carnion are at
Ægytis below the temple of Apollo Cereates; and the Gatheatas has its
rise at Gatheæ in the Cromitic district, which is about 40 stades
from the Alpheus, and in it the ruins can still be traced of the
town of Cromi. From Cromi it is about 20 stades to Nymphas, which
is well watered and full of trees. And from Nymphas it is about 20
stades to Hermæum, the boundary between the districts of Messenia and
Megalopolis, where there is a Hermes on a pillar.



CHAPTER XXXV.


This road leads to Messene, but another leads from Megalopolis to
Carnasium in Messenia, where the Alpheus has its rise, at the place
where the Malus and the Scyrus mingle their waters with it in one
stream. If you keep the Malus on the right for about thirty stades and
then cross it, you will mount on higher ground till you come to the
place called Phædria, which is about 15 stades from the village called
Hermæum, near the temple of Despœna. Hermæum is the boundary between
the districts of Messenia and Megalopolis, and there are statues not
very large of Despœna and Demeter, Hermes and Hercules: and I think the
wooden statue of Hercules made by Dædalus on the borders of Messenia
and Arcadia once stood here.

The road to Lacedæmon from Megalopolis is 30 stades to the Alpheus, and
then along the riverside till you come to one of its tributaries the
Thius, which you leave on the left and arrive at Phalæsiæ, about 40
stades from the Alpheus. Phalæsiæ is about 20 stades from the temple of
Hermes at Belemina. The Arcadians say that Belemina originally belonged
to them, and that the Lacedæmonians robbed them of it. But their
account is not probable on other grounds, nor is at all likely that
the Thebans would have allowed the Arcadians to be stripped of their
territory in this quarter, could they with justice have righted them.

From Megalopolis are also roads to the interior of Arcadia, as to
Methydrium 170 stades from Megalopolis, and 13 stades further to the
place called Scias, where are ruins of a temple to Sciadian Artemis,
erected tradition says by Aristodemus the tyrant. And 10 stades
further there are the ruins of a place called Charisiæ, and another
10 stades further is Tricoloni, which was formerly a town; and there
is still on the hill a temple and square statue of Poseidon, and a
grove of trees round the temple. Tricoloni was founded by the sons of
Lycaon, and Zœtia about 15 stades from Tricoloni, (not in a direct
line but a little to the left); was founded they say by Zœteus the
son of Tricolonus. And Paroreus, the younger son of Tricolonus,
founded Paroria, which is about 10 stades from Zœtia. Both are without
inhabitants now, but at Zœtia there are temples of Demeter and Artemis.
And there are other towns in ruins, as Thyræum 15 stades from Paroria,
and Hypsus on a hill of the same name above the plain. Between Thyræum
and Hypsus all the country is hilly and abounds with wild beasts. I
have previously shewn that Thyræus and Hypsus were sons of Lycaon.

On the right of Tricoloni is a steep road to a spring called Wells,
as you descend about 30 stades you come to the tomb of Callisto, a
high mound of earth, with many trees growing wild, and some planted.
And on the top of this mound is a temple of Artemis called The Most
Beautiful, and I think when Pamphus in his verses called Artemis The
Most Beautiful he first learnt this epithet from the Arcadians. And
twenty-five stades further, 100 from Tricolonus in the direction of the
Helisson, on the high road to Methydrium, (which is the only town left
to Tricoloni), is a place called Anemosa and the mountain Phalanthum,
on which are ruins of a town of the same name, founded they say by
Phalanthus, the son of Agelaus, and grandson of Stymphelus. Above it
is a plain called Polus, and next to it is Schœnus, so called from the
Bœotian Schœneus. And if Schœneus was a stranger in Arcadia, Atalanta’s
Course near Schœnus may have taken its name from his daughter. And next
is a place called I think * * *, and all agree that this is Arcadian
soil.



CHAPTER XXXVI.


Nothing now remains to be mentioned but Methydrium, which is 137 stades
from Tricoloni. It was called Methydrium, because the high hill on
which Orchomenus built the town was between the rivers Malœtas and
Mylaon, and, before it was included in Megalopolis, inhabitants of
Methydrium were victors at Olympia. There is at Methydrium a temple
of Poseidon Hippius near the river Mylaon. And the mountain called
Thaumasium lies above the river Malœtas, and the people of Methydrium
wish it to be believed that Rhea when she was pregnant with Zeus came
to this mountain, and got the protection of Hoplodamus and the other
Giants with him, in case Cronos should attack her. They admit that
Rhea bore Zeus on part of Mt Lycæeus, but they say that the cheating
of Cronos and the offering him a stone instead of the child, (a legend
universal amongst the Greeks), took place here. And on the top of the
mountain is Rhea’s Cave, and into it only women sacred to the goddess
may enter, nobody else.

About 30 stades from Methydrium is the well Nymphasia, and about
30 stades from Nymphasia is the joint boundary for the districts of
Megalopolis Orchomenus and Caphya.

From Megalopolis, through what are called the gates to the marsh, is a
way to Mænalus by the river Helisson. And on the left of the road is a
temple of the Good God. And if the gods are the givers of good things
to mortals, and Zeus is the chief of the gods, one would follow the
tradition and conjecture that this is a title of Zeus. A little further
is a mound of earth, the tomb of Aristodemus, who though a tyrant
was not robbed of the title of Good, and a temple of Athene called
Inventive, because she is a goddess who invents various contrivances.
And on the right of the road is an enclosure sacred to the North Wind,
to whom the people of Megalopolis sacrifice annually, and they hold no
god in higher honour than Boreas, as he was their preserver from Agis
and the Lacedæmonians.[38] And next is the tomb of Œcles the father
of Amphiaraus, if indeed death seized him in Arcadia, and not when he
was associated with Hercules in the expedition against Laomedon. Next
to it is a temple and grove of Demeter called Demeter of the Marsh,
five stades from the city, into which none but women may enter. And
thirty stades further is the place called Paliscius. About 20 stades
from Paliscius, leaving on the left the river Elaphus which is only a
winter torrent, are the ruins of Peræthes and a temple of Pan. And if
you cross the winter-torrent, about 15 stades from the river is a plain
called Mænalium, and after having traversed this you come to a mountain
of the same name. At the bottom of this mountain are traces of the
town of Lycoa, and a temple and brazen statue of Artemis of Lycoa. And
in the southern part of the mountain is the town of Sumetia. In this
mountain are also the so-called Three Roads, whence the Mantineans,
according to the bidding of the oracle at Delphi, removed the remains
of Arcas the son of Callisto. There are also ruins of Mænalus, and
traces of a temple of Athene, and a course for athletical contests,
and another for horseraces. And the mountain Mænalium they consider
sacred to Pan, insomuch that those who live near it say that they hear
Pan making music with his pipes. Between the temple of Despœna and
Megalopolis it is 40 stades, half of the road by the Alpheus, and when
you have crossed it about 2 stades further are the ruins of Macaria,
and seven stades further are the ruins of Dasea, and it is as many more
from Dasea to the hill of Acacesius. Underneath this hill is the town
of Acacesium, and there is a statue of Hermes (made of the stone of the
hill) on the hill to this day, and they say Hermes was brought up there
as a boy, and there is a tradition among the Arcadians that Acacus the
son of Lycaon was his nurse. The Thebans have a different legend, and
the people of Tanagra again have a different one to the Theban one.

[38] See ch. 27.



CHAPTER XXXVII.


From Acacesium it is four stades to the temple of Despœna. There was
first there a temple of Artemis the Leader, and a brazen statue of the
goddess with torches, about 6 feet high I conjecture. From thence there
is an entrance to the sacred enclosure of Despœna. As you approach the
temple there is a portico on the right, and on the wall figures in
white stone, the Fates and Zeus as Master of the Fates, and Hercules
robbing Apollo of his tripod. All that I could discover about them I
will relate, when in my account of Phocis I come to Delphi. And in
the portico near the temple of Despœna, between the figures I have
mentioned, is a tablet painted with representations of the mysteries.
On a third figure are some Nymphs and Pans, and on a fourth Polybius
the son of Lycortas. And the inscription on him is that Greece would
not have been ruined at all had it taken his advice in all things, and
when it made mistakes he alone could have retrieved them. And in front
of the temple is an altar to Demeter and another to Despœna, and next
one to the Great Mother. And the statues of the Goddesses Despœna and
Demeter, and the throne on which they sit, and the footstool under
their feet, are all of one piece of stone: and neither about the dress
nor on the throne is any portion of another stone dove-tailed in, but
everything is one block of stone. This stone was not fetched from a
distance, they say, but, in consequence of a vision in a dream, found
and dug up in the temple precincts. And the size of each of the statues
is about the size of the statue at Athens of the Mother. They are by
Damophon. Demeter has a torch in her right hand, and has laid her left
hand upon Despœna: and Despœna has her sceptre, and on her knees what
is called a cist, which she has her right hand upon. And on one side of
the throne stands Artemis by Demeter, clad in the skin of a deer and
with her quiver on her shoulders, in one hand she holds a lamp, and in
the other two dragons. And at her feet lies a dog, such as are used
for hunting. And on the other side of the throne near Despœna stands
Anytus in armour: they say Despœna was brought up near the temple
by him. He was one of the Titans. Homer first introduced the Titans
into poetry, as gods in what is called Tartarus, in the lines about
the oath of Hera.[39] And Onomacritus borrowed the name of the Titans
from Homer when he wrote his poem about the orgies of Dionysus, and
represented the Titans as contributing to the sufferings of Dionysus.
Such is the Arcadian tradition about Anytus. It was Æschylus the son
of Euphorion that taught the Greeks the Egyptian legend, that Artemis
was the daughter of Demeter and not of Leto. As to the Curetes, for
they too are carved under the statues, and the Corybantes, a different
race from the Curetes who are carved on the base, though I know all
about them I purposely pass it by. And the Arcadians bring into the
temple all wood except that of the pomegranate. On the right hand as
you go out of the temple is a mirror fixed to the wall: if any one
looks into this mirror, he will see himself very obscurely or not at
all, but the statues of the goddesses and the throne he will see quite
clearly. And by the temple of Despœna as you ascend a little to the
right is the Hall, where the Arcadians perform her Mystic rites, and
sacrifice to her victims in abundance. Each sacrifices what animal
he has got: nor do they cut the throats of the victims as in other
sacrifices, but each cuts off whatever limb of the victim he lights on.
The Arcadians worship Despœna more than any of the gods, and say that
she was the daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Her general appellation
is Despœna, a name they also give to the Daughter of Zeus and Demeter,
but her private name is Persephone, as Homer[40] and still earlier
Pamphus have given it, but that name of Despœna I feared to write down
for the uninitiated. And beyond the Hall is a grove sacred to Despœna
surrounded by a stone wall: in the grove are several kinds of trees, as
olives and oak from one root, which is something above the gardener’s
art. And beyond the grove are altars of Poseidon Hippius as the father
of Despœna, and of several other of the gods. And the inscription on
the last altar is that it is common to all the gods.

From thence you ascend by a staircase to the temple of Pan, which has a
portico and a not very large statue. To Pan as to all the most powerful
gods belongs the property of answering prayer and of punishing the
wicked. In his temple a never ceasing fire burns. It is said that in
ancient times Pan gave oracular responses, and that his interpreter was
the Nymph Erato, who married Arcas the son of Callisto. They also quote
some of Erato’s lines, which I have myself perused. There too is an
altar to Ares, and two statues of Aphrodite in a temple, one of white
marble, the more ancient one of wood. There are also wooden statues of
Apollo and Athene, Athene has also a temple.

[39] Iliad, xiv. 277-279.

[40] _e.g._ Odyssey, x. 491, 494, 509.



CHAPTER XXXVIII.


And a little higher up is the circuit of the walls of Lycosura, which
contains a few inhabitants. It is the oldest of the towns of the earth
either on the mainland or in islands, and the first the sun saw, and
all mankind made it their model for building towns.

And on the left of the temple of Despœna is Mount Lycæus, which some
of the Arcadians call Olympus and others the Sacred Hill. They say
Zeus was reared on this mountain: and there is a spot on it called
Cretea on the left of the grove of Parrhasian Apollo, and the Arcadians
maintain that this was the Crete where Zeus was reared, and not the
island of Crete as the Cretans hold. And the names of the Nymphs, by
whom they say Zeus was brought up, were (they say) Thisoa and Neda and
Hagno. Thisoa gave her name to a town in Parrhasia, and in my time
there is a village called Thisoa in the district of Megalopolis, and
Neda gave her name to the river Neda, and Hagno gave her name to the
spring on Mount Lycæus, which like the river Ister has generally as
much water in summer as in winter. But should a drought prevail for any
length of time, so as to be injurious to the fruits of the earth and to
trees, then the priest of Lycæan Zeus prays to the water and performs
the wonted sacrifice, and lowers a branch of oak into the spring just
on the surface, and when the water is stirred up a steam rises like
a mist, and after a little interval the mist becomes a cloud, and
collecting other clouds soon causes rain to fall upon Arcadia. There
is also on Mount Lycæus a temple of Pan and round it a grove of trees,
and a Hippodrome in front of it, where in old times they celebrated the
Lycæan games. There are also here the bases of some statues, though the
statues are no longer there: and an elegiac couplet on one of the bases
says it is the statue of Astyanax who was an Arcadian.

Mount Lycæus among other remarkable things has the following. There
is an enclosure sacred to Lycæan Zeus into which men may not enter,
and if any one violates this law he will not live more than a year. It
is also still stated that inside this enclosure men and beasts alike
have no shadow, and therefore when any beast flees into this enclosure
the hunter cannot follow it up, but remaining outside and looking at
the beast sees no shadow falling from it. As long indeed as the Sun
is in Cancer there is no shadow from trees or living things at Syene
in Ethiopia, but this sacred enclosure on Mount Lycæus is the same in
reference to shadows during every period of the year.

There is on the highest ridge of the mountain a mound of earth, the
altar of Lycæan Zeus, from which most of the Peloponnese is visible:
and in front of this altar there are two pillars facing east, and
some golden eagles upon them of very ancient date. On this altar they
sacrifice to Lycæan Zeus secretly: it would not be agreeable to me to
pry too curiously into the rites, let them be as they are and always
have been.

On the eastern part of the mountain is a temple of Parrhasian Apollo,
also called Pythian Apollo. During the annual festival of the god they
sacrifice in the market-place a boar to Apollo the Helper, and after
the sacrifice they convey the victim to the temple of Parrhasian Apollo
with fluteplaying and solemn procession, and cut off the thighs and
burn them, and consume the flesh of the victim on the spot. Such is
their annual custom.

And on the north side of Mount Lycæus is the district of Thisoa: the
men who live here hold the Nymph Thisoa in highest honour. Through this
district several streams flow that fall into the Alpheus, as Mylaon and
Nus and Achelous and Celadus and Naliphus. There are two other rivers
of the same name but far greater fame than this Achelous in Arcadia,
one that flows through Acarnania and Ætolia till it reaches the islands
of the Echinades, which Homer has called in the Iliad the king of all
rivers,[41] the other the Achelous flowing from Mount Sipylus, which
river and mountain he has associated with the legend of Niobe.[42] The
third Achelous is this one on Mount Lycæus.

To the right of Lycosura are the hills called Nomia, on which is a
temple of Pan Nomius on a spot called Melpea, so called they say from
the piping of Pan there. The simplest explanation why the hills were
called Nomia is that Pan had his pastures there, but the Arcadians say
they were called after a Nymph of that name.



CHAPTER XXXIX.


Past Lycosura in a westerly direction flows the river Plataniston,
which everyone must cross who is going to Phigalia, after which an
ascent of 30 stades or a little more takes you to that town. How
Phigalus was the son of Lycaon, and how he was the original founder of
the town, and how in process of time the name of the town got changed
into Phialia from Phialus the son of Bucolion, and afterwards got back
its old name, all this I have entered into already. There are other
traditions not worthy of credit, as that Phigalus was an Autochthon
and not the son of Lycaon, and some say that Phigalia was one of the
Nymphs called Dryads. When the Lacedæmonians attacked Arcadia and
invaded Phigalia, they defeated the inhabitants in a battle and laid
siege to the town, and as the town was nearly taken by storm the
Phigalians evacuated it, or the Lacedæmonians allowed them to leave it
upon conditions of war. And the capture of Phigalia and the flight of
the Phigalians from it took place when Miltiades was chief magistrate
at Athens, in the 2nd year of the 30th Olympiad, in which Chionis
the Laconian was victor for the third time. And it seemed good to
those Phigalians who had escaped to go to Delphi, and inquire of the
god as to their return. And the Pythian Priestess told them that if
they tried by themselves to return to Phigalia she foresaw no hope of
their return, but if they took a hundred picked men from Oresthasium,
and they were slain in battle, the Phigalians would get their return
through them. And when the people of Oresthasium heard of the oracular
message given to the Phigalians, they vied with one another in zeal who
should be one of the 100 picked men, and participate in the expedition
to Phigalia. And they engaged with the Lacedæmonian garrison and
fulfilled the oracle completely: for they all died fighting bravely,
and drove out the Spartans, and put it in the power of the Phigalians
to recover their native town. Phigalia lies on a hill which is mostly
precipitous, and its walls are built on the rocks, but as you go up to
the town there is a gentle and easy ascent. And there is a temple of
Artemis the Preserver, and her statue in stone in an erect position.
From this temple they usually conduct the processions. And in the
gymnasium there is a statue of Hermes with a cloak on, which does not
cease at his feet but covers the whole square figure. There is also a
temple of Dionysus called Acratophorus by the people of the place, the
lower parts of the statue are not visible being covered by leaves of
laurel and ivy. And all the statue that can be seen is coloured with
vermilion so as to look very gay. The Iberes find this vermilion with
their gold.

[41] Iliad, xxi. 194-197.

[42] Iliad, xxiv. 615-617.



CHAPTER XL.


The people of Phigalia have also in their market-place the statue of
Arrhachion the pancratiast, an antique one in all other respects and
not least so in its shape. The feet are not very wide apart, and the
hands are by the side near the buttocks. The statue is of stone, and
they say there was an inscription on it, which time has obliterated.
This Arrhachion had two victories at Olympia in the two Olympiads
before the 54th, through the equity of the umpires and his own merit.
For when he contended for the prize of wild olive with the only one
of his antagonists that remained, his opponent got hold of him first
and with his feet hugged him, and at the same time grappled his
neck tightly with his arms. And Arrhachion broke the finger of his
antagonist, and gave up the ghost being throttled, and his antagonist
also, though he had throttled Arrhachion, fainted away from the pain
his finger gave him. And the people of Elis crowned the dead body of
Arrhachion and proclaimed him victor. I know the Argives did the same
in the case of Creugas the boxer of Epidamnus, for though he was dead
they gave him the crown at Nemea, because his opponent Damoxenus the
Syracusan violated their mutual agreements. For as they were boxing
evening came on, and they agreed in the hearing of all the audience
that they should strike one another once in turn. Boxers did not at
this time wear the cestus loaded with iron, but they wore leather
thongs, (which they fastened under the hollow of the hand that the
fingers might be left uncovered), made of ox hides and thin and deftly
woven together after an old fashion. Then Creugas delivered the first
blow on Damoxenus’ head, and Damoxenus bade Creugas hold back his hand,
and as he did so struck him under the ribs with his fingers straight
out, and such was the hardness of his nails and the violence of the
blow that his hand pierced his side, seized his bowels and dragged
and tore them out. Creugas immediately expired. And the Argives drove
Damoxenus off the course because he had violated the conditions, and
instead of one blow had given several to his antagonist. To Creugas
though dead they assigned the victory, and erected to him a statue in
Argos, which is now in the temple of Lycian Apollo.



CHAPTER XLI.


The Phigalians have also in their market-place a mortuary chapel to the
100 picked men from Oresthasium, and annually offer funeral sacrifices
to them as to heroes. And the river called Lymax which falls into
the Neda flows by Phigalia. It got its name Lymax they say from the
purifications of Rhea. For when after giving birth to Zeus the Nymphs
purified her after travail, they threw into this river the afterbirth,
which the ancients called Lymata. Homer bears me out when he says that
the Greeks purifying themselves to get rid of the pestilence threw
the purifications into the sea.[43] The Neda rises on the mountain
Cerausius, which is a part of Mount Lycæus. And where the Neda is
nearest to Phigalia, there the lads of the town shear off their hair to
the river. And near the sea it is navigable for small craft. Of all the
rivers that we know of the Mæander is most winding having most curves
and sinuosities. And next for winding would come the Neda. About 12
stades from Phigalia are hot baths, and the Lymax flows into the Neda
not far from that place. And where they join their streams is a temple
of Eurynome, holy from remote antiquity, and difficult of access from
the roughness of the ground. Round it grow many cypresses close to
one another. Eurynome the Phigalian people believe to be a title of
Artemis, but their Antiquarians say that Eurynome was the daughter of
Oceanus, and is mentioned by Homer in the Iliad as having joined Thetis
in receiving Hephæstus.[44] And on the same day annually they open the
temple of Eurynome: for at all other times they keep it shut. And on
that day they have both public and private sacrifices to her. I was not
in time for the festival, nor did I see the statue of Eurynome. But I
heard from the Phigalians that the statue has gold chains round it, and
that it is a woman down to the waist and a fish below. To the daughter
of Oceanus who dwelt with Thetis in the depths of the sea these fish
extremities would be suitable: but I do not see any logical connection
between Artemis and a figure of this kind.

Phigalia is surrounded by mountains, on the left by Cotilius, on the
right by the projecting mountain Elaion. Cotilius is about 40 stades
from Phigalia, and on it is a place called Bassæ, and a temple of
Apollo the Helper, the roof of which is of stone. This temple would
stand first of all the temples in the Peloponnese, except that at
Tegea, for the beauty of the stone and neatness of the structure. And
Apollo got his title of Helper in reference to a pestilence, as among
the Athenians he got the title of Averter of Ill because he turned away
from them some pestilence. He helped the Phigalians about the time
of the Peloponnesian war, as both titles of Apollo shew plainly, and
Ictinus the builder of the temple at Phigalia was a contemporary of
Pericles, and the architect of what is called the Parthenon at Athens.
I have already mentioned the statue of Apollo in the market-place at
Megalopolis.

And there is a spring of water on Mount Cotilius, from which somebody
has written that the river Lymax takes its rise, but he can neither
have seen the spring himself, nor had his account from any one who
had seen it. I have done both: and the water of the spring on Mount
Cotilius does not travel very far, but in a short time gets lost in the
ground altogether. Not that it occurred to me to inquire in what part
of Arcadia the river Lymax rises. Above the temple of Apollo the Helper
is a place called Cotilum, where there is a temple of Aphrodite lacking
a roof, as also a statue of the goddess.

[43] Iliad, i. 314.

[44] Iliad, xviii. 398, 399, 405.



CHAPTER XLII.


The other mountain, Elaion, is about 30 stades from Phigalia, and
there is a cave there sacred to Black Demeter. All the traditions
that the people of Thelpusa tell about the amour of Poseidon with
Demeter are also believed by the people of Phigalia. But the latter
differ in one point: they say Demeter gave birth not to a foal but to
her that the Arcadians call Despœna. And after this they say, partly
from indignation with Poseidon, partly from sorrow at the rape of
Proserpine, she dressed in black, and went to this cave and nobody
knew of her whereabouts for a long time. But when all the fruits of
the earth were blighted, and mankind was perishing from famine, and
none of the gods knew where Demeter had hidden herself but Pan, who
traversed all Arcadia, hunting in various parts of the mountains, and
had seen Demeter dressed as I have described on Mount Elaion, then
Zeus learning all about this from Pan sent the Fates to Demeter, and
she was persuaded by them to lay aside her anger, and to wean herself
from her grief. And in consequence of her abode there, the Phigalians
say that they considered this cave as sacred to Demeter, and put in it
a wooden statue of the goddess, fashioned as follows. The goddess is
seated on a rock, like a woman in all respects but her head, which is
that of a mare with a mare’s mane, and figures of dragons and other
monsters about her head, and she has on a tunic which reaches to the
bottom of her feet. In one hand she has a dolphin, in the other a dove.
Why they delineated the goddess thus is clear to everybody not without
understanding who remembers the legend. And they call her Black Demeter
because her dress is black. They do not record who this statue was by
or how it caught fire. But when the old one was burnt the Phigalians
did not offer another to the goddess, but neglected her festivals
and sacrifices, till a dearth came over the land, and when they went
to consult the oracle the Pythian Priestess gave them the following
response:

“Arcadians, acorn-eating Azanes who inhabit Phigalia, go to the secret
cave of the horse-bearing Demeter, and inquire for alleviation from
this bitter famine, you that were twice Nomads living alone, living
alone feeding upon roots. Demeter taught you something else besides
pasture, she introduced among you the cultivation of corn, though you
have deprived her of her ancient honours and prerogatives. But you
shall eat one another and dine off your children speedily, if you do
not propitiate her wrath by public libations, and pay divine honours to
the recess in the cave.”

When the Phigalians heard this oracular response, they honoured Demeter
more than before, and got Onatas of Ægina, the son of Mico, for a great
sum of money to make them a statue of the goddess. This Onatas made a
brazen statue of Apollo for the people of Pergamus, most wonderful both
for its size and artistic merit. And he having discovered a painting
or copy of the ancient statue, but perhaps chiefly, so the story goes,
from a dream he had, made a brazen statue of Demeter for the people
of Phigalia, a generation after the Persian invasion of Greece. Here
is the proof of the correctness of my date. When Xerxes crossed into
Europe Gelon the son of Dinomenes was ruler of Syracuse and the rest
of Sicily, and after his death the kingdom devolved upon his brother
Hiero, and as Hiero died before he could give to Olympian Zeus the
offerings he had vowed for the victories of his horses, Dinomenes his
son gave them instead. Now Onatas made these, as the inscriptions at
Olympia over the votive offering show.

“Hiero having been formerly victor in your august contests, Olympian
Zeus, once in the fourhorse chariot, and twice with a single horse,
bestows on you these gifts: his son Dinomenes offers them in memory of
his Syracusan father.”

And the other inscription is as follows,

 “Onatas the son of Mico made me, a native of Ægina.” Onatas was
 therefore a contemporary of the Athenian Hegias and the Argive
 Ageladas.

I went to Phigalia chiefly to see this Demeter, and I sacrificed to
the goddess in the way the people of the country do, no victim but
the fruit of the vine and other trees, and honeycombs, and wool in an
unworked state with all its grease still on it, and these they lay on
the altar built in front of the cave, and pour oil over all. This
sacrifice is held every year at Phigalia both publicly and privately.
A priestess conducts the ritual, and with her the youngest of the
three citizens who are called Sacrificing Priests. Round the cave is
a grove of oak trees, and warm water bubbles up from a spring. The
statue made by Onatas was not there in my time, nor did most people at
Phigalia know that it had ever existed, but the oldest of those I met
with informed me that 3 generations before his time some stones from
the roof fell on to it, and that it was crushed by them and altogether
smashed up, and we can see plainly even now traces in the roof where
the stones fell in.



CHAPTER XLIII.


Pallantium next demands my attention, both to describe what is worthy
of record in it, and to show why the elder Antonine made it a town
instead of a village, and also free and exempt from taxation. They say
that Evander was the best of the Arcadians both in council and war,
and that he was the son of Hermes by a Nymph the daughter of Lado, and
that he was sent with a force of Arcadians from Pallantium to form a
colony, which he founded near the river Tiber. And part of what is now
Rome was inhabited by Evander and the Arcadians who accompanied him,
and was called Pallantium in remembrance of the town in Arcadia. And
in process of time it changed its name into Palatium. It was for these
reasons that Pallantium received its privileges from the Roman Emperor.
This Antonine, who bestowed such favours on Pallantium, imposed no war
on the Romans willingly, but when the Mauri, (the most important tribe
of independent Libyans, who were Nomads and much more formidable than
the Scythians, as they did not travel in waggons but they and their
wives rode on horseback,) commenced a war with Rome, he drove them
out of all their territory into the most remote parts, and compelled
them to retire from Libya to Mount Atlas and to the neighbourhood of
Mount Atlas. He also took away from the Brigantes in Britain most of
their territory, because they had attacked the Genunii who were Roman
subjects. And when Cos and Rhodes cities of the Lycians and Carians
were destroyed by a violent earthquake, the Emperor Antonine restored
them by large expenditure of money and by his zeal in re-peopling them.
As to the grants of money which he made to the Greeks and barbarians
who stood in need of them, and his magnificent works in Greece and
Ionia and Carthage and Syria, all this has been minutely described
by others. This Emperor left another token of his liberality. Those
subject nations who had the privilege of being Roman citizens, but
whose sons were reckoned as Greeks, had the option by law of leaving
their money to those who were no relations, or letting it swell the
wealth of the Emperor. But Antonine allowed them to leave their
property to their sons, preferring to exhibit philanthropy rather than
to maintain a law which brought in money to the revenue. This Emperor
the Romans called Pius from the honour he paid to the gods. I think
he might also justly have borne the title of the elder Cyrus, Father
of mankind. He was succeeded by his son Antonine, who fought against
the Germans, the most numerous and warlike barbarians in Europe, and
subdued the Sauromatæ who had commenced an iniquitous war.



CHAPTER XLIV.


To return to our account of Arcadia, there is a road from Megalopolis
to Pallantium and Tegea, leading to what is called the Mound. On this
road is a suburb of Megalopolis, called Ladocea from Ladocus the son
of Echemus. And next comes Hæmoniæ, which in ancient times was a town
founded by Hæmon the son of Lycaon, and is still called Hæmoniæ. And
next it on the right are the ruins of Oresthasium, and the pillars of
a temple to Artemis surnamed the Priestess. And on the direct road
from Hæmoniæ is the place called Aphrodisium, and next to it Athenæum,
on the left of which is a temple of Athene and stone statue of the
goddess. About 20 stades from Athenæum are the ruins of Asea, and the
hill which was formerly the citadel has still remains of walls. And
about 5 stades from Asea is the Alpheus a little away from the road,
and near the road is the source of the Eurotas. And near the source of
the Alpheus is a temple of the Mother of the Gods without a roof, and
two lions in stone. And the Eurotas joins the Alpheus, and for about
20 stades they flow together in a united stream, till they are lost
in a cavity and come up again, the Eurotas in Laconia, the Alpheus
at Pegæ in Megalopolis. There is also a road from Asea leading up to
Mount Boreum, on the top of which are traces of a temple. The tradition
is that Odysseus on his return from Ilium built it to Poseidon and
Preserver Athene.

What is called the Mound is the boundary for the districts of
Megalopolis Tegea and Pallantium, and as you turn off from it to the
left is the plain of Pallantium. In Pallantium there is a temple,
and a stone statue of Pallas and another of Evander, and a temple to
Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, and at no great distance a statue
of Polybius. The hill above the town was used of old as the citadel,
and on the top of it are remains even to our day of a temple of the
gods called Pure, oaths by whom are still accounted most weighty. They
do not know the particular names of these gods, or if they know they
will not tell them. But one might conjecture that they were called
Pure, because Pallas did not sacrifice to them in the same way as his
father did to Lycæan Zeus.

And on the right of what is called the Mound is the Manthuric plain on
the borders of Tegea, being indeed only 50 stades from Tegea. There is
a small hill on the right of the road called Cresium, on which is the
temple of Aphneus. For according to the legend of the people of Tegea
Ares had an intrigue with Aerope, the daughter of Cepheus the son of
Aleus, and she died in childbirth, and the baby still clung to his
mother though she was dead, and sucked from her breasts a plentiful
supply of milk, and as Ares had caused this they called the god
Aphneus, and the boy was called they say Aeropus. And on the road to
Tegea is the well called Leuconius, so called from Leucone, (who they
say was a daughter of Aphidas), whose tomb is not far from Tegea.



CHAPTER XLV.


The people of Tegea say that their district got its name in the days of
Tegeates the son of Lycaon, and that the inhabitants were distributed
into 8 parishes, Gareatæ, Phylaces, Caryatæ, Corythes, Potachidæ, Œatæ,
Manthyres, and Echeuethes, and that in the reign of Aphidas a ninth
parish was formed, called after him Aphidas. The founder of the town
in our day was Aleus. The people of Tegea besides the public events
which they had a share in in common with all the Arcadians, as the
war against Ilium, and the war with the Persians, and the battle with
the Lacedæmonians at Dipæa, had special renown of their own from the
following circumstances. Ancæus the son of Lycurgus, though wounded,
sustained the attack of the Calydonian boar, and Atalanta shot at it
and was the first to hit it, and for this prowess its head and hide
were given her as trophies. And when the Heraclidæ returned to the
Peloponnese, Echemus of Tegea, the son of Aeropus, had a combat with
Hyllus and beat him. And the people of Tegea were the first Arcadians
who beat the Lacedæmonians who fought against them, and took most of
them captive.

The ancient temple at Tegea of Athene Alea was built by Aleus, but
in after times the people at Tegea built the goddess a great and
magnificent temple. For the former one was entirely consumed by fire
which spread all over it, when Diophantus was Archon at Athens, in the
second year of the 96th Olympiad, in which Eupolemus of Elis won the
prize in the course. The present one far excels all the temples in the
Peloponnese for beauty and size. The architecture of the first row of
pillars is Doric, that of the second row is Corinthian, and that of the
pillars outside the temple is Ionic. The architect I found on inquiry
was Scopas the Parian, who made statues in various parts of old Greece,
and also in Ionia and Caria. On the gables is represented the hunting
of the boar of Calydon, on one side of the boar, nearly in the centre
of the piece, stand Atalanta and Meleager and Theseus and Telamon and
Peleus and Pollux and Iolaus, the companion of Hercules in most of his
Labours, and the sons of Thestius, Prothous and Cometes, the brothers
of Althæa: and on the other side of the boar Ancæus already wounded and
Epochus supporting him as he drops his weapon, and near him Castor,
and Amphiaraus the son of Œcles, and besides them Hippothous the son
of Cercyon, the son of Agamedes, the son of Stymphelus, and lastly
Pirithous. On the gables behind is a representation of the single
combat between Telephus and Achilles on the plain of Caicus.



CHAPTER XLVI.


And the ancient statue of Athene Alea, and together with it the tusks
of the Calydonian boar, were carried away by the Emperor Augustus,
after his victory over Antony and his allies, among whom were all the
Arcadians but the Mantineans. Augustus does not seem to have commenced
the practice of carrying off votive offerings and statues of the gods
from conquered nations, but to have merely followed a long-established
custom. For after the capture of Ilium, when the Greeks divided the
spoil, the statue of Household Zeus was given to Sthenelus the son of
Capaneus: and many years afterwards, when the Dorians had migrated
to Sicily, Antiphemus, the founder of Gela, sacked Omphace a town of
the Sicani, and carried from thence to Gela a statue made by Dædalus.
And we know that Xerxes the son of Darius, the king of the Persians,
besides what he carried off from Athens, took from Brauron a statue of
Brauronian Artemis, and moreover charged the Milesians with cowardice
in the sea-fight against the Athenians at Salamis, and took from them
the brazen Apollo at Branchidæ, which a long time afterwards Seleucus
sent back to the Milesians. And the statues taken from the Argives at
Tiryns are now, one in the temple of Hera, the other in the temple of
Apollo at Elis. And the people of Cyzicus having forced the people
of Proconnesus to settle with them took from them a statue of the
Dindymene Mother. The statue generally was of gold, but the head
instead of ivory was made with the teeth of Hippopotamuses. So the
Emperor Augustus merely followed a long established custom usual both
among Greeks and barbarians. And you may see the statue of Athene Alea
in the Forum at Rome built by Augustus. It is throughout of ivory
and the workmanship of Endœus. Those who busy themselves about such
curiosities say that one of the tusks of the boar was broken off, and
the remaining one was suspended as a votive offering in Cæsar’s gardens
in the temple of Dionysus. It is about 2½ feet long.



CHAPTER XLVII.


And the statue now at Tegea of Athene, called Hippia by the Manthurii,
because (according to their tradition) in the fight between the gods
and the giants the goddess drove the chariot of Enceladus, though among
the other Greeks and Peloponnesians the title Alea has prevailed, was
taken from the Manthurii. On one side of the statue of Athene stands
Æsculapius, on the other Hygiea in Pentelican marble, both by the
Parian Scopas. And the most notable votive offerings in the temple are
the hide of the Calydonian boar, which is rotten with lapse of time
and nearly devoid of hair, and some fetters hung up partly destroyed
by rust, which the captives of the Lacedæmonians wore when they dug in
the district of Tegea. And there is the bed of Athene, and an effigy
of Auge to imitate a painting, and the armour of Marpessa, called the
Widow, a woman of Tegea, of whom I shall speak hereafter. She was a
priestess of Athene when a girl, how long I do not know but not after
she grew to womanhood. And the altar they say was made for the goddess
by Melampus the son of Amythaon: and on the altar are representations
of Rhea and the Nymph Œnoe with Zeus still a babe, and on each side
4 Nymphs, on the one side Glauce and Neda and Thisoa and Anthracia,
and on the other Ida and Hagno and Alcinoe and Phrixa. There are also
statues of the Muses and Mnemosyne.

And not far from the temple is a mound of earth, constituting a
race-course, where they hold games which they call Aleæa from Athene
Alea, and Halotia because they took most of the Lacedæmonians alive
in the battle. And there is a spring towards the north of the temple,
near which they say Auge was violated by Hercules, though their legend
differs from that of Hecatæus about her. And about 3 stades from this
spring is the temple of Hermes called Æpytus.

At Tegea there is also a temple to Athene Poliatis, which once every
year the priest enters. They call it the temple of Protection, and
say that it was a boon of Athene to Cepheus, the son of Aleus, that
Tegea should never be captured, and they say that the goddess cut off
one of the locks of Medusa, and gave it him as a protection for the
city. They have also the following legend about Artemis Hegemone.
Aristomelidas the ruler at Orchomenus in Arcadia, being enamoured of a
maiden of Tegea, got her somehow or other into his power, and committed
the charge of her to one Chronius. And she before being conducted to
the tyrant slew herself in modesty and fear. And Artemis stirred up
Chronius in a dream against Aristomelidas, and he slew him and fled to
Tegea and built there a temple to Artemis.



CHAPTER XLVIII.


In the market-place, which is in shape very like a brick, is a temple
of Aphrodite called the Brick Aphrodite, and a stone statue of the
goddess. And there are two pillars, on one of which are effigies of
Antiphanes and Crisus and Tyronidas and Pyrrhias, who are held in
honour to this day as legislators for Tegea, and on the other pillar
Iasius, with his left hand on a horse and in his right hand a branch
of palm. He won they say the horserace at Olympia, when Hercules the
Theban established the Olympian games. Why a crown of wild olive was
given to the victor at Olympia I have shown in my account of Elis, and
why of laurel at Delphi I shall show hereafter. And at the Isthmian
games pine, at the Nemean games parsley, were wont to be the prize, as
we know from the cases of Palæmon and Archemorus. But most games have
a crown of palm as the prize, and everywhere the palm is put into the
right hand of the victor. The beginning of this custom was as follows.
When Theseus was returning from Crete he instituted games they say to
Apollo at Delos, and himself crowned the victors with palm. This was
they say the origin of the custom, and Homer has mentioned the palm in
Delos in that part of the Odyssey where Odysseus makes his supplication
to the daughter of Alcinous.[45]

There is also a statue of Ares called Gynæcothœnas in the market-place
at Tegea, graven on a pillar. For in the Laconian war, at the first
invasion of Charillus the king of the Lacedæmonians, the women took up
arms, and lay in ambush under the hill called in our day Phylactris.
And when the armies engaged, and the men on both sides exhibited
splendid bravery, then they say the women appeared on the scene, and
caused the rout of the Lacedæmonians, and Marpessa, called the Widow,
excelled all the other women in daring, and among other Spartans
Charillus was taken prisoner, and was released without ransom, upon
swearing to the people of Tegea that he would never again lead a
Lacedæmonian army to Tegea, which oath he afterwards violated. And the
women privately sacrificed to Ares independently of the men for the
victory, and gave no share of the flesh of the victim to the men. That
is why Ares was called Gynæcothœnas (_i.e._ _Women’s Feast_). There
is also an altar and square statue of Adult Zeus. Square statues the
Arcadians seem greatly to delight in. There are also here the tombs of
Tegeates the son of Lycaon, and Mæra the wife of Tegeates, who they say
was the daughter of Atlas, and is mentioned by Homer[46] in Odysseus’
account to Alcinous of his journey to Hades and the souls he saw there.
And in the market-place at Tegea there is a temple of Ilithyia, and
a statue called Auge on her knees, and the tradition is that Aleus
ordered Nauplius to take his daughter Auge and drown her in the sea,
and as she was being led there she fell on her knees, and gave birth to
a son on the spot where is now the temple of Ilithyia. This tradition
differs from another one, which states that Auge gave birth to Telephus
unbeknown to her father, and that he was exposed on Mount Parthenium
and suckled by a doe, though this last part of the tradition is also
recorded by the people of Tegea. And near the temple of Ilithyia is
an altar to Earth, and close to the altar is a pillar in white stone,
on which is a statue of Polybius the son of Lycortas, and on another
pillar is Elatus one of the sons of Arcas.

[45] Odyssey, vi. 162 _sq._

[46] Odyssey, xi. 326.



CHAPTER XLIX.


And not far from the market-place is a theatre, and near it are the
bases of some brazen statues, the statues themselves are no longer
there. And an elegiac couplet on one of the bases says that that was
the statue of Philopœmen. This Philopœmen the Greeks hold in the
highest honour, both for his sagacity and exploits. As to the lustre
of his race his father Craugis was second to none of the Arcadians
of Megalopolis, but he dying when Philopœmen was quite a boy his
guardian was Cleander an exile from Mantinea, who had come to live at
Megalopolis after the troubles in his native place, and had been on a
footing of old friendship with the family of Craugis. And Philopœmen
had they say among other tutors Megalophanes and Ecdelus: the sons
of Arcesilaus were pupils they say of Pitanæus. In size and strength
he was inferior to none of the Peloponnesians, but he was far from
good-looking. He didn’t care about contending in the games, but he
cultivated his own piece of ground, and was fond of hunting wild
beasts. He read also they say frequently the works of the most famous
Greek sophists, and books on the art of war, especially such as touched
on strategy. He wished in all things to make Epaminondas his model in
his frame of mind and exploits, but was not able in all points to come
up to this. For Epaminondas was especially mild and had his temper
completely under control, whereas Philopœmen was hot-tempered. But
when Cleomenes captured Megalopolis, Philopœmen was not dismayed at
this unexpected misfortune, but conveyed off safely two-thirds of the
adults and all the women and children to Messene, as the Messenians
were at that time their allies and well-disposed to them. And when
Cleomenes sent a message to these exiles that he was sorry for what
he had done, and that the people of Megalopolis might return if they
signed a treaty, Philopœmen persuaded all the citizens to return only
with arms in their hands, and not upon any conditions or treaty. And
in the battle which took place at Sellasia against Cleomenes and
the Lacedæmonians, in which the Achæans and Arcadians from all the
cities took part, and also Antigonus with an army from Macedonia,
Philopœmen took his place with the cavalry at first, but when he saw
that the issue of the battle turned on the behaviour of the infantry
he willingly became a footsoldier, and, as he was displaying valour
worthy of record, one of the enemy pierced through both his thighs,
and being so impeded he dropt on his knees and was constrained to fall
forwards, so that by the motion of his feet the spear snapped off. And
when Cleomenes and the Lacedæmonians were defeated, and Philopœmen
returned to the camp, then the doctors cut out of his thighs the
spearpoint and the spear itself. And Antigonus, hearing and seeing
his courage, was anxious to invite him over to Macedonia. But he paid
little heed to Antigonus, and crossed over by ship to Crete, where a
civil war was raging, and became a captain of mercenaries. And on his
return to Megalopolis he was at once chosen by the Achæans commander of
their cavalry, and he made them the best cavalry in Greece. And when
the Achæans and all their allies fought at the river Larisus against
the men of Elis and the Ætolian force that aided the people of Elis
from kinsmanship, Philopœmen first slew with his own hands Demophantus
the commander of the enemy’s cavalry, and then put to flight all the
cavalry of the Ætolians and men of Elis.



CHAPTER L.


And as the Achæans left everything to him and made him everybody,
he changed the arms of the infantry, for, whereas before they bore
short spears and oblong shields like those in use among the Celts and
Persians (called _thyrei_ and _gerrha_), he persuaded them to wear
breastplates and greaves, and also to use the shields in use in Argolis
and long spears. And when Machanidas rose to power in Lacedæmon, and
war again broke out between the Achæans and the Lacedæmonians under
him, Philopœmen was commander in chief of the Achæan force, and in the
battle of Mantinea the light-armed Lacedæmonians beat the light-armed
troops of the Achæans, and Machanidas pressed upon them in their
flight, but Philopœmen forming his infantry into a square routed the
Lacedæmonian hoplites, and fell in with Machanidas as he was returning
from the pursuit and slew him. Thus the Lacedæmonians, though they lost
the battle, were more fortunate from their reverse than one would have
anticipated, for they were freed from their tyrant. And not long after,
when the Argives were celebrating the Nemean games, Philopœmen happened
to be present at the contest of the harpers: and Pylades a native of
Megalopolis (one of the most noted harpers of the day who had carried
off the victory at the Pythian games), at that moment striking up the
tune of the Milesian Timotheus called Persæ, and commencing at the words

    “Winning for Hellas the noble grace of freedom,”

all the Greeks gazed earnestly on Philopœmen, and signified by clapping
that they referred to him the words of the Ode. A similar tribute
of respect was I understand paid to Themistocles at Olympia, where
the whole theatre rose up on his entrance. Philip indeed, the son of
Demetrius, the king of the Macedonians, who also poisoned Aratus of
Sicyon, sent men to Megalopolis with orders to kill Philopœmen, and
though unsuccessful in this he was execrated by all Greece. And the
Thebans who had beaten the Megarians in battle, and had already got
inside the walls at Megara, through treachery on the part of the
Megarians, were so alarmed at the arrival of Philopœmen to the rescue,
that they went home again without effecting their object. And again
there rose up at Lacedæmon a tyrant called Nabis, who attacked the
Messenians first of the Peloponnesians, and as he made his attack by
night, when they had no expectation of it, he took all Messene but the
citadel, but upon Philopœmen’s coming up the next day with an army he
departed from it on conditions of war.

And Philopœmen, when the time of his command expired, and other Achæans
were chosen as commanders, went a second time to Crete and helped
the Gortynians who were pressed hard in war. But as the Arcadians
were vexed with him for going abroad he returned from Crete, and
found the Romans at war with Nabis. And as the Romans had equipped a
fleet against Nabis, Philopœmen in his zeal wished to take part in
the contest, but being altogether without experience of the sea, he
unwittingly embarked on an unseaworthy trireme, so that the Romans
and their allies remembered the lines of Homer, in his Catalogue
of the ships, about the ignorance of the Arcadians in maritime
affairs.[47] And not many days after this naval engagement Philopœmen
and his regiment, taking advantage of a dark night, set the camp of
the Lacedæmonians at Gythium on fire. Thereupon Nabis intercepted
Philopœmen and all the Arcadians with him on difficult ground, they
were very brave but there were very few of them. But Philopœmen changed
the position of his troops, so that the advantage of the ground rested
with him and not with the enemy, and, defeating Nabis and slaying
many of the Lacedæmonians in this night attack, raised his fame still
higher among the Greeks. And after this Nabis obtained from the Romans
a truce for a certain definite period, but before the time expired he
was assassinated by a man from Calydon, who had come ostensibly to
negotiate an alliance, but was really hostile, and had been suborned by
the Ætolians for this very purpose.

[47] Iliad, ii. 614.



CHAPTER LI.


And Philopœmen about this time made an incursion into Sparta, and
compelled the Lacedæmonians to join the Achæan League. And not very
long after Titus Flaminius, the commander in chief of the Romans in
Greece, and Diophanes the son of Diæus of Megalopolis, who had been
chosen at this time general of the Achæans, marched against Lacedæmon,
alleging that the Lacedæmonians were plotting against the Romans: but
Philopœmen, although at present he was only a private individual, shut
the gates as they were coming in. And the Lacedæmonians, in return for
this service and for his success against both their tyrants, offered
him the house of Nabis, which was worth more than 100 talents; but
he had a soul above money, and bade the Lacedæmonians conciliate by
their gifts instead of him those who had persuasive powers with the
people in the Achæan League. In these words he referred they say to
Timolaus. And he was chosen a second time general of the Achæans. And
as the Lacedæmonians at that time were on the eve of a civil war, he
exiled from the Peloponnese about 300 of the ringleaders, and sold for
slaves about 3000 of the Helots, and demolished the walls of Sparta,
and ordered the lads no longer to train according to the regulations of
Lycurgus but in the Achæan fashion. But the Romans afterwards restored
to them their national training. And when Antiochus (the descendant
of Seleucus Nicator) and the army of Syrians with him were defeated
by Manius and the Romans at Thermopylæ, and Aristænus of Megalopolis
urged the Achæans to do all that was pleasing to the Romans and not
to resist them at all, Philopœmen looked angrily at him, and told him
that he was hastening the fate of Greece. And when Manius was willing
to receive the Lacedæmonian fugitives, he resisted this proposal before
the Council. But on Manius’ departure, he permitted the fugitives to
return to Sparta.

But vengeance was about to fall on Philopœmen for his haughtiness.
For when he was appointed general of the Achæans for the 8th time, he
twitted a man not without some renown for having allowed the enemy to
capture him alive: and not long after, as there was a dispute between
the Messenians and Achæans, he sent Lycortas with an army to ravage
Messenia: and himself the third day afterwards, though he was suffering
from a fever and was more than 70, hurried on to share in the action
of Lycortas, at the head of about 60 cavalry and targeteers. And
Lycortas and his army returned home without having done or received
any great harm. But Philopœmen, who had been wounded in the head in
the action and had fallen off his horse, was taken alive to Messene.
And in a meeting which the Messenians immediately held there were many
different opinions as to what they should do with him. Dinocrates
and the wealthy Messenians were urgent to put him to death: but the
popular party were most anxious to save him alive, calling him even
the father of all Greece. But Dinocrates in spite of the popular party
took Philopœmen off by poison. And Lycortas not long after collected a
force from Arcadia and from Achaia and marched against Messene, and the
popular party in Messene at once fraternized with them, and all except
Dinocrates who were privy to the murder of Philopœmen were put to
death. And he committed suicide. And the Arcadians brought the remains
of Philopœmen to Megalopolis.



CHAPTER LII.


And now Greece ceased to produce a stock of distinguished men.
Miltiades the son of Cimon, who defeated the barbarians that landed
at Marathon, and checked the Persian host, was the first public
benefactor of Greece, and Philopœmen the son of Craugis the last. For
those who before Miltiades had displayed conspicuous valour, (as Codrus
the son of Melanthus, and the Spartan Polydorus, and the Messenian
Aristomenes), had all clearly fought for their own nation and not for
all Greece. And after Miltiades Leonidas (the son of Anaxandrides) and
Themistocles (the son of Neocles) expelled Xerxes from Greece, the
latter by his two sea-fights, the former by the action at Thermopylæ.
And Aristides the son of Lysimachus, and Pausanias the son of
Cleombrotus, who commanded at Platæa, were prevented from being called
benefactors of Greece, the latter by his subsequent crimes, the former
by his laying tribute on the Greek islanders, for before Aristides
all the Greek dominions were exempt from taxation. And Xanthippus
the son of Ariphron, in conjunction with Leotychides king of Sparta,
destroyed the Persian fleet off Mycale, and Cimon did many deeds to
excite the emulation of the Greeks. As for those who won the greatest
renown in the Peloponnesian war, one might say that they with their
own hands almost ruined Greece. And when Greece was already in pitiful
plight, Conon the son of Timotheus and Epaminondas the son of Polymnis
recovered it somewhat, the former in the islands and maritime parts,
the latter by ejecting the Lacedæmonian garrisons and governors inland,
and by putting down the decemvirates. Epaminondas also made Greece
more considerable by the addition of the well-known towns of Messene
and the Arcadian Megalopolis. I consider also Leosthenes and Aratus
the benefactors of all Greece, for Leosthenes against the wishes of
Alexander brought back safe to Greece in ships 50,000 Greeks who had
served under the pay of Persia: as for Aratus I have already touched
upon him in my account of Sicyon.

And the following is the inscription on Philopœmen at Tegea. “Spread
all over Greece is the fame and glory of the Arcadian warrior
Philopœmen, as wise in the council-chamber as brave in the field, who
attained such eminence in war as cavalry leader. Two trophies won he
over two Spartan tyrants, and when slavery was growing he abolished it.
And therefore Tegea has erected this statue to the high souled son of
Craugis, the blameless winner of his country’s freedom.”



CHAPTER LIII.


That is the inscription at Tegea. And the statues erected to Apollo
Aguieus by the people of Tegea were dedicated they say for the
following reason. Apollo and Artemis punished they say in every place
all persons who, when Leto was pregnant and wandering about Arcadia,
neglected and took no account of her. And when Apollo and Artemis
came into the district of Tegea, then they say Scephrus, the son of
Tegeates, went up to Apollo and had a private conversation with him.
And Limon his brother, thinking Scephrus was making some charge against
him, ran at his brother and slew him. But swift vengeance came upon
Limon, for Artemis at once transfixed him with an arrow. And Tegeates
and Mera forthwith sacrificed to Apollo and Artemis, and afterwards
when a mighty famine came upon the land the oracle at Delphi told them
to mourn for Scephrus. Accordingly they pay honours to him at the
festival of Apollo Aguieus, and the priestess of Artemis pursues some
one, pretending that she is Artemis pursuing Limon. And the remaining
sons of Tegeates, Cydon and Archedius and Gortys, migrated they say of
their own accord to Crete, and gave their names to the towns Cydonia
and Gortys and Catreus. But the Cretans do not accept the tradition of
the people of Tegea, they say that Cydon was the son of Acacallis the
daughter of Minos and Hermes, and that Catreus was the son of Minos,
and Gortys the son of Rhadamanthus. About Rhadamanthus Homer says, in
the conversation between Proteus and Menelaus, that Menelaus went to
the Elysian fields, and before him Rhadamanthus: and Cinæthon in his
verses represents Rhadamanthus as the son of Hephæstus, and Hephæstus
as the son of Talos, and Talos as the son of Cres. The traditions of
the Greeks are mostly different and especially in genealogies. And
the people of Tegea have 4 statues of Apollo Aguieus, one erected by
each tribe. And the names of the tribes are Clareotis, Hippothœtis,
Apolloniatis, and Atheneatis, the two former so called from the lots
which Arcas made his sons cast for the land, and from Hippothous the
son of Cercyon.

There is also at Tegea a temple to Demeter and Proserpine, the
goddesses whom they call Fruit-giving, and one near to Paphian
Aphrodite, which was erected by Laodice, who was, as I have stated
before, a daughter of that Agapenor who led the Arcadians to Troy, and
dwelt at Paphos. And not far from it are two temples to Dionysus, and
an altar to Proserpine, and a temple and gilt statue of Apollo, the
statue by Chirisophus, a Cretan by race, whose age and master we do not
know. But the stay of Dædalus at Minos’ court in Crete, and the statues
which he made, has brought much greater fame to Crete. And near Apollo
is a stone statue of Chirisophus himself.

And the people of Tegea have an altar which they call common to all
Arcadians, where there is a statue of Hercules. He is represented as
wounded in the thigh with the wound he received in the first fight
which he had with the sons of Hippocoon. And the lofty place dedicated
to Zeus Clarius, where most of the altars at Tegea are, is no doubt so
called from the lots which the sons of Arcas cast. And the people of
Tegea have an annual festival there, and they say the Lacedæmonians
once invaded their territory at the time of the festival, and the god
sent snow, and they were cold, and weary from the weight of their
armour, and the people of Tegea unbeknown to the enemy lit a fire, (and
so they were not incommoded with the cold), and put on their armour,
and went out against them, and overcame them in the action. I have also
seen at Tegea the following sights, the house of Aleus, and the tomb of
Echemus, and a representation on a pillar of the fight between Echemus
and Hyllus.

As you go from Tegea towards Laconia, there is an altar of Pan on the
left of the road, and another of Lycæan Zeus, and there are ruins of
temples. Their altars are about 2 stades from the walls, and about
seven stades further is a temple of Artemis called Limnatis, and a
statue of the goddess in ebony. The workmanship is called Æginætan by
the Greeks. And about 10 stades further are ruins of the temple of
Artemis Cnaceatis.



CHAPTER LIV.


The boundary between the districts of the Lacedæmonians and Tegea is
the river Alpheus, which rises at Phylace, and not far from its source
another river flows into it formed from several unimportant streams,
and that is why the place is called the Meeting of the Waters. And the
Alpheus seems in the following particular to be contrary in its nature
to all other rivers, it is frequently lost in the ground and comes up
again. For starting from Phylace and the Meeting of the Waters it is
lost in the plain of Tegea, and reappears again at Asea, and after
mixing its stream with the Eurotas is a second time lost in the ground:
and emerging again at what the Arcadians call the Wells, and flowing
by the districts of Pisa and Olympia, it falls into the sea beyond
Cyllene, the arsenal of the people of Elis. Nor can the Adriatic,
though a big and stormy sea, bar its onward passage, for it reappears
at Ortygia in Syracuse, and mixes its waters with the Arethusa.

The straight road, leading to Thyrea and the villages in the Thyreatic
district, is memorable for containing the tomb of Orestes the son of
Agamemnon, the people of Tegea say that a Spartan removed his remains
from thence, but in our day there is no tomb within the walls. The
river Garates also flows by the road, when you have crossed it and gone
on ten stades you come to a temple of Pan, and near it an oak also
sacred to Pan.

The road from Tegea to Argos is very well adapted for carriages and
is in fact quite a high road. The first thing you come to on it is a
temple and statue of Æsculapius, and after turning to the left for
about a stade you come to a temple of Pythian Apollo quite fallen to
decay and in ruins. And on the high road are many oaks and a temple of
Demeter, called Demeter of Corythes, in a grove of oaks, and near it
is a temple to Mystic Dionysus. And next comes Mount Parthenium, on
which is shown an enclosure sacred to Telephus, where they say he was
exposed as a boy and brought up by a doe. And at a little distance is
the temple of Pan, where both the Athenians and people of Tegea say
that Pan appeared to Philippides and had an interview with him. Mount
Parthenium also has tortoises admirably adapted for making lyres of,
which the men who live on the mountain fear to take and will not allow
strangers to take, for they consider them sacred to Pan. When you have
crossed over the mountain top you come in what is now arable land to
the boundary between the districts of Tegea and Argos, _viz_. Hysiæ in
Argolis.

These are the divisions of the Peloponnese, and the towns in the
divisions, and the most notable things in each town.



BOOK IX.--BŒOTIA.



CHAPTER I.


Bœotia is contiguous to Attica, and Platæa to Eleutheræ. The Bœotians
got that name for all the race from Bœotus, who they say was the son
of Itonus the son of Amphictyon and the Nymph Melanippe. Their towns
are called sometimes after men but more frequently after women. The
Platæans were I think the original inhabitants of the land, and they
got their name from Platæa the daughter of the river-god Asopus.
That they were originally ruled over by kings is I think clear: for
in old times kingdoms were all over Greece, there were no democratic
governments. But the Platæans know of no other kings but Asopus and
still earlier Cithæron, one of whom gave his name to the mountain and
the other to the river. And I cannot but think that Platæa, who gave
her name to the town, was the daughter of the king Asopus and not of
the river-god.

The Platæans did nothing memorable before the battle which the
Athenians fought at Marathon, but they took part in that struggle
after the landing of Xerxes, and ventured to embark on ships with
the Athenians, and repelled on their own soil Mardonius, the son of
Gobryas, the General of Xerxes. And it twice happened to them to
be driven from their country and again restored to it. For in the
Peloponnesian war the Lacedæmonians besieged and took Platæa: and
when, after the peace which Antalcidas the Spartan negotiated between
the Greeks and the king of the Persians, it was reinhabited by the
Platæans who returned from Athens, a second misfortune was it seems
destined to come upon them. For war was not openly declared against
the Thebans, but the Platæans said that they were still at peace with
them, because when the Lacedæmonians occupied Cadmea, they had no
share either in suggesting it or in bringing it about. The Thebans on
the other hand said that it was the Lacedæmonians who had brought about
the peace, and who afterwards when they had violated it thought that
all had broken truce. The Platæans therefore, thinking the conduct
of the Thebans rather suspicious, occupied their town with a strong
garrison, and the farmers did not even go into the fields which were
at some distance from the town at every period of the day, but watched
for the times when the Thebans held their general meetings, and at such
times tilled their farms in quiet. But Neocles, who was at that time
Bœotarch at Thebes, and had noticed this cunning on the part of the
Platæans, told all the Thebans to go armed to the assembly, and led
them from Thebes not straight across the plain but in the direction of
Hysiæ and Eleutheræ and Attica, where no outposts had been placed by
the Platæans, and got to the walls about mid-day. For the Platæans,
thinking the Thebans were at their meeting, had shut the gates and
gone out to the fields. And the Thebans made conditions with those who
were in the town that they should leave the place before sunset, the
men with one dress and the women with two. At this time the fortune
of the Platæans was rather different from the former occasion when
the town was taken by the Lacedæmonians and Archidamus. For then the
Lacedæmonians blockaded them and shut them in by a double wall so that
they could not get out, whereas now the Thebans prevented their getting
into the town at all. This second capture of Platæa was the third year
after Leuctra, when Asteus was Archon at Athens. And the town was rased
to the ground by the Thebans entirely except the temples, but there
was no sack, and the Athenians took in the Platæans a second time. But
when Philip was victorious at Chæronea, he introduced a garrison into
Thebes, and among other things to destroy the Theban power, restored
the Platæans.



CHAPTER II.


If you turn off a little to the right from the high road in the
Platæan district near Mount Cithæron, you come to the ruins of Hysiæ
and Erythræ. They were formerly cities, and among the ruins of Hysiæ
there is still a temple of Apollo half-finished, and a Holy Well, of
which whoever drank in former days prophesied, if we may believe the
tradition of the Bœotians. And on your return to the high road on the
right is what is said to be the tomb of Mardonius. It is admitted
that the dead body of Mardonius was missing after the battle, but as
to who buried him there are different traditions. What is certain is
that Artontes the son of Mardonius gave many gifts to the Ephesian
Dionysophanes, and also to several Ionians, for not having neglected
his father’s burial. And this road leads from Eleutheræ to Platæa.

As you go from Megara there is a spring on the right hand, and a little
further a rock called the bed of Actæon, because they say he used to
sleep on that rock when tired with hunting, and in that spring they
say he saw Artemis bathing. And Stesichorus of Himera has represented
the goddess as dressing Actæon in a deerskin, so that his dogs should
devour him, that he should not be married to Semele. But I think that
madness came upon the dogs of Actæon without the intervention of
the goddess, and if they were mad and did not distinguish him they
would rend in pieces whoever they met. In what part of Mount Cithæron
Pentheus the son of Echion met with his fate, or where they exposed
Œdipus after his birth, no one knows, as we do know the cross-roads
on the way to Phocis where Œdipus slew his father. Mount Cithæron is
sacred to Zeus of Cithæron, but I shall enter into all that more fully
when I come to that part of my subject.

Near the entrance to Platæa is the tomb of those who fell fighting
against the Medes. The other Greeks have one common tomb. But the
Lacedæmonians and Athenians who fell have separate burial-grounds, and
some elegiac lines of Simonides as their epitaph. And not far from the
common tomb of the Greeks is the altar of Zeus Eleutherius. The tombs
are of brass, but the altar and statue of Zeus are of white stone. And
they celebrate still every fifth year the festival called Eleutheria,
in which the chief prizes are for running: they run in heavy armour in
front of the altar. And the Greeks set up a trophy about 15 stades from
the town for the battle at Platæa.

In the town of Platæa, as you go on from the altar and statue erected
to Zeus Eleutherius, is a hero-chapel to Platæa, I have already stated
the traditions about her and my own views. There is also a temple of
Hera, well worth seeing for its size and the beauty of the statues. As
you enter it Rhea is before you carrying to Cronos the stone wrapt up
in swaddling-clothes, pretending it was the child she had just given
birth to. And the Hera here they call Full-Grown, her statue is a
large one in a standing position. Both these statues are in Pentelican
marble by Praxiteles. There is also another statue of Hera in a sitting
position by Callimachus, they call this statue The Bride for the
following reason.



CHAPTER III.


They say Hera for some reason or other was displeased with Zeus and
went to Eubœa, and Zeus when he could not appease her went to Cithæron
(who ruled at Platæa), who was inferior to no one in ingenuity. He
recommended Zeus to make a wooden statue and dress it up and draw it in
a waggon with a yoke of oxen, and give out that he intended to marry
Platæa the daughter of Asopus. And he did as Cithæron instructed him.
And directly Hera heard of it she returned at once, and approached
the waggon and tore the clothes of the statue, and was delighted with
the trick when she found a wooden image instead of a young bride,
and was reconciled to Zeus. In memory of this reconciliation they
have a festival called Dædala, because statues were of old called
_dædala_. And they called them so I think before the times of Dædalus
the Athenian, the son of Palamaon, for he was called Dædalus I take
it from his statues, and not from his birth up. This festival is
celebrated by the Platæans every seventh year, according to what
my Antiquarian guide informed me, but really at less interval: the
exact time however between one festival and the next though I wished
I could not ascertain. The festival is celebrated as follows. There
is an oak-coppice not far from Alalcomenæ. Of all the oaks in Bœotia
the roots of these are the finest. When the Platæans come to this
oak-coppice, they place there portions of boiled meat. And they do not
much trouble themselves about other birds, but they watch crows very
carefully, for they frequent the place, and if one of them seizes a
piece of meat they watch what tree it sits upon. And on whatever tree
it perches, they carve their wooden image, called _dædalum_, from the
wood of this tree. This is the way the Platæans privately celebrate
their little festival Dædala: but the great festival of Dædala is a
festival for all Bœotia and celebrated every sixth year; for that
was the interval during which the festival was discontinued when the
Platæans were in exile. And 14 wooden statues are provided by them
every year for the little festival Dædala, which the following draw
lots for, the Platæans, the Coronæans, the Thespians, the Tanagræans,
the Chæroneans, the Orchomenians, the Lebadeans, and the Thebans: for
they thought fit to be reconciled with the Platæans, and to join their
gathering, and to send their sacrifice to the festival, when Cassander
the son of Antipater restored Thebes. And all the small towns which
are of lesser note contribute to the festival. They deck the statue
and take it to the Asopus on a waggon, and place a bride on it, and
draw lots for the order of the procession, and drive their waggons
from the river to the top of Cithæron, where an altar is prepared for
them constructed in the following manner. They get square pieces of
wood about the same size, and pile them up one upon one another as if
they were making a stone building, and raise it to a good height by
adding firewood. The chief magistrates of each town sacrifice a cow to
Hera and a bull to Zeus, and they burn on the altar all together the
victims (full of wine and incense) and the wooden images, and private
people offer their sacrifices as well as the rich, only they sacrifice
smaller animals as sheep, and all the sacrifices are burnt together.
And the fire consumes the altar as well as the sacrifices, the flame
is prodigious and visible for an immense distance. And about 15 stades
lower than the top of the mountain where they build this altar is
a cave of the Nymphs of Mount Cithæron, called Sphragidion, where
tradition says those Nymphs prophesied in ancient times.



CHAPTER IV.


The Platæans have also a temple to Arean Athene, which was built from
the spoil given to them by the Athenians after the battle of Marathon.
The statue of the goddess is wooden but gilt over: the head and fingers
and toes are of Pentelican marble. In size it is nearly as large as
the brazen one in the Acropolis, (which the Athenians dedicated as
the firstfruits of the battle at Marathon,) and is also the work of
Phidias. And there are paintings in the temple by Polygnotus, Odysseus
having just slain the suitors, and by Onatas the first expedition of
Adrastus and the Argives against Thebes. These paintings are on the
walls in the vestibule of the temple, and at the base of the statue of
the goddess is an effigy of Arimnestus, who commanded the Platæans in
the fight against Mardonius and still earlier at Marathon.

There is also at Platæa a temple of Eleusinian Demeter, and the tomb of
Leitus, the only leader of the Bœotians that returned home after the
Trojan war. And the fountain Gargaphia was fouled by Mardonius and the
Persian cavalry, because the Greek army opposed to them drank of it,
but the Platæans afterwards made the water pure again.

As you go from Platæa to Thebes you come to the river Oeroe, Oeroe was
they say the daughter of Asopus. And before crossing the Asopus, if
you turn aside and follow the stream of the Oeroe for about 40 stades,
you come to the ruins of Scolus, among which are a temple of Demeter
and Proserpine not complete, and half the statues of the goddesses.
The Asopus is still the boundary between the districts of Platæa and
Thebes.



CHAPTER V.


The district of Thebes was they say first inhabited by the Ectenes,
whose king was the Autochthon Ogygus, hence many of the poets have
called Thebes Ogygiæ. And the Ectenes they say died off with some
pestilence, and Thebes was repeopled by the Hyantes and Aones, Bœotian
races I imagine and not foreigners. And when Cadmus and his Phœnician
army invaded the land the Hyantes were defeated in battle and fled
the following night, but the Aones were submissive and were allowed
by Cadmus to remain in the land and mix with the Phœnicians. They
continued to live in their villages, but Cadmus built the town called
to this day Cadmea. And afterwards when the town grew, Cadmea was
the citadel for lower Thebes. Cadmus made a splendid marriage if,
according to the Greek tradition, he married the daughter of Aphrodite
and Ares, and his daughters were famous, Semele as the mother of a son
by Zeus, and Ino as one of the sea goddesses. Amongst the greatest
contemporaries of Cadmus were the Sparti, Chthonius and Hyperenor and
Pelorus and Udæus: and Echion was chosen by Cadmus as his son-in-law
for his conspicuous valour. About these men I could obtain no further
knowledge, so I follow the general tradition about the origin of the
name Sparti.[48] And when Cadmus migrated to the Illyrians and to
those of them who were called Enchelians, he was succeeded by his
son Polydorus. And Pentheus the son of Echion had great power both
from the lustre of his race and the friendship of the king, though he
was haughty and impious and justly punished by Dionysus. The son of
Polydorus was Labdacus. He on his death left a son quite a boy, whom as
well as the kingdom he entrusted to Nycteus. The sequel I have already
set forth in my account about Sicyonia, as the circumstances attending
the death of Nycteus, and how the guardianship of the boy and care
of the realm devolved upon Lycus the brother of Nycteus: and the boy
dying also not long after Lycus became guardian for Laius the son of
Labdacus.

It was during Lycus’ second guardianship that Amphion and Zethus
invaded the country with a band of men. And those who were anxious for
the continuance of Cadmus’ race withdrew Laius, and Lycus was defeated
in battle by the sons of Antiope. And during their reign they joined
the lower town to Cadmea, and called it Thebes from their relationship
to Thebe. And I am borne out by the lines of Homer in the Odyssey:[49]

“Who first gave its towers and seven gates to Thebes, for though they
were strong, they could not dwell in a spacious unfortified Thebes.”

As to the legend about Amphion’s singing and the walls being built as
he played on his harp, Homer has made no mention of it in his poems.
But Amphion was famous for music, and from his relationship to Tantalus
learnt the harmony of the Lydians, and added three strings to the lyre,
which had previously had only four. And the author of the poem about
Europa says that Amphion was the first who played on the lyre, and
that Hermes taught him how: and that by his strains he drew stones and
animals. And Myro, the Byzantian poetess who wrote epic and elegiac
verses, says that Amphion first erected an altar to Hermes and received
from him the lyre on it. It is said also that in Hades Amphion paid
the penalty for his railing against Leto and her sons. This punishment
of his is mentioned in the poem called the Minyad, and there are
references in it both to Amphion and the Thracian Thamyris. And when
the family of Amphion was destroyed by pestilence, and the son of
Zethus was slain by his mother for some fault or other, and Zethus also
died of grief, then the Thebans restored Laius to the kingdom.

When Laius was king and wedded to Jocasta, the oracle at Delphi told
him that he would die at the hands of his son, if Jocasta bare him one.
And that was why he exposed Œdipus, who was fated after all when he
grew up to kill his father. He also married his mother. But I do not
think he had any children by her. My authority for this view is Homer,
who in his Odyssey has the following lines.[50]

“I also saw the mother of Œdipus, beautiful Epicaste, who did a
horrible deed, unwittingly marrying her own son, for he married her
after slaying his father, but soon the gods made it publicly known.”

But how could they soon make it publicly known,[51] if Œdipus had
4 children by Jocasta? So they were the children of Euryganea the
daughter of Hyperphas, as is shown by the poet who wrote the poems
called the Œdipodia. Onatas also painted for the people of Platæa
Euryganea dejected at the quarrels of her sons. And it was in the
lifetime and during the reign of Œdipus that Polynices departed from
Thebes, fearing that the curses of his father would be fulfilled: and
he went to Argos and married the daughter of Adrastus, and returned to
Thebes after the death of Œdipus, being sent for by Eteocles. And on
his return he quarrelled with Eteocles, and went into exile a second
time. And having begged of Adrastus a force to restore him, he lost his
army and challenged Eteocles to single combat. And he and his brother
killed each other, and as the kingdom devolved upon Laodamas the son
of Eteocles, Creon the son of Menœceus ruled as guardian for the boy.
And when Laodamas grew up and took the reins of power, then a second
time the Argives led an army against Thebes. And the Thebans encamping
against them at Glisas, Laodamas slew in the action Ægialeus the son
of Adrastus, but the Argives gaining the victory Laodamas with those
Thebans that were willing to follow him withdrew the night following to
the Illyrians. And the Argives captured Thebes, and delivered it over
to Thersander the son of Polynices. And when some of those who were
going with Agamemnon to the siege of Troy sailed out of their course,
and met with a reverse at Mysia, then it was that Thersander, who was
the bravest of the Greeks in the battle, was slain by Telephus, and his
tomb is in stone as you drive over the plain of Caicus in the town of
Elæa, in the part of the market-place which is in the open air, and the
people of the country say that funeral rites are paid to him. And after
the death of Thersander, when a second fleet was got together against
Paris and Ilium, they chose Peneleos as their leader because Tisamenus
the son of Thersander was not yet old enough. But when Peneleos was
killed by Eurypylus the son of Telephus, they chose Tisamenus as their
king, the son of Thersander by Demonassa the daughter of Amphiaraus.
And Tisamenus suffered not from the wrath of the Furies of Laius and
Œdipus, but Autesion his son did, so that he migrated to the Dorians
at the bidding of the oracle. And on his departure they chose as king
Damasichthon, the son of Opheltes the son of Peneleos. His son was
Ptolemæus, and his Xanthus, who was slain by Andropompus in single
combat by treachery and not fairly. And thenceforward the Thebans
resolved to entrust their government to several magistrates, and not to
let everything depend on one man.

[48] Namely, that they were armed men who sprang up from the dragon’s
teeth sown by Cadmus.

[49] Odyssey, xi. 263-265.

[50] Odyssey, xi. 271-274.

[51] Perhaps Pausanias is hyper-critical here. Is he not answered by
the following line in the ὑπόθεσις to Œdipus Tyrannus, λοιμὸς δὲ Θήβας
εἶλε καὶ νόσος μακρά?



CHAPTER VI.


Of their successes and reverses in war I found the following to be the
most notable. They were beaten by the Athenians in battle, when the
Athenians fought on the side of the Platæans in the war about borders.
They were beaten a second time by the Athenians in the neighbourhood
of Platæa, when they seem to have preferred the interests of king
Xerxes to those of Greece. The popular party was not to blame for that,
for at that time Thebes was ruled by an oligarchy, and not by their
national form of government. And no doubt if the barbarian had come
to Greece in the days when Pisistratus and his sons ruled at Athens
the Athenians also would have been open to the charge of Medizing.
Afterwards however the Thebans were victorious over the Athenians
at Delium in the district of Tanagra, when Hippocrates, the son of
Ariphron, the Athenian General perished with most of his army. And
the Thebans were friendly with the Lacedæmonians directly after the
departure of the Medes till the war between the Peloponnesians and the
Athenians: but after the conclusion of that war, and the destruction
of the Athenian navy, the Thebans soon joined the Corinthians against
the Lacedæmonians. And after being beaten in battle at Corinth and
Coronea, they were victorious at the famous battle of Leuctra, the
most famous of all the battles between Greeks that we know of, and
they put down the decemvirates that the Lacedæmonians had established
in their towns, and ejected the Lacedæmonian Harmosts. And afterwards
they fought continuously for 10 years in the Phocian War, called by the
Greeks the Sacred War. I have already in my account of Attica spoken
about the reverse that befell all the Greeks at Chæronea, but it fell
most heavily on the Thebans, for a Macedonian garrison was put into
Thebes; but after the death of Philip and accession of Alexander the
Thebans took it into their head to eject this garrison: and when they
did so the god warned them of their coming ruin, and in the temple of
Demeter Thesmophorus the omens were just the reverse of what they were
before Leuctra: for then the spiders spun white webs near the doors of
the temple, but now at the approach of Alexander and the Macedonians
they spun black webs. There is also a tradition that it rained ashes
at Athens the year before Sulla began the war which was to cause the
Athenians so many woes.



CHAPTER VII.


And now the Thebans were expelled from Thebes by Alexander, and escaped
to Athens, and were restored by Cassander the son of Antipater. And the
Athenians were very friendly in this restoration to Thebes, and the
Messenians and Arcadians of Megalopolis also gave their help. And I
think Cassander restored Thebes chiefly out of hatred to Alexander: for
he endeavoured to destroy all the house of Alexander, for he ordered
the Macedonians (who were exceedingly angry with her) to stone to death
Olympias _Alexander’s mother_, and he poisoned the sons of Alexander,
Hercules his son by Barsine, and Alexander his son by Roxana. Nor did
he himself terminate his life happily, for he was swollen with the
dropsy, and eaten up by worms. And of his sons, Philip the eldest not
long after his accession was taken off by consumption, and Antipater
the next killed his mother Thessalonice, the daughter of Philip (the
son of Amyntas) and Nicasipolis. His motive for putting her to death
was that she was too partial to Alexander her youngest son. And
Alexander invited in Demetrius the son of Antigonus, and succeeded by
his help in deposing his brother Antipater, and punishing him for his
matricide, but seemed in Demetrius to find rather a murderer than ally.
Thus was Cassander punished by the gods. In his lifetime the Thebans
rebuilt all their old walls, but were destined it seemed to taste great
misfortunes still. For they joined Mithridates in his war against
Rome, I think only out of friendship to the Athenian people. But when
Sulla invaded Bœotia panic seized the Thebans, and they repented, and
tried to get again the friendship of the Romans. But Sulla was wroth
with them, and found out other means of injuring them, and took half
their territory on the following pretext. When he began the war with
Mithridates he was short of money, he collected therefore the votive
offerings from Olympia, and Epidaurus, and from Delphi all that the
Phocians had left. These he distributed among his troops, and gave the
gods in return half Thebais instead of money. The land thus taken away
the Thebans afterwards got back by the favour of the Romans, but in
other respects became thenceforwards weaker and weaker, and in my time
the lower part of the city was quite deserted except the temples, and
the citadel which they still inhabit is called Thebes and not Cadmea.



CHAPTER VIII.


And when you have crossed the Asopus, and gone about 10 stades from
Thebes, you come to the ruins of Potniæ, among which is a grove to
Demeter and Proserpine. And the statues by the river they call the
Potnian goddesses. And at a stated season they perform other customary
rites, and admit sucking pigs into what are called the Halls: and take
them at the same season the year following to Dodona, believe it who
likes. Here too is a temple of Dionysus Ægobolus (_Goat-killer_). For
in sacrificing to the god on one occasion the people of Potniæ were
so outrageous through drunkenness that they even killed the priest of
Dionysus: and straightway a pestilence came on them, and the oracle at
Delphi told them the only cure was to sacrifice to Dionysus a grown
boy, and not many years afterwards they say the god accepted a goat as
victim instead. They also shew a well at Potniæ, in which they say if
the horses of the district drink they go mad.

As you go from Potniæ to Thebes there is on the right of the road a
small enclosure and pillars in it: this it is thought is the place
where the earth opened and swallowed up Amphiaraus, and they add that
neither do birds sit on these pillars, nor do animals tame or wild feed
on the grass.

At Thebes within the circuit of the old walls were seven gates which
remain to this day, and all have their own names. The gate _Electris_
is called from Electra the sister of Cadmus, and _Prœtisis_ from
Prœtus, a native of Thebes whose date and genealogy it would be
difficult to ascertain. And the gate _Neiste_ got its name from the
following circumstance; one of the chords in the lyre is called _nete_,
and Amphion discovered this chord at this very gate. Another account is
that Zethus the brother of Amphion had a son called Neis, and that this
gate got its name from him. And there is the gate _Crenæa_, so called
from a fountain. And there is the gate called _Highest_, so called from
the temple of Highest Zeus. And the sixth gate is called _Ogygia_. And
the seventh gate is called _Homolois_, this is the most recently named
gate I think, (as _Ogygia_ is the oldest-named,) and got its name from
the following circumstance. When the Thebans were beaten in battle
by the Argives at Glisas, most of them fled with Laodamas the son of
Eteocles, but part of them shrank from a journey to the Illyrii, and
turned aside into Thessaly and occupied Homole, the most fertile and
well-watered of all the Thessalian mountains. And when Thersander the
son of Polynices restored them to Thebes, they called the gate by which
they entered Homolois in memory of Homole. As you go from Platæa to
Thebes you enter by the gate Electris, and it was here they say that
Capaneus the son of Hipponous, making a most violent attack on the
walls, was struck with lightning.[52]



CHAPTER IX.


I think this war which the Argives fought is the most memorable of all
the wars which were fought between Greeks in the days of the heroes.
For the war between the Eleusinians and the Athenians, as likewise that
between the Thebans and the Minyæ, was terminated by one engagement,
and they were soon friends again. But the Argive host came from the
middle of the Peloponnese to the middle of Bœotia, and Adrastus
got together allies from Arcadia and Messenia. And likewise some
mercenaries came to help the Thebans from Phocis, as also the Phlegyæ
from the district of the Minyæ. And in the battle that took place at
Ismenius the Thebans were beaten at the first onset, and when they were
routed fled to the city, and as the Peloponnesians did not know how to
fight against fortifications, but attacked them with more zeal than
judgment, the Thebans slew many of them from the walls, and afterwards
made a sally and attacked them as they were drawn up in order of battle
and killed the rest, so that the whole army was cut to pieces except
Adrastus. But the battle was not without heavy loss to the Thebans, and
ever since they call a victory with heavy loss to the victors a Cadmean
victory.[53] And not many years afterwards those whom the Greeks call
Epigoni marched against Thebes with Thersander. Their army was clearly
swelled not only from Argolis, but also from Messenia and Arcadia,
and from Corinth and Megara. And the Thebans were aided by their
neighbours, and a sharp fight took place at Glisas, well contested on
both sides. But the Thebans were beaten, and some of them fled with
Laodamas, and the rest were reduced after a blockade. The epic poem
called the Thebais has reference to this war. Callinus who mentions
that poem says that it was written by Homer, and his view is held by
several respectable authorities. But I think it is of a later date than
the Iliad and Odyssey. But let this account suffice for the war between
the Argives and the Thebans about the sons of Œdipus.

[52] See Æschylus, _Septem contra Thebas_, 423 _sq._

[53] See Erasmi _Adagia_.



CHAPTER X.


Not far from the gates is a large sepulchre to all those who fell in
battle against Alexander and the Macedonians. And at no great distance
they show the place where they say, believe it who will, that Cadmus
sowed the teeth of the dragon that he slew by the well, and that the
ground produced a crop of armed men from these teeth.

And there is a hill sacred to Apollo on the right of the gates, the
hill and the god and the river that flows by are all called Ismenius.
At the approach to the temple are statues of Athene and Hermes in
stone, called gods of the Vestibule, Hermes by Phidias and Athene by
Scopas, and next comes the temple itself. And the statue of Apollo in
it is in size and appearance very like the one at Branchidæ. Whoever
has seen one of these statues and learnt the statuary’s name will
not need much sagacity, if he sees the other, to know that it is by
Canachus. But they differ in one respect, the one at Branchidæ being
in bronze, the Ismenian in cedarwood. There is here also the stone on
which they say Manto the daughter of Tiresias sate. It is near the
entrance, and its name even to this day is Manto’s seat. And on the
right of the temple are two stone statues, one they say of Henioche
the other of Pyrrha, both daughters of Creon, who ruled as guardian
of Laodamas the son of Eteocles. And still at Thebes I know they
choose annually a lad of good family, good looking and strong, as
priest to Ismenian Apollo: his title is laurel-bearer, because these
lads wear crowns of laurel-leaves. I do not know whether all who wear
these laurel crowns must dedicate to the god a brazen tripod, and I
don’t think that can be the usage, for I did not see many tripods so
offered. But the wealthiest lads certainly do offer these tripods.
Especially notable for age and the celebrity of the person who gave it
is that given by Amphitryon, Hercules wearing the laurel crown.

Somewhat higher than the temple of Apollo Ismenius you will see the
spring which is they say sacred to Ares, who placed a dragon there
to guard it. Near it is the tomb of Caanthus, who was they say the
brother of Melia and the son of Oceanus, and was sent by his father to
seek for his sister who had been carried off. But when he found Apollo
with Melia he could not take her away, so he dared to set the grove of
Ismenian Apollo on fire, and the god transfixed him with an arrow, so
the Thebans say, and here is his tomb. And they say Melia bare Apollo
two sons Tenerus and Ismenius, to Tenerus Apollo gave the power of
divination, and Ismenius gave his name to the river. Not that it was
without a name before, if indeed it was called Ladon before the birth
of Apollo’s son Ismenius.



CHAPTER XI.


On the left of the gate called Electris are the ruins of the house
where they say Amphitryon dwelt, when he fled from Tiryns owing to the
death of Electryon. And among the ruins is to be seen the bridal-bed
of Alcmena, which was made they say for Amphitryon by Trophonius and
Agamedes, as the inscription states,

 “When Amphitryon was going to marry Alcmena, he contrived this
 bridal-bed for himself, and Anchasian Trophonius and Agamedes made it.”

This is the inscription which the Thebans say is written here: and
they also show the monument of the sons of Hercules by Megara, giving
a very similar account about their death to that which Stesichorus of
Himera and Panyasis have written in their poems. But the Thebans add
that Hercules in his madness wished also to kill Amphitryon, but sleep
came upon him in consequence of a blow from a stone, and they say
Athene threw the stone, which they call Composer. There too are some
statues of women on a figure, rather indistinct from age, the Thebans
call them Sorceresses, and say that they were sent by Hera to prevent
Alcmena from childbirth. Accordingly they tried to do so, but Historis
the daughter of Tiresias played a trick on them, she cried out in their
hearing, and they thought Alcmena had just given birth to a child, so
they went away deceived, and then they say Alcmena bare a boy.

Here too is a temple of Hercules called Champion, his statue is of
white stone by Xenocritus and Eubius, both Thebans: the old wooden
statue the Thebans think is by Dædalus and I think so too. He made it,
so the story goes, in return for an act of kindness. For when he fled
from Crete the boats he made were not large enough both for himself and
Icarus his son, and he also employed sails, an invention not known in
his day, that he might get the advantage of the boats of Minos (which
were only rowed) by availing himself of a favourable wind, and he
got off safe, but Icarus steering his boat rather awkwardly it upset
they say, and he was drowned, and his dead body carried by the waves
to an island beyond Samos which then had no name. And Hercules found
and recognised the corpse, and buried it, where now is a mound of no
great size, by the promontory that juts out into the Ægean Sea. And
the island and the sea near it got their names from Icarus. And on the
gables Praxiteles has carved most of the 12 Labours of Hercules, all
in short but the killing of the Stymphelian birds, and the cleansing
of the country of Elis, and instead of these is a representation of
the wrestling with Antæus. And when Thrasybulus the son of Lycus and
the Athenians with him put down the Thirty Tyrants, (they had started
from Thebes on their return from exile), they offered to this temple of
Hercules colossal statues of Athene and Hercules in Pentelican marble,
by Alcamenes.

Near the temple of Hercules are a gymnasium and racecourse both called
after the god. And beyond the stone Composer is an altar of Apollo
Spodius, made of the ashes of the victims. There is divination there by
omens, which kind of divination I know the people of Smyrna use more
than all the other Greeks, for they have outside their walls beyond the
city a Temple of Omens.



CHAPTER XII.


The Thebans used of old to sacrifice bulls to Apollo Spodius: but on
one occasion during the festival when the time for the sacrifice drew
nigh, and those who had been sent for the bull did not come with it,
they sacrificed to the god one of the oxen in a waggon that chanced
to be near, and since that time they have sacrificed oxen employed in
labour. They also tell this tradition, that Cadmus when travelling
from Delphi to Phocis was guided on his journey by a cow which he had
purchased from the herds of Pelagon, which had on each side a white
mark like the orb of the moon at the full. Cadmus and all the army
with him were according to the oracle to make their home where the cow
should lie down tired. This spot they show. There in the open air is an
altar and statue of Athene, erected they say by Cadmus. To those who
think that Cadmus came to Thebes from Egypt and not from Phœnicia this
name of Athene affords refutation: for she is called Onga which is a
Phœnician word, and not by the Egyptian name Sais. And the Thebans say
that the house of Cadmus was originally in that part of the citadel
where the market-place now is: and they shew the ruins of the bridal
chambers of Harmonia and Semele, this last they do not allow men to
enter even to this day. And those Greeks who believe that the Muses
sang at the marriage of Harmonia say that this spot in the market-place
is where they sang. There is also a tradition that together with the
lightning that struck the bridal-chamber of Semele fell a piece of wood
from heaven: and Polydorus they say adorned this piece of wood with
brass, and called it Dionysus Cadmus. And very near is the statue of
Dionysus, made by Onasimedes of brass throughout, the altar was made by
the sons of Praxiteles.

There is also the statue of Pronomus, a man most attractive as a
flute-player. For a long time flute-players had only three kinds of
flutes, for some played in the Dorian measure, and other flutes were
adapted to the Phrygian and Lydian measures. And Pronomus was the first
who saw that flutes were fit for every kind of measure, and was the
first to play different measures on the same flute. It is said also
that by the appearance of his features and the motion of all his body
he gave wonderful pleasure in the theatre, and a processional song of
his is extant for the dwellers at Chalcis near the Euripus who came
to Delos. To him and to Epaminondas the son of Polymnis the Thebans
erected statues here.



CHAPTER XIII.


Epaminondas was of illustrious descent, but his father was very poor
even for an average Theban, and he learnt very carefully the national
education, and when he was quite a stripling went to school to Lysis
the Tarentine, who had been a pupil of Pythagoras of Samos. And, when
the Lacedæmonians were at war with the Mantineans, Epaminondas is said
to have been sent amongst others from Thebes to aid the Lacedæmonians.
And when Pelopidas was wounded in the battle, he ran great risks to
bring him out of it safe. And afterwards when Epaminondas went on
an embassy to Sparta, when the Lacedæmonians agreed to ratify with
the Greeks the peace known as the peace of Antalcidas, and Agesilaus
asked him if the Thebans would allow the various towns in Bœotia to
subscribe to the peace separately, “Not,” he answered, “O Spartans,
until we see your neighbouring towns setting us the example.” And when
war at last broke out between the Lacedæmonians and the Thebans, and
the Lacedæmonians attacked the Thebans with their own forces and those
of their allies, Epaminondas with part of his army stationed himself
near the marsh Cephisis, as the Peloponnesians were going to make their
attack in that quarter, but Cleombrotus the king of the Lacedæmonians
turned aside to Ambrosus in Phocis, and after slaying Chæreas, who had
been ordered to guard the by-roads, and the men who were with him,
passed by and got to Leuctra in Bœotia. There Cleombrotus and the
Lacedæmonians generally had portents from the gods. The Spartan kings
when they went out to war used to be accompanied by flocks of sheep, to
sacrifice to the gods and to give them good omens before battles. These
flocks were led by a particular kind of goat that the shepherds called
_catoiades_. And on this occasion some wolves attacked the flocks but
did no harm to the sheep, only slew the goats. Vengeance is said to
have come upon the Lacedæmonians in consequence of the daughters of
Scedasus. Scedasus lived at Leuctra and had two daughters Molpia and
Hippo. They were very beautiful and two Lacedæmonians, Phrurarchidas
and Parthenius, iniquitously violated them, and they forthwith hung
themselves, for this outrage was more than they could bear: and
Scedasus, when he could get no reparation at Lacedæmon for this
outrage, returned to Leuctra and committed suicide. Then Epaminondas
offered funeral rites to Scedasus and his daughters, and vowed that a
battle should take place there, as much for their vengeance as for the
safety of Thebes. But the Bœotarchs were not all of the same view, but
differed in their opinions. Epaminondas and Malgis and Xenocrates were
for engaging the Lacedæmonians without delay, whereas Damoclidas and
Damophilus and Simangelus were against an engagement, and recommended
the withdrawal of the women and children into Attica, and that they
should themselves prepare for a siege. Thus the votes of the six were
equally divided, but the vote of the 7th Bœotarch on his return to
the camp, (he had been on the look-out at Cithæron, and his name was
Bacchylides), being given on the side of Epaminondas, it was agreed
to stake everything on a battle. Now Epaminondas had suspicions about
the fidelity of several of the Bœotians especially the Thespians,
fearing therefore that they would desert in the battle, he gave leave
to whoever would to go home, and the Thespians went off in full force,
and any other Bœotians who had ill-will to the Thebans. And when the
engagement came on, the allies of the Lacedæmonians, who had previously
not been overwell pleased with them, openly showed their hostility by
not standing their ground, but giving way wherever the enemy attacked.
But the battle between the Lacedæmonians and the Thebans was well
contested, the former relying on their long military experience and
ashamed to impair the old prestige of Sparta, while the latter saw
that the fate of their country their wives and children was staked on
the result of this fight. But after many Lacedæmonians of high rank
had fallen as also their king Cleombrotus, then the Spartans though
hard pressed felt obliged to continue the combat, for amongst the
Lacedæmonians it was considered most disgraceful to allow the dead body
of one of their kings to remain in the hands of the enemy.

This victory of the Thebans was the most notable of all victories won
by Greeks over Greeks: for the Lacedæmonians on the next day _instead
of renewing the battle_ purposed burying their dead, and sent a herald
to the Thebans to ask leave to do so. And Epaminondas knowing that it
was always the custom of the Lacedæmonians to conceal their losses,
said that their allies must first bury their dead, and afterwards he
would permit the Lacedæmonians to bury theirs. And as some of the
allies had none to bury, (as none of them were killed), and others had
lost only a few, the Lacedæmonians buried their dead, and thus it was
clear that most of the dead were Spartans. Of the Thebans and Bœotians
who remained to share in the battle there fell only 47 men, while the
Lacedæmonians lost more than 1,000.



CHAPTER XIV.


Directly after the battle Epaminondas allowed all the other
Peloponnesians to depart to their homes, but the Lacedæmonians he
kept shut up at Leuctra. But when he heard that the Spartans were
coming in full force to their relief, then he allowed them to depart
on conditions of war, for he said that it was better to fight on
Lacedæmonian than Bœotian ground. And the Thespians, looking with
regret at their past ill-will to the Thebans and with anxiety at their
present fortunes, thought it best to abandon their own city and flee
to Ceressus, a fortified place belonging to them, into which they had
formerly thrown themselves when the Thessalians invaded their country.
But the Thessalians on that occasion, as they seemed hardly likely
to capture Ceressus consulted the oracle at Delphi, and this was the
response they received. “Shady Leuctra and the Alesian soil are dear to
me, dear to me too are the unfortunate daughters of Scedasus. In the
future looms a lamentable battle there: but no one shall capture it
till the Dorians lose the flower of their young men, when its day of
fate shall have come. Then shall Ceressus be captured, but not before.”

And now when Epaminondas had captured Ceressus, and taken captive
the Thespians who had fled for refuge there, he forthwith turned his
attention to affairs in the Peloponnese, as the Arcadians eagerly
invited his co-operation. And when he went to the Peloponnese he made
the Argives his voluntary allies, and restored the Mantineans, who had
been dispersed in villages by Agesipolis, to Mantinea, and, as the
small towns of the Arcadians were insecure, he persuaded the Arcadians
to evacuate them, and established for them one large town still called
Megalopolis. By this time Epaminondas’ period of office as Bœotarch had
expired, and the penalty for continuing office longer was death. But
Epaminondas, considering the law an illtimed one, disregarded it and
continued Bœotarch: and marched with an army against Sparta and, as
Agesilaus declined a combat, turned his attention towards colonizing
Messene, as I have shewn in my account of Messenia. And meantime the
Theban allies overran Laconia and plundered it, scouring over the
whole country. This induced Epaminondas to take the Thebans back into
Bœotia. And when he got with his army as far as Lechæum, and was about
to pass through a narrow and difficult defile, Iphicrates the son of
Timotheus with a force of Athenians and some targeteers attacked him.
And Epaminondas routed them and pursued them as far as Athens, but
as Iphicrates would not allow the Athenians to go out and fight, he
returned to Thebes. And there he was acquitted for continuing Bœotarch
beyond the proper time: for it is said that none of the judges would
pass sentence upon him.



CHAPTER XV.


And after this when Alexander the ruler in Thessaly with a high hand
treacherously imprisoned Pelopidas, (who had come to his court as to
a ruler who was personally a friend of his and publicly a friend of
the Theban people), the Thebans immediately marched against Alexander,
putting at their head Cleomenes and Hypatus who were then Bœotarchs,
and Epaminondas happened to be one of the force. And when they were
near Pylæ, Alexander who lay in ambush attacked them in the pass. And
when they saw their condition was desperate, then the soldiers gave
the command to Epaminondas, and the Bœotarchs willingly conceded the
command. And Alexander lost his confidence in victory, when he saw
that Epaminondas had taken the command, and gave up Pelopidas. And
during the absence of Epaminondas the Thebans drove the Orchomenians
out of their country. Epaminondas looked on this as a misfortune, and
said the Thebans would never have committed this outrage had he been
at home. And as he was chosen Bœotarch again, he marched with an army
to the Peloponnese again, and beat the Lacedæmonians in battle at
Lechæum, and also the Achæans from Pellene and the Athenians who were
under the command of Chabrias. And it was the rule with the Thebans to
ransom all their prisoners, except Bœotian deserters, whom they put to
death. But Epaminondas after capturing a small town of the Sicyonians
called Phœbia, where were a good many Bœotian deserters, contented
himself with leaving a stigma upon them by calling them each by the
name of a different nationality. And when he got with his army as far
as Mantinea, he was killed in the moment of victory by an Athenian. The
Athenian who killed Epaminondas is represented in a painting at Athens
of the cavalry-skirmish to have been Gryllus, the son of that Xenophon
who took part in the expedition of Cyrus against king Artaxerxes, and
who led the Greeks back again to the sea.

On the statue of Epaminondas are four elegiac lines about him, that
tell how he restored Messene, and how the Greeks got their freedom
through him. These are the lines.

“Sparta cut off the glory from our councils, but in time sacred Messene
got back her children. Megalopolis was crowned by the arms of Thebes,
and all Greece became autonomous and free.”

Such were the glorious deeds of Epaminondas.



CHAPTER XVI.


And at no great distance from the statue of Epaminondas is the temple
of Ammon, the statue by Calamis and a votive offering from Pindar, who
also sent a Hymn in honour of Ammon to the Ammonians in Libya, which
Hymn is now inscribed on a triangular pillar near the altar which
Ptolemy the son of Lagus dedicated to Ammon. Next to the temple of
Ammon the Thebans have what is called Tiresias’ tower to observe the
omens, and near it is a temple of Fortune carrying in her arms Wealth
as a child. The Thebans say that Xenophon the Athenian made the hands
and face of the statue, and Callistonicus a native of Thebes all the
other parts. The idea is ingenious of putting Wealth in the hands of
Fortune as her mother or nurse, as is also the idea of Cephisodotus who
made for the Athenians a statue of Peace holding Wealth.

The Thebans have also some wooden statues of Aphrodite, so ancient
that they are said to be votive offerings of Harmonia, made out
of the wood of the gunwales of the ships of Cadmus. One they call
the Celestial Aphrodite, the other the Pandemian, and the third
the Heart-Turner. Harmonia meant by these titles of Aphrodite the
following. The Celestial is a pure love and has no connection with
bodily appetite, the Pandemian is the common vulgar sensual love,
and thirdly the goddess is called Heart-Turner because she turns the
heart of men away by lawless passion and unholy deeds. For Harmonia
knew that many bold deeds had been done in lawless passion both among
the Greeks and barbarians, such as were afterwards sung by poets, as
the legends about the mother of Adonis, and Phædra the daughter of
Minos, and the Thracian Tereus. And the temple of Law-giving Demeter
was they say formerly the house of Cadmus and his descendants. And the
statue of Demeter is only visible down to the chest. And there are some
brazen shields hung up here, which they say belonged to some of the
Lacedæmonian notables that fell at Leuctra.

At the gate called Prœtis is a theatre, and near it the temple of
Lysian Dionysus. The god was so called because, when some Thebans were
taken captive by the Thracians, and conducted to Haliartia, the god
freed them, and gave them an opportunity to kill the Thracians in their
sleep. One of the statues in the temple the Thebans say is Semele. Once
every year the temple is open on stated days. There are also the ruins
of the house of Lycus, and the sepulchre of Semele, it cannot be the
sepulchre of Alcmene, for when she died she became a stone. But the
Theban account about her differs from the Megarian: in fact the Greek
traditions mostly vary. The Thebans have here also monuments of the
sons and daughters of Amphion, the two sexes apart.



CHAPTER XVII.


And next is the temple of Artemis Euclea, the statue of the goddess is
by Scopas. They say the daughters of Antipœnus, Androclea and Alcis,
are buried in this temple. For when Hercules and the Thebans were going
to engage in battle with the Orchomenians, an oracle informed them
that, if any one of their most notable citizens in respect to birth
was willing to commit suicide, they would obtain victory in the war.
To Antipœnus, who was of most illustrious descent, it did not appear
agreeable to die for the people, but his daughters had no objection,
so they committed suicide and were honoured accordingly. In front of
the temple of Artemis Euclea is a lion in stone, which was it is said
a votive offering of Hercules, when he had vanquished in battle the
Orchomenians and their king Erginus the son of Clymenus. And near it is
a statue of Apollo Boedromius, and one of Hermes Agoræus, this last
the votive offering of Pindar. The funeral pile of the children of
Amphion is about half a stade from their tombs, the ashes still remain.
And near the statue of Amphitryon are they say two stone statues of
Athene Zosteria (_the Girder_), and they say Amphitryon armed himself
here, when he was on the point of engaging the Eubœans and Chalcodon.
The ancients called putting on one’s armour _girding oneself_: and they
say that when Homer represents Agamemnon as having a belt like Ares, he
refers to his armour.[54]

A mound of earth not very high is the sepulchre of Zethus and Amphion.
The inhabitants of Tithorea in Phocis like to carry away earth from
this mound when the Sun is in Taurus, for if they take of this soil
then, and put it on the tomb of Antiope, their land gains in fertility
while the Theban loses. So the Thebans guard the sepulchre at that time
of the year. And these two cities believe this in consequence of the
oracles of Bacis, in which the following lines occur.

 “Whenever a native of Tithorea shall pour libations on the earth to
 Amphion and Zethus, and offer prayers and propitiations when the Sun
 is in Taurus, then be on your guard against a terrible misfortune
 coming on your city: for the fruits of the earth will suffer a blight,
 if they take of the earth and put it on the sepulchre of Phocus.”

Bacis calls it the sepulchre of Phocus for the following reason.
_Dirce_, the wife of Lycus, honoured Dionysus more than any of the
gods, and when she suffered according to the tradition a cruel
death[55] he was angry with Antiope: and the excessive wrath of the
gods is somehow fatal. They say Antiope went mad and wandered over all
Greece out of her mind, and that Phocus the son of Ornytion the son of
Sisyphus fell in with her and cured her, and made her his wife. And
certainly Antiope and Phocus are buried together. And the stones by
the tomb of Amphion, which lie about in no particular order, are they
say those which followed Amphion’s music. Similar legends are told of
Orpheus, how the animals followed his harping.

[54] See Iliad, ii. 478, 479.

[55] See the story in Propertius, iv. 15.



CHAPTER XVIII.


The road to Chalcis from Thebes is by the gate Prœtis. On the high road
is the tomb of Melanippus, one of the greatest warriors of the Thebans,
who, when the Argives besieged Thebes, slew Tydeus and Mecisteus one of
the brothers of Adrastus, and was himself slain they say by Amphiaraus.
And very near this tomb are three rude stones, the Theban antiquarians
say that Tydeus was buried here, and that he was interred by Mæon. And
they confirm their statement by the following line from the Iliad,

    “Tydeus, who lies ’neath mound of earth at Thebes.”[56]

And next are the tombs of the children of Œdipus, I have not myself
seen the funeral rites performed to their memory, but I have received
trustworthy accounts. The Thebans say that they offer funeral
sacrifices to several heroes as well as to the children of Œdipus, and
that during these sacrifices the flame and smoke divide. I was induced
to credit this from the following thing which I have myself seen. In
Mysia above Caicus is a small city called Pioniæ, whose founder was
they say Pionis one of the descendants of Hercules, and when they are
celebrating his funeral sacrifices the smoke rises up from the tomb
spontaneously. I have myself seen this. The Thebans also show the tomb
of Tiresias, about 15 stades distant from the tomb of the children of
Œdipus: but they admit that Tiresias died in Haliartia, so that they
allow the tomb here to be a cenotaph.

The Thebans also shew the tomb of Hector the son of Priam near the Well
of Œdipus. They say that his remains were brought here from Ilium in
accordance with the following oracle.

“Ye Thebans, who inhabit the city of Cadmus, if ye wish your country
to enjoy abundant wealth, bring to your city from Asia Minor the bones
of Hector the son of Priam, and respect the hero at the suggestion of
Zeus.”

The Well is called Œdipus’ Well, because he washed off in it the blood
of his father’s murder. And near the Well is the tomb of Asphodicus,
who slew in the battle against the Argives Parthenopæus the son of
Talaus, (according to the tradition of the Thebans, for the verses
in the Thebais about the death of Parthenopæus say that Periclymenus
killed him).

[56] xiv. 114.



CHAPTER XIX.


On this high-road is a place called Teumessus, where they say Europa
was hidden by Zeus. And there is also a tradition about a fox of
Teumessus, that it was brought up to hurt the Thebans through the wrath
of Dionysus, and that, when it was about to be taken by the dog which
Artemis gave to Procris the daughter of Erechtheus, both dog and fox
were turned into stone. There is also at Teumessus a temple of Athene
Telchinia without a statue: as to her title Telchinia one may infer
that some of the Telchinians, who formerly dwelt at Cyprus and who
migrated into Bœotia, erected this temple to her under that title.

On the left of Teumessus about 7 stades further you come to the ruins
of Glisas, and before them on the right of the road is a small mound
shaded by a wild wood, and some trees have been planted there. It is
the tomb of those that went with Ægialeus the son of Adrastus on the
expedition against Thebes, and of several noble Argives, and among
them Promachus the son of Parthenopæus. The tomb of Ægialeus is at
Pagæ, as I have previously shown in my account about Megara. As you
go on the high road from Thebes to Glisas is a place, surrounded by
unhewn stones, which the Thebans call the head of the serpent. They
say this serpent lifted its head out of its hole, and Tiresias passing
by chopped its head off with his sword. That is how the place got its
name. And above Glisas is a mountain called Highest, and on it is
the temple and altar of Highest Zeus. And the torrent here they call
Thermodon. And as you turn towards Teumessus on the road to Chalcis
is the tomb of Chalcodon, who was slain by Amphitryon in the battle
fought by the Eubœans against the Thebans. And next come the ruins of
the towns of Harma and Mycalessus, the former was so called according
to the tradition of the people of Tanagra because the chariot of
Amphiaraus disappeared here, and not where the Thebans say it did. And
Mycalessus was so called they state because the cow that led Cadmus and
his army to Thebes lowed here.

I have described in my account of Attica how Mycalessus was
depopulated. In it near the sea is a temple of Mycalessian Demeter:
which they say is shut and opened again every night by Hercules, who
they say is one of the Idæan Dactyli. The following miracle takes place
here. At the feet of the statue of Demeter they put some of the fruits
of Autumn, and they remain fresh all the year.

At the place where the Euripus parts Eubœa from Bœotia, as you go
forward a little on the right of the temple of Mycalessian Demeter
you come to Aulis, so called they say from the daughter of Ogygus.
There is here a temple of Artemis and two stone statues of her, one
holding torches, and the other like an archer. They say that when the
Greeks in accordance with the oracle of Calchas were about to sacrifice
Iphigenia, the goddess caused a doe to be sacrificed instead. And
they keep in the temple the remains of the plane-tree which Homer has
mentioned in the Iliad.[57] It is also said that the wind at Aulis
was not favourable to the Greeks, but when at last a favourable wind
appeared then everyone sacrificed to Artemis what each had, male and
female victims, and since then it has been customary at Aulis to accept
all kinds of victims. There are shown here too the well near which the
plane-tree grows, and on a hill near the tent of Agamemnon a brazen
threshold. And some palm trees grow before the temple, the fruit of
which is not throughout good to eat as in Palestine, but they are
more mellow than the fruit of the palm-trees in Ionia. There are not
many inhabitants at Aulis, and all of them are potters. The people of
Tanagra inhabit this district, and all about Mycalessus and Harma.

[57] Iliad, ii. 307, 310.



CHAPTER XX.


In that part of the district of Tanagra near the sea is a place called
Delium, in which are statues of Artemis and Leto. And the people of
Tanagra say their founder was Pœmander, the son of Chæresilaus the son
of Iasius the son of Eleuther, who was the son of Apollo by Æthusa
the daughter of Poseidon. And Pœmander they say married Tanagra the
daughter of Æolus, though Corinna in her verses about her says that
she was the daughter of Asopus. As her life was prolonged to a very
advanced age they say that the people who lived round about called her
Graia, and in process of time called the city so too. And the name
remained so long that Homer speaks of the city by that name in his
Catalogue, in the line

    “Thespea, and Graia, and spacious Mycalessus.”[58]

But in process of time it got its old name Tanagra back again.

At Tanagra is the tomb of Orion, and the mountain Cerycius, where they
say Hermes was reared. There is also the place called Polus, where they
say Atlas sits and meditates on things under the earth and things in
heaven, of whom Homer writes,

 “Daughter of astute Atlas, who knows the depths of every sea, and who
 by himself supports the lofty pillars, which keep apart earth and
 heaven.”[59]

And in the temple of Dionysus the statue of the god by Calamis in
Parian stone is well worth looking at, but more wonderful still is a
statue of Triton. And a legend about Triton of hoar antiquity says that
the women of Tanagra before the orgies of Dionysus bathed in the sea
to purify themselves, and as they were swimming about Triton assailed
them, and they prayed Dionysus to come to their aid, and the god
hearkened to them and conquered Triton after a fight with him. Another
legend lacks the antiquity of this, but is more plausible. It relates
that, when the herds were driven to the sea, Triton lay in ambush and
carried some of them off. He also plundered small vessels, till the
people of Tanagra filled a bowl full of wine for him. And he came to it
attracted they say by its aroma, and drank of it and fell asleep and
tumbled down the rocks, and a man of Tanagra smote his head off with
an axe. And for this reason his statue has no head. And because he was
captured when drunk they think he was killed by Dionysus.

[58] Iliad, ii. 498.

[59] Odyssey, i. 52-54.



CHAPTER XXI.


I have also seen another Triton among the Curiosities at Rome, but not
so big as this one at Tanagra. This is the appearance of Tritons: the
hair on their head is like frog-wort in the marshes, and one hair is
not to be distinguished from another, the rest of their body is rough
with thin scales like the shark. Under their ears they have the gills
of a fish, and the nose of a man but a somewhat larger mouth and the
teeth of an animal. Their eyes are I think a greyish blue, and their
hands and fingers and nails are like the claws of shell-fish. And under
the breast and belly they have fins like dolphins instead of feet.
I have also seen the Ethiopian bulls, which they call rhinoceroses
because a horn projects from their nose and a little horn besides
under it, but they have no horns on their head. I have seen also the
Pæonian bulls, which are rough all over their bodies but especially in
the breast and chin. I have seen also the Indian camels which are like
leopards in colour. There is also a wild animal called the elk, which
is something between a stag and a camel, and is found among the Celts.
It is the only animal we know of that men cannot hunt or see at a
distance, but when they are engaged in hunting other animals sometimes
the deity drives the elk into their hands. But it scents men they say
at a great distance, and hides among the rocks and in the recesses of
caves. Hunters therefore, when they have drawn a large net completely
round a large district or even a mountain, so that nothing in that area
can escape, among other animals that they catch when they draw the net
tight capture occasionally the elk. But if it should not happen to be
in this area, there is no other device by which one could capture the
elk. As to the wild animal which Ctesias speaks of in his account of
the Indians, called by them _martiora_, but by the Greeks manslayer, I
am convinced this is the tiger. As to the Indian tradition, that it has
three rows of teeth in each of its jaws and stings at the end of its
tail, with which it defends itself and hurls them at a distance like
an archer his arrows, this report I cannot believe, and I think the
Indians only accept it from their excessive terror of this animal. They
are also deceived about its colour, for when it appears in the rays
of the Sun the tiger often looks red and all one colour, either from
its speed or if not running from its incessant motion, especially if
it is not seen near. I think indeed that if anyone were to travel into
the remote parts of Libya or India or Arabia, wishing to find the wild
animals that are to be found in Greece, he would not find them at all,
but he would find others different. For it is not only man that changes
his appearance in different climates and lands, but also everything
else is subject to the same conditions, for the Libyan asps have the
same colour as the Egyptian ones, while in Ethiopia the earth produces
them as black as the men. We ought therefore neither to receive any
account too hastily, nor to discredit the uncommon, for example I
myself have not seen winged serpents yet I believe there are such, for
a Phrygian brought into Ionia a scorpion that had wings like locusts.



CHAPTER XXII.


At Tanagra besides the temple of Dionysus there is one of Themis,
and another of Aphrodite, and a third of Apollo, near which are both
Artemis and Leto. With respect to the two temples of Hermes _the
Ram-carrier_ and Hermes _the Champion_, they say Hermes got the first
title because he allayed a pestilence by carrying a ram round the
walls, and that is why Calamis made a statue of Hermes carrying a ram
on his shoulders. And whoever is selected as the most handsome youth,
carries a ram on his shoulders round the walls during the festival of
Hermes. And Hermes they say was called Champion because, when the
Eretrians came with a fleet from Eubœa to Tanagra, he led the young men
out to battle, and himself (with a scraper like a young man) mainly
brought about the rout of the Eubœans. There is also some purslane
preserved in the temple of Hermes the Champion: for they fancy it was
under this tree that Hermes was reared. And at no great distance is a
theatre, and near it a portico. The people of Tanagra seem to honour
their gods most of all the Greeks, for they keep their houses and
temples apart, and their temples are in a pure place, and apart from
men. And Corinna, the only Poetess of Tanagra, has a tomb in the town
in a conspicuous place, and her painting is in the gymnasium, her head
is adorned with a fillet because of her victory over Pindar at Thebes.
And I think she conquered him because of her dialect, for she did not
compose in Doric like Pindar, but in Æolic which the Æolians would
understand, and she was also one of the handsomest of women as we can
see from her painting. They have also two kinds of cocks, game cocks
and those they call black cocks. The latter are in size like the Lydian
birds and in colour like a crow, and their gills and crest are like the
anemone, and they have small white marks on the end of their bill and
tail. Such is their appearance.

And in Bœotia on the left of the Euripus is the mountain Messapium,
and at the foot of it is the Bœotian city Anthedon on the sea, called
according to some after the Nymph Anthedon, but according to others
from Anthas who they say ruled here, the son of Poseidon by Alcyone
the daughter of Atlas. At Anthedon in about the middle of the city is
a temple and grove round it of the Cabiri, and near it is a temple
of Demeter and Proserpine and their statues in white stone. There is
also a temple of Dionysus and a statue of the god in front of the city
in the land direction. Here too are the tombs of Otus and Ephialtes
the sons of Iphimedea and Aloeus, who were slain by Apollo as both
Homer[60] and Pindar have represented. Fate carried them off in Naxos
beyond Paros, but their tombs are in Anthedon. And by the sea is a
place called the leap of Glaucus. He was a fisherman but after eating
a certain grass became a marine god and predicts the future, as is
believed by many and especially by seafaring men, who every year speak
of Glaucus’ powers of prophesy. Pindar and Æschylus have celebrated
Glaucus from these traditions of the people of Anthedon, Pindar not so
much, but Æschylus has made him the subject of one of his plays.

[60] Odyssey, xi. 318-320. Pindar, Pyth. iv. 156 _sq._



CHAPTER XXIII.


The Thebans in front of the gate Prœtis have what is called the
gymnasium of Iolaus, and a mound of earth constituting a race-course
like that at Olympia and Epidaurus. There is also shown there the
hero-chapel of Iolaus, who died in Sardinia, (as the Thebans admit),
with the Athenians and Thespians who crossed over with him. As you
leave the race-course on the right is the Hippodrome, and in it is the
tomb of Pindar. When he was quite a young man, going one day to Thespiæ
in the middle of a very hot day, he was tired and sleep came upon him.
And he lay down a little above the road, and some bees settled on him
as he slept and made their honey on his lips. This circumstance made
him first write poems. And when he was famous throughout all Greece,
the Pythian Priestess raised his fame still higher by proclaiming at
Delphi, that Pindar was to have an equal share with Apollo of the
firstfruits. It is said that he also had an appearance in a dream when
he was advanced in years. Proserpine stood by him as he slept, and told
him that she was the only one of the gods that was not celebrated by
him, but he would also celebrate her in an Ode when he came to her. And
he died before the close of the 10th day after this dream. And there
was at Thebes an old woman related to Pindar, who had been accustomed
to sing many of his Odes, to her Pindar appeared in a dream and recited
his Hymn to Proserpine. And she directly she awoke wrote it down just
as she had heard him reciting in her dream. In this Hymn Pluto has
several titles, among others the _Golden-reined_, dearly an allusion
to the Rape of Proserpine.

The road from the tomb of Pindar to Acræphnium is mostly level. They
say Acræphnium was originally a city in the district of Thebes, and I
heard that some Thebans fled for refuge there when Alexander destroyed
Thebes, for through weakness and old age they were not able to get safe
to Attica but dwelt there. This little city is situated on Mount Ptoum,
and the temple and statue of Dionysus there are well worth seeing.

About 15 stades further you come to the temple of Ptoan Apollo. Ptous
was the son of Athamas and Themisto, and from him both Apollo and the
Mountain got their name according to the poet Asius. And before the
invasion of Alexander and the Macedonians, and the destruction of
Thebes, there was an infallible oracle there. And on one occasion a
European whose name was Mys was sent by Mardonius to consult the oracle
in his own tongue, and the god gave his response not in Greek but in
the Carian dialect.[61]

When you have passed over the mountain Ptoum, you come to Larymna
a city of the Bœotians by the sea, so called from the daughter of
Cynus who was Larymna: her remote ancestors I shall relate when I
come to Locris. Formerly Larymna was reckoned in with Opus, but when
the Thebans became powerful the inhabitants voluntarily transferred
themselves to the Bœotians. There is here a temple of Dionysus, and a
statue of the god in a standing posture. And there is a deep harbour
close to the shore, and the mountains above the town afford excellent
wild boar hunting.

[61] See Herodotus, viii. 135.



CHAPTER XXIV.


As you go from Acræphnium straight for the lake Cephisis, which is
called by some Copais, is the plain called Athamantium, where they
say Athamas lived. The river Cephisus has its outlet into this lake,
which river has its rise at Lilæa in Phocis, and when you have sailed
through the lake you come to Copæ a small town on its banks, which
Homer has mentioned in his Catalogue of the ships.[62] Demeter and
Dionysus and Serapis have temples there. The Bœotians say that formerly
there were several small towns, as Athenæ and Eleusis, inhabited near
this lake, which were swept away one winter by a flood. The fish
generally in Lake Cephisis are very like other lake fish, but the eels
are especially fine and good eating.

On the left of Copæ about 12 stades further you come to Olmones, about
seven stades distant from which is Hyettus, villages both of them now
as always, and I think formerly they as well as the plain Athamantium
belonged to Orchomenus. The traditions I have heard about Hyettus the
Argive, and Olmus the son of Sisyphus, I shall relate when I come to
Orchomenus. There is nothing remarkable to be seen at Olmones, but at
Hyettus there is a temple of Hercules, where those who are sick can
obtain healing from him. The statue of the god is not artistic, but
made of rude stone as in old times.

And about 20 stades from Hyettus is the small town Cyrtones: the
ancient name was Cyrtone. It is built on a high hill, and contains a
temple and grove of Apollo, and statues of both Apollo and Artemis in a
standing picture. There is also some cold water there that flows from
the rock, and near this spring a temple of the Nymphs and small grove,
in which all kinds of trees that are planted grow.

Next to Cyrtones, after you have passed over the mountain, you come to
the little town of Corsea, and below it is a grove of wild trees mostly
holm-oaks. There is a small statue of Hermes in the grove in the open
air, about half a stade from Corsea. As you descend to the level plain
the river Platanius has its outlet into the sea, and on the right of
this river the Bœotians on the borders inhabit the town of Halæ by the
sea, which parts Locris from Eubœa.

[62] Iliad, ii. 502.



CHAPTER XXV.


At Thebes near the gate Neistis is the tomb of Menœceus the son of
Creon, who voluntarily slew himself in accordance with the oracle at
Delphi, when Polynices and his army came from Argos. A pomegranate
tree grows near this tomb, when its fruit is ripe if you break the
rind the kernel is like blood. This tree is always in bloom. And the
Thebans say the vine first grew at Thebes, but they have no proof of
what they assert. And not far from the tomb of Menœceus they say the
sons of Œdipus had a single combat and killed one another. As a record
of this combat there is a pillar, and a stone shield upon it. A place
also is shown where the Thebans say that Hera suckled Hercules when a
baby through some deceit on the part of Zeus. And the whole place is
called Antigone’s Dragging-ground: for as she could not easily lift up
with all her zeal the corpse of Polynices, her next idea was to drag it
along, which she did till she was able to throw it on the funeral pile
of Eteocles which was blazing.

When you have crossed the river called Dirce from the wife of Lycus,
(about this Dirce there is a tradition that she defamed Antiope and
was consequently killed by the sons of Antiope), there are ruins of
Pindar’s house, and a temple of the Dindymene Mother, the votive
offering of Pindar, the statue of the goddess is by the Thebans
Aristomedes and Socrates. They are wont to open this temple one day in
each year and no more. I happened to be present on that day, and I saw
the statue which is of Pentelican marble as well as the throne.

On the road from the gate Neistis is the temple of Themis and the
statue of the goddess in white stone, and next come temples of the
Fates and of Zeus Agoræus, the latter has a stone statue, but the Fates
have no statues. And at a little distance is a statue of Hercules in
the open air called _Nose-cutter-off_, because (say the Thebans) he cut
off the noses of the envoys who came from Orchomenus to demand tribute.

About 25 stades further you come to the grove of Cabirian Demeter and
Proserpine, which none may enter but the initiated. About seven stades
from this grove is the temple of the Cabiri. Who they were and what
are their rites or those of Demeter I must be pardoned by the curious
for passing over in silence. But nothing prevents my publishing to
everybody the origin of these rites according to the Theban traditions.
They say there was formerly a town here, the inhabitants of which were
called Cabiri, and that Demeter getting acquainted with Prometheus (one
of the Cabiri), and Prometheus’ son Ætnæus, put something into their
hands. What this deposit was, and the circumstances relating to it, it
is not lawful for me to disclose. But the mysteries of Demeter were a
gift to the Cabiri. But when the Epigoni led an army against Thebes and
captured it, the Cabiri were driven out by the Argives, and for some
time the mysteries were not celebrated. Afterwards however they are
said to have been reestablished by Pelarge, the daughter of Potneus,
and her husband Isthmiades, who taught them to the person whose name
was Alexiarous. And because Pelarge celebrated the mysteries beyond the
ancient boundaries, Telondes and all of the Cabiri who had left Cabiræa
returned. Pelarge in consequence of an oracle from Dodona was treated
with various honours, and a victim big with young was ordered for her
sacrifice. The wrath of the Cabiri is implacable as has frequently been
manifested. For example when some private persons at Naupactus imitated
the mysteries at Thebes, vengeance soon came upon them. And those of
Xerxes’ army who were with Mardonius and left in Bœotia, when they
entered the temple of the Cabiri (partly from the hope of finding great
wealth there, but more I think to insult the divinity), went mad and
perished by throwing themselves into the sea from the rocks. And when
Alexander after his victory put Thebes and all Thebais on fire, the
Macedonians who went into the temple of the Cabiri with hostile intent
were killed by lightning and thunderbolts. So holy was this temple from
the first.



CHAPTER XXVI.


On the right of the temple of the Cabiri is a plain called the plain
of Tenerus from Tenerus the seer, who they think was the son of Apollo
and Melia, and a large temple to Hercules surnamed Hippodetes, because
they say the Orchomenians came here with an army, and Hercules by
night took their horses and tied them to their chariots. And a little
further you come to the mountain where they say the Sphinx made her
headquarters, reciting a riddle for the ruin of those she captured.
Others say that with a naval force she used to sail the seas as a
pirate, and made her port Anthedon, and occupied this mountain for her
robberies, till Œdipus slew her after vanquishing her with a superior
force, which he brought from Corinth. It is also said that she was the
illegitimate daughter of Laius, and that her father out of good will to
her told her the oracle that was given to Cadmus at Delphi, an oracle
which no one knew but the kings of Thebes. Whenever then any one of her
brothers came to consult her about the kingdom, (for Laius had sons by
mistresses, and the oracle at Delphi only referred to his wife Epicaste
and male children by her), she used subtlety to her brothers, saying
that if they were the sons of Laius they would know the oracle given
to Cadmus, and if they could not give it she condemned them to death,
as being doubtful claimants of the blood royal. And Œdipus learnt this
oracle in a dream.

About 15 stades from this mountain are the ruins of Onchestus, where
they say Onchestus the son of Poseidon dwelt, and in my time there
was a statue of Onchestian Poseidon, and the grove which Homer has
mentioned.[63] And as you turn to the left from the temple of the
Cabiri in about 50 stades you will come to Thespia built under Mount
Helicon. The town got its name they say from Thespia the daughter
of Asopus. Others say that Thespius the son of Erechtheus came from
Athens, and gave his name to it. At Thespia is a brazen statue of
Zeus Soter: they say that, when a dragon once infested the town, Zeus
ordered one of the lads chosen by lot every year to be given to the
monster. The names of his other victims they do not record, but for
Cleostratus the last victim they say his lover Menestratus invented
the following contrivance. He made for him a brazen breastplate with
a hook on each of its plates bent in, and Cleostratus armed with this
cheerfully gave himself up to the dragon, for he knew that though
he would perish himself he would also kill the monster. From this
circumstance Zeus was called the Saviour. They have also statues of
Dionysus and Fortune, and Hygiea, and Athene the Worker, and near her
Plutus.

[63] Iliad, ii. 506.



CHAPTER XXVII.


Of the gods the Thespians have always honoured Eros most, of whom they
have a very old statue in rude stone. But who instituted the worship
of Eros at Thespia I do not know. This god is worshipped not a whit
less by the Pariani who live near the Hellespont, who were originally
from Ionia and migrated from Erythræ, and are now included amongst
the Romans. Most men think Eros the latest of the gods, and the son
of Aphrodite. But the Lycian Olen, who wrote the most ancient Hymns
of the Greeks, says in his Hymn to Ilithyia that she was the mother
of Eros. And after Olen Pamphus and Orpheus wrote verses to Eros for
the Lycomidæ to sing at the mysteries, and I have read them thanks to
a torch-bearer at the mysteries. But of these I shall make no further
mention. And Hesiod, (or whoever wrote the Theogony and foisted it
on Hesiod), wrote I know that Chaos came first, and then Earth, and
Tartarus, and Eros. And the Lesbian Sappho has sung many things about
Eros which do not harmonize with one another. Lysippus afterwards
made a brazen statue of Eros for the Thespians, and still earlier
Praxiteles made one in Pentelican marble. I have told elsewhere all
about Phryne’s ingenious trick on Praxiteles. This statue of Eros was
removed first by the Roman Emperor Gaius, and, though it was restored
by Claudius to Thespia, Nero removed it to Rome once more. And there
it was burnt by fire. But of those who acted thus impiously to the
god Gaius, always giving the same obscene word to a soldier, made him
so angry that at last he killed him for it,[64] and Nero, besides his
dealings to his mother and wedded wives, showed himself an abominable
fellow and one that had no true affinity with Eros. The statue of
Eros in Thespia in our day is by the Athenian Menodorus, who made an
imitation of the statue of Praxiteles. There are also statues in stone
by Praxiteles of Aphrodite and Phryne. And in another part of the town
is a temple of Black Aphrodite, and a theatre and market-place well
worth seeing: there is also a brazen statue of Hesiod. And not far from
the market-place is a brazen Victory, and a small temple of the Muses,
and some small stone statues in it.

There is also a temple of Hercules at Thespia, the priestess is a
perpetual virgin. The reason of this is as follows. They say that
Hercules in one night had connection with all the fifty daughters of
Thestius but one: her he spared and made her his priestess on condition
that she remained a virgin all her life. I have indeed heard another
tradition, that Hercules in the same night had connection with all the
daughters of Thestius, and that they all bare him sons, and the eldest
and youngest twins. But I cannot believe this credible that Hercules
should have been so angry with the daughter of his friend. Besides he
who, while he was among men, punished insolent persons and especially
those who showed impiety to the gods, would not have been likely to
have built a temple and appointed a priestess to himself as if he had
been a god. And indeed this temple seems to me too ancient for Hercules
the son of Amphitryon, and was perhaps erected by the Hercules who was
one of the Idæan Dactyli, temples of whom I have found among the people
of Erythræ in Ionia, and among the people of Tyre. Nor are the Bœotians
ignorant of this Hercules, for they say that the temple of Mycalessian
Demeter was entrusted to Idæan Hercules.

[64] See Sueton. _Calig._ 56, 58. The word was the word for the day
given to soldiers.



CHAPTER XXVIII.


Of all the mountains of Greece Helicon is the most fertile and full
of trees planted there: and the purslane bushes afford everywhere
excellent food for goats. And those who live at Helicon say that the
grass and roots on the mountain are by no means injurious to man.
Moreover the pastures make the venom of snakes less potent, so that
those that are bitten here mostly escape with their life, if they meet
with a Libyan of the race of the Psylli, or with some antidote from
some other source. And yet the venom of wild snakes is generally deadly
both to men and animals, and the condition of the pastures contributes
greatly to the strength of the venom, for I have heard from a Phœnician
that in the mountainous part of Phœnicia the roots make the vipers
more formidable. He said also that he had seen a man flee from the
attack of a viper and run to a tree, and the viper followed after and
blew its venom against the tree, and that killed the man. Such was
what he told me. And I also know that the following happens in Arabia
in the case of vipers that live near balsam trees. The balsam tree is
about the same size as a myrtle bush, and its leaves are like those of
the herb marjoram. And the vipers in Arabia more or less lodge under
these balsam trees, for the sap from them is the food most agreeable
to them, and moreover they rejoice in the shade of the trees. Whenever
then the proper season comes for the Arabians to gather the sap of the
balsam tree, they take with them two poles and knock them together and
so frighten off the vipers, for they don’t like to kill them as they
look upon them as sacred. But if anyone happens to be bitten by these
vipers, the wound is similar to that from steel, and there is no fear
of venom: for inasmuch as these vipers feed on the most sweet-scented
ointment, the venom changes its deadly properties for something milder.
Such is the case there.



CHAPTER XXIX.


They say that Ephialtes and Otus first sacrificed to the Muses on
Helicon, and called the mountain sacred to the Muses, and built Ascra,
of which Hegesinous speaks as follows in his poem about Attica.

 “By Ascra lay the earth-shaking Poseidon, and she as time rolled on
 bare him a son Œoclus, who first built Ascra with the sons of Aloeus,
 Ascra at the foot of many-fountained Helicon.”

This poem of Hegesinous I have not read, for it was not extant in my
time, but Callippus the Corinthian in his account of Orchomenus cites
some of the lines to corroborate his account, and similarly I myself
have cited some of them from Callippus. There is a tower at Ascra in
my time, but nothing else remains. And the sons of Aloeus thought the
Muses were three in number, and called them Melete and Mneme and Aoide.
But afterwards they say the Macedonian Pierus, who gave his name to the
mountain in Macedonia, came to Thespia and made 9 Muses, and changed
their names to the ones they now have. And this Pierus did either
because it seemed wiser, or in obedience to an oracle, or so taught
by some Thracian, for the Thracians seem in old times to have been in
other respects more clever than the Macedonians, and not so neglectful
of religion. There are some who say that Pierus had 9 daughters,
and that they had the same names as the Muses, and that those who
were called by the Greeks the sons of the Muses were called the
grandchildren of Pierus. But Mimnermus, in the Elegiac verses which he
composed about the battle of the people of Smyrna against Gyges and the
Lydians, says in his prelude that the older Muses were the daughters of
Uranus, and the younger ones the daughters of Zeus. And at Helicon, on
the left as you go to the grove of the Muses, is the fountain Aganippe.
Aganippe was they say the daughter of Termesus, the river which flows
round Helicon, and, if you go straight for the grove, you will come to
an image of Eupheme carved in stone. She is said to have been the nurse
of the Muses. And next to her is a statue of Linus, on a small rock
carved like a cavern, to whom every year they perform funeral rites
before they sacrifice to the Muses. It is said that Linus was the son
of Urania by Amphiaraus the son of Poseidon, and that he had greater
fame for musical skill than either his contemporaries or predecessors,
and that Apollo slew him because he boasted himself as equal to the
god. And on the death of Linus sorrow for him spread even to foreign
lands, so that even the Egyptians have a Lament called Linus, but in
their own dialect Maneros.[65] And the Greek poets have represented the
sorrows of Linus as a Greek legend, as Homer who in his account of the
shield of Achilles says that Hephæstus among other things represented a
harper boy singing the song of Linus.

    “And in the midst a boy on the clear lyre
    Harped charmingly, and sang of handsome Linus.”[66]

And Pamphus, who composed the most ancient Hymns for the Athenians, as
the sorrow for Linus grew to such a pitch, called him Œtolinus, (_sad
Linus_). And the Lesbian Sappho, having learnt from Pamphus this name
of Œtolinus, sings of Adonis and Œtolinus together. And the Thebans say
that Linus was buried at Thebes, and that after the fatal defeat of the
Greeks at Chæronea Philip the son of Amyntas, according to a vision he
had in a dream, removed the remains of Linus to Macedonia, and that
afterwards in consequence of another dream he sent them back to Thebes,
but they say that all the coverings of the tomb and other distinctive
marks are obliterated through lapse of time. Another tradition of the
Thebans says that there was another Linus besides this one, called
the son of Ismenius, and that Hercules when quite a boy slew him: he
was Hercules’ music-master. But neither of these Linuses composed any
poems: or if they did they have not come down to posterity.

[65] See Herodotus, ii. 79.

[66] Iliad, xviii. 569, 570.



CHAPTER XXX.


The earliest statues of the Muses here were all by Cephisodotus, and
if you advance a little you will find three of his Muses, and three by
Strongylion who was especially famous as a statuary of cows and horses,
and three by Olympiosthenes. At Helicon are also a brazen Apollo and
Hermes contending about a lyre, and a Dionysus by Lysippus, and an
upright statue of Dionysus, the votive offering of Sulla, by Myro, the
next best work to his Erechtheus at Athens. But Sulla did not offer it
of his own possessions, but took it from the Orchomenian Minyæ. This is
what is called by the Greeks worshipping the deity with other people’s
incense.[67]

Here too they have erected statues of poets and others notable
for music, as blind Thamyris handling a broken lyre, and Arion of
Methymna on the dolphin’s back. But he who made the statue of Sacadas
the Argive, not understanding Pindar’s prelude about him, has made
the piper no bigger in his body than his pipes. There too is Hesiod
sitting with a harp on his knees, not his usual appearance, for it
is plain from his poems that he used to sing with a laurel wand.
As to the period of Hesiod and Homer, though I made most diligent
research, it is not agreeable to me to venture an opinion, as I know
the disputatiousness of people, and not least of those who in my day
have discussed poetical subjects. There is also a statue of Thracian
Orpheus with Telete beside him, and there are round him representations
in stone and brass of the animals listening to his singing. The Greeks
believe many things which are not true, and among others that Orpheus
was the son of the Muse Calliope and not of the daughter of Pierus, and
that animals were led by his melody, and that he went down alive to
Hades to get back his wife Eurydice from the gods of the lower world.
But Orpheus, as it seems to me, really did excel all his predecessors
in the arrangement of his poems, and attained to great influence
as being thought to have invented the mysteries of the gods, and
purifications from unholy deeds, and cures for diseases, and means of
turning away the wrath of the gods. And they say the Thracian women
laid plots against his life, because he persuaded their husbands to
accompany him in his wanderings, but from fear of their husbands did
not carry them out at first: but afterwards when they had primed
themselves with wine carried out the atrocious deed, and since that
time it has been customary for the men to go drunk into battle. But
some say that Orpheus died from being struck with lightning by the
god because he taught men in the mysteries things they had not before
heard of. Others have recorded that, his wife Eurydice having died
before him, he went to Aornus in Thesprotia, to consult an oracle of
the dead about her, and he thought that her soul would follow him,
but losing her because he turned back to look at her he slew himself
from grief. And the Thracians say that the nightingales that build
their nests on the tomb of Orpheus sing pleasanter and louder than
other nightingales. But the Macedonians who inhabit the district of
Pieria, under the mountain and the city Dium, say that Orpheus was
slain there by the women. And as you go from Dium to the mountain and
about 20 stades further is a pillar on the right hand and on the pillar
a stone urn: this urn has the remains of Orpheus as the people of the
district say. The river Helicon flows through this district, after
a course of 75 stades it loses itself in the ground, and 22 stades
further it reappears, when it is called Baphyra instead of Helicon,
becomes a navigable stream, and finally discharges itself into the sea.
The people of Dium say that the river flowed above ground originally
throughout its course, but when the women who slew Orpheus desired to
wash off his blood in it, it went underground that it might not give
them cleansing from their blood-guiltiness. I have also heard another
account at Larissa, that a city on Olympus was once inhabited called
Libethra, where the mountain looks to Macedonia, and that the tomb of
Orpheus is not far from this city, and that there came an oracle to the
people of Libethra from Dionysus in Thrace, that when the Sun should
see the bones of Orpheus their city would be destroyed by _Sus_. But
they paid no great attention to the oracle, thinking no wild animal
would be large or strong enough to destroy their city, while as to the
boar (_Sus_) it had more boldness than power. However when the god
thought fit, then the following happened. A shepherd about mid-day
laid himself down by the tomb of Orpheus and fell asleep, and in his
sleep sang some verses of Orpheus aloud in a sweet voice. Then the
shepherds and husbandmen who were near left their respective work, and
crowded together to hear this shepherd sing in his sleep, and pushing
one another about in striving to get near the shepherd overturned the
pillar, and the urn fell off it and was broken, and the Sun did see the
remains of Orpheus. And on the following night it rained very heavily,
and the river _Sus_, which is one of the mountain streams on Olympus,
swept away the walls of Libethra, and the temples of the gods and the
houses of the inhabitants, and drowned all the human beings in the
place and all the animals. As the Libethrians therefore all perished,
the Macedonians in Dium, according to the account I received from my
host at Larissa, removed the remains of Orpheus to their city. Whoever
has investigated the subject knows that the Hymns of Orpheus are very
short, and do not altogether amount to a great number. The Lycomidæ are
acquainted with them and chant them at the Mysteries. In composition
they are second only to the Hymns of Homer, and are more valued for
their religious spirit.

[67] Compare the Homeric ἀλλοτρίων χαρίσασθαι. Od. xvii. 452. Our
_Robbing Peter to pay Paul_.



CHAPTER XXXI.


There is also at Helicon a statue of Arsinoe, whom Ptolemy married
though he was her brother. A brazen ostrich supports it. Ostriches
have wings like other birds, but from their weight and size their
wings do not enable them to fly. There is also a doe suckling Telephus
the son of Hercules, and a cow, and a statue of Priapus well worth
seeing. Priapus is honoured especially where there are flocks of sheep
or goats, or swarms of bees. And the people of Lampsacus honour him
more than all the gods, and say that he is the son of Dionysus and
Aphrodite.[68]

At Helicon there are also several tripods, the most ancient is the one
they say Hesiod received at Chalcis by the Euripus for a victory in
song. And men live round the grove, and the Thespians hold a festival
there and have games to the Muses, and also to Eros, in which they give
prizes not only for music but to athletes also. And after ascending
from this grove 20 stades you come to Hippocrene, a spring formed they
say by the horse of Bellerophon striking the earth with its hoof. And
the Bœotians that dwell about Helicon have a tradition that Hesiod
wrote nothing but _The Works and Days_, and from this they take away
the address to the Muses, and make the poem commence at the part
about Strife.[69] And they showed me some lead near Hippocrene almost
entirely rotten with age, on which _The Works and Days_ was written. A
very contrary view to this is that Hesiod has written several poems, as
that _On Women_, and _The Great Eœœ_, and _The Theogony_ and _The Poem
on Melampus_, and _The Descent of Theseus and Pirithous to Hades_, and
_The Exhortation of Chiron for the Instruction of Achilles_, and all
_The Works and Days_. The same people tell us also that Hesiod learnt
his divination from the Acarnanians, and there are some verses of his
_On Divination_ which I have read, and a _Narrative of Prodigies_.
There are also different accounts about his death. For though it is
universally agreed that Ctimenus and Antiphus, the sons of Ganyctor,
fled to Molycria from Naupactus because of the murder of Hesiod, and
were sentenced there because of their impiety to Poseidon, yet some say
that the charge against Hesiod of having violated their sister was not
true, others say he was really guilty. Such are the different accounts
about Hesiod and his Works.

On the top of Mount Helicon is a small river called the Lamus. And
in the district of Thespia is a place called Donacon, (_Reed-bed_),
where is the fountain of Narcissus, who they say looked into this
water, and not observing that it was his own shadow which he saw was
secretly enamoured of himself, and died of love near the fountain.
This is altogether silly that any grown person should be so possessed
by love as not to know the difference between a human being and a
shadow. There is another tradition about him, not so well known as the
other, _viz._ that he had a twin-sister, and that the two were almost
facsimiles in appearance and hair and dress, and used to go out hunting
together, and that Narcissus was in love with this sister, and when she
died he used to frequent this fountain and knew that it was his own
shadow which he saw, yet though he knew this it gratified his love to
think that it was not his own shadow but the image of his sister that
he was looking at. But the earth produced I think the flower narcissus
earlier than this, if one may credit the verses of Pamphus: for
though he was much earlier than the Thespian Narcissus, he says that
Proserpine the daughter of Demeter was playing and gathering flowers
when she was carried off, and that she was deceived not by violets but
by narcissuses.[70]

[68] So Tibullus calls Priapus “Bacchi rustica proles,” i. 4. 7.

[69] _viz._, at line 11.

[70] See Homer’s Hymn to Demeter, lines 8-10.



CHAPTER XXXII.


The inhabitants of Creusis, a haven of the Thespians, have no public
monuments, but in the house of a private individual is a statue of
Dionysus made of plaster and adorned by a painting. The sea-voyage from
the Peloponnese to Creusis is circuitous and rough, the promontories so
jut out into the sea that one cannot sail straight across, and at the
same time strong winds blow down from the mountains.

And as you sail from Creusis, not well out to sea but coasting along
Bœotia, you will see on the right the city Thisbe. First there is
a mountain near the sea, and when you have passed that there is a
plain and then another mountain, and at the bottom of this mountain
is Thisbe. And there is a temple of Hercules and stone statue there
in a standing posture, and they keep a festival to him. And nothing
would prevent the plain between the mountains being a lake, (so much
water is there), but that they have a strong embankment in the middle
of the plain, and annually divert the water beyond the embankment and
cultivate the dry parts of the plain. And Thisbe, from whom the city
got its name, was they say a local Nymph.

As you sail on thence you will come to a small town called Tipha near
the sea. There is a temple of Hercules there, and they have a festival
to him annually. The inhabitants say that from of old they were the
most clever mariners of all the Bœotians, and they record that Tiphys,
who was chosen the pilot of the Argo, was a townsman of theirs: they
also shew a place before their town where they say the Argo was moored
on its return from Colchi.

As you go inland from Thespia towards the mainland you will arrive at
Haliartus. But I must not separate the founder of Haliartus and Coronea
from my account of Orchomenus. On the invasion of the Medes, as the
people of Haliartus espoused the side of the Greeks, part of the army
of Xerxes set out to burn the town and district. At Haliartus is the
tomb of Lysander the Lacedæmonian, for when he attacked the city, the
forces from Thebes and Athens inside the city sallied forth, and in the
battle that ensued he fell. In some respects one may praise Lysander
very much, in others one must bitterly censure him. He exhibited
great sagacity when he was in command of the Peloponnesian fleet.
Watching when Alcibiades was absent from the fleet, he enticed his
pilot Antiochus to think he could cope with the Lacedæmonian fleet,
and when he sailed out against them boldly and confidently, defeated
him not far from the city of the Colophonians. And when Lysander
joined the fleet from Sparta the second time, he so conciliated Cyrus,
that whatever money he asked for the fleet Cyrus gave him freely at
once. And when 100 Athenian ships were anchored at Ægos-potamoi he
captured them, watching when the crews had gone on shore for fresh
water and provisions. He also exhibited his justice in the following
circumstance. Autolycus the pancratiast (whose effigy I have seen in
the Pyrtaneum at Athens) had a dispute with Eteonicus a Spartan about
some property. And when Eteonicus was convicted of pleading unfairly,
(it was when the Thirty Tyrants were in power at Athens, and Lysander
was present), he was moved to strike Autolycus, and when he struck back
he brought him to Lysander, expecting that he would decide the affair
in his favour. But Lysander condemned Eteonicus of injustice, and sent
him away with reproaches. This was creditable to Lysander, but the
following were discreditable. He put to death Philocles, the Athenian
Admiral at Ægos-potamoi, and 4000 Athenian captives, and would not
allow them burial, though the Athenians granted burial to the Medes at
Marathon, and King Xerxes to the Lacedæmonians that fell at Thermopylæ.
And Lysander brought still greater disgrace upon the Lacedæmonians by
establishing Decemvirates in the cities besides the Laconian Harmosts.
And when the Lacedæmonians did not think of making money because of
the oracle, which said that love of money alone would ruin Sparta, he
inspired in them a strong desire for money. I therefore, following the
opinion of the Persians and judging according to their law, think that
Lysander did more harm than good to the Lacedæmonians.



CHAPTER XXXIII.


At Haliartus is Lysander’s tomb, and a hero-chapel to Cecrops the son
of Pandion. And the mountain Tilphusium and the fountain Tilphusa are
about 50 stades from Haliartus. It is a tradition of the Greeks that
the Argives, who in conjunction with the sons of Polynices captured
Thebes, were taking Tiresias and the spoil to Apollo at Delphi, when
Tiresias who was thirsty drank of the fountain Tilphusa and gave up
the ghost, and was buried on the spot. They say also that Manto the
daughter of Tiresias was offered to Apollo by the Argives, but that, in
consequence of the orders of the god, she sailed to what is now Ionia,
and to that part of it called Colophonia. And there she married the
Cretan Rhacius. All the other legends about Tiresias, as the number of
years which he is recorded to have lived, and how he was changed from a
woman into a man, and how Homer in his Odyssey has represented him as
the only person of understanding in Hades,[71] all this everyone has
heard and knows. Near Haliartus too there is in the open air a temple
of the goddesses that they call Praxidicæ. In this temple they swear
no hasty oaths. This temple is near the mountain Tilphusium. There are
also temples at Haliartus, with no statues in them for there is no
roof: to whom they were erected I could not ascertain.

The river Lophis flows through the district of Haliartus. The tradition
is that the ground was dry there originally and had no water in it, and
that one of the rulers went to Delphi to inquire of the god how they
might obtain water in the district: and the Pythian Priestess enjoined
him to slay the first person he should meet on his return: and it was
his son Lophis who met him on his return, and without delay he ran
his sword through him, and Lophis yet alive ran round and round, and
wherever his blood flowed the water gushed up, and it was called Lophis
after him.

The village Alalcomenæ is not large, and lies at the foot of a mountain
not very high. It got its name from Alalcomeneus an Autochthon who they
say reared Athene: others say from Alalcomenia one of the daughters
of Ogygus. Some distance from the village in the plain is a temple
of Athene, and there was an old ivory statue of the goddess, which
was taken away by Sulla, who was also very cruel to the Athenians,
and whose manners were very unlike those of the Romans, and who acted
similarly to the Thebans and Orchomenians. He, after his furious onsets
against the Greek cities and the gods of the Greeks, was himself seized
by the most unpleasant of all diseases, for he was covered with lice,
and this was the end of all his glory. And the temple of Athene at
Alalcomenæ was neglected after the statue of the goddess was removed.
Another circumstance in my time tended to the breaking up of the
temple: some ivy, which had got a firm hold on the building, loosened
and detached the stones from their positions. The river that flows here
is a small torrent, they call it Triton because they say Athene was
brought up near the river Triton, as if it were this Triton, and not
the Triton in Libya which has its outlet from the Lake Tritonis into
the Libyan sea.

[71] Odyssey, x. 492-495.



CHAPTER XXXIV.


Before you get to Coronea from Alalcomenæ, you will come to the temple
of Itonian Athene, called so from Itonus the son of Amphictyon. Here
the Bœotians hold their general meeting. In this temple are brazen
statues of Itonian Athene and Zeus, designed by Agoracritus, a pupil
and lover of Phidias. They also erected in my time some statues of the
Graces. The following tradition is told that Iodama the priestess of
Athene went to the temple by night, and Athene appeared to her with the
head of the Gorgon Medusa on her tunic, and Iodama when she saw it was
turned into stone. In consequence of this a woman puts fire every day
on the altar of Iodama, and calls out thrice in the Bœotian dialect,
“Iodama is alive and asks for fire.”

Coronea is remarkable for its altar of Hermes Epimelius in the
market-place, and its altar of the Winds. And a little lower down is
a temple and ancient statue of Hera by Pythodorus the Theban. She has
some Sirens in her hand. For they say that they, the daughters of
Achelous, were persuaded by Hera to vie with the Muses in singing, and
that the Muses being victorious plucked off their wings and made crowns
of them. About 40 stades from Coronea is the mountain Libethrium,
where are statues of the Muses and Nymphs called Libethrides, and two
fountains (one called Libethrias, and the other Petra) like women’s
breasts, and water like milk comes up from them.

It is about 20 stades from Coronea to the mountain Laphystium, and to
the sacred enclosure of Laphystian Zeus. There is a stone statue of the
god here: and this is the spot they say where, when Athamas was going
to sacrifice Phrixus and Helle, a ram with golden wool was sent them
by Zeus, on whose back the children escaped. A little higher up is a
statue of Hercules Charops, the Bœotians say Hercules came up here from
the lower world with Cerberus. And as you descend from Laphystium to
the temple of Itonian Athene is the river Phalarus, which discharges
itself into the lake Cephisis.

Beyond the mountain Laphystium is Orchomenus, as famous and renowned
as any Greek city, which, after having risen to the very acme of
prosperity, was destined to come to a similar end as Mycenæ and Delos.
This is what they record of its ancient history. They say Andreus first
dwelt here, the son of the river Peneus, and the country was called
Andreis after him. And when Athamas came to him, he distributed to him
his land in the neighbourhood of the mountain Laphystium, and what
are now called Coronea and Haliartia. And Athamas thinking he had no
male children left, (for he had laid violent hands on Learchus and
Melicerta, and Leucon had died of some illness, and as to Phrixus he
did not know whether he was alive or had left any descendant), adopted
accordingly Haliartus and Coronus, the sons of Thersander, the son
of Sisyphus, who was brother of Athamas. But afterwards when Phrixus
returned from Colchi according to some, according to others Presbon,
Phrixus’ son by the daughter of Æetes, then the sons of Thersander
conceded the kingdom of Athamas to him and his posterity, so they
dwelt at Haliartus and Coronea which Athamas had given to them. And
before this Andreus had married Euippe the daughter of Leucon at the
instigation of Athamas, and had by her a son Eteocles, who according
to the poets was the son of the river Cephisus, so that some of them
called him Cephisiades in their poems. When Eteocles became king he
allowed the country to keep its name Andreis, but established two
tribes, one of which he called Cephisias, and the other from his own
name Eteoclea. When Almus the son of Sisyphus came to him, he granted
him a small village to dwell in, which got called after him Almones,
but eventually got changed to Olmones.



CHAPTER XXXV.


The Bœotians say that Eteocles was the first who sacrificed to the
Graces. And they are sure that he established the worship of three
Graces, though they do not remember the names he gave them. For the
Lacedæmonians say that only two Graces were appointed by Lacedæmon
the son of Taygete, and that their names were Cleta and Phaenna.
These names suit the Graces, and they have suitable names also among
the Athenians, for the Athenians honour of old the Graces Auxo and
Hegemone. As to Carpo it is not the name of a Grace but a Season.
And another Season the Athenians honour equally with Pandrosus, the
Goddess they call Thallo. But having learnt so to do from Eteocles of
Orchomenus we are accustomed now to pray to three Graces: and Angelion
and Tectæus who made a statue of Apollo at Delos have placed three
Graces in his hand; and at Athens at the entrance to the Acropolis
there are also three Graces, and near them they celebrate the mysteries
which are kept secret from the multitude. Pamphus is the first we know
of that sang the praises of the Graces, but he has neither mentioned
their number nor their names. And Homer, who has also mentioned the
Graces, says that one of them whom he calls Charis was the wife of
Hephæstus.[72] And he says that Sleep was the lover of the Grace
Pasithea. For in his account of Sleep he has written the lines,

    “That he would give me one of the younger Graces,
    Pasithea, whom I long for day and night.”[73]

Hence has arisen the idea that Homer knew of other older Graces. And
Hesiod in the Theogony (if indeed Hesiod wrote the Theogony) says that
these Graces are the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, and that their
names are Euphrosyne and Aglaia and Thalia. Onomacritus gives the same
account of them in his verses. But Antimachus neither gives the number
of the Graces nor their names, but says they were the daughters of
Ægle and the Sun. And Hermesianax in his Elegies has written something
rather different from the opinion of those before him, _viz._ that
Peitho was one of the Graces. But whoever first represented the Graces
naked (whether in a statue or painting) I could not ascertain, for
in more ancient times the statuaries and painters represented them
dressed, as at Smyrna in the temple of the Nemeses, where above the
other statues are some golden Graces by Bupalus. In the Odeum also is
a figure of a Grace painted by Apelles. The people of Pergamus have
also, in the bed-chamber of Attalus, the Graces by Bupalus. And in
what is called the Pythium there are Graces painted by the Parian
Pythagoras. And Socrates the son of Sophroniscus at the entrance to
the Acropolis made statues of the Graces for the Athenians. And all
these are draped: but artists afterwards, I know not why, changed this
presentation of them: and in my day both sculptured them and painted
them as naked.

[72] Iliad, xviii. 382, 383.

[73] Iliad, xiv. 275, 276.



CHAPTER XXXVI.


On the death of Eteocles the succession devolved upon the posterity of
Almus. Almus had two daughters Chrysogenia and Chryse: and the story
goes that Chryse had a son by Ares called Phlegyas, who succeeded
to the kingdom when Eteocles died without any male progeny. So they
changed the name of the whole country from Andreis to Phlegyantis, and
to the city Andreis, which was very early inhabited, the king gave his
own name Phlegyas, and gathered into it the most warlike of the Greeks.
And the people of Phlegyas in their folly and audacity stood aloof as
time went on from the other Orchomenians, and attracted to themselves
the neighbouring people: and eventually led an army against Delphi to
plunder the temple, and when Philammon with some picked Argives came
against them he and they were slain in the battle that ensued. That the
people of Phlegyas more than the other Greeks delighted in war is shewn
by the lines in the Iliad about Ares and Panic the son of Ares,

 “They two armed themselves for battle with the Ephyri and the warriors
 of Phlegyas.”[74]

By the Ephyri here Homer means I think those of Thesprotia in Epirus.
But the inhabitants of Phlegyas were entirely overthrown by frequent
lightning and violent earthquakes: and the residue were carried off by
an epidemic, all but a few who escaped to Phocis.

And as Phlegyas died childless, Chryses the son of Chrysogenia (the
daughter of Almus) by Poseidon succeeded him. And he had a son Minyas,
from whom his subjects the Minyæ took the name they still keep. So
great were his revenues that he excelled all his predecessors in
wealth, and he was the first we know of that built a Treasury for the
reception of his money. The Greeks are it seems more apt to admire
things out of their own country than things in it, since several of
their notable historians have described in great detail the Pyramids
of Egypt, but have not mentioned at all the Treasury of Minyas and the
walls at Tiryns, though they are no less remarkable. The son of Minyas
was Orchomenus, and in his reign the town was called Orchomenus and
its inhabitants Orchomenians: but none the less they also continued to
be called Minyæ to distinguish them from the Orchomenians in Arcadia.
It was during the reign of this Orchomenus that Hyettus came from
Argos, fleeing after his slaying Molurus (the son of Arisbas) whom he
had caught with his wife, and Orchomenus gave him all the land now
round the village of Hyettus and the neighbouring district. Hyettus is
mentioned by the author of the Poem which the Greeks call the Great EϾ.

“Hyettus having slain Molurus (the dear son of Arisbas) in the
chamber of his wedded wife, left his house and fled from Argos
fertile-in-horses, and went to the court of Orchomenus of Minyæ, and
the hero received him, and gave him part of his possessions in a noble
spirit.”

This Hyettus seems clearly the first that took vengeance on adultery.
And in after times Draco the Athenian legislator in the beginning of
his laws assigned a severe penalty for adultery, though he condoned
some offences. And the fame of the Minyæ reached such a height,
that Neleus, the son of Cretheus, who was king at Pylos married the
Orchomenian Chloris the daughter of Amphion the son of Iasius.

[74] Iliad, xiii. 301, 302. The reading in the former line is however a
little different.



CHAPTER XXXVII.


But the posterity of Almus was fated to come to an end, for Orchomenus
had no child, and so the kingdom devolved upon Clymenus, the son
of Presbon, the son of Phrixus. And Erginus was the eldest son of
Clymenus, and next came Stratius and Arrho and Pyleus, and the youngest
Azeus. Clymenus was slain by some Thebans at the festival of Onchestian
Poseidon, who were inflamed to anger about some trifling matter, and
was succeeded by his eldest son Erginus. And forthwith he and his
brothers collected an army and marched against Thebes, and defeated
the Thebans in an engagement, and from that time the Thebans agreed to
pay a yearly tax for the murder of Clymenus. But when Hercules grew up
at Thebes, then the Thebans had this tax remitted, and the Minyæ met
with great reverses in the war. And Erginus seeing that the citizens
were reduced to extremities made peace with Hercules, and seeking to
regain his former wealth and prosperity neglected everything else
altogether, and continued unmarried and childless till old age stole
on him unawares. But when he had amassed much money then he desired
posterity, and he went to Delphi and consulted the oracle and the
Pythian Priestess gave him the following response,

 “Erginus grandson of Presbon and son of Clymenus, you come rather late
 to inquire after offspring, but lose no time in putting a new top on
 the old plough.”

So he married a young wife according to the oracle, and became father
of Trophonius and Agamedes. Trophonius is said indeed to have been the
son of Apollo and not of Erginus, as I myself believe, and so will
everyone who consults the oracle of Trophonius. When they grew up
they say these sons of Erginus became skilful in building temples for
the gods and palaces for men: for they built the temple of Apollo at
Delphi, and the treasury for Hyrieus. In this last they contrived one
stone so that they could remove it as they liked from outside, and
they were ever filching from the treasures: and Hyrieus was astonished
when he saw keys and seals untampered with, and yet his wealth ever
diminishing. So he laid traps near the coffers in which his silver
and gold were, so that whoever entered and touched the money would be
caught. And as Agamedes entered he was trapped, and Trophonius cut off
his brother’s head, that when daylight came he might not if detected
inform against him too as privy to the robbery. Thereupon the earth
gaped and swallowed up Trophonius in the grove of Lebadea, where is a
cavity called after Agamedes, and a pillar erected near it. And the
rulers over the Orchomenians were Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, who were
reputed to be the sons of Ares by Astyoche, (the daughter of Azeus the
son of Clymenus), and who led the Minyæ to Troy.[75] The Orchomenians
also went on the expedition to Ionia with the sons of Codrus, and
after being driven from their country by the Thebans were restored to
Orchomenus by Philip the son of Amyntas. But the deity seemed ever to
reduce their power more and more.

[75] See Iliad, ii. 511-516.



CHAPTER XXXVIII.


At Orchomenus there is a temple of Dionysus, and a very ancient one of
the Graces. They worship especially some meteoric stones which they
say fell from heaven upon Eteocles, and some handsome stone statues
were offered in my time. They have also a well well worth seeing, which
they go down to to draw water. And the treasury of Minyas, a marvel
inferior to nothing in Greece or elsewhere, is constructed as follows.
It is a circular building made of stone with a top not very pointed:
the highest stone they say holds together the whole building. There
are also there the tombs of Minyas and Hesiod: they say Hesiod’s bones
were got in the following way. When a pestilence once destroyed men and
cattle they sent messengers to Delphi, and the Pythian Priestess bade
them bring the bones of Hesiod from Naupactus to Orchomenus, and that
would be a remedy. They then inquired again in what part of Naupactus
they would find those bones, and the Pythian Priestess told them that
a crow would show them. As they proceeded on their journey they saw a
stone not far from the road and a crow sitting on it, and they found
the bones of Hesiod in the hollow of the stone, and these elegiac
verses were inscribed upon it,

 “The fertile Ascra was his fatherland, but after his death the land of
 the horse-taming Minyæ got Hesiod’s remains, whose fame is greatest in
 Greece among men judged by the test of wisdom.”

As to Actæon there is a tradition at Orchomenus, that a spectre which
sat on a stone injured their land. And when they consulted the oracle
at Delphi, the god bade them bury in the ground whatever remains they
could find of Actæon: he also bade them to make a brazen copy of the
spectre and fasten it with iron to the stone. This I have myself seen,
and they annually offer funeral rites to Actæon.

About 7 stades from Orchomenus is a temple and small statue of
Hercules. Here is the source of the river Melas, which has its outlet
into the lake Cephisis. The lake covers a large part of the Orchomenian
district, and in winter time, when the South Wind generally prevails,
the water spreads over most of the country. The Thebans say that the
river Cephisus was diverted by Hercules into the Orchomenian plain,
and that it had its outlet to the sea under the mountain till Hercules
dammed that passage up. Homer indeed knows of the lake Cephisis, but
not as made by Hercules, and speaks of it in the line

 “Overhanging the lake Cephisis.”[76]

But it is improbable that the Orchomenians did not discover that
passage, and give to the Cephisus its old outlet by undoing the work
of Hercules, for they were not without money even as far back as
the Trojan War. Homer bears me out in the answer of Achilles to the
messengers of Agamemnon,

 “Not all the wealth that to Orchomenus comes,”[77]

plainly therefore at that period much wealth came to Orchomenus.

They say Aspledon lost its inhabitants from deficiency of water, and
that it got its name from Aspledon, the son of Poseidon by the Nymph
Midea. This account is confirmed by the verses which Chersias the
Orchomenian wrote,

 “Aspledon was the son of Poseidon and illustrious Midea and born in
 the large city.”

None of the verses of Chersias are now extant, but Callippus has cited
these in his speech about the Orchomenians. The Orchomenians also say
that the epitaph on Hesiod was composed by this Chersias.

[76] Iliad, v. 709.

[77] Iliad, ix. 381.



CHAPTER XXXIX.


In the mountainous parts the Phocians are nearest to the Orchomenians,
but in the plain Lebadea is nearest. Lebadea was originally built on
high ground, and called Midea from the mother of Aspledon, but when
Lebadus came from Athens and settled here the inhabitants descended to
the plain, and the town was called Lebadea after him. Who the father
of Lebadus was, and why he came there, they do not know, they only
know that his wife’s name was Laonice. The town is adorned in every
respect like the most famous Greek towns. The grove of Trophonius is
at some distance from it. They say that Hercyna was playing there with
Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, and unwittingly let a goose drop
out of her hands, which flew into a hollow cave and hid under a stone,
till Proserpine entered the cave and took it from under the stone: and
water they say burst forth where Proserpine took up the stone, and
the river was called for that reason Hercyna. And on the banks of the
river is a temple of Hercyna, and in it the effigy of a maiden with
a goose in her hands: and in the cave are the sources of the river,
and some statues in a standing posture, and there are some dragons
twined round their sceptres. One might conjecture that the statues
are Æsculapius and Hygiea, or they may be Trophonius and Hercyna,
for dragons are quite as sacred to Trophonius as to Æsculapius. And
near the river is the tomb of Arcesilaus: they say Leitus brought his
remains home from Troy. And the most notable things in the grove are a
temple of Trophonius, and statue like Æsculapius. It is by Praxiteles.
There is also a temple of Demeter called Europa, and in the open air
a statue of Zeus Hyetius. And as you ascend to the oracle, and pass
on in front of the mountain, is Proserpine’s Chase, and a temple of
Zeus the King. This temple either owing to its size or continual wars
is left unfinished; and in another temple are statues of Cronos and
Hera and Zeus. There is also a temple of Apollo. As to the oracle the
following is the process. When any one desires to descend to the cave
of Trophonius, he must first take up his residence for certain days in
the temple of the Good Deity and Good Fortune. While he stays here he
purifies himself in all other respects, and abstains from warm baths,
and bathes in the river Hercyna, and has plenty of animal food from
the various victims: for he must sacrifice to Trophonius and the sons
of Trophonius, and also to Apollo and Cronos, and to Zeus the King,
and to Hera the Chariot-driver, and to Demeter whom they call Europa,
and who they say was the nurse of Trophonius. And at each of the
sacrifices the seer comes forward and inspects the victim’s entrails,
and having done so declares whether or not Trophonius will receive with
favour the person who consults his oracle. The entrails of the other
victims however do not show the mind of Trophonius so much as those of
the ram, which each person who descends into his cave sacrifices on
the night he descends in a ditch, invoking Agamedes. And though the
former sacrifices have seemed propitious they take no account of them,
unless the entrails of this ram are favourable too, but if these are
so, then each person descends with good hope. This is the process.
The first thing they do is to bring the person who wishes to consult
the oracle by night to the river Hercyna, and to anoint him with oil,
and two citizen lads of the age of 13 whom they call Hermæ wash him,
and minister to him in all other respects. The priests do not after
that lead him immediately to the oracle, but to the sources of the
river which are very near each other. And here he must drink of the
water called Lethe, that he may forget all his former thoughts, and
afterwards he must drink of the water of Memory, and then he remembers
what he will see on his descent. And when he has beheld the statue
which they say was made by Dædalus, and which is never shown by the
priests to any but those who are going to descend to Trophonius, after
worship and prayer he goes to the oracle, clad in a linen tunic bound
with fillets, and having on his feet the shoes of the country. And the
oracle is above the grove on the mountain. And there is round it a
circular wall of stone, the circumference of which is very small, and
height rather less than two cubits. And there are some brazen pillars
and girders that connect them, and through them are doors. And inside
is a cavity in the earth, not natural, but artificial, and built with
great skill. And the shape of this cavity resembles that of an oven:
the breadth of which (measured diametrically) may be considered to be
about 4 cubits, and the depth not more than 8 cubits. There are no
steps to the bottom: but when any one descends to Trophonius, they
furnish him with a narrow and light ladder. On the descent between top
and bottom is an opening two spans broad and one high. He that descends
lies flat at the bottom of the cavity, and, having in his hands cakes
kneaded with honey, introduces into the opening first his feet and then
his knees: and then all his body is sucked in, like a rapid and large
river swallows up anyone who is sucked into its vortex. And when within
the sanctuary the future is not communicated always in the same way,
but some obtain knowledge of the future by their eyes, others by their
ears. And they return by the place where they entered feet foremost.
And they say none who descended ever died, except one of Demetrius’
body-guard, who would perform none of the accustomed routine, and who
descended not to consult the oracle, but in the hope of abstracting
some of the gold and silver from the sanctuary. They also say that his
corpse was not ejected by the usual outlet. There are indeed several
other traditions about him: I mention only the most remarkable. And on
emerging from the cavity of Trophonius, the priests take and seat the
person who has consulted the oracle on the Seat of Memory, not far from
the sanctuary, and when he is seated there they ask him what he has
seen or heard, and, when they have been informed, they hand him over
to the fit persons, who bring him back to the temple of Good Fortune
and the Good Deity, still in a state of terror and hardly knowing where
he is. Afterwards however he will think no more of it, and even laugh.
I write no mere hearsay, but from what I have seen happen to others,
and having myself consulted the oracle of Trophonius. And all on their
return from the oracle of Trophonius must write down on a tablet what
they have seen or heard. There is also still there the shield of
Aristomenes: the particulars about which I have already narrated.



CHAPTER XL.


The Bœotians became acquainted with this oracle in the following way,
knowing nothing of it before. As there had been no rain on one occasion
for two years, they sent messengers from every city to consult the
oracle at Delphi. The Pythian Priestess returned these messengers
answer that they must go to Trophonius at Lebadea, and obtain from
him a cure for this drought. But when they went to Lebadea they could
not find the oracle, when one Saon from Acræphnium, the oldest of the
messengers, saw a swarm of bees, and determined to follow them wherever
they went. He very soon saw that these bees went into the ground here,
and so he discovered the oracle. This Saon they say was also instructed
by Trophonius in all the ritual and routine of the oracle.

Of the works of Dædalus there are these two in Bœotia, the Hercules
at Thebes, and the Trophonius at Lebadea, and there are two wooden
statues in Crete, the Britomartis at Olus, and the Athene at Gnossus:
and with the Cretans also is the dancing-ground of Ariadne, mentioned
by Homer in the Iliad,[78] represented in white stone. And at Delos
there is also a wooden statue of Aphrodite not very large, injured in
the right hand from lapse of time, and instead of feet ending in a
square shape. I believe Ariadne received this from Dædalus, and when
she accompanied Theseus took the statue off with her. And the Delians
say that Theseus, when he was deprived of Ariadne by Dionysus, gave
Apollo at Delos this statue of the goddess, that he might not by taking
it home be constantly reminded of his lost love, Ariadne, and so ever
find the old wound bleed anew. Except these I know of none of the works
of Dædalus still extant: for time has effaced those works of his which
were offered by the Argives in the temple of Hera, as also those that
were brought to Gela in Sicily from Omphace.

Next to Lebadea comes Chæronea, which was in ancient times called Arne;
they say Arne was the daughter of Æolus, and another town in Thessaly
was also called after her, and it got its name Chæronea from Chæron,
who they say was the son of Apollo by Thero the daughter of Phylas. The
author of the Great EϾ confirms me in this, in the following lines.

“Phylas married Lipephile the daughter of the famous Iolaus, who
resembled in appearance the goddesses of Olympus. She bare Hippotes in
her bower, and lovely Thero bright as the stars, who falling into the
arms of Apollo bare mighty Chæron tamer of horses.”

I think Homer knew the names Chæronea and Lebadea, but preferred to
call those towns by their ancient names, as he calls the Nile[79] by
the name Ægyptus.

There are two trophies erected at Chæronea by Sulla and the Romans,
for the victories over Taxilus and the army of Mithridates. Philip
the son of Amyntas erected no trophy either here or elsewhere for
victories whether over Greeks or barbarians, for it was not the
custom of the Macedonians to erect trophies. They have a tradition
that the Macedonian King Caranus defeated in battle Cisseus who was a
neighbouring king, and erected a trophy for his victory in imitation
of the Argives, and they say a lion came from Olympus and overturned
the trophy. Then Caranus was conscious that he had not acted wisely
in erecting a trophy, which had only a tendency to bring about an
irreconcilable enmity with his neighbours, and that neither he nor
any of his successors in the kingdom of Macedonia ought to erect
trophies after victories, if they wished to earn the goodwill of their
neighbours. I am confirmed in what I say by the fact that Alexander
erected no trophies either over Darius or for his Indian victories.

As you approach Chæronea is a common sepulchre of the Thebans that fell
in the battle against Philip. There is no inscription over them but
there is a device of a lion, which may indicate their bravery. I think
there is no inscription because, owing to the deity, their courage was
followed by no adequate success. Of all their objects of worship the
people of Chæronea venerate most the sceptre which Homer says Hephæstus
made for Zeus, which Hermes received from Zeus and gave to Pelops, and
Pelops left to Atreus, and Atreus to Thyestes, from whom Agamemnon had
it.[80] This sceptre they worship and call _the spear_. And that it
has some divine properties is shown not least by the brightness that
emanates from it. They say it was found on the borders of the Panopeans
in Phocis, and that the Phocians found gold with it; but preferred
this sceptre to the gold. I think it was taken to Phocis by Electra
the daughter of Agamemnon. It has no public temple erected for it, but
every year the priest puts it in a certain building, and there are
sacrifices to it daily, and a table is spread for it furnished with all
kinds of meats and pastry.

[78] Iliad, xviii. 590 _sq._

[79] _e.g._ Odyssey, iv. 581, xiv. 257.

[80] Iliad, ii. 100-108. Lest anybody should be surprised at a sceptre
being called _a spear_ let him remember the following words of Justin,
xliii. 5. “Per ea adhuc tempora reges hastas pro diademate
habebant, quas Græci sceptra dixere. Nam et ab origine rerum pro diis
immortalibus veteres hastas coluere, ob cujus religionis memoriam adhuc
deorum simulacris hastæ adduntur.”



CHAPTER XLI.


Of all the works indeed of Hephæstus, that poets sing of and that have
been famous among men, there is none but this sceptre of Agamemnon
certainly his. The Lycians indeed show at Patara in the temple of
Apollo a brazen bowl (which they say was by Hephæstus), the votive
offering of Telephus, but they are probably ignorant that the Samians
Theodorus and Rhœcus were the first brass-founders. And the Achæans
of Patræ say that the chest which Eurypylus brought from Troy was made
by Hephæstus, but they do not allow it to be seen. In Cyprus is the
city Amathus, where is an ancient temple of Adonis and Aphrodite, and
here they say is the necklace which was originally given to Harmonia,
but is called the necklace of Eriphyle, because she received it as a
gift from her husband, and the sons of Phegeus dedicated it at Delphi.
How they got it I have already related in my account of Arcadia. But
it was carried off by the Phocian tyrants. I do not however think that
the necklace in the temple of Adonis at Amathus is Eriphyle’s, for that
is emeralds set in gold, but the necklace given to Eriphyle is said by
Homer in the Odyssey to have been entirely gold, as in the line,

 “Who sold for gold her husband dear.”[81]

And Homer knew very well that there are different kinds of necklaces,
for in the conversation between Eumæus and Odysseus, before Telemachus
returned from Pylos and visited the swineherd’s cottage, are the
following lines,

    “Came to my father’s house a knowing man,
    With golden necklace, which was set in amber.”[82]

And among the gifts which Penelope received from the suitors he has
represented Eurymachus giving her a necklace.

    “Eurymachus brought her a splendid necklace,
    Golden and set in amber, like a sun.”[83]

But he does not speak of Eriphyle’s necklace as adorned with gold and
precious stones. So it is probable that this sceptre is the only work
of Hephæstus still extant.

Above Chæronea is a crag called Petrachos. They say that it was here
that Cronos was deceived by Rhea with a stone instead of Zeus, and
there is a small statue of Zeus on the summit of the mountain. At
Chæronea they make unguents by boiling down together lilies and roses
narcissuses and irises. These unguents relieve pain. Indeed if you
anoint wooden statues with unguent made from roses, it preserves them
from rottenness. The iris grows in marshy, places, and is in size about
as big as the lily, but is not white, and not so strong-scented as the
lily.

[81] Odyssey, xi. 327.

[82] Odyssey, xv. 459, 460.

[83] Odyssey, xviii. 295, 296.



BOOK X.--PHOCIS.



CHAPTER I.


That part of Phocis which is in the neighbourhood of Tithorea and
Delphi took its name in very ancient times from the Corinthian Phocus,
the son of Ornytion. But not many years afterwards all the country now
called Phocis got that name, after the Æginetans and Phocus the son
of Æacus crossed over there in their ships. Phocis is opposite the
Peloponnese and near Bœotia and on the sea, and has ports at Cirrha
(near Delphi) and Anticyra: the Epicnemidian Locrians prevent their
being on the sea at the Lamiac Gulf, for they dwell in that part of
Phocis, as the Scarpheans north of Elatea, and north of Hyampolis and
Abæ the people of Opus, whose harbour is Cynus.

The most eminent public transactions of the Phocians were as follows.
They took part in the war against Ilium, and fought against the
Thessalians, (before the Persians invaded Greece), when they displayed
the following prowess. At Hyampolis, at the place where they expected
the Thessalians to make their attack, they buried in the earth some
earthenware pots, just covering them over with soil, and awaited the
attack of the Thessalian cavalry: and they not knowing of the artifice
of the Phocians spurred their horses on to these pots. And some of the
horses were lamed by these pots, and some of the riders were killed
others unhorsed. And when the Thessalians more angry than before with
the Phocians gathered together a force from all their cities and
invaded Phocis, then the Phocians (in no small alarm at the various
preparations made by the Thessalians for war, and not least at the
quantity and quality of their cavalry), sent to Delphi to inquire how
they were to escape from the coming danger: and the answer of the
oracle was, “I put together in combat a mortal and immortal, and I
shall give victory to both, but the greater victory to the mortal.”
When the Phocians heard this they sent 300 picked men under Gelon
against the enemy at nightfall, bidding them watch as stealthily as
they could the movements of the Thessalians, and return to the camp by
the most out-of-the-way road, and not to fight if they could help it.
These picked men were all cut to pieces by the Thessalians together
with their leader Gelon, being ridden down by the horses, and butchered
by their riders. And their fate brought such consternation into the
camp of the Phocians, that they gathered together their women and
children and all their goods, their apparel and gold and silver and
the statues of the gods, and made a very large funeral pile, and left
thirty men in charge with strict orders if the Phocians should be
defeated in the battle, to cut the throats of the women and children,
and offer them as victims with all the property on the funeral pile,
and set light to it, and either kill one another there, or rush on the
Thessalian cavalry. Desperate resolves such as this have ever since
been called by the Greeks _Phocian Resolution_. And forthwith the
Phocians marched forth against the Thessalians, under the command of
Rhœus of Ambrosus and Daiphantes of Hyampolis, the latter in command
of the cavalry, and the former in command of the infantry. But the
commander in chief was Tellias, the seer of Elis, on whom all the hopes
of the Phocians for safety were placed. And when the engagement came
on, then the Phocians bethought them of their resolves as to their
women and children, and saw that their own safety was by no means
certain, they were consequently full of desperation, and the omens
of the god being auspicious, won one of the most famous victories of
their time. Then the oracle which was given to the Phocians by Apollo
became clear to all the Greeks, for the word given by the Thessalian
commanders was _Itonian Athene_, and the word given by the Phocian
commanders _Phocus_. In consequence of this victory the Phocians sent
to Apollo to Delphi statues of the seer Tellias and of the other
commanders in the battle, and also of the local heroes. These statues
were by Aristomedon the Argive.

The Phocians also found out another contrivance as successful as their
former one.[84] For when the enemy’s camp was pitched at the entrance
to Phocis, five hundred picked Phocians waited till the moon was at
its full, and made a night attack on the Thessalians, having smeared
themselves and likewise their armour with plaster so as to look white.
A tremendous slaughter of the Thessalians is said to have ensued, who
looked upon what they saw as a divine appearance, and not as a ruse of
the enemy.

It was Tellias of Elis who contrived this trick on the Thessalians.

[84] Reading τῶν πρότερον as _Siebelis_ suggests.



CHAPTER II.


When the army of the Persians passed into Europe, it is said that the
Phocians were obliged to join Xerxes, but they deserted the Medes and
fought on the Greek side at Platæa. Some time afterwards a fine was
imposed upon them by the Amphictyonic Council. I cannot ascertain why,
whether it was imposed upon them because they had acted unjustly in
some way, or whether it was their old enemies the Thessalians who got
this fine imposed. And as they were in a state of great despondency
about the largeness of the fine, Philomelus the son of Philotimus,
second in merit to none of the Phocians, whose native place was
Ledon one of the Phocian cities, addressed them and showed them how
impossible it was to pay the money, and urged upon them to seize the
temple at Delphi, alleging among other persuasive arguments that the
condition of Athens and Lacedæmon was favourable to this plan, and
that if the Thebans or any other nation warred against them, they
would come off victorious through their courage and expenditure of
money. The majority of the Phocians were pleased with the arguments
of Philomelus, whether the deity perverted their judgment,[85] or
that they put gain before piety. So the Phocians seized the temple at
Delphi, when Heraclides was President at Delphi, and Agathocles Archon
at Athens, in the fourth year of the 105th Olympiad, when Prorus of
Cyrene was victorious in the course. And after seizing the temple
they got together the strongest army of mercenaries in Greece, and the
Thebans, who had previously been at variance with them, openly declared
war against them. The war lasted 10 continuous years, and during that
long time frequently the Phocians and their mercenaries prevailed,
frequently the Thebans had the best of it. But in an engagement near
the town Neon the Phocians were routed, and Philomelus in his flight
threw himself down a steep and precipitous crag, and so perished: and
the Amphictyonic Council imposed the same end on all those who had
plundered the temple at Delphi. And after the death of Philomelus
the Phocians gave the command to Onomarchus, and Philip the son of
Amyntas joined the Thebans: and Philip was victorious in the battle,
and Onomarchus fled in the direction of the sea, and was there shot by
the arrows of his own soldiers, for they thought their defeat had come
about through his cowardice and inexperience in military matters. Thus
Onomarchus ended his life by the will of the deity, and the Phocians
chose his brother Phayllus as commander in chief with unlimited
power. And he had hardly been invested with this power when he saw
the following apparition in a dream. Among the votive offerings of
Apollo was an imitation in brass of an old man, with his flesh already
wasted away and his bones only left. It was said by the Delphians to
have been a votive offering given by Hippocrates the doctor. Phayllus
dreamt that he was like this old man, and forthwith a wasting disease
came upon him, and fulfilled the dream. And after the death of Phayllus
the chief power at Phocis devolved upon his son Phalæcus, but he was
deposed because he helped himself privately to the sacred money. And
he sailed over to Crete with those Phocians who joined his party, and
with a portion of the mercenaries, and besieged Cydonia, because the
inhabitants would not give him the money he demanded, and in the siege
lost most of his army and his own life.

[85] Compare the Proverb, _Quem Jupiter vult perdere dementat
prius_.



CHAPTER III.


And Philip put an end to the war, called the Phocian or the Sacred War,
in the tenth year after the plunder of the temple, when Theophilus was
Archon at Athens, in the first year of the 108th Olympiad, in which
Polycles of Cyrene won the prize in the course. And the following
Phocian towns were taken and rased to the ground, Lilæa, Hyampolis,
Anticyra, Parapotamii, Panopeus, and Daulis. These towns were
renowned in ancient times and not least in consequence of the lines
of Homer.[86] But those which the army of Xerxes burnt were rendered
thereby more famous in Greece, as Erochus, Charadra, Amphiclea, Neon,
Tithronium, and Drymæa. All the others except Elatea were obscure
prior to this war, as Trachis, Medeon, Echedamia, Ambrosus, Ledon,
Phlygonium, and Stiris. And now all those towns which I have mentioned
were rased to the ground, and except Abæ turned into villages. Abæ had
had no hand in the impiety of the other towns, and had had no share
either in the seizing of the temple or in the Sacred War. The Phocians
were also deprived of participation in the temple at Delphi and in the
general Greek Council, and the Amphictyonic Council gave their votes
to the Macedonians. As time went on however the Phocian towns were
rebuilt, and they returned to them from the villages, except to such as
had always been weak, and suffered at this time from want of money. And
the Athenians and Thebans forwarded this restoration, before the fatal
defeat of the Greeks at Chæronea, in which the Phocians took part, as
afterwards they fought against Antipater and the Macedonians at Lamia
and Crannon. They fought also against the Galati and the Celtic army
with greater bravery than any of the Greeks, to avenge the god at
Delphi, and to atone I think for their former guilt. Such are the most
memorable public transactions of the Phocians.

[86] Iliad, ii. 519-523. Cyparissus in Hom. is probably Anticyra. See
ch. 36.



CHAPTER IV.


From Chæronea it is about 20 stades to Panopeus, a town in Phocis,
if town that can be called which has no Town-Hall, no gymnasium, no
theatre, no market-place, no public fountain, and where the inhabitants
live in narrow dwellings, like mountain cottages, near a ravine. But
they have boundaries, and send members to the Phocian Council. They say
that their town got its name from the father of Epeus, and that they
were not Phocians originally, but Phlegyans who fled into Phocis from
Orchomenia. The ancient enclosure of Panopeus occupies I conjecture
about 7 stades, and I remembered the lines of Homer about Tityus, where
he called Panopeus the town delighting in the dance,[87] and in the
contest for the dead body of Patroclus he says that Schedius (the son
of Iphitus) the king of the Phocians, who was slain by Hector, dwelt
at Panopeus.[88] It appears to me that he dwelt there from fear of the
Bœotians, making Panopeus a garrison-town, for this is the point where
the Bœotians have the easiest approach to Phocis. I could not however
understand why Homer called Panopeus delighting in the dance, till I
was instructed by those who among the Athenians are called Thyiades.
These Thyiades are Athenian women who annually go to Parnassus in
concert with the Delphian women, and celebrate the orgies of Dionysus.
These Thyiades hold dances on the road from Athens and elsewhere and
also at Panopeus: and I imagine Homer’s epithet relates to this.

There is in the street of Panopeus a building of unbaked brick of no
great size, and in it a statue in Pentelican marble, which some say
is Æsculapius and others Prometheus. The last adduce the following
to confirm their opinion. Some stones lie near the ravine each large
enough to fill a cart, in colour like the clay found in ravines and
sandy torrents, and they smell very like the human body. They say
that these are remains of the clay out of which the human race was
fashioned by Prometheus. Near the ravine is also the sepulchre of
Tityus, the circumference of the mound is about the third of a stade.
Of Tityus it is said in the Odyssey,[89]

    “On the ground lying, and he lay nine roods.”

But some say that this line does not state the size of Tityus, but
that the place where he lay is called Nine Roods. But Cleon, one of
the Magnesians that live on the banks of the Hermus, said that people
are by nature incredulous of wonderful things, who have not in the
course of their lives met with strange occurrences, and that he himself
believed that Tityus and others were as large as tradition represented,
for when he was at Gades, and he and all his companions sailed from the
island according to the bidding of Hercules, on his return he saw a sea
monster who had been washed ashore, who had been struck by lightning
and was blazing, and he covered five roods. So at least he said.

About seven stades distant from Panopeus is Daulis.[90] The people here
are not numerous, but for size and strength they are still the most
famous of the Phocians. The town they say got its name from the nymph
Daulis, who was the daughter of Cephisus. Others say that the site of
the town was once full of trees, and that the ancients gave the name
_daula_ to anything dense. Hence Æschylus calls the beard of Glaucus
(the son of Anthedonius) _daulus_. It was here at Daulis according to
tradition that the women served up his son to Tereus, and this was the
first recorded instance of cannibalism among mankind. And the hoopoe,
into which tradition says Tereus was changed, is in size little bigger
than a quail, and has on its head feathers which resemble a crest. And
it is a remarkable circumstance that in this neighbourhood swallows
neither breed nor lay eggs, nor build nests in the roofs of houses:
and the Phocians say that when Philomela became a bird she was in
dread both of Tereus and his country. And at Daulis there is a temple
and ancient statue of Athene, and a still older wooden statue which
they say Procne brought from Athens. There is also in the district of
Daulis a place called Tronis, where a hero-chapel was built to their
hero-founder, who some say was Xanthippus, who won great fame in war,
others Phocus (the son of Ornytion and grandson of Sisyphus). They
honour this hero whoever he is every day, and when the Phocians bring
the victims they pour the blood through a hole on to his tomb, and
consume the flesh there also.

[87] Odyssey, xi. 581.

[88] Iliad, xvii. 306, 307.

[89] xi. 577.

[90] There is probably some mistake in the text here, for instead of
_seven_ stades Dodwell thought the distance _twenty-seven_, and Gell
_thirty-seven_ or _forty-seven_.



CHAPTER V.


There is also an ascent by Daulis to the heights of Parnassus, rather
longer than the ascent from Delphi but not so steep. As you turn from
Daulis on to the high road for Delphi and go forward, you will come
to a building on the left of the road called Phocicum, into which the
Phocians assemble from each of their towns. It is a large building,
and in it are pillars all the length of the building, and galleries on
each side, where the Phocians sit in assembly. But at the end of the
building there are neither pillars nor galleries, but statues of Zeus
and Athene and Hera, Zeus on his throne, and Hera standing by on the
right, Athene on the left.

As you go on from thence you will come to the Cross-roads, where
they say Œdipus murdered his father.[91] There are records indeed of
the woes of Œdipus in all parts of Greece. So it seems it was fated.
For directly he was born they pierced his ankles, and exposed him on
Mount Cithæron in Platæa. He was brought up at Corinth and the country
near the Isthmus. And Phocis and the Cross-roads here were polluted
by his father’s blood. Thebes has attained even more celebrity from
the marriage of Œdipus and the injustice of Eteocles. To Œdipus the
Cross-roads here and his bloody deed there caused all his subsequent
woes, and the tombs of Laius and his attendant are in the very middle
of the place where the 3 roads meet, and there are unhewn stones
heaped up on them. They say that Damasistratus, who was king of Platæa,
came across their corpses and buried them.

The high-road from here to Delphi is very steep, and rather difficult
even for a well-equipped traveller. Many varying legends are told
about Delphi, and still more about the oracle of Apollo. For they say
that in the most ancient times it was the oracle of Earth, and that
Earth appointed as priestess of her oracle Daphnis, who was one of the
Mountain Nymphs. And the Greeks have a poem called Eumolpia, the author
of which was they say Musæus the son of Antiophemus. In this poem
Delphi is represented as a joint oracle of Poseidon and Earth, and we
read that Earth delivered her own oracles, but Poseidon employed Pyrcon
as his interpreter. These are the lines:

    “Forthwith Earth uttered forth oracular wisdom,
    And with her Pyrcon, famed Poseidon’s priest.”

But afterwards they say Earth gave her share to Themis, and Apollo
received it from Themis: and he they say gave Poseidon for his share in
the oracle Calauria near Trœzen. I have also heard of some shepherds
meeting with the oracle, and becoming inspired by the vapour, and
prophesying through Apollo. But the greatest and most widespread fame
attaches to Phemonoe, who was the first priestess of Apollo, and the
first who recited the oracles in hexameters. But Bœo, a Phocian woman
who composed a Hymn for Delphi, says that the oracle was set up to the
god by Olen and some others that came from the Hyperboreans, and that
Olen was the first who delivered oracles and in hexameters. Bœo has
written the following lines,

 “Here Pegasus and divine Aguieus, sons of the Hyperboreans, raised to
 thy memory an oracle.”

And enumerating other Hyperboreans she mentions at the end of her Hymn
Olen,

    “And Olen who was Phœbus’ first prophet,
    And first to put in verse the ancient oracles.”

Tradition however makes women the first utterers of the oracles.

The most ancient temple of Apollo was they say built of laurel, from
branches brought from a tree at Tempe. So that temple would resemble a
hut. And the people of Delphi say the next temple was built of the wax
and wings of bees, and was sent by Apollo to the Hyperboreans. There
is also another tradition that this temple was built by a Delphian
whose name was Pteras, that it got its name from its builder, from whom
also a Cretan city by the addition of one letter got called Apteræi.
For as to the tradition about the fern (_Pteris_) that grows on
mountains, that they made the temple of this while it was still green,
this I cannot accept. As to the third temple that it was of brass is
no marvel since Acrisius made a brazen chamber for his daughter, and
the Lacedæmonians have still a temple of Athene Chalciœcus,[92] and
the Romans have a forum remarkable for its size and magnificence with
a brazen roof. So that the temple of Apollo should be brazen is not
improbable. In other respects however I do not accept the legend about
the temple being by Hephæstus, or about the golden songsters that
Pindar sang of in reference to that temple,

    “Some golden Charmers sang above the gable.”

I think Pindar wrote this in imitation of Homer’s Sirens.[93] Moreover
I found varying accounts about the destruction of this temple, for
some say it was destroyed by a landslip, others by fire. And the
fourth (built of stone by Trophonius and Agamedes) was burnt down
when Erxiclides was Archon at Athens, in the first year of the 58th
Olympiad, when Diognetus of Croton was victor. And the temple which
still exists was built by the Amphictyones out of the sacred money, and
its architect was the Corinthian Spintharus.

[91] See Sophocles, _Œdipus Tyrannus_, 733, 734. What I translate
in this Paragraph “Cross-roads” would be literally “the road called
Cleft,” which an English reader would hardly understand.

[92] That is, “_Athene of the Brazen House_.”

[93] See Odyssey, xii. 39 _sq._



CHAPTER VI.


They say the most ancient town here was built by Parnassus, who was
they say the son of the Nymph Cleodora, and his fathers, (for those
called heroes had always two fathers, one a god, one a man), were they
say Poseidon among the gods and Cleopompus among men. They say Mount
Parnassus and the dell Parnassus got their names from him, and that
omens from the flight of birds were discovered by him. The town built
by him was they say destroyed in Deucalion’s flood, and all the human
beings that escaped the flood followed wolves and other wild beasts
to the top of Mount Parnassus, and from this circumstance called the
town which they built Lycorea (_Wolf-town_). There is also a different
tradition to this, which makes Lycorus the son of Apollo by the Nymph
Corycia, and that Lycorea was called after him, and the Corycian cavern
from the Nymph. Another tradition is that Celæno was the daughter of
Hyamus the son of Lycorus, and that Delphus from whom Delphi got its
name was the son of Celæno (the daughter of Hyamus) by Apollo. Others
say that Castalius an Autochthon had a daughter Thyia, who was the
first priestess of Dionysus and introduced his orgies, and that it
was from her that females inspired by Dionysus got generally called
Thyiades, and they think Delphus was the son of Apollo and this Thyia.
But some say his mother was Melæne the daughter of Cephisus. And in
course of time the inhabitants called the town Pytho as well as Delphi,
as Homer has shown in his Catalogue of the Phocians. Those who wish
to make genealogies about everything think that Pythes was the son
of Delphus, and that the town got called Pytho after him when he was
king. But the prevalent tradition is that the dragon slain by Apollo’s
arrows rotted here, and that was why the town was called Pytho from
the old Greek word to rot, which Homer has employed in his account
of the island of the Sirens being full of bones, because those that
listened to their song rotted away.[94] The dragon that was slain by
Apollo was the poets say posted there by Earth to guard her oracle. It
is also said that Crius, the king of Eubœa, had a son of an insolent
disposition, who plundered the temple of the god, and the houses of
the wealthy men. And when he was going to do this a second time, then
the Delphians begged Apollo to shield them from the coming danger, and
Phemonoe (who was then priestess) gave them the following oracle in
hexameters, “Soon will Phœbus send his heavy arrow against the man who
devours Parnassus, and the Cretans shall purify Phœbus from the blood,
and his fame shall never die.”

[94] Odyssey, xii. 46.



CHAPTER VII.


It appears that the temple at Delphi was plundered from the beginning.
For this Eubœan robber, and a few years later the people of Phlegyas,
and Pyrrhus the son of Achilles also, all laid their hands on it,
and part of Xerxes’ army, but those who enriched themselves most and
longest on the treasures of the god were the Phocian authorities and
the army of the Galati. And last of all it was fated to experience
Nero’s contempt of everything, for he carried off from Apollo 500
brazen statues, some of gods some of men.

The most ancient contest, and one for which they gave a prize first,
was they say singing a Hymn in honour of Apollo. And the first victor
was Chrysothemis the Cretan, whose father Carmanor is said to have
purified Apollo. And after Chrysothemis they say Philammon was next
victor, and next to him his son Thamyris. Neither Orpheus they say
from his solemn position in respect to the mysteries and his general
elevation of soul, nor Musæus from his imitation of Orpheus in all
things, cared to contend in this musical contest. They say also that
Eleuther carried off the Pythian prize for his loud and sweet voice. It
is said also that Hesiod was not permitted to be a competitor, because
he had not learned to accompany his voice with the harp. Homer too went
to Delphi to enquire what was necessary for him, and even had he learnt
how to play on the harp, the knowledge would have been useless to him,
because of his being blind. And in the third year of the 48th Olympiad,
in which Glaucias of Croton was victor, the Amphictyones established
prizes for harping as at the first, and added contests for pipes, and
for singing to the pipes. And the victors proclaimed were Cephallen who
was distinguished in singing to the harp, and the Arcadian Echembrotus
for his singing to the pipes, and the Argive Sacadas for his playing on
the pipes. Sacadas also had two other Pythian victories after this.
Then too they first ordained prizes for athletes as at Olympia, with
the exception of the fourhorse races, and they established by law the
long course and double course for boys. And in the second Pythiad they
invited them no longer to contend for prizes, but made the contest one
for a crown only, and stopped singing to the pipes, as not thinking
it pleasing to the ear. For singing to the pipes was most gloomy kind
of music, and elegies and dirges were so sung. The votive offering
of Echembrotus confirms me in what I say, for the brazen tripod
offered by him to Hercules at Thebes has the following inscription,
“Echembrotus the Arcadian offered this tripod to Hercules, after having
been victorious in the contests of the Amphictyones, and in singing to
the Greeks songs and elegies.” So the contest of singing to the pipes
was stopped. Afterwards they added a chariot race, and Clisthenes the
tyrant of Sicyon was proclaimed victor. And in the eighth Pythiad they
added harping without the accompaniment of the voice, and Agelaus
from Tegea got the crown. And in the 23rd Pythiad they had a race in
armour, and Timænetus from Phlius got the laurel, five Olympiads after
Damaretus of Heræa was victor. And in the 48th Pythiad they established
the race for a pair-horse chariot, and the pair of Execestides the
Phocian was victorious. And in the fifth Pythiad after this they yoked
colts to chariots, and the four-colt car of Orphondas the Theban came
in first. But the pancratium for boys, and the pair of colts, and the
racing colt they instituted many years after the people of Elis, the
pancratium in the 61st Pythiad (when Iolaidas the Theban was victor),
and one Pythiad after the racing colt (when Lycormas of Larissa was
proclaimed victor), and in the 69th Pythiad the pair of colts (when
the Macedonian Ptolemy was victor). For the Ptolemies delighted to be
called Macedonians, as indeed they were. And the crown of laurel was
given to the victors in the Pythian games, for no other reason I think
than that (according to the prevalent report) Apollo was enamoured of
Daphne[95] the daughter of Ladon.

[95] Daphne means laurel. See Wordsworth’s noble Poem, _The Russian
Fugitive_, Part iii.



CHAPTER VIII.


Some think that Amphictyon the son of Deucalion appointed the general
Council of the Greeks, and that was why those who assembled at the
Council were called Amphictyones: but Androtion in his history
of Attica says that originally delegates came to Delphi from the
neighbouring people who were called Amphictiones, and in process
of time the name Amphictyones prevailed. They say too that the
following Greek States attended this general Council, the Ionians, the
Dolopes, the Thessalians, the Ænianes, the Magnetes, the Malienses,
the Phthiotes, the Dorians, the Phocians, the Locrians who dwelt
under Mount Cnemis and bordered upon Phocis. But when the Phocians
seized the temple, and ten years afterwards the Sacred War came to
an end, the Amphictyonic Council was changed: for the Macedonians
obtained admission to it, and the Phocians and (of the Dorians) the
Lacedæmonians ceased to belong to it, the Phocians because of their
sacrilegious outbreak on the temple, and the Lacedæmonians because they
had assisted the Phocians. But when Brennus led the Galati against
Delphi, the Phocians exhibited greater bravery than any of the Greeks
in the war, and were in consequence restored to the Amphictyonic
Council, and in other respects regained their former position. And
the Emperor Augustus wished that the inhabitants of Nicopolis near
Actium should belong to the Amphictyonic Council, so he joined the
Magnetes and Malienses and Ænianes and Phthiotes to the Thessalians,
and transferred their votes, and those of the Dolopes who had died
out, to the people of Nicopolis. And in my time the Amphictyones were
30 members. Six came from Nicopolis, six from Macedonia, six from
Thessaly, two from the Bœotians (who were originally in Thessaly and
called Æolians), two from Phocis, and two from Delphi, one from ancient
Doris, one from the Locrians called Ozolæ, one from the Locrians
opposite Eubœa, one from Eubœa, one from Argos Sicyon Corinth and
Megara, and one from Athens. Athens and Delphi and Nicopolis send
delegates to every Amphictyonic Council: but the other cities I have
mentioned only join the Amphictyonic Council at certain times.

As you enter Delphi there are four temples in a row, the first in
ruins, the next without statues or effigies, the third has effigies of
a few of the Roman Emperors, the fourth is called the temple of Athene
Pronoia. And the statue in the ante-chapel is the votive offering of
the Massaliotes, and is larger in size than the statue within the
temple. The Massaliotes are colonists of the Phocæans in Ionia, and
were part of those who formerly fled from Phocæa from Harpagus the
Mede, but, after having beaten the Carthaginians in a naval engagement,
obtained the land which they now occupy, and rose to great prosperity.
This votive offering of the Massaliotes is of brass. The golden shield
which was offered to Athene Pronoia by Crœsus the Lydian was taken away
(the Delphians said) by Philomelus. Near this temple is the sacred
enclosure of the hero Phylacus, who, according to the tradition of the
Delphians, protected them against the invasion of the Persians. In the
part of the gymnasium which is in the open air was once they say a wild
wood where Odysseus, when he went to Autolycus and hunted with the sons
of Autolycus, was wounded on the knee by a boar.[96] As you turn to the
left from the gymnasium, and descend I should say about 3 stades, is
the river called Plistus, which falls into the sea at Cirrha the haven
of the Delphians. And as you ascend from the gymnasium to the temple
on the right of the road is the water Castalia which is good to drink.
Some say it got its name from Castalia a local woman, others say from
a man called Castalius. But Panyasis, the son of Polyarchus, in the
poem he wrote about Hercules says that Castalia was the daughter of
Achelous. For he says about Hercules,

 “Crossing with rapid feet snow-crown’d Parnassus he came to the
 immortal fountain of Castalia, the daughter of Achelous.”

I have also heard that the water of Castalia is a gift of the river
Cephisus. Alcæus indeed so represents it in his Prelude to Apollo, and
his statement is confirmed by the people of Lilæa, who believe that the
local cakes and other things, which they throw into the Cephisus on
certain stated days, reappear in the Castalia.

[96] Odyssey, xix. 428-451.



CHAPTER IX.


Delphi is everywhere hilly, the sacred precincts of Apollo and other
parts of the town alike. The sacred precincts are very large and in the
upper part of the town, and have several entrances. I will enumerate
all the votive offerings that are best worthy of mention. The athletes
however, and musical competitors, of no great merit I do not think
worthy of attention, and notable athletes I have already described in
my account of Elis. At Delphi then there is a statue of Phayllus of
Croton, who had no victory at Olympia, but was twice victor in the
pentathlum and once in the course in the Pythian games, and fought a
naval engagement against the Medes, having furnished a ship himself,
and manned it with some people of Croton who were sojourners in
Greece. So much for Phayllus of Croton. On the entrance to the sacred
enclosure is a bull in brass by Theopropus the Æginetan, the votive
offering of the Corcyræans. The tradition is that a bull in Corcyra
left the herd and pasture, and used to resort to the sea bellowing
as he went; and as this happened every day the herdsman went down to
the sea, and beheld a large shoal of tunny fish. And he informed the
people of Corcyra, and they, as they had great difficulty in catching
these tunnies much as they wished, sent messengers to Delphi. And then
in obedience to the oracle they sacrificed the bull to Poseidon, and
after this sacrifice caught the fish, and offered both at Olympia and
Delphi the tenth of their catch. And next are the votive offerings
of the people of Tegea from the spoils of the Lacedæmonians, an
Apollo and Victory, and some local heroes; as Callisto the daughter
of Lycaon, and Arcas who gave his name to Arcadia, and the sons of
Arcas, Elatus and Aphidas and Azan; and besides them Triphylus,
(whose mother was not Erato but Laodamia, the daughter of Amyclas
king at Lacedæmon), and also Erasus the son of Triphylus. As to the
artificers of these statues, Pausanias of Apollonia made the Apollo
and Callisto, and the Victory and effigy of Arcas were by Dædalus of
Sicyon, Triphylus and Azan were by the Arcadian Samolas, and Elatus
and Aphidas and Erasus were by the Argive Antiphanes. All these the
people of Tegea sent to Delphi after the capture of the Lacedæmonians
who invaded them. And opposite them are the votive offerings of the
Lacedæmonians when they vanquished the Athenians, statues of Castor
and Pollux and Zeus and Apollo and Artemis, and besides them Poseidon
crowning Lysander the son of Aristocritus, and Abas who was Lysander’s
prophet, and Hermon the pilot of Lysander’s flag-ship. This statue
of Hermon was designed by Theocosmus the Megarian, as the Megarians
ranked Hermon among their citizens. And Castor and Pollux are by the
Argive Antiphanes, and Abas is by Pison from Calauria near Trœzen,
and Artemis and Poseidon and Lysander are by Dameas, and Apollo and
Zeus by Athenodorus. Both Dameas and Athenodorus were Arcadians from
Clitor. And behind the statues we have just mentioned are those of
the Spartans or their allies who fought for Lysander at the battle of
Ægos-potamoi, as Aracus the Lacedæmonian, and Erianthes the Bœotian
beyond Mimas, and then Astycrates, and the Chians Cephisocles and
Hermophantus and Hicesius, and the Rhodians Timarchus and Diagoras, and
the Cnidian Theodamus, and the Ephesian Cimmerius, and the Milesian
Æantides. All these were by Tisander. The following were by Alypus of
Sicyon, Theopompus from Myndus, and Cleomedes of Samos, and from Eubœa
Aristocles of Carystus and Autonomus of Eretria, and Aristophantus
of Corinth, and Apollodorus of Trœzen, and from Epidaurus in Argolis
Dion. And next to these are the Achæan Axionicus from Pellene, and
Theares from Hermion, and Pyrrhias from Phocis, and Comon from Megara,
and Agasimenes from Sicyon, and Telycrates from Leucas, and Pythodotus
from Corinth, and Euantidas from Ambracia, and lastly the Lacedæmonians
Epicyridas and Eteonicus. All these are they say by Patrocles and
Canachus. The reverse that the Athenians sustained at Ægos-potamoi they
maintain befell them through foul play, for their Admirals Tydeus and
Adimantus were they say bribed by Lysander. And in proof of this they
bring forward the following Sibylline oracle. “Then shall Zeus the
lofty-thunderer, whose strength is almighty, lay grievous woes on the
Athenians, fierce battle for their ships of war, that shall perish
through the treachery and villainy of their commanders.” They also cite
these other lines from the oracles of Musæus, “Verily a fierce storm
is coming on the Athenians through the villainy of their commanders,
but there shall be some comfort, they shall level low the state that
inflicted this disaster, and exact vengeance.” So much for this affair.
And as for the engagement between the Lacedæmonians and Argives beyond
Thyrea, the Sibyl foretold that it would be a drawn battle, but the
Argives thinking they had got the best of it in the action sent to
Delphi as a votive offering a brazen horse by Antiphanes of Argos,
doubtless an imitation of the Trojan Horse.



CHAPTER X.


On the basement under this horse is an inscription, which states that
the following statues were dedicated from the tenth of the spoils of
Marathon. These statues are Athene and Apollo, and of the commanders
Miltiades, and of those called heroes Erechtheus and Cecrops and
Pandion, and Leos, and Antiochus the son of Hercules by Meda the
daughter of Phylas, and Ægeus, and of the sons of Theseus Acamas.
These, in accordance with an oracle from Delphi, gave names to the
Athenian tribes. Here too are Codrus the son of Melanthus, and Theseus,
and Phyleus, who are no longer ranked among the Eponymi. All these that
I have mentioned are by Phidias, and these too are really the tenth
of the spoils of Marathon. But the statues of Antigonus, and his son
Demetrius, and the Egyptian Ptolemy, were sent to Delphi later, Ptolemy
through goodwill, but the Macedonians through fear.

And near this horse are other votive offerings of the Argives, statues
of those associated with Polynices in the expedition against Thebes,
as Adrastus the son of Talaus, and Tydeus the son of Œneus, and the
descendants of Prœtus, (Capaneus the son of Hipponous, and Eteoclus
the son of Iphis), and Polynices, and Hippomedon (Adrastus’ sister’s
son), and near them the chariot of Amphiaraus and in it Baton, the
charioteer and also kinsman of Amphiaraus, and lastly Alitherses. These
are by Hypatodorus and Aristogiton, and were made, so the Argives
themselves say, out of the spoils of the victory which they and their
Athenian allies obtained at Œnoe in Argolis. It was after the same
action, I think, that the Argives erected the statues of the Epigoni.
They are here at any rate, as Sthenelus and Alcmæon, who was, I
take it, honoured above Amphilochus in consequence of his age, and
Promachus, and Thersander, and Ægialeus, and Diomede, and between the
two last Euryalus. And opposite these are some other statues, dedicated
by the Argives who assisted Epaminondas and the Thebans in restoring
the Messenians. There are also effigies of heroes, as Danaus the most
powerful king at Argos, and Hypermnestra the only one of her sisters
with hands unstained by murder, and near her Lynceus, and all those
that trace their descent from Hercules, or go back even further to
Perseus.

There are also the horses of the Tarentines in brass, and captive women
of the Messapians (barbarians near Tarentum), by Ageladas the Argive.
The Lacedæmonians colonized Tarentum under the Spartan Phalanthus, who,
when he started on this colony, was told by an oracle from Delphi that
he was to acquire land and found a city where he saw rain from a clear
sky. At first he paid no great heed to this oracle, and sailed to Italy
without consulting any interpreters, but when, after victories over
the barbarians, he was unable to capture any of their cities, or get
possession of any of their land, he recollected the oracle, and thought
the god had prophesied impossibilities: for it could not rain he
thought from a clear and bright sky. And his wife, who had accompanied
him from home, endeavoured to comfort him in various ways, as he was
in rather a despondent condition, and laid his head on her knees, and
began to pick out the lice, and in her goodwill it so fell out that she
wept when she thought how her husband’s affairs made no good progress.
And she shed tears freely on Phalanthus’ head, and then he understood
the oracle, for his wife’s name was Æthra (_clear sky_), and so on the
following night he took from the barbarians Tarentum, the greatest and
most prosperous of their maritime cities. They say the hero Taras was
the son of Poseidon and a local Nymph, and both the city and river got
their name from him.



CHAPTER XI.


And near the votive offering of the Tarentines is the treasury of the
Sicyonians, but you will see no money either here or in any of the
treasuries. The Cnidians also brought statues to Delphi, as Triopas
(their founder) standing by a horse, and Leto and Apollo and Artemis
shooting at Tityus, who is represented wounded. These statues stand by
the treasury of the Sicyonians.

The Siphnii too made a treasury for the following reason. The island
of Siphnos had gold mines, and the god bade them send a tenth of the
revenue thus accruing to Delphi, and they built a treasury and sent
the tenth to the god. But when in their cupidity they left off this
tribute, then the sea encroached and swept away their mines. Statues
after a naval victory over the Tyrrhenians were also erected by the
people of Lipara, who were a colony of Cnidians, and the leader of the
colony was they say a Cnidian whose name was Pentathlus, as Antiochus
the Syracusan (the son of Xenophanes) testifies in his History of
Sicily. He says also that when they had built a town at Pachynus, a
promontory in Sicily, they were expelled from it by force by the Elymi
and Phœnicians, and either occupied deserted islands, or drove out the
islanders from those islands which they call to this day by the name
Homer employs, the islands of Æolus. Of these they lived in Lipara and
built a city there, and used to sail to Hiera and Strongyle and Didymæ
for purposes of cultivation. In Strongyle fire clearly ascends from the
ground, and in Hiera fire spontaneously blazes up on a height in the
island, and near the sea are convenient baths, if the water is not too
hot, for often it is difficult to bathe by reason of the great heat.

The Theban treasuries were the result of the victory at Leuctra, and
the Athenian treasuries from the victory at Marathon and the spoil
of Datis on that occasion: but whether the Cnidians built theirs to
commemorate some victory or to display their wealth I do not know. But
the people of Cleonæ suffered greatly like the Athenians from a plague,
till in obedience to the oracle at Delphi they sacrificed a goat to the
rising sun, and, as they thus obtained deliverance from their plague,
they sent a brazen goat to Apollo. And the treasury of the Syracusans
was the result of the great reverses of Athens, and the Potidæan
treasury was erected out of piety to the god.

The Athenians also built a portico with the money which they got in war
from the Peloponnesians and their Greek allies. There are also votive
offerings of the figure-heads of captured ships and brazen shields. The
inscription on these mentions the cities from which the Athenians sent
the firstfruits of their spoil, Elis, and Lacedæmon, and Sicyon, and
Megara, and Pellene in Achaia, and Ambracia, and Leucas, and Corinth
itself. In consequence of these naval victories they sacrifice to
Theseus, and to Poseidon at the promontory of Rhium. I think also the
inscription refers to Phormio the son of Asopichus, and to his famous
deeds.



CHAPTER XII.


There is a projecting stone above, on which the Delphians say the first
Herophile, also called the Sibyl, chanted her oracles.[97] I found her
to be most ancient, and the Greeks say she was the daughter of Zeus
by Lamia the daughter of Poseidon, and that she was the first woman
who chanted oracles, and that she was called Sibyl by the Libyans. The
second Herophile was younger than her, but was herself clearly earlier
than the Trojan War, for she foretold in her oracles that Helen would
be reared in Sparta to the ruin of Asia Minor and Europe, and that
Ilium would be taken by the Greeks owing to her. The Delians make
mention of her Hymn to Apollo. And she calls herself in her verses not
only Herophile but also Artemis, and says she was Apollo’s wedded wife
and sister and daughter. This she must have written when possessed by
the god. And elsewhere in her oracles she says her father was a mortal
but her mother one of the Nymphs of Mount Ida. Here are her lines,

 “I was the child of a mortal sire and goddess mother, she was a Nymph
 and Immortal while he eat bread. By my mother I am connected with
 Mount Ida, and my native place is red Marpessus (sacred to my mother),
 and the river Aidoneus.”

There are still in Trojan Ida ruins of Marpessus, and a population of
about 60 inhabitants. The soil all about Marpessus is red and terribly
dry. Why in fact the river Aidoneus soaks into the earth, and on its
emerging sinks into the ground again, and is eventually altogether lost
in it, is I think the thin and porous soil of Mount Ida. Marpessus
is 240 stades distant from Alexandria in the Troad. The inhabitants
of Alexandria say that Herophile was the Sacristan of Sminthian
Apollo, and that she foretold by dream to Hecuba what we know really
came about. This Sibyl lived most of her life at Samos, but visited
Clarus in Colophonia, Delos, and Delphi, and wherever she went chanted
standing on the stone we have already mentioned. Death came upon her
in the Troad, her tomb is in the grove of Sminthian Apollo, and the
inscription on the pillar is as follows.

“Here hidden by stone sepulchre I lie, Apollo’s fate-pronouncing
Sibyl I, a vocal maiden once but now for ever dumb, here placed by
all-powerful fate, and I lie near the Nymphs and Hermes, in this part
of Apollo’s realm.”

Near her tomb is a square Hermes in stone, and on the left is water
running into a conduit, and some statues of the Nymphs. The people of
Erythræ, who are most zealous of all the Greeks in claiming Herophile
as theirs, show the mountain called Corycus and the cavern in it in
which they say Herophile was born, and they say that she was the
daughter of Theodorus (a local shepherd) and a Nymph, and that she
was called Idæa for no other reason than that well-wooded places were
called by people at that time _Idas_. And the line about Marpessus and
the river Aidoneus they do not include in the oracles.

Hyperochus, a native of Cumæ, has recorded that a woman called Demo,
of Cumæ in the Opican district, delivered oracles after Herophile and
in a similar manner. The people of Cumæ do not produce any oracle
of Demo’s, but they shew a small stone urn in the temple of Apollo,
wherein they say are her remains. After Demo the Hebrews beyond
Palestine had a prophetess called Sabbe, whose father they say was
Berosus and mother Erymanthe, but some say she was a Babylonian Sibyl,
others an Egyptian.

Phaennis, (the daughter of the king of the Chaones), and the Peleæ at
Dodona, also prophesied by divine inspiration, but were not called
Sibyls. As to the age and oracles of Phaennis, one will find upon
inquiry that she was a contemporary of Antiochus, who seized the
kingdom after taking Demetrius prisoner. As to the Peleades, they were
they say earlier than Phemonoe, and were the first women that sang the
following lines:

    “Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus shall be. O great Zeus!
    Earth yields us fruits, let us then call her Mother.”

Prophetical men, as Euclus the Cyprian, and the Athenian Musæus the
son of Antiophemus, and Lycus the son of Pandion, as well as Bacis
the Bœotian, were they say inspired by Nymphs. All their oracular
utterances except those of Lycus I have read.

Such are the women and men who up to my time have been said to have
been prophetically inspired: and as time goes on there will perhaps be
other similar cases.[98]

[97] The text is somewhat uncertain here. I have tried to extract the
best sense.

[98] “Qui hoc et similia putant dicuntque _Pausaniam
opposuisse Christianis_, hos velim explicare causam, cur Pausanias
tecte tantum in illos invadere, neque usquam quidquam aperte contra eos
dicere ausus sit.” _Siebelis._



CHAPTER XIII.


The brazen head of the Pæonian bison was sent to Delphi by Dropion,
the son of Deon, king of the Pæonians. These bisons are most difficult
of all beasts to capture alive, for no nets are strong enough to hold
them. They are hunted in the following manner. When the hunters have
found a slope terminating in a hollow, they first of all fence it all
round with a palisade, they then cover the slope and level ground near
the bottom with newly stripped hides, and if they chance to be short
of hides, then they make old dry skins slippery with oil. The most
skilful horsemen then drive these bisons to this place that I have
described, and slipping on the first hides they roll down the slope
till they get to the level ground at the bottom. There they leave them
at first, but on the 4th or 5th day, when hunger and weakness has
subdued their spirit somewhat, those who are skilled in taming them
offer them, while they are still lying there, pinenuts after first
removing the husks, for they will at first touch no other kind of food,
and at last they bind them and lead them off. This is how they capture
them.

Opposite the brazen head of this bison is the statue of a man with a
coat of mail on and a cloak over it: the Delphians say it is a votive
offering of the people of Andros, and that it is Andreus their founder.
And the statues of Apollo and Athene and Artemis are votive offerings
of the Phocians from spoil of the Thessalians, their constant enemies,
and neighbours except where the Epicnemidian Locrians come in. Votive
offerings have been also made by the Thessalians of Pharsalus, and by
the Macedonians who dwell at Dium under Pieria, and by the Greeks of
Cyrene in Libya. These last sent a chariot and statue of Ammon on the
chariot, and the Macedonians at Dium sent an Apollo who has hold of a
doe, and the Pharsalians sent an Achilles on horseback, and Patroclus
is running by the side of the horse. And the Dorians of Corinth built a
treasury also, and the gold from the Lydians was stored there. And the
statue of Hercules was the votive offering of the Thebans at the time
they fought with the Phocians what is called The Sacred War. Here also
are the brazen effigies erected by the Phocians, when in the second
encounter they routed the Thessalian cavalry. The people of Phlius also
sent to Delphi a brazen Zeus, and an effigy of Ægina with Zeus.[99] And
from Mantinea in Arcadia there is an offering of a brazen Apollo, not
far from the treasury of the Corinthians.

Hercules and Apollo are also to be seen close to a tripod for the
possession of which they are about to fight, but Leto and Artemis are
trying to appease the anger of Apollo, and Athene that of Hercules.
This was the votive offering of the Phocians when Tellias of Elis led
them against the Thessalians. The other figures in the group were made
jointly by Diyllus and Amyclæus, but Athene and Artemis were made
by Chionis, all 3 Corinthian statuaries. It is also recorded by the
Delphians that, when Hercules the son of Amphitryon came to consult the
oracle, the priestess Xenoclea would not give him any response because
of his murder of Iphitus: so he took the tripod and carried it out of
the temple, and the prophetess said,

 “This is another Hercules, the one from Tiryns not from Canopus.”

For earlier still the Egyptian Hercules had come to Delphi. Then the
son of Amphitryon restored the tripod to Apollo, and got the desired
answer from Xenoclea. And poets have handed down the tradition, and
sung of the contest of Hercules and Apollo for the tripod.

After the battle of Platæa the Greeks in common made a votive offering
of a gold tripod standing on a bronze dragon. The bronze part of the
votive offering was there in my time, but the golden part had been
abstracted by the Phocian leaders.[100] The Tarentines also sent to
Delphi another tenth of spoil taken from the Peucetian barbarians.
These votive offerings were the works of art of Onatas the Æginetan
and Calynthus, and are effigies of footsoldiers and cavalry, Opis king
of the Iapyges come to the aid of the Peucetii. He is represented in
the battle as a dying man, and as he lies on the ground there stand by
him the hero Taras and the Lacedæmonian Phalanthus, and at no great
distance a dolphin: for Phalanthus before he went to Italy suffered
shipwreck in the Crissæan Gulf, and was they say brought safe to shore
by a dolphin.

[99] Ægina was the daughter of the river-god Asopus, and was carried
off from Phlius by Zeus. See Book ii. ch. 5. Hence the offering of the
people of Phlius.

[100] See _Rawlinson’s_ Herodotus, Book ix. ch. 81.



CHAPTER XIV.


The axes which were the votive offering of Periclytus, the son of
Euthymachus of Tenedos, have an old legend connected with them. Cycnus
was they say the son of Poseidon, and king at Colonæ, a town in the
Troad near the island Leucophrys. This Cycnus had a daughter Hemithea
and a son Tennes by Proclea, daughter of Clytius, and sister of that
Caletor of whom Homer says in the Iliad[101] that he was slain by Ajax
when he tried to set on fire the ship of Protesilaus,--and, Proclea
dying, Cycnus married for his second wife Phylonome, the daughter of
Cragasus, who failing to win the love of Tennes told her husband that
Tennes wanted to have illicit dealings with her against her will, and
Cycnus believed this lie, and put Tennes and his sister into a chest,
and sent them to sea in it. And they got safe to the island Leucophrys,
since called Tenedos from Tennes. And Cycnus, who was not destined to
be ignorant of his wife’s deception all his life, when he learned the
truth sailed after his son to implore his forgiveness, and to admit
his unwitting error. And as he was anchoring at the island, and was
fastening his vessel by ropes to some tree or piece of rock, Tennes in
his rage cut the ropes with his axe. Hence it is passed into a proverb,
when people obstinately decline a conference, that they resemble him
who cut the matter short with his Tenedian axe. Tennes was afterwards
slain the Greeks say by Achilles as he was defending Tenedos, and
in process of time the people of Tenedos, as they were weak, joined
themselves to the people of Alexandria on the mainland of the Troad.

The Greeks who fought against the King of the Persians erected at
Olympia a brazen Zeus, and an Apollo at Delphi, after the actions of
Artemisium and Salamis. It is said also that Themistocles, when he
went to Delphi, brought of the spoils of the Medes as a present to
Apollo, and when he asked if he should offer them inside the temple,
the Pythian Priestess bade him at once take them away altogether. And
these were the words of her oracular response: “Put not in my temple
the beautiful spoils of the Persians, send them home as quickly as
possible.” It is wonderful that the god declined to accept the spoils
of the Medes only from Themistocles. Some think the god would have
rejected all the Persian spoil equally, if those who offered it had
first asked (like Themistocles) if the god would accept it. Others say
that, as the god knew that Themistocles would be a suppliant of the
Persians, he refused on that account to accept the spoil from him, that
he might not win for him by acceptance the undying hate of the Medes.
This invasion of Greece by the barbarian you may find foretold in the
oracles of Bacis, and earlier still in the verses of Euclus.

Near the great altar is a bronze wolf, the votive offering of the
Delphians themselves. The tradition about it is that some man plundered
the treasures of the god, and hid himself and the gold in that part
of Parnassus where the forest trees were most thick, and that a wolf
attacked him as he slept and killed him, and that this wolf used to run
into the town daily and howl: and the Delphians thought this could not
but be by divine direction, so they followed the wolf and discovered
the sacred gold, and offered to the god a bronze wolf.

[101] xv. 419-421.



CHAPTER XV.


The gilt statue of Phryne here was made by Praxiteles, one of her
lovers, and was an offering of Phryne herself. And next it are two
statues of Apollo, one offered by the Epidaurians in Argolis after
victory over the Medes, and the other by the Megarians after their
victory over the Athenians at Nisæa. And there is an ox an offering
of the Platæans, when they defended themselves successfully on their
own soil with the rest of the Greeks against Mardonius the son of
Gobryas. Next come two more statues of Apollo, one offered by the
people of Heraclea near the Euxine, the other by the Amphictyones when
they fined the Phocians for cultivating land sacred to the god. This
Apollo is called by the Delphians Sitalcas,[102] and is about 35 cubits
high. Here too are statues of the Ætolian Generals, and of Artemis and
Athene, and two statues of Apollo, votive offerings of the Ætolians
after their victories over the Galati. Phaennis indeed foretold in her
oracles, a generation before it happened, that the army of the Celts
would pass from Europe to Asia to destroy the cities there.

“Then indeed the destroying host of the Galati shall cross the narrow
passage of the Hellespont, marching to the flute, and shall lawlessly
make havoc of Asia. And the god shall even afflict more grievously all
those that dwell near the sea-shore. But Cronion shall verily soon
raise up a helper, the dear son of a Zeus-reared bull, who shall bring
a day of destruction to all the Galati.”

By the bull Phaennis meant Attalus the king of Pergamus, who was also
called bull-horned in the oracle.[103]

The statues of cavalry leaders seated on horseback were offered to
Apollo by the Pheræans, when they had routed the Athenian cavalry. And
the bronze palm and gilt statue of Athene on the palm were dedicated
by the Athenians for the victory at the Eurymedon on the same day both
on land and river. I noticed that some of the gold on this statue was
plucked off. I put this down to the cupidity of sacrilegious thieves.
But Clitodemus, the oldest writer on Athenian Antiquities, says in his
account of Attica that, when the Athenians were making preparations for
the expedition to Sicily, an immense number of crows came to Delphi,
and with their beaks knocked off and tore away the gold off the statue.
He also says that they broke off the spear, the owls, and all the
fruit on the palm in imitation of real fruit. Clitodemus relates also
other prodigies to deter the Athenians from the fatal expedition to
Sicily. The people of Cyrene also placed at Delphi a figure of Battus
in his chariot, who took them by ship from Thera to Libya. Cyrene is
the charioteer, and Battus is in the chariot and Libya is crowning
him, the design is by the Cretan Amphion the son of Acestor. And when
Battus built Cyrene, he is said to have found the following remedy for
an impediment in his speech. As he was travelling in the remote parts
of Cyrene which were still unoccupied he chanced to see a lion, and his
terror at the sight made him cry out loud and clearly.[104] And not far
from Battus the Amphictyones erected another statue of Apollo, out of
the proceeds of the fine imposed on the Phocians for their impiety to
the god.

[102] _i.e._ _Prohibitor of corn-growing_ (on the sacred land).

[103] The words of the oracle were as follows:

    Θάρσει Ταυρόκερως, ἕξεις βασιληίδα τιμὴν
    καὶ παίδων παῖδες· τούτων γε μὲν οὐκέτι παῖδες.

[104] So the son of Crœsus found his tongue from sudden fright. See
Herodotus, i. 85.



CHAPTER XVI.


Of the votive offerings which the Lydian kings sent to Apollo nothing
now remains but the iron base of the bowl of Alyattes. This was made
by Glaucus of Chios, who first welded iron, and the places where the
base is joined are not riveted together by bolts or nails, but simply
by welding. This base from a broad bottom rises turret-like to a
point. The sides are not entirely covered, but have girders of iron
like the steps in a ladder. Straight bars of iron bend outwards at the
extremities, and this is the seat for the bowl.

What is called by the Delphians the navel, made of white stone, is
according to their tradition the centre of the world, and Pindar in one
of his Odes gives a similar account.[105] Here is a votive offering of
the Lacedæmonians, a statue by Calamis of Hermione, the daughter of
Menelaus and wife of Orestes (the son of Agamemnon), and still earlier
the wife of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles. The Ætolians have also
erected a statue to Eurydamus their general, who commanded their army
against the Galati.

There is still among the mountains of Crete a town called Elyrus, its
inhabitants sent a brazen goat as their offering to Delphi. This goat
is represented suckling Phylacides and Philander, who according to the
people of Elyrus were the sons of Apollo by the Nymph Acacallis, with
whom he had an intrigue in the city Tarrha in the house of Carmanor.

The Carystians also from Eubœa offered a brazen ox to Apollo after
the Median war. I think both they and the Platæans made their votive
offerings because, after repulsing the barbarian, they enjoyed
prosperity in other respects and a free land to cultivate. The Ætolians
also sent effigies of their generals and Apollo and Artemis, when they
had subdued their neighbours the Acarnanians.

The strangest thing I heard of was what happened in the seafight
between the Liparæans and Tyrrhenians. The Pythian Priestess bade
the Liparæans fight a naval engagement with the Tyrrhenians with as
small a fleet as possible. They put to sea therefore with only five
triremes, and the Tyrrhenians, thinking themselves quite a match for
the Liparæans, put out to sea against them with only the same number of
ships. And the Liparæans took them, and also another five that put out
against them, and a third and even fourth set of five ships. They then
placed at Delphi as votive offerings as many statues of Apollo as they
had captured ships. Echecratides of Larissa offered the small Apollo,
and the Delphians say this was the first of all the votive offerings.

[105] Pindar _Pyth._ viii. 85. So also Æschylus, _Eumen._ 40.



CHAPTER XVII.


Of the western barbarians the Sardinians offered a brazen statue
of Sardus, from whom their island took its name. For its size and
prosperity Sardinia is equal to the most celebrated islands. What its
ancient name was among its original inhabitants I do not know, but
the Greeks who sailed there for commerce called it Ichnusa, because
its shape was like that of a man’s foot-print. Its length is about
1,120 stades and its breadth 470. The first that crossed over into
the island were they say Libyans, their leader was Sardus, the son of
that Maceris who was called Hercules by the Egyptians and Libyans.
The most notable thing Maceris ever did was to journey to Delphi: but
Sardus led the Libyans to Ichnusa, and gave his name to the island.
They did not however eject the original inhabitants of the island, but
the new comers were received as fellow colonists rather from necessity
than choice. Neither did the Libyans nor the aborigines of the island
know how to build cities, but lived dispersed in huts and caves as
each chanced. But some years after the Libyans some Greeks came to
the island under Aristæus, (who was they say the son of Apollo by
Cyrene): and who migrated they say to Sardinia in excessive grief at
the death of Actæon, which made him ill at ease in Bœotia and indeed
all Greece. There are some who think that Dædalus fled at the same time
from Camicus, owing to the hostility of the Cretans, and took part in
this colony of Aristæus: but it is altogether beyond probability that
Dædalus, who was a contemporary of Œdipus when he reigned at Thebes,
could have shared either in a colony or in anything else with Aristæus,
the husband of Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus. Nor do I think that even
these Greeks built a town, inasmuch as in numbers and strength they
were inadequate to such a task. And after Aristæus the Iberes crossed
into Sardinia under Norax, and built the town of Nora, which is the
first mentioned in the island: Norax was they say the son of Hermes
by Erythea the daughter of Geryon. And a fourth band of colonists of
Thespians and Athenians under Iolaus came to Sardinia and built the
town of Olbia, and the Athenians separately built the town which they
called Ogryle, either preserving the name of one of their townships
in this way, or because Ogrylus was one of the expedition. There are
still places in Sardinia called after Iolaus, who is still honoured by
the inhabitants. And after the capture of Ilium several of the Trojans
escaped, as well as those who got off safe with Æneas; part of them
were carried by the winds to Sardinia, and mixed with the Greeks who
had gone there earlier. And what hindered the barbarians from fighting
against the Greeks and Trojans was that in their equipment for war
they stood on an equality, and both armies feared to cross the river
Thorsus which parted them. Many years afterwards however the Libyans
passed over into the island a second time with a larger host, and
fought against the Greeks, and entirely destroyed all but a remnant,
and the Trojans fled to the hilly parts of the island, and occupying
the mountains, which were difficult of access from the rocks and
crags, are called to this day Ilians, but they resemble the Libyans
in their appearance and armour and mode of living. And there is an
island not far from Sardinia, called by the Greeks Cyrnus, but by its
Libyan inhabitants Corsica. A large contingent in this island, who had
suffered grievously from faction, crossed over to Sardinia and dwelt
in part of the mountainous district, and were called by the Sardinians
Corsi from the name of their fatherland. And when the Carthaginians
became a great naval power, they subdued all the Sardinians but the
Ilians and the Corsi, (who were prevented from being reduced to slavery
by the security which the mountains gave them,) and themselves built
in the island the towns Caralis and Sulci. And the Libyans or Iberes,
who were allies of the Carthaginians, disputed over the spoil, and
got so angry that they parted from them, and they also went and dwelt
in the mountainous parts of the island. And they were called Balari,
according to the dialect of the people of Cyrnus, who give that
name to exiles. Such are the races that inhabit Sardinia, and such
are the towns they have built. And in the island towards the North
and the mainland of Italy is a mountain range difficult of access,
whose summits are contiguous, and this part of the island affords no
harbours to mariners, but violent gusts and squalls of wind sweep
from the mountain-tops over the sea. In the middle of the island are
other mountains less lofty, but the air there is generally turbid and
pestilential, in consequence of the salt that crystallizes there, and
the violence of the South Wind; for the North Winds, on account of
the height of the mountains towards Italy, are prevented from blowing
in summer time so as to cool the air and soil. Some say that Cyrnus
is not further by sea from Sardinia than eight stades, and as it is
mountainous and lofty throughout, they think it prevents either the
West or North West Winds reaching Sardinia. There are no serpents in
the island either venomous or harmless, nor wolves. The rams are of no
greater size than elsewhere, but their appearance is just such as a
statuary in Ægina might suppose a wild ram to be, thicker however in
the breast than the Æginetan works of art, and the horns do not stand
out direct from the head, but twist round the ears, and in speed they
surpass all animals. The island is free from all deadly grasses and
herbs with one exception, a grass like parsley which is deadly, and
those who eat of it die laughing. This is the origin of Homer[106]
and subsequent writers speaking of the Sardonic laughter when things
are in evil plight. This grass grows chiefly near springs, but does
not communicate to them its venom. We have introduced this account of
Sardinia into our history of Phocis, because the Greeks have such very
scanty knowledge about the island.

[106] Odyssey, xx. 301, 302.



CHAPTER XVIII.


The horse, which is next the statue of Sardus, was they say the votive
offering of the Athenian Callias (the son of Lysimachides), out of his
own personal gains in the Persian war. And the Achæans offered a statue
of Athene after they had reduced the town of Phana in Ætolia by siege.
The siege lasted a long time, and, when the besiegers found they could
not take the town, they sent messengers to Delphi, and this was the
response they received.

“O inhabitants of the land of Pelops and of Achaia, who come to Pytho
to enquire how you are to capture the town, observe what portion of
water daily given to the inhabitants keeps them alive, and how much the
town has already drunk. In this way may you take the fenced village of
Phana.”

Not understanding the meaning of the oracle, they resolved to raise
the siege and depart homewards, as the inhabitants of the besieged
place took very little heed of them, when a woman came out of the town
to fetch water from a well near the walls. They hurried up from the
camp and took this woman prisoner, and the Achæans learned from her
that the little water from this well (when they got it each night) was
measured out, and the people in the town had no other water whatever to
drink. So the Achæans fouled the water so as to make it undrinkable and
captured the town.

And next to this statue of Athene the Rhodians of Lindus erected a
statue of Apollo. And the Ambraciotes offered a brazen ass, after
their victory by night over the Molossi. The Molossi had made ready
for a night attack on them, when an ass, who chanced to be driven from
the field, pursuing a she-ass with lust and braying, and the driver
also crying out in a loud and disorderly manner, the Molossi were so
dismayed where they were in ambush that they left the place, and the
Ambraciotes detected their plan, and attacked and defeated them that
very night.

And the people of Orneæ in Argolis, as the Sicyonians pressed them
hard in war, vowed to Apollo, if they should succeed in repelling
the Sicyonians, to have a procession to him at Delphi daily and to
sacrifice to him any quantity of victims. They obtained the wished-for
victory, but as to discharge their vow daily was a great expense, and
the trouble even greater than the expense, they hit upon the expedient
of offering to the god representations in brass of the procession and
sacrifice.

Here too is a representation in iron of the contest between Hercules
and the Hydra, the votive offering and design of Tisagoras. Making
statues in iron is most difficult and laborious. This Tisagoras,
whoever he was, is famed for the heads of a lion and wild boar at
Pergamus. These are also in iron, and were a votive offering of his to
Dionysus.

And the Phocians of Elatea, who held out against the siege of Cassander
till Olympiodorus came from Athens to their relief, sent a brazen lion
to Apollo at Delphi. And the Apollo next that lion is the offering of
the Massaliotes for their victory over the Carthaginians in a sea-fight.

The Ætolians also erected a trophy and statue of an armed woman,
(Ætolia to wit), out of the fine they imposed on the Galati for their
cruelty to the people of Callion.[107] There is also a gilt statue of
Gorgias of Leontini, his own votive offering.

[107] See ch. 22.



CHAPTER XIX.


Next to the statue of Gorgias is a votive offering of the Amphictyones,
a statue of Scyllis of Scione, who had wonderful fame as a diver, and
taught his daughter Hydna diving. When a violent storm came on Xerxes’
fleet off Mount Pelion they greatly added to the wrecks, by diving
down and cutting the cables that kept the ships at anchor. It was for
this good service that the Amphictyones made statues of Scyllis and his
daughter. And among the statues that Nero took away from Delphi was
this of Hydna. [Virgins that are virgins indeed still dive in the sea
with impunity.][108]

I shall next relate a Lesbian tradition. The nets of some fishermen
at Methymna fished up out of the sea a head made of olive-wood, which
seemed that of a foreign god, and not one worshipped by the Greeks. The
people of Methymna inquired therefore of the Pythian priestess what god
or hero it belonged to, and she bade them worship Phallenian Dionysus.
Accordingly the people of Methymna offered their vows and sacrifices to
it, and sent a bronze imitation of it to Delphi.

On the gables are representations of Artemis and Leto and Apollo and
the Muses, and the setting of the Sun, and Dionysus and the Thyiades.
The faces of all these are by the Athenian Praxias, the pupil of
Calamis: but as the temple took some time to build Praxias died before
it was finished, and the rest of the carving on the gables was by
Androsthenes, also an Athenian, and the pupil of Eucadmus. Of the
golden arms on the architraves, the Athenians offered the shields after
the victory at Marathon, and the Ætolians the arms of the Galati behind
and on the left, which resemble the Persian shields called _Gerrha_.

Of the irruption of the Galati into Greece I gave some account in
connection with the council-chamber at Athens: but I prefer to give
the fullest account in connection with Delphi, because the greatest
struggle between them and the Greeks took place here. The first
expedition of the Celts beyond their borders was under Cambaules: but
when they got as far as Thrace on that occasion they did not dare to
go any further, recognising that they were too few in number to cope
with the Greeks. But on the second expedition, egged on by those who
had formed part of the army of Cambaules, who had tasted the sweets of
plunder and were enamoured of the gains of looting, a large army of
both infantry and cavalry mustered together. This army the commanders
divided into three parts, and each marched into a different district.
Cerethrius was to march against the Thracians and the Triballi: Brennus
and Acichorius were to lead their division into Pæonia: and Bolgius
was to march against the Macedonians and Illyrians. This last fought a
battle against Ptolemy king of the Macedonians, who had treacherously
slain Seleucus the son of Antiochus, (though he had been a suppliant
at his court), and was nicknamed Lightning on account of his
audacity.[109] In this battle Ptolemy fell, and with him no small part
of the Macedonians: but the Celts durst not adventure any further into
Greece, and so this second expedition returned home again. Thereupon
Brennus urgently pressed upon the general assemblies, and upon each
individual chieftain of the Galati, the advantages of invading Greece,
pointing out her weak state at that period, and the immense wealth of
her community, her votive offerings in the temples, her quantity of
silver and gold. He succeeded in persuading the Galati to invade Greece
once more, and among other chieftains he chose Acichorius once more as
his colleague. The army mustered 152,000 foot and 20,400 horse. Such
at least was the fighting force of the cavalry, for its real number
was 61,200: as each horse-soldier had two servants, who themselves
were excellent cavalry also and mounted. For the custom of the Galati
in an engagement was that these servants should remain in the rear
close at hand, and if a horse was killed they supplied a fresh one,
and if the rider was killed one of them took his place, and if he too
was killed then the third took his place. And if one of the masters
was only wounded, then one of his servants removed him to the camp,
and the other took his place in the battle. In this custom I think the
Galati imitated the 10,000 Persians, called _The Immortals_. But the
difference was that _The Immortals_ were a reserve force only used at
the end of an action, whereas the Galati used these reserves as wanted
all through the action. This mode of fighting they called _Trimarcisia_
in their dialect: for the Celts called a horse _marca_. Such was the
force, such the intentions, with which Brennus marched into Greece.

[108] I follow _Schubart_ in surrounding this remarkable statement with
brackets.

[109] See the circumstances in Book i. ch. 16.



CHAPTER XX.


The Greeks for their part, though very dejected, were induced to fight
bravely for their country by the very urgency of the peril. For they
saw that at the present crisis it was not merely their liberty that
was at stake, as at the time of the Persian invasion, but that, even
if they granted land and water to the enemy,[110] they would have no
future security. For they still remembered the former irruption of the
Galati into Macedonia and Thrace and Pæonia, and their recent outrages
in Thessaly had been reported to them. It was the universal opinion
therefore, both with individuals and states, that they must either die
or conquer.

It will not be without instruction to compare the numbers of those
who fought against Xerxes at Thermopylæ with those who fought now
against the Galati. The Greeks that marched against the Mede were as
follows: 300 Lacedæmonians only under Leonidas, 500 from Tegea, 500
from Mantinea, 120 Arcadians from Orchomenus, 1000 from the other towns
of Arcadia, 80 from Mycenæ, 200 from Phlius, 400 from Corinth, 700
Bœotians from Thespia and 400 from Thebes. And 1,000 Phocians guarded
the pass at Mount Œta, who must be added to the Greek contingent. As
to the Locrians under Mount Cnemis Herodotus has not mentioned their
precise number, he only says they came from all the towns. But we
may conjecture their number pretty accurately: for the Athenians at
Marathon, including slaves and non-combatants, were not more than
9,000: so that the fighting force of Locrians at Thermopylæ could not
be more than 6,000. Thus the whole force employed against the Persians
would be 11,200. Nor did all of these stay all the time under arms at
Thermopylæ, for except the men from Lacedæmon and Thespia and Mycenæ
they waited not to see the issue of the fight. And now against these
barbarians who had crossed the ocean the following Greeks banded
themselves at Thermopylæ: 10,000 heavy armed infantry and 500 horse
from Bœotia, under the Bœotarchs Cephisodotus and Thearidas and
Diogenes and Lysander: 500 cavalry and 3,000 foot from Phocis, under
Critobulus and Antiochus: 700 Locrians, all infantry, from the island
Atalanta, under the command of Midias: 400 heavy armed infantry of
the Megarians, their cavalry under the command of Megareus: of the
Ætolians, who formed the largest and most formidable contingent, the
number of their horse is not recorded, but their light-armed troops
were 90,[111] and their heavy armed 7000: and the Ætolians were under
the command of Polyarchus and Polyphron and Lacrates. And the Athenians
were under Callippus the son of Mœrocles, as I have before stated, and
consisted of all the triremes that were sea-worthy, and 500 horse, and
1,000 foot, and because of their ancient renown they were in command of
the whole allied army. And some mercenary troops were sent by various
kings, as 500 from Macedonia, and 500 from Asia, those that were sent
by Antigonus were led by Aristodemus the Macedonian, and those that
were sent by Antiochus were led by Telesarchus, as also some Syrians
from Asia situated by the river Orontes.

When these Greeks, thus banded together at Thermopylæ, heard that the
army of the Galati was already in the neighbourhood of Magnesia and
Phthiotis, they determined to send about 1,000 picked light-armed
soldiers and a troop of horse to the river Sperchius, to prevent the
barbarians’ crossing the river without a struggle. And they went and
destroyed the bridges, and encamped by the river. Now Brennus was by no
means devoid of intelligence, and for a barbarian no mean strategist.
Accordingly on the following night without any delay he sent 10,000 of
his troops, who could swim and were remarkably tall,--and all the Celts
are remarkably tall men--down the river to cross it not at the ordinary
fords, but at a part of the river where it was less rapid, and marshy,
and diffused itself more over the plain, so that the Greeks should not
be able to notice their crossing over. They crossed over accordingly,
swimming over the marshy part of the river, and using the shields of
their country as a sort of raft, while the tallest of them could ford
the river. When the Greeks at the Sperchius noticed that part of the
barbarians had crossed over, they returned at once to the main army.

[110] The technical term for submission to an enemy. See Herodotus, v.
17, 18; vii. 133.

[111] This 90 seeming a very small force, _Schubart_ conjectures 790,
_Brandstäter_ 1090.



CHAPTER XXI.


Brennus next ordered those who dwelt near the Maliac Bay to throw
bridges over the Sperchius: which they did quickly, standing greatly in
dread of him, and being very desirous that the barbarians should depart
and not injure them by a long stay in their part of the country. Then
Brennus passed his army across these bridges, and marched for Heraclea.
And though they did not capture it, the Galati ravaged the country, and
slew the men that were left in the fields. The year before the Ætolians
had compelled the people of Heraclea to join the Ætolian League, and
now they protected Heraclea just as if it was their own. That is why
Brennus did not capture it, but he paid no great attention to it, his
only anxiety being to dislodge the enemy from the passes, and get into
Greece by Thermopylæ.

He advanced therefore from Heraclea, and learning from deserters
that a strong force from all the Greek cities was concentrated at
Thermopylæ, he despised his enemy, and the following day at daybreak
opened battle, having no Greek seer with him, or any priests of his
own country, if indeed the Celts practise divination. Thereupon the
Greeks advanced silently and in good order: and when the two armies
engaged, the infantry were careful not to break their line, and the
light-armed troops keeping their ground discharged their darts arrows
and slings at the barbarians. The cavalry on both sides was useless,
not only from the narrowness of the pass, but also from the smooth and
slippery and rocky nature of the ground, intersected also throughout by
various mountain streams. The armour of the Galati was inferior, for
their only defensive armour was the shield used in their country, and
moreover they were less experienced in the art of war. But they fought
like wild beasts with rage and fury and headlong inconsiderate valour:
and, whether hacked about by swords and battle-axes, or pierced with
darts and javelins, desisted not from their furious attacks till bereft
of life. Some even plucked out of their wounds the weapons with which
they had been wounded, and hurled them back, or used them in hand to
hand fight. Meantime the Athenians on their triremes, not without great
difficulty and danger, sailed along the mud which is very plentiful
in that arm of the sea, and got their vessels as near the barbarians
as they could, and shot at their flanks with all kinds of darts and
arrows. And the Celts by now getting far the worst of it, and in the
press suffering far more loss than they could inflict, had the signal
to retire to their camp given them by their commanders. Accordingly
retreating in no order and in great confusion, many got trodden
underfoot by one another, and many falling into the marsh disappeared
in it, so that the loss in the retreat was as great as in the heat of
action.

On this day the Athenians exhibited more valour than all the other
Greeks, and especially Cydias, who was very young and fought now for
the first time. And as he was killed by the Galati his relations hung
up his shield to Zeus Eleutherius with the following inscription,

 “Here I hang in vain regret for the young Cydias, I once the shield of
 that good warrior, now a votive offering to Zeus, the shield which he
 carried on his left arm for the first time, on that day when fierce
 war blazed out against the Galati.”

This inscription remained till Sulla’s soldiers removed the shields in
the portico of Zeus Eleutherius, as well as other notable things at
Athens.

And after the battle at Thermopylæ the Greeks buried their dead, and
stripped the bodies of the barbarians. But the Galati not only asked
not permission to bury their dead, but plainly did not care whether
their dead obtained burial or were torn to pieces by birds and beasts.
Two things in my opinion made them thus indifferent to the burial of
their dead, one to strike awe in their enemies by their ferocity, the
other that they do not habitually mourn for their dead. In the battle
fell 40 Greeks, how many barbarians cannot be accurately ascertained,
for many of them were lost in the marsh.



CHAPTER XXII.


On the seventh day after the battle a division of the Galati
endeavoured to cross Mount Œta by Heraclea, by a narrow pass near the
ruins of Trachis, not far from which was a temple of Athene, rich in
votive offerings. The barbarians hoped to cross Mount Œta by this pass,
and also to plunder the temple by the way. The garrison however under
the command of Telesarchus defeated the barbarians, though Telesarchus
fell in the action, a man zealously devoted to the Greek cause.

The other commanders of the barbarians were astounded at the Greek
successes, and doubted whereunto these things would grow, seeing that
at present their own fortunes were desperate, but Brennus thought that,
if he could force the Ætolians back into Ætolia, the war against the
other Greeks would be easier. He selected therefore out of his whole
army 40,000 foot and about 800 horse, all picked men, and put them
under the command of Orestorius and Combutis. And they recrossed the
Sperchius by the bridges, and marched through Thessaly into Ætolia.
And their actions at Callion were the most atrocious of any that we
have ever heard of, and quite unlike human beings. They butchered all
the males, and likewise old men, and babes at their mother’s breasts:
they even drank the blood, and feasted on the flesh, of babies that
were fat. And high-spirited women and maidens in their flower committed
suicide when the town was taken: and those that survived the barbarians
submitted to every kind of outrage, being by nature incapable of pity
and natural affection. And some of the women rushed upon the swords
of the Galati and voluntarily courted death: to others death soon
came from absence of food and sleep, as these merciless barbarians
outraged them in turn, and wreaked their lusts on them whether dying or
dead. And the Ætolians having learnt from messengers of the disasters
that had fallen upon them, removed their forces with all speed from
Thermopylæ, and pressed into Ætolia, furious at the sufferings of
the people of Callion, and even still more anxious to save the towns
that had not yet been captured. And the young men flocked out from
all their towns to swell their army, old men also mixed with them
inspirited by the crisis, and even their women volunteered their
services, being more furious against the Galati than even the men. And
the barbarians, having plundered the houses and temples and set fire
to Callion, marched back to the main army at Thermopylæ: and on the
road the people of Patræ were the only Achæans that helped the Ætolians
and fell on the barbarians, being as they were capital heavy-armed
soldiers, but hard-pressed from the quantity of the Galati and their
desperate valour. But the Ætolian men and women lined the roads and
threw missiles at the barbarians with great effect, as they had no
defensive armour but their national shields, and when the Galati
pursued them they easily ran away, and when they desisted from the
vain pursuit harassed them again continually. And though Callion had
suffered so grievously, that what Homer relates of the contest between
the Læstrygones and the Cyclops seems less improbable,[112] yet the
vengeance which the Ætolians took was not inadequate: for of the 40,800
barbarians not more than half got back safe to the camp at Thermopylæ.

In the meantime the fortunes of the Greeks at Thermopylæ were as
follows. One pass over Mount Œta is above Trachis, most steep and
precipitous, the other through the district of the Ænianes is easier
for an army, and is the way by which Hydarnes the Mede formerly
turned the flank of Leonidas’ forces. By this way the Ænianes and
people of Heraclea promised to conduct Brennus, out of no ill-will
to the Greeks, but thinking it a great point if they could get the
Celts to leave their district and not remain there to their utter
ruin. So true are the words of Pindar, when he says that everybody is
oppressed by his own troubles, but is indifferent to the misfortunes
of other people.[113] And this promise of the Ænianes and people of
Heraclea encouraged Brennus: and he left Acichorius with the main army,
instructing him to attack the Greek force, when he (Brennus) should
have got to their rear: and himself marched through the pass with
40,000 picked men. And it so happened that that day there was a great
mist on the mountain which obscured the sun, so that the barbarians
were not noticed by the Phocians who guarded the pass till they got
to close quarters and attacked them. The Phocians defended themselves
bravely, but were at last overpowered and retired from the pass: but
were in time to get to the main force, and report what had happened,
before the Greeks got completely surrounded oh all sides. Thereupon the
Athenians took the Greeks on board their triremes at Thermopylæ: and
they dispersed each to their own nationality.

[112] Odyssey, x. 199, 200.

[113] _Nem._ i. 82. Thus _La Rochefoucauld_ is anticipated. “Nous avons
tous assez de force pour supporter les maux d’autrui.”



CHAPTER XXIII.


And Brennus, waiting only till Acichorius’ troops should come up from
the camp, marched for Delphi. And the inhabitants fled to the oracle
in great alarm, but the god told them not to fear, he would protect
his own. And the following Greeks came up to fight for the god; the
Phocians from all their towns, 400 heavy armed soldiers from Amphissa,
of the Ætolians only a few at first, when they heard of the onward
march of the barbarians, but afterwards Philomelus brought up 1200. For
the flower of the Ætolian army directed itself against the division of
Acichorius, not bringing on a general engagement, but attacking their
rearguard as they marched, plundering their baggage and killing the
men in charge of it, and thus impeding their march considerably. And
Acichorius had left a detachment at Heraclea, to guard the treasure in
his camp.

So Brennus and the Greeks gathered together at Delphi drew up against
one another in battle-array. And the god showed in the plainest
possible way his enmity to the barbarians. For the whole ground
occupied by the army of the Galati violently rocked most of the day,
and there was continuous thunder and lightning, which astounded the
Celts and prevented their hearing the orders of their officers, and the
lightning hit not only some particular individual here and there, but
set on fire all round him and their arms. And appearances of heroes,
as Hyperochus and Laodocus and Pyrrhus, and Phylacus--a local hero at
Delphi--were seen on the battle field. And many Phocians fell in the
action and among others Aleximachus, who slew more barbarians with
his own hand than any other of the Greeks, and who was remarkable
for his manly vigour, strength of frame and daring, and his statue
was afterwards placed by the Phocians in the temple of Apollo at
Delphi. Such was the condition and terror of the barbarians all the
day, and during the night things were still worse with them, for it
was bitterly cold and snowed hard, and great stones came tumbling
down from Parnassus, and whole crags broke off and seemed to make the
barbarians their mark, and not one or two but thirty and even more,
as they stood on guard or rested, were killed at once by the fall of
one of these crags. And the next day at daybreak the Greeks poured
out of Delphi and attacked them, some straight in front, but the
Phocians, who had the best acquaintance with the ground, came down
the steep sides of Parnassus through the snow, and fell on the Celtic
rear unexpectedly, and hurled javelins at them, and shot at them with
perfect security. At the beginning of the battle the Galati, especially
Brennus’ body-guard who were the finest and boldest men in their army,
fought with conspicuous bravery, though they were shot at on all
sides, and suffered frightfully from the cold, especially such as were
wounded: but when Brennus was wounded, and taken off the field in a
fainting condition, then the barbarians sorely against their will beat
a retreat, (as the Greeks by now pressed them hard on all sides), and
killed those of their comrades who could not retreat with them owing to
their wounds or weakness.

These fugitive Galati bivouacked where they had got to when night came
on them, and during the night were seized with panic fear, that is a
fear arising without any solid cause. This panic came upon them late in
the night, and was at first confined to a few, who thought they heard
the noise of horses galloping up and that the enemy was approaching,
but soon it ran through the host. They therefore seized their arms, and
getting separated in the darkness mutually slew one another, neither
recognizing their native dialect, nor discerning one another’s forms
or weapons, but both sides in their panic thinking their opponents
Greeks both in language and weapons, so that this panic sent by the
god produced terrific mutual slaughter. And those Phocians, who were
left in the fields guarding the flocks and herds, were the first to
notice and report to the Greeks what had happened to the barbarians in
the night: and this nerved them to attack the Celts more vigorously
than ever, and they placed a stronger guard over their cattle, and
would not let the Galati get any articles of food from them without a
fierce fight for it, so that throughout the barbarian host there was a
deficiency of corn and all other provisions. And the number of those
that perished in Phocis was nearly 6,000 slain in battle, and more than
10,000 in the savage wintry night and in the panic, and as many more
from starvation.

Some Athenians, who had gone to Delphi to reconnoitre, brought back the
news of what had happened to the barbarians, and of the panic that the
god had sent. And when they heard this good news they marched through
Bœotia, and the Bœotians with them, and both in concert followed the
barbarians, and lay in ambush for them, and cut off the stragglers.
And Acichorius’ division had joined those who fled with Brennus
only the previous night: for the Ætolians made their progress slow,
hurling javelins at them and any other missile freely, so that only
a small part of the barbarians got safe to the camp at Heraclea. And
Brennus, though his wounds were not mortal, yet either from fear of his
comrades, or from shame, as having been the instigator of all these
woes that had happened to them in Greece, committed suicide by drinking
neat wine freely.[114] And subsequently the barbarians got to the river
Sperchius with no little difficulty, as the Ætolians attacked them
fiercely all the way, and at that river the Thessalians and Malienses
set on them with such vigour that none of them got home again.

This expedition of the Celts to Greece and their utter ruin happened
when Anaxicrates was Archon at Athens, in the second year of the 125th
Olympiad, when Ladas of Ægæ was victor in the course. And the following
year, when Democles was Archon at Athens, all the Celts[115] crossed
back again to Asia Minor. I have delivered a true account.

[114] Which after his wounds would be fatal.

[115] As _Siebelis_ well points out, this cannot refer to Brennus’
army, which we have just been told was all cut to pieces, but to the
swarm of Celts in Macedonia and Thrace, who returned to Asia Minor,
cowed by this catastrophe.



CHAPTER XXIV.


In the vestibule of the temple at Delphi are written up several wise
sayings for the conduct of life by those whom the Greeks call _The
Seven Wise Men_. These were Thales of Miletus and Bias of Priene (both
from Ionia), and (of the Æolians in Lesbos) Pittacus of Mitylene,
and (of the Dorians in Asia Minor) Cleobulus of Lindus, and Solon of
Athens, and Chilo of Sparta, and the seventh Plato (the son of Aristo)
makes[116] Myson of Chenæ, a village on Mount Œta, instead of Periander
the son of Cypselus. These Seven Wise Men came to Delphi, and offered
to Apollo those famous sayings, _Know thyself_ and _Not too much of
anything_. And they inscribed those sayings in the vestibule of the
temple.

You may also see a brazen statue of Homer on a pillar, and read the
oracle which they say was given to him, which runs as follows:

 “Fortunate and unfortunate, for you are born to both destinies, you
 inquire after your fatherland. But you have no fatherland, only a
 motherland. Your mother’s country is the island Ios, which shall
 receive your remains. But be on your guard against the riddle of young
 boys.”[117]

The inhabitants of Ios still shew the tomb of Homer, and in another
part of the island the tomb of Clymene, who they say was Homer’s
mother. But the people of Cyprus, for they too claim Homer as their
own, and say that Themisto (one of the women of their country) was
his mother, cite the following prophetical verses of Euclus touching
Homer’s birth;

 “In sea-girt Cyprus shall a great poet one day be born, whom divine
 Themisto shall give birth to in the country, a poet whose fame shall
 spread far from wealthy Salamis. And he leaving Cyprus and sailing
 over the sea shall first sing the woes of spacious Hellas, and shall
 all his days be immortal and ever fresh.”

These oracles I have heard and read, but I have nothing private to
write either about the country or age of Homer.

And in the temple is an altar of Poseidon, for the most ancient oracle
belonged to Poseidon, and there are also statues of two Fates, for
in the place of the third Fate is Zeus the Arbiter of the Fates, and
Apollo the Arbiter of the Fates. You may also see here the altar at
which the priest of Apollo slew Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, as I
have stated elsewhere. And not far from this altar is the iron Chair
of Pindar, on which they say he used to sit and sing Hymns to Apollo,
whenever he came to Delphi. In the interior of the temple, to which
only a few have access, is another statue of Apollo all gold.

As one leaves the temple and turns to the left, there are precincts
in which is the grave of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, to whom the
people of Delphi offer funeral rites annually. And not far from this
tomb is a small stone on which they pour oil daily, and on which at
every festival they lay raw wool: and they have a tradition about this
stone, that it was the one which was given to Cronos instead of a son,
and that he afterwards voided it.

And if, after looking at this stone, you return to the temple, you will
come to the fountain Cassotis, which is walled in, and there is an
ascent to it through the wall. The water of this fountain goes they say
underground, and inspires the women in the sanctuary of the god with
prophetical powers: they say the fountain got its name from one of the
Nymphs of Parnassus.

[116] In the _Protagoras_, 343 A.

[117] The tradition the oracle refers to is that Homer died of grief,
because he could not solve the riddle which some fisher boys propounded
to him. The oracle is also alluded to in Book viii, ch. 24.



CHAPTER XXV.


Above the fountain is a building which contains some paintings of
Polygnotus, it is the votive offering of the people of Cnidos, and
is called _The Lounge_ by the people of Delphi, because they used to
assemble there in old times and discuss both serious and trifling
subjects. That there were many such places throughout Greece Homer has
shown in Melantho’s reviling of Odysseus:

“For you will not go to sleep at a smithy or at some lounge, but you
will keep talking here.”[118]

On the right as you enter the building is a painting of the capture of
Ilium and the return of the Greeks. And they are making preparations
for Menelaus’ hoisting sail, and his ship is painted with boys and
sailors all mixed up together on board: and in the middle of the
ship is Phrontis the pilot with two punting poles. Homer[119] has
represented Nestor among other things telling Telemachus about
Phrontis, how he was the son of Onetor, and pilot of Menelaus, and most
able in his art, and how he died as he sailed past Sunium in Attica.
And Menelaus, who was up to this time sailing with Nestor, was now left
behind, that he might discharge all due funeral rites for Phrontis.
Beneath Phrontis in the painting of Polygnotus is Ithæmenes carrying
some garment, and Echœax descending the gangway-ladder with a brazen
water-pot. And Polites and Strophius and Alphius are represented
taking down the tent of Menelaus, which is not far from the ship. And
Amphialus is taking down another tent, a boy is sitting at his feet,
but there is no inscription on him, and Phrontis is the only person
with a beard. His was the only name in the group that Polygnotus got
out of the Odyssey: the others I imagine he invented. There too stands
Briseis, and Diomede near her, and Iphis in front of them both, they
all appear to be gazing at Helen’s beauty. And Helen is seated, and
near her is Eurybates, who has no beard, and was I suppose the herald
of Odysseus. And Helen’s handmaids are by, Panthalis standing at her
side, and Electra fastening her sandals: these names are different
however from those Homer gives in the Iliad, when he describes Helen
and her maids going on to the walls.[120] And above Helen sits a
man clothed in purple, looking very dejected: before reading the
inscription one would conjecture that it is Helenus the son of Priam.
And near Helenus is Meges, who is wounded in the shoulder, as he is
described by Lescheos of Pyrrha, the son of Æschylinus, in his _Capture
of Ilium_, he was wounded he says by Admetus the son of Augeas in the
night-attack of the Trojans. And next to Meges is Lycomedes the son of
Creon, who is wounded on the wrist, as Lescheos says he was by Agenor.
It is manifest that Polygnotus must have read Lescheos’ poem, or he
would not have painted their wounds so accurately. He has also depicted
Lycomedes with a third wound in the ankle, and a fourth on the head.
Euryalus also the son of Mecisteus is represented as wounded in the
head and wrist. All these are above Helen in the painting: and next
Helen is Æthra the mother of Theseus with her head shaven, and Theseus’
son Demophon apparently wondering whether he could save her. And the
Argives say that Melanippus was the son of Theseus by the daughter
of Sinis, and that he won the prize in the race, when the Epigoni
restored the Nemean games which were originally introduced by Adrastus.
Lescheos has stated that Æthra escaped when Ilium was taken, and got
to the Greek camp, and was recognized by the sons of Theseus, and
Demophon asked her of Agamemnon. And he said he would willingly gratify
Demophon, but could not do so before he obtained the consent of Helen,
so a messenger was sent to Helen and she gave her consent. I think
therefore the picture represents Eurybates coming to Helen on this
errand, and delivering the message of Agamemnon. And the Trojan women
in the painting look in sad dejection as if they were captives already.
There is Andromache, with a babyboy at her breast. Lescheos says that
this babyboy was hurled from a tower, not in consequence of any decree
of the Greeks, but simply from the private hatred of Neoptolemus. There
too is Medesicaste, one of the illegitimate daughters of Priam, of whom
Homer says that she dwelt in the town of Pedæum, and married Imbrius
the son of Mentor.[121] Andromache and Medesicaste are represented
veiled: but Polyxena has her hair plaited after the manner of maidens.
The Poets represent her to have been slain at the tomb of Achilles,
and I have seen paintings both at Athens and Pergamus beyond the river
Caicus of her death. Polygnotus has also introduced Nestor into the
same painting, with a hat on his head and a spear in his hand: and
a horse near seems to be rolling in the dust. Near the horse is the
sea-shore, and you can see the pebbles, but the rest of the scene does
not resemble a sea view.

[118] Odyssey, xviii. 328, 329. See Dr. Hayman’s admirable note on this
passage.

[119] Odyssey, iii. 276 _sq._

[120] Iliad, iii. 144. Their names there are _Æthra_ and _Clymene_.

[121] Iliad, xiii. 171-173.



CHAPTER XXVI.


Above the women between Æthra and Nestor are the captives, Clymene,
and Creusa, and Aristomache, and Xenodice. Clymene is enumerated
among the captives by Stesichorus in his _Fall of Ilium_: Aristomache
likewise is represented in the poem called _The Return from Ilium_
as the daughter of Priam, and wife of Critolaus the son of Hicetaon:
but I do not remember either poet or prose-writer making mention of
Xenodice: and as to Creusa, they say that the Mother of the Gods and
Aphrodite rescued her from slavery to the Greeks, and that she was the
wife of Æneas, though Lescheos and the author of the Cyprian Poems
represent Eurydice as the wife of Æneas. Above these are painted
Deinome Metioche Pisis and Cleodice reclining on a couch: Deinome is
the only one of these mentioned in the poem called _The Little Iliad_,
so I think Polygnotus must have invented the other names. Here too is
Epeus naked knocking down the walls of Troy, and above the walls is
the head only of the Wooden Horse. Here too is Polypœtes, the son of
Pirithous, with his head bound by a fillet, and near him Acamas, the
son of Theseus, with a helmet on his head, and a crest on the helmet.
Here too is Odysseus with a coat of mail on. And Ajax the son of Oileus
is standing near the altar with a shield in his hand, taking his oath
in connection with the violation of Cassandra: Cassandra is seated on
the ground and holding fast the wooden statue of Athene, for she tore
it from its base, when Ajax dragged her away from the altar. And the
sons of Atreus are painted with their helmets on: and on Menelaus’
shield is a representation of the dragon that appeared to him as an
omen during the sacrifice at Aulis. They are administering the oath
to Ajax. And near the painting of the horse by Nestor’s side[122] is
Neoptolemus killing Elasus, whoever he was;[123] his dying agony is
well depicted: and Astynous, who is mentioned by Lescheos, has fallen
on to his knee, and Neoptolemus is in the act of smiting him with the
sword. And Polygnotus has represented Neoptolemus alone of all the
Greeks continuing to butcher the Trojans, that the painting should
correspond with the scenes depicted on the tomb of Neoptolemus. Homer
indeed calls Achilles’ son everywhere by the name of Neoptolemus, but
the Cyprian Poems say he was called Pyrrhus by Lycomedes, and that the
name Neoptolemus was given him by Phœnix, because he[124] was very
young when he first went to the wars. Here too is the painting of an
altar, and a little boy clinging to it in dire fear: a brazen coat
of mail lies on the altar, such as was worn in old times, for in our
days we seldom see such. It consisted of two pieces called _Gyala_,
one a protection for the breast and belly, the other for the back,
both joined together by clasps. And such coats of mail would afford
sufficient protection without a shield: and so Homer represented
Phorcys the Phrygian without a shield, because he was armed with this
kind of coat of mail.[125] In Polygnotus’ painting I recognize a coat
of mail of this kind: and in the temple of Ephesian Artemis Calliphon
of Samos has painted some women fitting this kind of coat of mail on
Patroclus. And Polygnotus has represented Laodice standing on the
other side of the altar. I do not find her name mentioned by any poet
among the captive Trojan women: and it seems probable enough that the
Greeks let her go. For Homer has represented in the Iliad that Menelaus
and Odysseus were entertained by Antenor, and that Laodice was the
wife of Antenor’s son Helicaon.[126] And Lescheos states that Helicaon
was wounded in the night-engagement, and recognized by Odysseus,
and rescued out of the battle alive. It follows therefore, from the
affection of Menelaus and Odysseus for the family of Antenor, that
Agamemnon and Menelaus would have offered no violence to Helicaon’s
wife. What Euphorion of Chalcis therefore has written about Laodice is
very improbable. And next Laodice is a stone prop, and a bronze laver
on it. And Medusa sits on the ground holding this prop with both her
hands. Whoever has read the Ode of Himeræus will include her among the
daughters of Priam. And near Medusa is an old woman closely shaven, (or
possibly a eunuch), with a naked child in his or her arms: the child’s
hand is before its eyes for fear.

[122] See ch. 26 nearly at the end.

[123] An Elasus is mentioned in Iliad, xvi. 696.

[124] _He_ (_i.e._ Neoptolemus). _Siebelis_ very ingeniously suggests
ὁ Ἀχιλλέως. I accept that suggestion as necessary to the
sense.

[125] See Iliad, xvii. 314. Pausanias goes a little beyond Homer
methinks.

[126] See Iliad, iii. 205-207. Also 122-124.



CHAPTER XXVII.


Of the dead in the painting are Pelis naked,[127] lying on his back,
and underneath him Eioneus and Admetus both in their coats of mail.
According to Lescheos Eioneus was slain by Neoptolemus, and Admetus
by Philoctetes. And above these are others, near the laver Leocritus,
the son of Polydamas, who was killed by Odysseus, and near Eioneus
and Admetus Corœbus the son of Mygdon. This Mygdon has a famous tomb
on the borders of the Stectorenian Phrygians, and poets have given
those Phrygians the name of Mygdones after him. Corœbus came to wed
Cassandra, and was killed by Neoptolemus according to the prevalent
tradition, but by Diomede according to Lescheos. And above Corœbus are
Priam and Axion and Agenor. Lescheos says that Priam was not slain
at the altar of Household Zeus, but was torn away from the altar and
killed by Neoptolemus with no great difficulty at the doors of the
palace. As to Hecuba, Stesichorus in his _Fall of Ilium_ has stated
that she was taken to Lycia by Apollo. And Lescheos says that Axion
was the son of Priam, and killed by Eurypylus the son of Euæmon. The
same poet states that Agenor was killed by Neoptolemus. And Echeclus,
Agenor’s son, seems to have been slain by Achilles. And Sinon, the
companion of Odysseus, and Anchialus are carrying out the corpse of
Laomedon for burial. There is another dead person in the painting,
Eresus by name; no poet, so far as my knowledge goes, has sung either
of Eresus or Laomedon. There is a painting also of the house of
Antenor, and a leopard’s skin hung up over the porch, as a sign to the
Greeks not to meddle with the family of Antenor. And Theano, _Antenor’s
wife_, is painted with her sons, Glaucus seated on his armour, and
Eurymachus seated on a stone. Near him stands Antenor with his daughter
Crino, who is carrying her baby boy. All these are depicted with
sorrowful countenances. The servants are placing a chest and other
articles on the back of an ass, on which a little boy also sits. And
under this painting is the following Elegiac couplet by Simonides.

 “Polygnotus of Thasos, the son of Aglaophon, painted these incidents
 in the capture of Ilium.”

[127] _Naked_ here, and in connection with Epeus in ch. 26, probably
only means without armour on. Cf. “Nudus ara, sere nudus.” Virg. Georg.
i. 299.



CHAPTER XXVIII.


The other part of the painting, that on the left, represents Odysseus
descending to Hades, to consult the soul of Tiresias about his return
home. In the painting is a river, which is obviously Acheron, and
there are some reeds growing in it, and some fishes so indistinct that
they look like the ghosts of fishes. And there is a boat on the river,
and a ferryman with his oars. Polygnotus has followed (I think) here
the description, in the poem called the Minyad, about Theseus and
Pirithous.

“Unwillingly did old Charon admit these living persons into his boat
meant for the use of the dead.”

Polygnotus has accordingly represented Charon as old. The persons
on board are not very easy to trace. But there is Tellis, looking
like a youth, and Cleobœa still a virgin, with a cist on her knees
such as they use in the worship of Demeter. Of Tellis I know nothing
more than that Archilochus was his greatgrandson. And Cleobœa they
say first introduced the mysteries of Demeter from Paros to Thasos.
And on the bank of the Acheron near Charon’s boat a son, who had not
treated his father well, is being strangled by his father. For the
ancients reverenced fathers exceedingly,[128] as one may infer among
other things from the conduct of those called _Pious_ at Catana, who,
when Catana was consumed by fire from Mount Ætna, took no account of
silver or gold, but the one took up his mother, the other his father,
and fled for their lives. And as they advanced with great difficulty
for the flame gathered on them, (but they would not for all that set
their parents down), the flames they say divided so as to let them
pass without hurt. These young men are still honoured at Catana. And
in Polygnotus’ painting near the man who ill-treated his father, and
has consequently a bad time of it in Hades, is a sacrilegious wretch
suffering punishment. The woman[129] who is punishing him seems well
acquainted with poison, and other things that can do man harm. Men were
also in those days remarkable for piety to the gods, as the Athenians
shewed when they captured the temple of Olympian Zeus at Syracuse, for
they removed none of the votive offerings, and left the former priest
still in charge. Datis the Mede also showed the same piety both in
word and in deed, in word to the Delians, and in deed when, finding a
statue of Apollo on a Phœnician ship, he gave it back to the people of
Tanagra to take to Delium. In those days all men honoured the deity,
and so Polygnotus introduced into his painting the sacrilegious wretch
suffering punishment. Above those I have described is Eurynomus, who
according to the Antiquarians at Delphi is a demon in Hades, and eats
the flesh of the dead clean to the bones. No such person however is
mentioned in the Odyssey, or in the Minyad, or in _The Return from
Ilium_, though these poems contain accounts of Hades and its horrors.
I shall therefore describe Eurynomus’ appearance in this painting.
His colour is a blueish-black, like that of the flies that infest
meat,[130] and he shows his fangs, and sits on a vulture’s skin. And
next him are Auge and Iphimedea from Arcadia. Auge came to Teuthras in
Mysia, and, of all the women who consorted with Hercules, bare a son
most like him. And Iphimedea is treated with very great honour by the
Carians who dwell at Mylasa.

[128] See for example Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 331, 332, with context.

[129] _Boettiger_ takes this woman to be _Punishment_ personified.

[130] Our “bluebottles.”



CHAPTER XXIX.


Above those I have already mentioned are Perimedes and Eurylochus,[131]
the comrades of Odysseus, with the victims which are black rams. And
next them is a man seated, whom the inscription states to be Ocnus.
He is representing rope-making, and a she-ass near him eats the rope
as fast as he makes it. This Ocnus they say was an industrious man,
who had an extravagant wife: and whatever he got together by industry
was very soon spent by her. This picture therefore of Polygnotus is
supposed to be a skit on Ocnus’ wife. And I know that the Ionians,
when they see anyone labouring hard to no profit, say that he is
weaving Ocnus’ rope.[132] However those who divine by the flight of
birds give the name of Ocnus to a very rare kind of heron, both large
and handsome. Tityus too is in the picture, no longer being tortured,
but worn out by his continuous punishment to a mere shadow. And if
you look at the next part of the picture, you will see Ariadne very
near the man who is ropemaking: she is sitting on a rock, and looking
at her sister Phædra, who is suspended to a rock by a rope which she
holds in both hands. She is so represented to make her end appear more
decorous. And Dionysus took Ariadne from Theseus either by some chance,
or purposely preparing an ambush for him, sailing against him with a
larger armament. This was the same Dionysus, I take it, who was the
first to invade India, and the first to throw a bridge over the river
Euphrates; the place where he built this bridge was called Zeugma, and
a rope is preserved to this day, wreathed with tendrils of the vine and
ivy, which was used in the construction of the bridge. Both Greeks and
Egyptians have many legends about Dionysus. And below Phædra Chloris is
reclining on the knees of Thyia: no one will err who states that there
was a great friendship between these two women in their lifetime: and
both came from the same neighbourhood, Orchomenus in Bœotia.[133] There
are other traditions about them, as that Poseidon had an intrigue with
Thyia, and that Chloris was married to Poseidon’s son Neleus. And next
Thyia is Procris the daughter of Erechtheus, and next her, with her
back towards her, is Clymene, who is represented in _The Return from
Ilium_ to have been the daughter of Minyas, and the wife of Cephalus
the son of Deion, and mother by him of Iphiclus. All the poets agree
that Procris was Cephalus’ wife before Clymene was, and that she was
murdered by her husband. And beyond Clymene in the interior of the
painting is the Theban Megara, who was Hercules’ wife, but eventually
repudiated by him, because he lost all his children by her, and so did
not think his marriage with her a lucky one. Above the head of those
women I have mentioned is the daughter of Salmoneus sitting on a stone,
and beside her Eriphyle is standing, lifting her fingers through her
dress to her neck. You may conjecture that she is holding the famous
necklace in the hand which is concealed by the folds of her dress. And
above Eriphyle is Elpenor, and Odysseus kneeling, holding his sword
over a ditch: and Tiresias the prophet is approaching the ditch, and
near Tiresias is Anticlea, the mother of Odysseus, sitting on a stone.
And Elpenor is wearing the coarse plaited coat usual among sea-faring
men. And below Odysseus Theseus and Pirithous are seated on the
enchanted rock, Theseus has both his own sword and that of Pirithous,
and Pirithous is looking at his like one indignant that swords are
useless for their present venture. Panyasis has represented Theseus and
Pirithous as not fastened to their seat, but that the rock grew to them
instead of fetters. The friendship between Theseus and Pirithous has
been alluded to by Homer both in the Iliad and Odyssey. In the latter
Odysseus says to the Phæacians,

 “I then perhaps had seen the heroes of former times, whom I fain would
 have seen, as Theseus and Pirithous, the famous sons of the gods.”[134]

And in the Iliad, in his chiding of Agamemnon and Achilles, Nestor uses
the following words:[135]

“I never before saw such heroes nor shall I e’er again, as Pirithous,
and Dryas shepherd of his people, and Cæneus and Exadius and divine
Polyphemus, and Theseus son of Ægeus like to the Immortals.”

[131] Odyssey, xi. 23 _sq._

[132] Propertius has an allusion to this, v. iii. 21, 22.

[133] It will be seen that I adopt the suggestion of _Siebelis_. The
reading is doubtful.

[134] Odyssey, xi. 630, 631. The last line is in brackets in modern
editions.

[135] Iliad, i. 262-265. The last line here is in brackets in modern
editions.



CHAPTER XXX.


Polygnotus has painted next the daughters of Pandareus, as to whom
Homer says, in a speech of Penelope, that their parents died through
the wrath of the gods when they were still maidens, and that as they
were orphans they were brought up by Aphrodite, and received gifts
from other goddesses, as from Hera prudence and beauty, from Artemis
tallness of stature, from Athene an education fit for women. But when
Aphrodite went up to heaven to obtain a good match for the girls from
Zeus, they were carried off in her absence by the Harpies and given by
them to the Furies. Such at least is Homer’s account about them.[136]
And Polygnotus has painted them crowned with flowers, and playing with
dice. Their names were Camiro and Clytie. Pandareus was you must know a
Milesian from Cretan Miletus, and an associate of Tantalus both in his
theft and perjury. And next the daughters of Pandareus is Antilochus
with one of his feet on a stone, and his head on both his hands. And
next him is Agamemnon, leaning on his sceptre under his left arm, and
with a staff in his hands. And Protesilaus and Achilles are seated, and
looking at one another. And above Achilles is Patroclus standing. None
of these have beards except Agamemnon. And above them is painted the
stripling Phocus, and Iaseus with a beard, who is trying to take a ring
from Phocus’ left hand. The circumstances are as follows. When Phocus,
the son of Æacus, crossed over from Ægina to the country now called
Phocis, and obtained the sovereignty over the men in that part of the
mainland, and meant to dwell there, Iaseus was most friendly with him,
and offered him various presents, as was very natural, and among others
a stone signet-ring set in gold: and when Phocus not long after sailed
back to Ægina, Peleus contrived his death: and so in the painting, as
a memorial of their friendship, Iaseus is represented as wishing to
look at the signet-ring, and Phocus letting him take it. Above them
is Mæra sitting on a stone: in _The Return from Ilium_ she is said to
have died a virgin, and to have been the daughter of Prœtus, the son
of Thersander and grandson of Sisyphus. And next Mæra is Actæon, (the
son of Aristæus), and his mother, both seated on a deerskin and holding
a fawn in their hands. And a hound for hunting is near: these are
emblems of the life and death of Actæon. And in the lower part of the
painting next to Patroclus is Orpheus sitting on a hill, with a harp
in his left hand, and with his right hand he is touching the branches
of a willow-tree, and he leans against the tree: the scene looks like
the grove of Proserpine, where Homer tells us poplars and willows
grew.[137] And Orpheus’ dress is Greek, no part of his attire is
Thracian, not even his hat. And Promedon is leaning against the other
side of the willow-tree. Some think Polygnotus introduced Promedon’s
name into legend. Others say he was a Greek who was passionately fond
of music, and especially of that of Orpheus. In the same part of the
painting is Schedius, who led the Phocians to Troy, with a dagger in
his hand, and a garland of grass on his head. And next him sits Pelias,
with beard and head all hoary, gazing at Orpheus. And Thamyris sitting
near Pelias is blind and dejected in mien, with thick hair and beard,
his lyre is broken and the strings torn asunder. Above him is Marsyas,
seated on a stone, and near him Olympus, a handsome boy, learning to
play on the pipe. The Phrygians at Celænæ represent that the river
flowing through their town was formerly this piper Marsyas, and that
the piping in honour of Cybele was his invention: they say also that
they repulsed the army of the Galati through his aid, as he assisted
them both with the water of the river and his melody.

[136] Odyssey, xx. 63 _sq._

[137] Odyssey, x. 509, 510.



CHAPTER XXXI.


If you look again at the upper part of the painting, you will see next
Actæon Salaminian Ajax Palamedes and Thersites playing with dice, which
were the invention of Palamedes. And the other Ajax is looking at them
playing: he looks like a shipwrecked man, and his body is wet with the
foam of the sea. Polygnotus seems to have purposely collected together
the enemies of Odysseus. And Ajax the son of Oileus hated Odysseus,
because he urged the Greeks to stone him for his rape of Cassandra. And
I have read in the Cyprian Poems that Palamedes going a fishing was
drowned by Diomede and Odysseus. And a little above Ajax the son of
Oileus is Meleager painted, looking at Ajax. All these except Palamedes
have beards. As to the death of Meleager, Homer informs us that a Fury
heard Althæa cursing him, and that this was the cause of his death. But
the poems called the Great EϾ and the Minyad agree in stating that
Apollo assisted the Curetes against the Ætolians, and killed Meleager.
As to the famous tradition about the firebrand; how it was given to
Althæa by the Fates, and how Meleager was fated not to die till it was
consumed by fire, and how Althæa set it on fire in a rage, all this was
first described by Phrynichus, the son of Polyphradmon, in his play
called Pleuroniæ:

“He escaped not dread fate, but was consumed by the swift flame,
as soon as the ill-contrived firebrand was set on fire by his stern
mother.”

Phrynichus does not however seem to introduce the legend as his own
invention, but only to allude to it as one well-known throughout Greece.

In the lower part of the painting next Thracian Thamyris sits Hector,
like a man oppressed with sorrow, with both his hands on his left knee.
And next him is Memnon seated on a stone, and close to Memnon Sarpedon,
who is leaning his head on both his hands, and one of Memnon’s hands
is on Sarpedon’s shoulder. All of these have beards, and some birds
are painted on Memnon’s cloak. These birds are called Memnonides, and
every year the people near the Hellespont say they come on certain
days to Memnon’s tomb, and sweep all the parts round the tomb that are
bare of trees or grass, and sprinkle them with their wings which they
wet in the river Æsepus. And near Memnon is a naked Ethiopian boy, for
Memnon was king of the Ethiopians. However he did not come to Ilium
from Ethiopia, but from Susa in Persia and the river Choaspes, after
vanquishing all the tribes in that neighbourhood. The Phrygians still
shew the road by which he marched his army, the shortest route over the
mountains.[138]

Above Sarpedon and Memnon is Paris, as yet a beardless youth. He is
clapping his hands like a rustic, apparently to attract the notice of
Penthesilea, who looks at him, but by the toss of her head seems to
despise him, and jeer at him as a boy. She is represented as a maiden
with a Scythian bow, and a leopard’s skin round her shoulders. Above
her are two women carrying water in broken pitchers, one still in her
prime, the other rather advanced in life. There is no inscription on
either of them, except a notification that they are both among the
uninitiated. Above this pair are Callisto the daughter of Lycaon, and
Nomia, and Pero the daughter of Neleus, from every suitor of whom her
father asked the kine of Iphiclus.[139] Callisto has a bear-skin for
her coverlet, and her feet are on the knees of Nomia. I have before
stated that the Arcadians consider Nomia one of their local Nymphs. The
poets say the Nymphs are long-lived but not immortal. Next to Callisto
and the other women with her is a hill, up which Sisyphus the son of
Æolus is laboriously rolling a stone. There is also a winejar in the
painting, and an old man, and a boy, and two women, a young woman
under a rock, and an old woman near the old man. Some men are bringing
water, and the old woman’s water-pot appears to be broken, and she is
pouring all the water in the pitcher into the winejar. One is inclined
to conjecture that they are people making a mock of the Eleusinian
mysteries. But the older Greeks considered the Eleusinian mysteries
as much above all other religious services, as the gods are superior
to heroes. And under the winejar is Tantalus, undergoing all those
punishments mentioned by Homer,[140] and also terrified lest a stone
overhanging his head should fall on him. It is plain that Polygnotus
followed the account of Archilochus: but I do not know whether
Archilochus invented the addition to the legend about the stone, or
merely related what he had heard from others.

Such is a full account of the various details in this fine painting of
the Thasian painter.

[138] So _Corayus_. The meaning and reading is very obscure.

[139] See Homer’s Odyssey, xi. 287 _sq._ Neleus refused the matchless
Pero’s hand to any suitor who would not bring as a wedding-present
these kine of Iphiclus.

[140] Odyssey, xi. 582-592.



CHAPTER XXXII.


Near the temple precincts is a handsome theatre. And as you ascend from
the precincts you see a statue of Dionysus, the offering of the men
of Cnidos. In the highest part of the city is a stadium made of the
stone of Mount Parnassus, till the Athenian Herodes embellished it with
Pentelican marble. I have now enumerated the most remarkable things
still to be seen at Delphi.

About 60 stades from Delphi on the road to Mount Parnassus is a brazen
statue, and from thence it is an easy ascent for an active man, or for
mules and horses to the Corycian cavern. It got its name, as I pointed
out a little back,[141] from the Nymph Corycia, and of all the caverns
I have seen is best worth a visit. The various caverns on sea-coasts
are so numerous that one could not easily enumerate them: but the most
remarkable whether in Greece or in foreign lands are the following.
The Phrygians near the river Pencala, who originally came from Arcadia
and the Azanes, show a round and lofty cavern called Steunos, which
is sacred to the Mother of the Gods, and contains her statue. The
Phrygians also, who dwell at Themisonium above Laodicea, say that when
the army of the Galati harried Ionia and the neighbouring districts,
Hercules and Apollo and Hermes came to their aid: and showed their
chief men a cavern in a dream, and bade them hide there their women
and children. And so in front of this cavern they have statuettes of
Hercules and Hermes and Apollo, whom they call _The Cavern-Gods_.
This cavern is about 30 stades from Themisonium, and has springs of
water in it, there is no direct road to it, nor does the light of the
sun penetrate into it, and the roof in most of the cavern is very
near the ground. The Magnesians also at a place called Hylæ near the
river Lethæus have a cavern sacred to Apollo, not very wonderful for
size, but containing a very ancient statue of Apollo, which supplies
strength for any action. Men made holy by the god leap down rocks and
precipices unhurt, and tear up huge trees by the roots, and carry them
with ease through mountain passes. But the Corycian cavern excels
both of these, and through most of it you can walk without needing
torches: and the roof is a good height from the ground, and water
bubbles up from springs, but still more oozes from the roof, so that
there are droppings from the roof all over the floor of the cavern.
And those that dwell on Mount Parnassus consider it sacred to Pan and
the Corycian Nymphs. It is a feat even for an active man to scale the
heights of Parnassus from it, for they are higher than the clouds, and
on them the Thyiades carry on their mad revels in honour of Dionysus
and Apollo.

Tithorea is about 80 stades from Delphi _viâ_ Mount Parnassus, but the
carriage road by a way less mountainous is many stades longer. Bacis in
his oracles and Herodotus in his account of the invasion of Greece by
the Medes differ as to the name of the town. For Bacis calls the town
Tithorea, but Herodotus calls it Neon, and gives the name Tithorea
to the summit of Parnassus, where he describes the people of the town
fleeing on the approach of the Medes. It seems probable therefore
that Tithorea was originally the name for the entire district, but as
time went on the people, flocking into the town from the villages,
called it Tithorea and no longer Neon. And the people of the place
say it got its name from the Nymph Tithorea, one of those Nymphs
who according to the legendary lore of poets were born of trees and
especially oak-trees.[142] A generation before me the deity changed the
fortunes of Tithorea for the worse. There is the outline of a theatre,
and the precincts of an ancient market-place, still remaining. But
the most remarkable things in the town are the grove and shrine and
statue of Athene, and the tomb of Antiope and Phocus. In my account
of the Thebans I have shewn how Antiope went mad through the anger
of Dionysus, and why she drew on her the anger of the god, and how
she married Phocus the son of Ornytion, of whom she was passionately
fond, and how they were buried together. I also gave the oracle of
Bacis both about this tomb and that of Zethus and Amphion at Thebes.
I have mentioned all the circumstances worth mention about the town.
A river called Cachales flows by the town, and furnishes water to its
inhabitants, who descend to its banks to draw water.

At 70 stades distance from Tithorea is a temple of Æsculapius, who
is called Archegetes, and is greatly honoured both by the Tithoreans
and other Phocians. Within the sacred precincts are dwellings for the
suppliants and slaves of the god, the temple stands in the midst, and
a statue of the god in stone, two feet high with a beard, on the right
of which is a bed. They sacrifice all kinds of animals to the god but
goats.

About 40 stades from the temple of Æsculapius are the precincts and
shrine of Isis, and of all the Greek shrines to the Egyptian goddess
this is the holiest: for neither do the people of Tithorea live
near it, nor may any approach the shrine whom Isis herself has not
previously honoured by inviting them in dreams. The gods of the lower
world have the same practice in the towns near the Mæander, they send
visions in dreams to whoever they allow to approach their shrines.
And twice every year, in Spring and Autumn, the people of Tithorea
celebrate the Festival of Isis. The third day before each Festival
those who have right of access purify the shrine in some secret manner:
and remove to a place about 2 stades from the shrine whatever remains
they find of the victims offered in sacrifice at the previous Festival,
and bury them there. On the following day the traders make tents of
reed or any other material at hand. On the next day they celebrate the
Festival, and sell slaves, and cattle of every kind, and apparel, and
silver and gold. And at noon they commence the sacrifice. The wealthier
sacrifice oxen and deer, the poorer sacrifice geese and guineafowls,
but they do not sacrifice swine or sheep or goats. Those whose duty it
is to burn the victims in the shrine, first roll them up in bandages
of linen or flax, after the process in use in Egypt. There is a solemn
procession with all the victims, and some convey them into the shrine,
while others burn the tents before it and depart with speed. And on one
occasion they say a profane fellow, who had no right to approach the
shrine, entered it with audacious curiosity at the time the sacrificial
fire was lit, and the place seemed to him full of phantoms, and he
returned to Tithorea, related what he had seen, and gave up the ghost.
I heard a similar account from a Phœnician, of what happened on one
occasion when the Egyptians were celebrating the Festival of Isis, at
the time when they say she bewails Osiris: which is the season when the
Nile begins to rise, and the Egyptians have a tradition that it is the
tears of Isis that make the river rise and irrigate the fields. He told
me that the Roman Governor of Egypt bribed a man to enter the shrine at
Coptos during the Festival, and he came back, related what he had seen,
and also died directly after. So Homer’s word seems true, that the gods
are not seen by mortals with impunity.[143]

The olives at Tithorea are not so plentiful as in Attica and Sicyonia.
They are superior however in colour and flavour to those from Spain and
Istria: all kinds of ointment are produced from them, and they send
these olives to the Roman Emperor.

[141] See chapter 6.

[142] And consequently called _Dryads_.

[143] Iliad, xx. 131. Compare Exodus, xxxiii. 20.



CHAPTER XXXIII.


Another road from Tithorea leads to Ledon, which was formerly reckoned
a town, but was in my day deserted by its inhabitants through its
weakness, and about 80 of them live near the Cephisus, and give the
name Ledon to their settlement there, and are included in the Phocian
General Council, as the people of Panopeus also are. This settlement
by the Cephisus is 40 stades from the ruins of Ledon, which got its
name they say from an Autochthon of that name. Several towns have been
irretrievably ruined by the wrong-doing of their inhabitants, as Troy
was utterly destroyed by the outrage of Paris against Menelaus, and
the Milesians by the headlong desires and passion of Hestiæus, one
time to govern the town of the Edoni, another time to be a Councillor
of Darius, another time to return to Ionia. So too the impiety of
Philomelus caused Ledon to be wiped off the face of the globe.[144]

Lilæa is a winter day’s journey from Delphi: you descend by Parnassus:
the distance is I conjecture about 180 stades. The people of Lilæa,
when their town was restored, had a second reverse at the hand of
Macedonia, for they were besieged by Philip the son of Demetrius and
capitulated upon conditions of war, and a garrison was put into their
town, till a townsman, whose name was Patron, incited the younger
citizens to rise against the garrison, and overcame the Macedonians
and compelled them to evacuate the town on conditions of war. And the
people of Lilæa for this good service put up his statue at Delphi.
There is at Lilæa a theatre and market-place and baths: there are also
temples to Apollo and Artemis, whose statues, in a standing position,
are of Attic workmanship in Pentelican marble. They say the town got
its name from Lilæa, who was one of the Naiades, and reputed to be the
daughter of the Cephisus, which rises here, and flows at first not with
a gentle current, but at mid-day especially roars like the roaring of a
bull.[145] In spring summer and autumn the air of Lilæa is salubrious,
but in winter the proximity of Parnassus keeps it cold.

About 20 stades further is Charadra, which lies on a lofty ridge.
Its inhabitants are very badly off for water, as their only water is
from the Charadrus three stades down the hill side, which falls into
the Cephisus, and which no doubt gave its name to the place. In the
market-place are some altars to the Heroes: some say Castor and Pollux
are meant, others say some local heroes. The land near the Cephisus is
out and out the best in Phocis for planting, and sowing, and pasture:
and this part of the country is mostly portioned out into farms, so
that some think Homer’s lines,

    “And those who near divine Cephisus dwelt,”[146]

refer to those who farmed near the Cephisus, and not to the town
of Parapotamii. But this idea is not borne out by Herodotus in his
History, or by the records of the victors in the Pythian Games, which
were first instituted by the Amphictyones, and Æchmeas of Parapotamii
won the prize among boys for boxing. And Herodotus mentions Parapotamii
among the towns in Phocis that king Xerxes set on fire. Parapotamii
was however not restored by the Athenians and Bœotians, but its
inhabitants, owing to its poverty and want of money, were partitioned
out among other towns. There are now no ruins of Parapotamii, nor is
its exact site known.

From Lilæa is 60 stades’ journey to Amphiclea. The name of this place
has been changed by the natives, for Herodotus following the oldest
tradition called it Amphicæa, but the Amphictyones called it Amphiclea
in their decree for the destruction of the towns in Phocis. The natives
relate the following tradition about one of its names. They say that
one of their rulers, suspecting a plot of some of his enemies against
his baby boy, put him in a cot, and hid him in what he thought the
most secure place, and a wolf tried to get at the little fellow, but a
snake twined itself round the cot as a sure protection. And the child’s
father coming up, and fearing that the snake had harmed his little boy,
hurled his javelin at it and slew both child and snake: but learning
from some herdsmen that the snake he had killed had been the preserver
and guard of his child, he had a funeral pyre for snake and child
together. And they say the place to this day presents the appearance
of a funeral pyre blazing, and they think the town was called Ophitea
(_Snake-town_) from this snake. Noteworthy are the orgies which they
perform here to Dionysus, but there is no public entrance to the
shrine, nor is there any statue of the god. But the people of Amphiclea
say that the god prophecies to them and cures sicknesses by dreams, and
his priest is a prophet, and when possessed by the god utters oracles.

About 15 stades from Amphiclea is Tithronium, which lies in the plain,
and about which there is nothing remarkable. And 20 stades further is
Drymæa. At the place where the roads from Tithronium and Amphiclea to
Drymæa meet, near the river Cephisus, the people of Tithronium have a
grove and altars and temple to Apollo, but no statue of the god. Drymæa
is about 80 stades from Amphiclea as you turn to the left ... according
to Herodotus.[147] It was originally called Nauboles, and its founder
was they say Phocus the son of Æacus. At Drymæa is an ancient temple to
Law-giving Demeter, and the statue of the goddess, to whom they keep an
annual feast called the Thesmophoria, is erect in stone.

[144] The circumstances are narrated in ch. 2.

[145] ὦ ταυρόμορφον ὄμμα Κηφισοῦ πατρός. Eurip. _Ion._ 1261.

[146] Iliad, ii. 522.

[147] Hiatus hic est valde deflendus.



CHAPTER XXXIV.


Next to Delphi Elatea is the greatest town in Phocis. It lies opposite
Amphiclea, and is 180 stades from that place by a road mostly through
the plain, but rather uphill near Elatea. The Cephisus flows through
the plain, and bustards are very frequent on its banks. The Elateans
repulsed Cassander and the army of the Macedonians. They also contrived
to hold out against Taxilus the general of Mithridates, for which
good service the Romans gave them freedom and immunity from taxation.
They lay claim to foreign ancestry, and say that they were originally
Arcadians: for Elatus (they say) the son of Areas defended the god,
when the men of Phlegyas attacked the temple at Delphi, and afterwards
remained in Phocis with his army, and founded Elatea: which was one of
the towns in Phocis that the Mede set on fire. It shared in the general
disasters of the Phocians, and the deity also brought upon it special
troubles of its own at the hands of the Macedonians. And when Cassander
blockaded Elatea, it was Olympiodorus who mainly rendered the blockade
inoperative. But Philip, the son of Demetrius, inspired the greatest
terror in the minds of the populace at Elatea, and at the same time won
over by bribes the most influential townsfolk. And Titus Flaminius the
Roman General, who had been sent from Rome to free all Greece, promised
to grant them their ancient polity, and invited them to revolt from the
Macedonians: but whether from want of judgment, or because the populace
had their way, they continued faithful to Philip, and were reduced by
the blockade of the Romans. And some time after they held out against
Taxilus, the general of Mithridates, and the barbarians from Pontus,
and it was for that good service that the Romans granted them their
freedom. When too the Costoboci, a piratical tribe, overran all Greece
in my day, and came to Elatea, Mnesibulus got together an army of
picked men, and, though he himself fell in the battle, slew many of the
barbarians. This Mnesibulus won several victories in the course, and
in the 235th Olympiad was victor both in the stadium and in the double
course though he carried his shield. And there is a brazen statue of
him near the race-course. They have also a handsome market-place at
Elatea, and a figure of Elatus on a pillar, I do not know whether in
honour of him as their founder, or to mark his tomb. There is a temple
also of Æsculapius, and a statue of the god with a beard by Timocles
and Timarchides, who were both of Athenian extraction. At the extreme
right of Elatea is a theatre, and ancient statue of Athene in bronze:
the goddess they say fought for them against the barbarians under
Taxilus.

About 20 stades from Elatea is a temple of Athene Cranæa, the road
to it is uphill but by so gentle a slope that it is very easy and
scarcely appreciable. But the crest of the hill at the end of this
road is mostly precipitous on a limited area: and here is the temple,
with porticoes and chambers, where various people that minister to the
goddess reside, and especially the priest, whom they select out of the
youths, and take great care that he ceases to be priest when he has
passed the flower of his age. And he is priest for 5 continuous years,
during which he resides with the goddess, and takes his baths after
the ancient manner in bathing tubs.[148] The statue of the goddess was
executed by the sons of Polycles. She is armed for battle, and her
shield is an imitation of that of Athene in the Parthenon at Athens.

[148] See for instance Homer’s Odyssey, xvii. 87-90.



CHAPTER XXXV.


For Abæ and Hyampolis you take the mountainous road on the right of
Elatea: the high road from Orchomenus to Opus also leads to those
places: but to go to Abæ you turn a little off that high road to the
left. The people of Abæ say they came to Phocis from Argos, and that
their town took its name from its founder Abas, the son of Lynceus by
Hypermnestra the daughter of Danaus. The people of Abæ consider that
their town was in ancient times sacred to Apollo, and there was an
oracle of Apollo there. But the Romans and Persians did not equally
honour the god, for the Romans in their piety to Apollo granted
autonomy to the people of Abæ, but Xerxes’ army burnt the temple there.
And though the Greeks resisted the barbarians, they did not think good
to rebuild the temples that were burnt down, but to leave them for
all time as records of national hatred:[149] and so the temples at
Haliartia, and the temple of Hera at Athens on the way to Phalerum,
and the temple of Demeter at Phalerum remain to this day half-burnt.
Such also I imagine was the condition of the temple at Abæ, till in
the Phocian War, when some Phocian fugitives who were beaten in battle
fleeing for refuge to it, the Thebans, emulating the conduct of the
Medes, set them and the temple on fire. It is therefore in the most
ruinous condition of all the buildings injured by fire, for after
first suffering from the Persian fire, it was next consumed altogether
by the Bœotian. Near this great temple is a smaller one, erected to
Apollo by the Emperor Adrian, but the statues are ancient and were the
votive offering of the people of Abæ, Apollo and Leto and Artemis in
bronze. There is also a theatre at Abæ and a market-place, both ancient.

When you return to the high road for Opus the first place you come to
is Hyampolis. Its name indicates who its inhabitants were originally,
and from whence they were expelled when they came here. They were
Hyantes who had fled from Thebes, from Cadmus and his army. And at
first the town was called the town of the Hyantes, but as time went on
the name Hyampolis prevailed. Although the town was burnt by Xerxes and
rased to the ground by Philip, yet there are remains of the ancient
market-place, and a small council-chamber, and a theatre not far from
the gates. The Emperor Adrian also built a Portico which bears his
name. The inhabitants have but one well to drink and wash with, the
only other water they have is rain water in winter. The goddess they
especially worship is Artemis, and they have a temple to her, but the
statue of the goddess I cannot describe, as they only open the temple
twice a year. And the cattle they call sacred to Artemis are free from
disease and fatter than other cattle.

From Chæronea to Phocis you can go either by the direct road to Delphi
through Panopeus and by Daulis and the cross-roads, or by the rugged
mountainous road from Chæronea to Stiris, which is 120 stades. The
people of Stiris say they were originally Athenians, and came from
Attica with Peteus the son of Orneus, who was expelled from Athens by
Ægeus: and as most of the followers of Peteus came from the township
Stiria they called the town Stiris. It is on high and rocky ground, so
in summer they are very short of water, for their wells are few, nor is
the water they afford good. They serve however for baths, and for drink
for beasts of burden. But the inhabitants of Stiris have to descend
about 4 stades to get drinkable water from a spring, hewn out of the
rock: and they go down to it to draw up the water. There is at Stiris a
temple of Demeter Stiritis built of unbaked brick: the statue of the
goddess is of Pentelican marble, she has torches in her hands. Near it
is another ancient statue in honour of Demeter adorned with fillets.

[149] Compare Cicero _de Republ._ iii. 9. “Fana ne reficienda
quidem Graii putaverunt, ut esset posteris ante os documentum Persarum
sceleris sempiternum.”



CHAPTER XXXVI.


From Stiris to Ambrosus is about 60 stades: the road lies in the plain
with mountains on both sides. Vines grow throughout the plain, and
brambles, not quite so plentifully, which the Ionians and Greeks call
_coccus_, but the Galati above Phrygia call in their native tongue
_Hys_. The coccus is about the size of the white thorn, and its leaves
are darker and softer than the mastich-tree, though in other respects
similar. And its berry is like the berry of the nightshade, and about
the size of the bitter vetch. And a small grub breeds in it which, when
the fruit is ripe, becomes a gnat and flies off. But they gather the
berries, while it is still in the grub state, and its blood is useful
in dyeing wool.

Ambrosus lies under Mount Parnassus, and opposite Delphi, and got its
name they say from the hero Ambrosus. In the war against Philip and the
Macedonians the Thebans drew a double wall round Ambrosus, made of the
black and very strong stone of the district. The circumference of each
wall is little less than a fathom, and the height is 2½ fathoms,
where the wall has not fallen: and the interval between the two walls
is a fathom. But, as they were intended only for immediate defence,
these walls were not decorated with towers or battlements or any other
embellishment. There is also a small market-place at Ambrosus, most of
the stone statues in it are broken.

As you turn to Anticyra the road is at first rather steep, but after
about two stades it becomes level, and there is on the right a temple
of Dictynnæan Artemis, who is held in the highest honour by the people
of Ambrosus; her statue is of Æginetan workmanship in black stone. From
this temple to Anticyra is all the way downhill. They say the town
was called Cyparissus in ancient times, and Homer in his Catalogue of
the Phocians[150] preferred to give it its old name, for it was then
beginning to be called Anticyra, from Anticyreus who was a contemporary
of Hercules. The town lies below the ruins of Medeon, one of the towns
as I have before mentioned which impiously plundered the temple at
Delphi. The people of Anticyra were expelled first by Philip the son
of Amyntas, and secondly by the Roman Otilius, because they had been
faithful to Philip, the son of Demetrius, the king of the Macedonians,
for Otilius had been sent from Rome to protect the Athenians against
Philip. And the hills above Anticyra are very rocky, and the chief
thing that grows on them is hellebore. The black hellebore is a
purgative, while the white acts as an emetic, the root also of the
hellebore is a purgative. There are brazen statues in the market-place
at Anticyra, and near the harbour is a small temple of Poseidon,
made of unhewn stone, and plastered inside. The statue of the god is
in bronze: he is in a standing posture, and one of his feet is on a
dolphin: one hand is on his thigh, in the other is a trident. There are
also two gymnasiums, one contains baths, the other opposite to it is
an ancient one, in which is a bronze statue of Xenodamus, a native of
Anticyra, who, as the inscription states, was victor at Olympia among
men in the pancratium. And if the inscription is correct, Xenodamus
will have won the wild-olive crown in the 211th Olympiad, the only
Olympiad of all passed over by the people of Elis in their records. And
above the market-place is a conduit: the water is protected from the
sun by a roof supported on pillars. And not much above this conduit is
a tomb built of common stone: they say it is the tomb of the sons of
Iphitus, of whom one returned safe from Ilium and died in his native
place, the other Schedius died in the Troad, but his remains were
brought home and deposited here.

[150] Iliad, ii. 519.



CHAPTER XXXVII.


On the right of the town at the distance of about 2 stades is a lofty
rock, which forms part of a mountain, and on it is a temple of Artemis,
and a statue of the goddess by Praxiteles, with a torch in her right
hand and her quiver over her shoulders, she is taller than the tallest
woman, and on her left hand is a dog.

Bordering on Phocis is the town of Bulis, which got its name from
Bulon the founder of the colony, it was colonized from the towns in
ancient Doris. The people of Bulis are said to have shared in the
impiety of Philomelus and the Phocians. From Thisbe in Bœotia to Bulis
is 80 stades, I do not know whether there is any road from Anticyra to
Bulis on the mainland, so precipitous and difficult to scale are the
mountains between. It is about 100 stades from Anticyra to the port:
and from the port to Bulis is I conjecture by land about 7 stades. And
a mountain torrent, called by the natives Hercules’, falls into the sea
here. Bulis lies on high ground, and you sail by it as you cross from
Anticyra to Lechæum near Corinth. And more than half the inhabitants
live by catching shell-fish for purple dye. There are no particular
buildings to excite admiration at Bulis except two temples, one of
Artemis, the other of Dionysus; their statues are of wood, but who
made them I could not ascertain. The god that they worship most they
call Supreme, a title I imagine of Zeus. They have also a well called
Saunion.

To Cirrha, the seaport of Delphi, it is about 60 stades from Delphi,
and as you descend to the plain is a Hippodrome, where they celebrate
the Pythian horse-races. As to Taraxippus in Olympia I have described
it in my account of Elis. In this Hippodrome of Apollo there are
accidents occasionally, inasmuch as the deity in all human affairs
awards both good and bad, but there is nothing specially contrived
to frighten horses, either from the malignity of some hero, or any
other cause. And the plain of Cirrha is almost entirely bare of trees,
for they do not care to plant trees, either in consequence of some
curse, or because they do not think the soil favourable to the growth
of trees. It is said that Cirrha got its present name from the Nymph
Cirrha, but Homer in the Iliad calls it by its ancient name Crisa,[151]
as also in the Hymn to Apollo. And subsequently the people of Cirrha
committed various acts of impiety against Apollo, and ravaged the
territory sacred to the god. The Amphictyones resolved therefore to
war against the people of Cirrha, and chose for their leader Clisthenes
the king of Sicyon, and invited Solon the Athenian to assist them by
his counsel. They also consulted the oracle, and this was the response
of the Pythian Priestess, “You will not capture the tower and demolish
the town, till the wave of blue-eyed Amphitrite, dashing over the dark
sea, shall break into my grove.”

Solon persuaded them therefore to consecrate to the god the land about
Cirrha, that the grove of Apollo might extend as far as the sea. He
invented also another ingenious contrivance against the people of
Cirrha: he turned the course of the river Plistus which flowed through
the town. And when the besieged still held out by drinking rain water
and the water from the wells, he threw some roots of hellebore into
the Plistus, and when he thought the water of the river sufficiently
impregnated with this, he turned it back into its ordinary channel,
and the people of Cirrha, drinking freely of the water, were attacked
with an incessant diarrhœa, and unable to man the walls, so the
Amphictyones captured the town, and took vengeance on the inhabitants
for their conduct to the god, and Cirrha became the seaport of Delphi.
It contains a handsome temple of Apollo and Artemis and Leto, and large
statues of those divinities, of Attic workmanship. There is also a
smaller statue of Adrastea.

[151] Iliad, ii. 520.



CHAPTER XXXVIII.


Next comes the land of the Ozolian Locrians: why they were called
Ozolian is differently stated, I shall relate all that I heard. When
Orestheus the son of Deucalion was king of the country, a bitch gave
birth to a piece of wood instead of a puppy: and Orestheus having
buried this piece of wood in the ground, they say the next spring
a vine sprang from it, and these Ozolians got their name from its
branches.[152] Another tradition is that Nessus, the ferryman at
the river Evenus, did not immediately die when wounded by Hercules,
but fled to this land, and dying here rotted, as he was unburied,
and tainted the air. A third tradition attributes the name to the
unpleasant smell of a certain river, and a fourth to the smell of
the asphodel which abounds in that part. Another tradition is that
the first dwellers here were Aborigines, and not knowing how to make
garments wore untanned hides as a protection against the cold, putting
the hairy portion of the hides outside for ornament. Thus their smell
would be as unpleasant as that of a tan-yard.

About 120 stades from Delphi is Amphissa, the largest and most famous
town of these Locrians. The inhabitants joined themselves to the
Ætolians from shame at the title Ozolian. It is also probable that,
when Augustus removed many of the Ætolians to fill his town Nicopolis,
many of them migrated to Amphissa. However the original inhabitants
were Locrians, and the town got its name they say from Amphissa, (the
daughter of Macar the son of Æolus), who was beloved by Apollo. The
town has several handsome sights, especially the tombs of Amphissa
and Andræmon: with Andræmon his wife Gorge, the daughter of Œneus,
was buried. In the citadel is a temple of Athene, and statue of the
goddess in a standing position, which they say was brought by Thoas
from Ilium, and was part of the Trojan spoil. This however I cannot
credit. I showed in a previous part of my work that the Samians Rhœcus,
(the son of Philæus), and Theodorus, (the son of Telecles), were the
first brass-founders. However I have not discovered any works in brass
by Theodorus. But in the temple of Ephesian Artemis, when you go into a
room containing some paintings, you will see a stone cornice above the
altar of Artemis Protothronia; on this cornice are several statues and
among others one at the end by Rhœcus, which the Ephesians call Night.
The statue therefore of Athene at Amphissa is more ancient and ruder in
art. The people of Amphissa celebrate the rites of the youths called
Anactes (_Kings_): different accounts are given as to who they were,
some say Castor and Pollux, others say the Curetes, those who think
themselves best informed say the Cabiri.

These Locrians have other towns, as Myonia above Amphissa, and 30
stades from it, facing the mainland. Its inhabitants presented a shield
to Zeus at Olympia. The town lies on high ground, and there is a grove
and altar to the Mild Deities, and there are nightly sacrifices to
them, and they consume the flesh of the victims before daybreak. There
is also above the town a grove of Poseidon called Poseidonium, and in
it a temple, but there is no statue there now.

Myonia is above Amphissa: and near the sea is Œanthea, and at no great
distance Naupactus. All these towns except Amphissa are under the
Achæans of Patræ, as a grant from the Emperor Augustus. At Œanthea
there is a temple of Aphrodite, and a little above the town a grove of
cypress and pine, and in it a temple and statue of Artemis: and some
paintings on the walls rather obscured by time, so that one cannot
now see them clearly. I think the town must have got its name from
some woman or Nymph. As to Naupactus I know the tradition is that the
Dorians and the sons of Aristomachus built a fleet there, with which
they crossed over to the Peloponnese, hence the origin of the name.
As to the history of Naupactus, how the Athenians took it from the
Locrians and gave it to the Messenians who removed to Ithome at the
time of the earthquake at Lacedæmon, and how after the reverse of the
Athenians at Ægos-potamoi the Lacedæmonians ejected the Messenians,
all this has been related by me in my account of Messenia: and when
the Messenians were obliged to evacuate it then the Locrians returned
to Naupactus. As to the Poems called by the Greeks Naupactian, most
attribute them to a Milesian: but Charon the son of Pytheus says they
were composed by Carcinus a native of Naupactus. I follow the account
of the native of Lampsacus: for how is it reasonable to suppose that
poems written on women by a Milesian should be called Naupactian? There
is at Naupactus a temple of Poseidon near the sea, and a brazen statue
of the god in a standing posture; there is also a temple and statue
of Artemis in white stone. The goddess is called Ætolian Artemis, and
is in the attitude of a person hurling a javelin. Aphrodite also has
honours paid to her in a cavern: they pray to her for various favours,
widows especially for a second husband. There are also ruins of a
temple of Æsculapius, which was originally built by one Phalysius,
a private individual, who had an ailment in his eyes and was nearly
blind, and the god of Epidaurus sent to him the poetess Anyte with a
sealed letter. She dreamed one night and directly she woke found the
sealed letter in her hands, and sailed to Naupactus and bade Phalysius
remove the seal and read what was written. And though he was clearly
unable to read from his blindness, yet, having faith in the god, he
broke open the seal, and became cured by looking at the letter, and
gave Anyte 2,000 gold staters, which was the sum mentioned in the
letter.

[152] The Greek word for branch is _Ozos_. Hence the Paronomasia. All
the four other unsavoury traditions are connected with the Greek verb
_ozo_, I smell.



INDEX.



INDEX.

(_The number in Roman Notation is the number of the Book, the number in
Arabic Notation the number of the Chapter._)


  Achelous, a river in Ætolia, iv. 34; viii. 24.
    Its contest with Hercules, iii. 18; vi. 19.
    Father of Callirhoe, viii. 24,
      of the Sirens, ix. 34,
      of Castalia, x. 8.

  Acheron, a river in Thesprotia, i. 17; v. 14; x. 28.

  Achilles, i. 22; iii. 18, 19, 24.

  Acichorius, a general of the Galati, x. 19, 22, 23.

  Acrisius, son of Abas, ii. 16.
    Husband of Eurydice, iii. 13.
    Constructs a brazen chamber for his daughter Danae, ii. 23; x. 5.
    Killed unintentionally by his grandson Perseus, ii. 16.

  Actæa, the ancient name of Attica, i. 2.

  Actæon, son of Aristæus, ix. 2; x. 17, 30.

  Addison, ii. 20, Note.

  Adonis, ii. 20; ix. 29.

  Adrian, the Roman Emperor, i. 3, 18, 44; ii. 3, 17; vi. 16, 19; viii.
        8, 10, 11, 22.
    His love for, and deification of, Antinous, viii. 9.

  Adriatic sea, viii. 54.

  Adultery, iv. 20; ix. 36.

  Ægialus, afterwards Achaia, v. 1; vii. 1, where see Note.

  Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, ii. 5, 29; v. 22; x. 13.

  Ægina, the island, ii. 29, 30.

  Ægisthus, i. 22; ii. 16, 18.

  Ægos-potamoi, iii. 8, 11, 17, 18; iv. 17; ix. 32; x. 9.

  Æneas, the son of Anchises, ii. 21, 23; iii. 22; v. 22; viii. 12; x.
        17, 26.

  Æschylus, the son of Euphorion, i. 2, 14, 21, 28; ii. 13, 20, 24;
        viii. 6, 37; ix. 22; x. 4.

  Æsculapius, the son of Apollo, ii. 10, 26, 27, 29; iii. 23; vii. 23;
        viii. 25.
    His temples, i. 21; ii. 10, 13, 23; iii. 22, 26; iv. 30, 31; vii.
        21, 23, 27; viii. 25.

  Æsymnetes, vii. 19, 20.

  Æthra, wife of Phalanthus, her love for her husband, x. 10.

  Ætna, its craters, how prophetic, iii. 23.
    Eruption of Ætna, x. 28.

  Agamemnon, i. 43; ii. 6, 18; iii. 9; vii. 24; ix. 40.
    His tomb, ii. 16; iii. 19.

  Ageladas, an Argive statuary, iv. 33; vi. 8, 10, 14; vii. 24; viii.
        42; x. 10.

  Aglaus of Psophis, happy all his life, viii. 24.

  Ajax, the son of Oileus, his violation of Cassandra, i. 15; x. 26, 31.

  Ajax, the son of Telamon, i. 5, 35; v. 19.

  Alcæus, vii. 20; x. 8.

  Alcamenes, a statuary, a contemporary of Phidias, i. 8, 19, 20, 24;
        ii. 30; v. 10; viii. 9; ix. 11.

  Alcmæon, son of Amphiaraus, the murderer of his mother Eriphyle, i.
        34; v. 17; viii. 24.

  Alcman, the poet, i. 41; iii. 18, 26.

  Alcmena, the daughter of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle, and wife of
        Amphitryon, deceived by Zeus, v. 18.
    Hated by Hera, ix. 11.
    Mother of Hercules, v. 14.

  Alcyone, the daughter of Atlas, ii. 30; iii. 18; ix. 22.

  Alexander, son of Alexander the Great by Roxana, i. 6; ix. 7.

  Alexander the Great, i. 9; v. 21; vii. 5; ix. 23, 25.
    Said by the Macedonians to be the son of Ammon, iv. 14.
    Very passionate, vi. 18.
    Tradition about his death, viii. 18.
    Buried at Memphis, i. 6.
    His corpse removed thence by Ptolemy, i. 7.
    Statues of him, i. 9; v. 25; vi. 11.
    Cassander’s hatred of him, ix. 7.

  Alexandria, v. 21; viii. 33.

  Alpheus, a river in Pisa, iii. 8; v. 7; vi. 22.
    Enamoured of Artemis, vi. 22;
      of Arethusa, v. 7.
    Women may not cross the Alpheus on certain days, v. 6.
    Leucippus lets his hair grow to the Alpheus, viii. 20.

  Altars, v. 13, 14; vi. 20, 24; ix. 3, 11.

  Althæa, daughter of Thestius and mother of Meleager, viii. 45; x. 31.

  Altis (a corruption of ἄλσος, grove), v. 10, 11, 14, 15, 27.

  Amaltheæ cornu, iv. 30; vi. 19, 25; vii. 26. (Cornu copiæ.)

  Amazons, i. 15, 41; iii. 25; iv. 31; vi. 2.

  Amber, native and otherwise, v. 12.

  Ambraciotes, v. 23; x. 18.

  Ammon, iii. 18, 21; iv. 14, 23; v. 15; vi. 8; viii. 11, 32; ix. 16;
        x. 13.

  Amphiaraus, i. 34; ii. 13, 23; ix. 8, 19.

  Amphictyones, vii. 24; x. 2, 8, 15, 19.

  Amphion and Zethus, sons of Antiope, ii. 6; ix. 5, 17; x. 32.

  Amphion, ii. 21; vi. 20; ix. 5, 8, 16, 17.

  Anacharsis, i. 22.

  Anacreon of Teos, a friend of Polycrates, i. 2.
    The first erotic poet after Sappho, i. 25.

  Anaximenes, his ruse with Alexander the Great, &c., vi 18.

  Ancæus, the son of Lycurgus, viii. 4, 45.

  Androgeos, i. 1, 27.

  Andromache, the wife of Hector, x. 25.

  Androtion, vi. 7; x. 8.

  Angelion and Tectæus, statuaries and pupils of Dipœnus and Scyllis,
        ii. 32; ix. 35.

  Antæus, ix. 11.

  Antalcidas, Peace of, ix. 1, 13.

  Antenor, x. 26, 27.

  Anteros, i. 30; vi. 23.

  Anticlea, the mother of Odysseus, x. 29.

  Anticyra, famous for hellebore, originally called Cyparissus, x. 36.

  Antigone, ix. 25.

  Antimachus, the poet, viii. 25; ix. 35.

  Antinous, viii. 9.
    See also Adrian.

  Antioch, the capital of Syria, viii. 29.

  Antiochus, the pilot of Alcibiades, iii. 17; ix. 32.

  Antiope, the Amazon, i. 2, 41.

  Antiope, the mother of Zethus and Amphion, i. 38; ii. 6; ix. 17, 25;
        x. 32.

  Antiphanes, an Argive statuary, v. 17; x. 9.

  Antipœnus, heroism of his daughters Androclea and Alcis, ix. 17.

  Antonine, the Emperor, called by the Romans Pius, viii. 43.
    His son and successor Antonine, viii. 43.

  Anytus, one of the Titans, viii. 37.

  Aphidna, i. 17, 41; ii. 22; iii. 17, 18.

  Aphrodite, Anadyomene, ii. 1; v. 11.
    Mother of Priapus, according to the people of Lampsacus, ix. 31.
    The tutelary saint of the men of Cnidus, i. 1.
    Ancient temple of her and Adonis in common in Cyprus, ix. 41.
    Her clients, ii. 34; ix. 38.
    Her statue by Dædalus, ix. 40.
    The myrtle in connection with her, vi. 24.
    The Celestial and Pandemian Aphrodite, vi. 25; ix. 16.
    (The Latin _Venus_.)

  Apis, the Egyptian god, i. 18; vii. 22.

  Apollo, helps Alcathous, i. 42.
    Herds the cattle of Laomedon, vii. 20.
    Inventor of the lute, iii. 24; v. 14; viii. 31.
    Jealous of Leucippus, viii. 20.
    Jealous of Linus, ix. 29.
    His altar in common with Hermes, v. 14.
    See also Delphi.

  Aratus of Soli, i. 2.

  Aratus of Sicyon, ii. 8, 9; viii. 10, 52.

  Ardalus, the son of Hephaæstus, inventor of the flute, ii. 31.

  Ares, the Latin _Mars_, charged with murder, i. 21, 28.

  Areopagus, i. 28; iv. 5.

  Arethusa, v. 7; vii. 24; viii. 53.

  Argiope, a Nymph, mother of Thamyris by Philammon, iv. 33.

  Argo, the famous ship, vii. 26; ix. 32.

  Argonauts, vii. 4.

  Argos, ii. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24; vii. 17.

  Ariadne, i. 20, 22; x. 29.

  Aricia, the people of, their tradition about Hippolytus, ii. 27.

  Arimaspians, i. 24, 31.

  Arion, the horse, viii. 25.

  Arion and the dolphin, iii. 25.

  Aristocrates, viii. 5, 13.
    Heredity in vice and punishment.

  Aristodemus, king of the Messenians, iv. 8, 10, 13, 26.

  Aristogiton, i. 8, 29.

  Aristomache, the daughter of Priam, x. 26.

  Aristomenes, the hero of Messenia, iv. 6, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22,
        23, 24, 27, 32; vi. 7; viii. 14, 51.

  Aristo, the father of the famous Plato, iv. 32.

  Aristophanes on Lepreus, v. 5.

  Aristotle, the mighty Stagirite, his statue, vi. 4.

  Arsinoe, daughter of Ptolemy, and wife of her own brother, i. 7, 8;
        ix. 31.

  Arsinoites, name of a district in Egypt, v. 21.

  Art, the noble art of self-defence, vi. 10; viii. 40.

  Artemis, (the Latin _Diana_,) iii. 22; iv. 30; viii. 3, 27.
    Especially worshipped at Hyampolis, x. 35.
    Temple of the goddess at Aulis, ix. 19.
    Events there, _do._

  Artemisia, her valour at Salamis, iii. 11.

  Artemisium, a mountain, ii. 25; viii. 5.

  Ascra, in Bœotia, the birthplace of Hesiod, ix. 29, 38.

  Asopus, a river in Bœotia, ii. 6.
    Reedy, v. 14.

  Asopus, a river in Sicyonia, ii. 5, 15.

  Asphodel, its unpleasant smell, x. 38.

  Atalanta, iii. 24; viii. 35, 45.

  Athamas, son of Æolus, vii. 3.
    Brother of Sisyphus, ix. 34.
    Desirous to kill his children Phrixus and Helle, ix. 34.

  Athene, (the Latin _Minerva_,) why grey-eyed, i. 14.
    Her birth, i. 24.
    Disputes as to territory between her and Poseidon, i. 24; ii. 30.
    Gives Erichthonius to the daughters of Cecrops, i. 18.
    A colossal statue of the goddess at Thebes, ix. 11.

  Athens, sacred to Athene, i. 26.
    Captured by Sulla, i. 20.

  Athenians, very pious, i. 17, 24; x. 28. (Cf. Acts xvii. 22.)
    Helped in war by the gods, viii. 10.
    Their forces at Marathon and against the Galati, iv. 25; x. 20.
    Their expedition to Sicily, viii. 11; x. 11, 15.
    The only democracy that ever rose to greatness, iv. 35.
    Their magistrates, iii. 11; iv. 5, 15.
    Their townships, i. 3, 32, 33.
    Their law-courts, i. 28.
    Their Eponymi, i. 5.
    Their expeditions beyond Greece, i. 29.
    Their heroes, x. 10.

  Athletes, their diet in training, vi. 7.

  Atlas, v. 11, 18; vi. 19; ix. 20.

  Atlas, a mountain in Libya, i. 33; viii. 43.

  Atreus, ii. 16, 18; ix. 40.

  Attalus, an ally of the Romans, vii. 8, 16.
    His greatest feat, i. 8.
    The oracle about him, x. 15.

  Attica, whence it got its name, i. 2.
    Sacred to Athene, i. 26.

  Augeas, v. 1, 3, 4, 8.

  Augustus, iii. 11, 21, 26; iv. 31; vii. 17, 18, 22; viii. 46.
    Statues of Augustus, ii. 17; v. 12.

  Aulis, iii. 9; viii. 28; ix. 19.

  Aurora, i. 3; iii. 18; v. 22.

  Axe tried in Court, i. 24, 28.


  Babylon, its walls, iv. 31.

  Bacchantes, ii. 2, 7.

  Bacchus, see Dionysus.

  Bacis, his oracles, iv. 27; ix. 17; x. 14, 32.
    A Bœotian, x. 12.

  Bacon, Francis, Viscount St. Albans, on revenge, iii. 15, Note.

  Bady, place and river, v. 3.

  Balsam tree, ix. 28.

  Banqueting-hall at Elis, v. 15.

  Barley cakes, mysterious property of, iii. 23.

  Baths, how taken in ancient times, x. 34.
    Women’s swimming-bath, iv. 35.
    Warm baths, ii. 34; iv. 35; vii. 3.

  Bato, the charioteer of Amphiaraus, ii. 23.

  Bayle on _Hippomanes_, v. 27, Note.

  Beans, i. 37; viii. 15.

  Bear, the Great, viii. 3.

  Bears, i. 32; iii. 20; vii. 18.

  Bees of Hymettus, i. 32.
    Bees and Pindar, ix. 23.
    In connection with Trophonius, ix. 40.
    Temple fabled to have been built by them, x. 5.

  Bel, i. 16; viii. 33.

  Bellerophon, ii. 2, 4, 31; iii. 18, 27; ix. 31.

  Bias of Priene, x. 24.

  Biblis, love-passages of, vii. 5.

  Bison, x. 13.

  Bito, see Cleobis.

  Blackbirds of Mt. Cyllene, viii. 17.

  Boar’s Memorial, iv. 15, 19.

  Bœotarchs, ix. 13, 14; x. 20.

  Bones, ii. 10; iii. 22.

  Booneta, iii. 12, 15.

  Bootes, viii. 3.

  Brasiæ, iii. 24, see Note.

  Brass, first brass-founders, viii. 14; x. 38.

  Brennus, x. 8, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.

  Briareus, ii. 1, 4.

  Brigantes in Britain, viii. 43.

  Briseis, v. 24; x. 25.

  Britomartis, iii. 14; viii. 2.

  Bupalus, iv. 30; ix. 35.

  Buphagus, viii. 14, 27.

  Burial, ii. 7; ix. 32.

  Bustards, x. 34.

  Byzantium, walls of, iv. 31.


  Cabiri, i. 4; iv. 1; ix. 22, 25; x. 38.

  Cadmean victory, ix. 9.

  Cadmus, the son of Agenor, iii. 15; ix. 5, 12, 19.

  C. Julius Cæsar, ii. 1; iii. 11.
    His gardens, viii. 46.

  Calais and Zetes, iii. 18.

  Calamis, a famous statuary, master of Praxias, i 3, 23; ii. 10; v.
        25, 26; vi. 12; ix. 16, 20, 22; x. 16.

  Calchas, i. 43; vii. 3; ix. 19.

  Callicrates, vii. 10, 12.

  Callimachus, i. 26; ix. 2.

  Callion, barbarity of the Galati at, x. 22.

  Calliphon of Samos, v. 19; x. 26.

  Callirhoe and Coresus, tragic love story about, vii. 21.

  Callisto, the daughter of Lycaon, changed into a she-bear, i. 25;
        viii. 3.

  Callon, a statuary of Ægina, ii. 32; iii. 18; vii. 18.

  Calus, murder of by Dædalus, i. 21, 26.

  Calydonian boar, i. 27; iii. 18; viii. 45, 46, 47.

  Canachus, a statuary, ii. 10; vi. 9, 13; vii. 18; ix. 10; x. 9.

  Cantharus, a statuary, vi. 3, 17.

  Capaneus, the son of Hipponous, struck with lightning, ix. 8, see
        Note.

  Capua, the chief town in Campania, v. 12.

  Carcinus, a native of Naupactus, x. 38.

  Carpo, a Season, ix. 35.

  Carthage, rebuilt by Julius Cæsar, ii. 1.

  Carthaginians, i. 12; v. 25; vi. 19; x. 8, 17, 18.

  Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, violated by Ajax, i. 15; v. 19; x.
        26.
    Called _Alexandra_, iii. 19, 26.

  Castalia, x. 8.

  Castor and Pollux, see Dioscuri.

  Catana, filial piety at, x. 28.

  Caverns, notable ones, x. 32.

  Ceadas, iv. 18.

  Cecrops, son of Erechtheus, king of Athens, i. 5; vii. 1; viii. 2.

  Celeus, father of Triptolemus, i. 14, 38, 39; ii. 14.

  Centaur, v. 19.
    Fight between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ, i. 17; v. 10.

  Cephalus and Aurora, i. 3; iii. 18.

  Cepheus, father of Andromeda, iv. 35.

  Cephisus, a river in Argolis, ii. 15, 20.

  Cephisus, a river in Attica, i. 37.

  Cephisus, a river in Eleusis, i. 38.

  Cephisus, a river in Bœotia, ix. 24, 38; x. 8, 33, 34.

  Ceramicus, i. 3; viii. 9.

  Cerberus, ii. 31, 35; iii. 25.

  Ceres, see Demeter.

  Cestus, viii. 40.

  Chæronea, fatal battle of, i. 18, 25; v. 20; ix. 6, 29, 40. (Milton’s
        “dishonest victory, fatal to liberty.”)

  Chaldæans, the first who taught the immortality of the soul, iv. 32.

  Champagny on Pausanias, see Title-page.

  Chaos first, ix. 27.

  Charon, x. 28. (Cf. Virgil’s “Jam senior, sed cruda deo
        viridisque senectus.”--_Æn._ vi. 304.)

  Chimæra, iii. 25.

  Chios, vii. 4.

  Chiron, a Centaur and tutor of Achilles, iii. 18; v. 5, 19.

  Chrysanthis, i. 14.

  Cicero, see Note to x. 35.

  Cimon, the son of Miltiades, ii. 29; viii. 52.

  Cinadus, the pilot of Menelaus, iii. 22.

  Cinæthon, the Lacedæmonian genealogist, ii. 3, 18; iv. 2; viii. 53.

  _Ciphos_, our _coif_, iii. 26.

  Cirrha, x. 1, 8, 37.

  Cists, used in the worship of Demeter and Proserpine, viii. 25, 37;
        x. 28.

  Cithæron, a mountain in Bœotia, i. 38; ix. 2.

  Clearchus, iii. 17; vi. 4.

  Cleobis and Bito, ii. 20, see Note.

  Cleombrotus, the son of Pausanias, king of Sparta, i. 13; iii. 5, 6;
        ix. 13.

  Cleomedes, vi. 9.

  Cleomenes, ii. 9.

  Cleon, statuary, v. 17, 21; vi. 1, 8, 9, 10.

  Clymene, reputed by some mother of Homer, x. 24.

  Clytæmnestra, ii. 16, 18, 22.

  Coats of mail, i. 21; vi. 19; x. 26.

  Coccus, x. 36.

  Cocytus, i. 17. (Cf. Virgil, _Æneid_, vi. 132, “Cocytusque
        sinu labens circumvenit atro,” and Horace, _Odes_, ii. 14-17,
        18.)

  Colophon, vii. 3, 5; ix. 32.

  Colossuses, i. 18, 42. (If gentle reader objects to this plural
        let me cite Sir T. Herbert, “In that isle he also defaced an
        hundred other colossuses.”--_Travels_, p. 267.)

  Comætho, her love-passages with Melanippus, vii. 19.

  Commentaries of events, i. 12.

  Conon, son of Timotheus, i. 1, 2, 3, 24, 29; iii. 9; vi. 3, 7; viii.
        52.

  Cordax, a dance, vi. 22.

  Coresus, see Callirhoe.

  Corinna, ix. 20, 22.

  Corinth, taken by Mummius, ii. 1; vii. 16.
    Rebuilt by Julius Cæsar, ii. 1, 3; v. 1.

  Corœbus, the Argive, i. 43.

  Corpses, remarkable, v. 20, 27; viii. 29.

  Corsica, x. 17.

  Corybantes, iii. 24; viii. 37.

  Cos, island, iii. 23; vi. 14, 17; viii. 43.

  Cosmosandalum, ii. 35.

  Costoboci, x. 34.

  Creon, i. 3; ix. 5, 10.

  Cresphontes, son of Aristomachus, ii. 18; iv. 3, 5, 31; v. 3.
    Marries the daughter of Cypselus, iv. 3; viii. 5, 29.

  Crete, island of, iii. 2; vii. 2; viii. 38, 53.
    Cretan bowmen, i. 23; iv. 8; vii. 16.

  Crocodiles, i. 33; ii. 28; iv. 34.

  Crœsus, iii. 10; iv. 5; viii. 24.

  Cronos, (the Latin _Saturnus_,) i. 18; viii. 8, 36; ix. 2, 41; x. 24.

  Crotonians, their tradition about Helen, iii. 19.
    Milo a native of Croton, vi. 14.
    Wolves numerous in the neighbourhood of Croton, vi. 14.

  Crowns in the games, viii. 48.

  Cuckoo and Hera, ii. 17.

  Curetes, iv. 31, 33; v. 7; viii. 2, 37; x. 38.

  Cybele, see the Dindymene Mother.

  Cyclades, islands, i. 1; v. 21, 23.

  Cyclopes, their buildings, ii. 16, 20, 25; vii. 25.

  Cycnus, a Celtic king, tradition about, i. 30.

  Cydias, his prowess against the Galati, x. 21.

  Cydnus, a river that flows through the district of Tarsus, a cold
        river, viii. 28.

  Cynoscephalæ, battle of, vii. 8.

  Cyprus, claims to be birth-place of Homer, x. 24.

  Cypselus, his chest, v. 17, 18, 19.


  Dædalus, the famous Athenian, son of Palamaon, why called Dædalus,
        ix. 3.
    A contemporary of Œdipus, x. 17.
    Fled to Crete, why, i. 21; vii. 4; viii. 53.
    His pupils, ii. 15; iii. 17; v. 25.
    His works of art, i. 27; ii. 4; viii. 16, 35, 46; ix. 11, 39.

  Dædalus of Sicyon, statuary also, vi. 2, 3, 6; x. 9.

  Damophon, the best Messenian statuary, iv. 31; vii. 23; viii. 31, 37.

  Danae, daughter of Acrisius and mother of Perseus, her brazen
        chamber, ii. 23; x. 5. (Horace’s “turris aenea.”)

  Danaus, how he became king of Argos, ii. 19.
    His daughters’ savageness, ii. 16, 24; x. 10.
    How he got them second husbands, iii. 12.

  Daphne, and the crown of laurel in the Pythian games, x. 7.

  Darius, the son of Hystaspes, iii. 4, 9, 12; vii. 10.

  Decelea, iii. 8.

  Delium, i. 29; ix. 6, 20; x. 28.

  Delphi, x. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

  Delta, ii. 21; vi. 26.

  Demaratus, a seven-month child, iii. 4, 7.

  Demeter, (the Latin _Ceres_,) i. 14, 37, 39, 43; ii. 35; viii. 15,
        25, 42.
    See also Triptolemus.

  Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, i. 6, 10, 25, 36; ix. 7.

  Demo, the Sibyl of Cumæ, x. 12.

  Democracies, none in Greece in old times, ix. 1.
    No democracy that we know of but Athens ever rose to greatness,
        iv. 35.
    Remark on, i. 8.

  Demosthenes, the son of Alcisthenes, i. 13, 29.

  Demosthenes, the son of Demosthenes, i. 8; ii. 33.

  Despœna, viii. 37.
    See also Proserpine.

  Deucalion, his flood, i. 18, 40; v. 8; x. 6.

  Dicæarchia, iv. 35; viii. 7. (_Puteoli._)

  Dice, vi. 24; vii. 25; x. 30.

  Dindymene Mother, vii. 17, 20; viii. 46; ix. 25. (That is Cybele.)

  Diocles, ii. 14.

  Diomede, king of Thrace, iii. 18; v. 10.

  Diomede, who led the Argives to Troy, i. 11, 28; ii. 30, 32; x. 31.
    Runs off with the Palladium, i. 22.

  Dionysius, the tyrant, i. 2; vi. 2.

  Dionysus, (the Latin _Bacchus_,) father of Priapus, ix. 31.
    Son of Zeus by Semele, iii. 24.
    Fetches up Semele from Hades, ii. 31, 37.
    Punishes Antiope, ix. 17.
    Takes Ariadne from Theseus, x. 29.
    Many legends about him, x. 29.
    His orgies, x. 33; ii. 2, 7.

  Dioscuri (_Castor and Pollux_), iii. 13, 26; iv. 31.
    Visit the house of Phormio, iii. 16.
    Their anger against the Messenians, iv. 16, 26.
    Origin of their anger, iv. 27.
    Their particular kind of hats, iii. 24; iv. 27.
    Called Anactes, ii. 36; x. 38.

  Diotimus, the father of Milo, of Croton, vi. 14.

  Dipœnus and Scyllis, pupils of Dædalus, statuaries, ii. 15, 22, 32;
        iii. 17; v. 17; vi. 19; ix. 35.

  Dirce, the legend about her, ix. 17, 25.

  Divination, various modes of, iii. 23, 26; iv. 32; vi. 2; vii. 21,
        25; ix. 11.

  Dodona, i. 17; vii. 21, 25; viii. 11, 23, 28; ix. 25; x. 12.

  Dog, cure for bite of, viii. 19.

  Dolphin, i. 44; ii. 1; iii. 25; x. 13.

  Dontas, pupil of Dipœnus and Scyllis, vi. 19.

  Doric Architecture, v. 10, 16; vi. 24.
    Dorian measure, ix. 12.

  Doriclydas, pupil of Dipœnus and Scyllis, v. 17.

  Draco, the Athenian legislator, vi. 11; ix. 36.

  Dragon, viii. 8.
    Guards the apples of the Hesperides, vi. 19.
    One wonderfully killed, ix. 26.
    Seed of the dragon’s teeth, ix. 10.
    Dragons sacred to Æsculapius, ii. 11, 28.
    Also to Trophonius, ix. 39.
    Yoked to the chariot of Triptolemus, vii. 18.

  Dreams, x. 2, 38.
    Interpreters of, i. 34; v. 23.

  Drunkenness personified, ii. 27; vi. 24.

  Dryads, viii. 4; x. 32.

  Dumb bells, v. 26; vi. 3.

  Dyrrhachium, formerly Epidamnus, vi. 10.

  Dysaules, brother of Celeus, and father of Triptolemus, i. 14; ii.
        12, 14.


  Earth, viii. 29; x. 12.
    The Great Goddess, i. 31.

  Earthquakes, ii. 7; vii. 24.

  Eating-contest between Lepreus and Hercules, v. 5.

  Ebony, i. 42; ii. 22; viii. 17, 53.

  Ecbatana, iv. 24.

  Echetlaeus, his prowess at Marathon, i. 32.

  Echinades, islands, viii. 1, 24.

  Echoes, wonderful ones, ii. 35; v. 21.

  Edoni, i. 29; x. 33.

  Eels of Lake Copais, ix. 24.

  Eira, iv. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.

  Elaphius, the month of, at Elis, v. 13; vi. 20.

  Electra, married to Pylades, ii. 16; iii. 1; ix. 40.

  Elephants, i. 12; v. 12.

  Eleusinian mysteries, viii. 15; x. 31.

  Eleutherolacones, iii. 21.

  Elk, v. 12; ix. 21.

  Elysium, viii. 53.

  Emperors, Roman, statues of, i. 40; v. 20; vi. 19.
    See also under _Adrian_, _Augustus_, _C. Julius Cæsar_, _Gaius_, &c.
    Flattery to, ii. 8, Note.

  Endœus, an Athenian statuary, and pupil of Dædalus, i. 26; vii. 5;
        viii. 46.

  Enyalius, a name for Ares, (the Latin _Mars_,) iii. 14, 15; v. 18.

  Enyo, i. 8; iv. 30.

  Epaminondas, iv. 26, 31; viii. 11, 27, 49, 52; ix. 13, 14, 15.

  Epeus, the constructor of the famous Wooden Horse, i. 23; ii. 29; x.
        26.

  Ephesus, temple of Artemis at, vii. 5. (Cf. Acts; xix. 27, 28. Farrar
        very aptly quotes Appul. _Metam._ ii. “Diana Ephesia, cujus
        nomen unicum, multiformi specie, ritu vario, nomine multijugo,
        _totus veneratur orbis_.”)

  Ephors at Sparta, iii. 11.

  Epicaste, mother of Œdipus, ix. 5, 26. Better known as _Jocasta_.

  Epidaurus, a town in Argolis, ii. 26, 27, 28, 29.

  Epigoni, ix. 9, 19, 25; x. 10, 25.

  Epimenides, the Rip Van Winkle of Antiquity, i. 14.

  Eponymi, the heroes so called at Athens, i. 5.

  Erato, the Nymph, wife of Arcas, an interpreter of the oracles of
        Pan, viii. 4, 37; x. 9.

  Erechtheus, i. 5, 26, 28, 38.

  Eridanus, a Celtic river, i. 4; v. 12, 14; viii. 25.

  Eriphyle, wife of Amphiaraus, slain by Alcmæon her son, i. 34; viii.
        24.
    The famous necklace, v. 17; viii. 24; ix. 41; x. 29.

  Erymanthian boar, viii. 24.

  Eryx, conquered in wrestling by Hercules, iii. 16; iv. 36; viii. 24.

  Essenes of Ephesian Artemis, viii. 13.

  Eteocles, the son of Œdipus, v. 19; ix. 5.

  Eubœa, v. 23; viii. 14.

  Euclides, an Athenian statuary, vii. 25, 26.

  Euclus, x. 12, 14, 24.

  Evœ, the Bacchic cry, iv. 31.
    (See Horace’s _Odes_, ii. 19-5-7.)

  Euphorion, ii. 22; x. 26.

  Euphrates, the river, iv. 34; x. 29.

  Eupolis, where buried, ii. 7.

  Euripides, i. 2, 21.

  Euripus, near Chalcis, i. 23, 38.

  Eurotas, river in Laconia, iii. 1, 21; viii. 44, 54.

  Euryclides, an Athenian orator, poisoned by Philip, ii. 9.

  Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, ix. 30.

  Eurypontidæ, ii. 36; iii. 7, 12; iv. 4.

  Eurypylus, vii. 19.

  Eurystheus, his tomb, i. 44.
    His hostility to Hercules, iv. 34.

  Eurytion, a Centaur, v. 10; vii. 18.


  Fables of the Greeks, how to be understood, viii. 8.

  Filial piety, instances of, ii. 20; x. 28.

  Fire, its inventor, ii. 19.
    Ever-burning, v. 15; viii. 9, 37.
    Magically lighted, v. 27.

  Fish, vocal in the river Aroanius, viii. 21.

  Flax, v. 5; vi. 26; vii. 21.

  Flute-playing, iv. 27; ix. 12.

  Food, primitive, viii. 1.

  Foolish desires a source of ruin, viii. 24.

  Fortune, iv. 30.

  Friendship of Phocus and Iaseus, x. 30.

  Furies of Clytæmnestra, viii. 34.
    Furies euphemistically called _The Venerable Ones_, i. 28.
    Compare vii. 25.


  Gaius, the Roman Emperor, end of, ix. 27.

  Galati, their cavalry-arrangements, x. 19.
    Their irruption into Greece, x. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.

  Ganymede, v. 24.

  Gelanor, ii. 19.

  Gerenia, called by Homer _Enope_, iii. 26.

  Germans, viii. 43.

  Geryon, i. 35; iii. 16; iv. 36; v. 19.

  Getae, the, added to the Roman Empire by Trajan, v. 12.
    Brave in battle, i. 9.

  Giants, the, viii. 29, 32, 36, 47.

  _Girding oneself_, ix. 17.

  Girdles worn round the loins in the races at Olympia, i. 44.

  Glaucus of Carystus, story about, vi. 10.

  Glaucus of Chios, x. 16.

  Glaucus, the god of the sea, vi. 10.

  Gobryas, i. 1; iii. 11; ix. 1.

  Gods, the twelve, i. 3, 40; viii. 25.
    Unknown gods, i. 1; v. 14.

  Gorgias of Leontini, vi. 17; x. 18.

  Gorgon, ii. 21.
    See also Medusa.

  Gorgus, the son of Aristomenes, iv. 19, 21, 23.

  Graces, ix. 35.

  Grasshoppers, idiosyncrasy of, vi. 6.

  Greeks, apt to admire things out of their own country, ix. 36.
    Numbers that fought against Xerxes and the Galati, x. 20.
    Munificence of in their worship of the gods, v. 12.

  Griffins, i. 24.

  Gryllus, the son of Xenophon, i. 3; viii. 9, 11; ix. 15.

  Gymnopædia, festival of, iii. 11.
    Gythium, Lacedæmonian arsenal, i. 27; iii. 21; viii. 50.


  Hair, shorn to river-gods, i. 37; viii. 41.
    See also viii. 20.

  Halirrhothius, i. 21, 28.

  Hannibal, oracle about his death, viii. 11.

  Happiness only intermittent, viii. 24.

  Harmodius, i. 8, 29.

  Harmosts, officers among the Lacedæmonians, ix. 6, 32.

  Harpies, iii. 18; v. 17; x. 30.

  Hebe, i. 19; ii. 13, 17; viii. 9.

  Hecas, the seer, iv. 16, 21.

  Hecatæus, the Milesian, iii. 25; iv. 2; viii. 4, 47.

  Hecate, i. 43; ii. 22, 30.

  Hecatomphonia, iv. 19.

  Hector, son of Priam, iii. 18; v. 25; ix. 18; x. 31.

  Hecuba, x. 12, 27.

  He-goat, oracle about, iv. 20.

  Helen, the famous, a woe to Europe and Asia, x. 12.
    Tradition about, iii. 19.
    Her maids, x. 25.
    Oath taken about, iii. 20.

  Helen, a Jewess, her tomb, viii. 16.

  Helenus, son of Priam, i. 11; ii. 23; v. 22.

  Helicon, a mountain in Bœotia, ix. 26, 27, 28, 29.

  Hellas in Thessaly, gave name to the Hellenes, iii. 20.

  Hellebore, x. 36, 37.

  Helots, iii. 11, 20; iv. 23, 24; viii. 51.

  Hephæstus, (the Latin _Vulcan_,) i. 20; ii. 31; iii. 17; viii. 53;
        ix. 41.

  Hera, (the Latin _Juno_,) i. 18; ii. 15; v. 16; vi. 24.
    Story about her quarrel and reconciliation with Zeus, ix. 3.
    Becomes a virgin again annually, ii. 38.
    The cuckoo in connection with her, ii. 17.
    The peacock sacred to her, ii. 17.

  Heraclidæ, Return of the, ii. 13, 18; iii. 1; iv. 3.

  Hercules, the Egyptian, x. 13.

  Hercules, the son of Amphitryon, his Colonnade, vi. 23.
    Hunts the Erymanthian boar, viii. 24.
    Fights against the Amazons, v. 11, 25.
    Relieves Atlas, v. 10, 11.
    Brings up Cerberus from Hades, ii. 31, 35; iii. 25; ix. 34.
    Cleans Elis, v. 1, 10; ix. 11.
    Drives off the oxen of Geryon, iii. 16, 18; iv. 36; v. 19.
    Overcomes the Nemean lion, iii. 18; v. 11; vi. 5; viii. 13.
    Has an eating contest with Lepreus, v. 5.
    First accounted a god by the people of Marathon, i. 15, 32.
    Taken to heaven by Athene, iii. 18, 19.
    Kills Nessus, iii. 18.
    Introduces into Greece the white poplar, v. 14.
    Liberates Prometheus, v. 10.
    His club, ii. 31.
    His Labours, iii. 17; v. 10, 26.

  Hercules, the Idæan, v. 7, 13; ix. 27.

  Heredity, i. 6; viii. 5, 13.

  Hermæ, i. 17, 24; iv. 33; viii. 39; x. 12.

  Hermes, (the Latin _Mercury_,) vii. 27; viii. 14.
    Steals Apollo’s oxen, vii. 20.
    Takes the goddesses to Paris for the choice of beauty, iii. 18; v.
        19.
    Invents the lyre, ii. 19; v. 14; viii. 17.

  Herodes Atticus, i. 19; ii. 1; vi. 21; vii. 20; x. 32.

  Herodotus, quoted or alluded to, i. 5, 28, 43; ii. 16, 20, 30; iii.
        2, 25; v. 26; viii. 27; ix. 23, 36; x. 20, 32, 33.

  Herophile, a Sibyl, x. 12.

  Hesiod, i. 2; ix. 30, 31, 38; x. 7.
    Quoted or alluded to, i. 24; ii. 9.

  Hesperides, v. 11; vi. 19.

  Hides, garments made of, viii. 1; x. 38.
    Used as shields in battle, iv. 11.

  Hieronymus of Cardia, historian, i. 9, 13.

  Hilaira and Phœbe, ii. 22; iii. 16; iv. 31.

  Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, i. 8, 23, 29.

  Hippocrene, ii. 31; ix. 31.
    Hippodamia, daughter of Œnomaus, v. 11, 14, 16, 17; vi. 20, 21;
        viii. 14.

  Hippodrome at Olympia, vi. 20.

  Hippolyta, leader of the Amazons, i. 41.

  Hippolytus, son of Theseus, i. 22; ii. 27, 31, 32; iii. 22.

  Hippopotamus, iv. 34; v. 12; viii. 46.

  Homer, his age and birthplace, ix. 30; x. 24.
    His oracle, viii. 24; x. 24.
    His poverty, ii. 33.
    On Homer generally, i. 2; iv. 28, 33; vii. 5, 26; ix. 40; x. 7.
    Homer is quoted very frequently, viz., i. 13, 28, 37; ii. 3, 6, 7,
        12, 14, 16, 21, 24, 25, 26; iii. 2, 7, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25,
        26; iv. 1, 9, 30, 32, 33, 36; v. 6, 8, 11, 14, 24; vi. 5, 22,
        26, 26; vii. 1, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26; viii. 1, 3, 8, 16, 18, 24,
        25, 29, 37, 38, 41, 48, 50; ix. 5, 17, 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 29,
        30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41; x. 5, 6, 8, 14, 17, 22, 25,
        26, 29, 30, 32, 33, 36, 37.

  Hoopoe, i. 41; x. 4.

  Hoplodamus assists Rhea, viii. 32, 36.

  Horns of animals, v. 12.
    Horn of Amalthea, vi. 25.

  Horse, curious story in connection with, v. 27.
    The famous Wooden Horse, i. 23; x. 9.
    Winged horses, v. 17, 19.

  Hyacinth, the flower, i. 35; ii. 35.

  Hyampolis, a town in Phocis, x. 1, 3, 35.

  Hyantes, ix. 5, 35.

  Hydarnes, a general of Xerxes, iii. 4; x. 22.

  Hydra, ii. 37; v. 5; v. 17.

  Hygiea, daughter of Æsculapius, i. 23; v. 20.
    Her temple, iii. 22.

  Hyllus, son of Hercules, i. 35, 41, 44; iv. 30; viii. 5, 45, 53.

  Hymettus, famous for its bees, i. 32.

  Hyperboreans, i. 31; v. 7; x. 5.

  Hypermnestra, ii. 19, 20, 21, 25; x. 10, 35.

  Hyrieus, his treasury, story about, ix. 37.

  Hyrnetho, daughter of Temenus, ii. 19, 23.
    Her tragic end, ii. 28.


  Iamidæ, seers at Elis, descendants of Iamus, iii. 11, 12; iv. 16; vi.
        2; viii. 10.

  Ibycus, the poet, ii. 6.

  Icarus, the son of Dædalus, ix. 11.

  Ichnusa, the old name of Sardinia, x. 17.

  Idæan Dactyli, v. 7.

  Iliad, The Little, iii. 26; x. 26.

  Ilissus, a river in Attica, i. 19.

  Ilithyia, i. 18; viii. 32; ix. 27.

  Immortals, The, vi. 6; x. 19.

  Inachus, a river, ii. 15, 18, 25; viii. 6.

  Indian sages taught the immortality of the soul, iv. 32.
    India famous for wild beasts, iv. 34; viii. 29.

  Ino, i. 42, 44; iii. 23, 24, 26; iv. 34; ix. 5.

  Inscriptions, ox-fashion, v. 17.

  Inventions, source of, viii. 31.

  Inundations, destruction caused by, vii. 24; viii. 14.

  Io, daughter of Inachus, i. 25; iii. 18.

  Iodama, ix. 34.

  Iolaus, nephew of Hercules, vii. 2; viii. 14.
    Shares in his uncle’s Labours, i. 19; viii. 45.
    Kills Eurystheus, i. 44.
    Colonizes Sardinia, vii. 2; x. 17.
    His hero-chapel, ix. 23.

  Ion, the son of Xuthus, i. 31; vii. 1.

  Iphiclus, the father of Protesilaus, iv. 36; v. 17; x. 31.

  Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, i. 33, 43; iii. 16; ix. 19.

  Iphimedea, mother of Otus and Ephialtes, ix. 22; x. 28.

  Iphitus, king of Elis, v. 4, 8; viii. 26.

  Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, iii. 15; x. 13.

  Iris, the flower, ix. 41.

  Iron, first fused, iii. 12; x. 16.

  Ischepolis, son of Alcathous, killed by the Calydonian boar, i. 42,
        43.

  Isis, the Egyptian goddess, i. 41; ii. 4, 13, 32, 34; v. 25; x. 32.

  Ismenius, a river in Bœotia, ix. 9, 10.

  Isocrates, i. 18.

  Issedones, i. 24, 31; v. 7.

  Isthmian games, i. 44; ii. 1, 2.
    People of Elis excluded from them, v. 2; vi. 16.

  Ister, river, viii. 28, 38.

  Ithome, iv. 9, 13, 14, 24, 31.

  Ivory, i. 12; v. 11, 12; vii. 27.

  _Ivy-cuttings_, feast so called, ii. 13.


  Jason, husband of Medea, ii. 3; v. 17.

  Jay, anecdote about the, viii. 12.

  Jerusalem, viii. 16.

  Jocasta, ix. 5.
    (Called Epicaste, ix. 26.)

  Joppa, iv. 35.

  Jordan, the famous river, v. 7.


  Keys, the three keys of Greece, vii. 7.

  Kites, idiosyncrasy of at Olympia, v. 14.


  Labyrinth of the Minotaur in Crete, i. 27.
    (Cf. Virg. Æneid, v. 588-591. Ovid, Metamorphoses, viii. 159-168.)

  Lacedæmonians go out on campaign only when the moon is at its full,
        i. 28.
    Go out to battle not to the sound of the trumpet, but to flutes
        lyres and harps, iii. 17.
    Care not for poetry, iii. 8.
    Tactics in battle, iv. 8.
    Always conceal their losses in battle, ix. 13.
    Their forces at Thermopylæ, x. 20.
    Their kings, how tried, iii. 5.

  Lacedæmonian dialect, iii. 15.
    Brevity, iv. 7.

  Laconia originally called Lelegia, iv. 1.

  Ladder-pass, viii. 6.

  Læstrygones, viii. 29; x. 22.

  Lais, ii. 2.

  Laius, son of Labdacus, King of Thebes, ix. 5, 26; x. 5.

  Lamp of Athene, ever burning, i. 26.

  Lampsacus, people of, anecdote about, vi. 18.
    Great worshippers of Priapus, ix. 31.

  Laomedon, father of Priam, vii. 20; viii. 36.

  Lapithæ, their fight with the Centaurs, i. 17; v. 10.

  La Rochefoucauld anticipated by Pindar. Note, x. 22.

  Laurium, its silver mines, i. 1.

  Law-courts at Athens, various names of, i. 28.

  Leæna, mistress of Aristogiton, i. 23.

  Lebadea in Bœotia, sacred to Trophonius, i. 34; ix. 39.

  Lechæum, ii. 1, 2; ix. 14, 15; x. 37.

  Leda, i. 33; iii. 13, 16.

  Leonidas, the hero of Thermopylæ, i. 13; iii. 3, 4, 14; viii. 52.

  Leontini, the birth-place of the famous Gorgias, vi. 17.

  Leprosy, cure for, v, 5. (Credat Judæus Apella!)

  Lesbos, iii. 2; iv. 35; x. 19, 24.

  Lescheos, author of the _Capture of Ilium_, x. 25, 26, 27.

  Leto, (the Latin _Latona_,) i. 18, 31; iii. 20; viii. 53.

  Leucippus, his love for Daphne, viii. 20.

  Leuctra, i. 13; iv. 26; viii. 27; ix. 6, 13, 14.

  Libya, famous for wild beasts, ii. 21.

  Libyssa, where Hannibal died, viii. 11.

  Linus, ix. 29.

  Lipara, x. 11, 16.

  Lophis, story about, ix. 33.
    (Cf. story of Jephthah.)

  Lounges, iii. 14, 15; x. 25.
    Lots, iv. 3; v. 25.

  Love, its power, vii. 19.
    Success in love, vii. 26.
    Cure of melancholy caused by, vii. 5.
    Little sympathy with lovers from older people, vii. 19.
    Tragedies through love, i. 30; vii 21; viii. 20.

  Lycomidæ, i. 22; iv. 1; ix. 27, 30.

  Lycortas, iv. 29; vii. 9; viii. 50.

  Lycurgus, the famous legislator, iii. 2, 14, 16, 18; v. 4.

  Lygdamis, the father of Artemisia, iii. 11.

  Lygdamis, the Syracusan, as big as Hercules, v. 8.

  Lynceus, son of Aphareus, his keen eyesight, iv. 2.
    Slain by Pollux, iv. 3.

  Lynceus, the husband of Hypermnestra, ii. 19, 21, 25.
    Succeeds Danaus, ii. 16.

  Lyre, invented by Hermes, v. 14; viii. 17.
    First used by Amphion, ix. 5.

  Lysander, iii. 5, 6, 8, 11, 17, 18; ix. 32; x. 9.

  Lysippus, a Sicyonian statuary, i. 43; ii. 9, 20; vi. 1, 2, 4, 5, 14,
        17; ix. 27, 30.

  Lysis, the early schoolmaster of Epaminondas, ix. 13.


  Macaria, i. 32.

  Machærion, viii. 11.

  Machaon, son of Æsculapius, ii. 11, 23, 26, 38; iii. 26; iv. 3.

  Machinery, or mechanism,
    at Olympia, vi. 20.
    At Jerusalem, viii. 16.

  Mæander, river in Asia Minor, famous for its windings, v. 14; vii. 2;
        viii. 7, 24, 31; x. 32.

  Magic, v. 27.

  Maneros, the Egyptian Linus, ix. 29.

  Mantinea, ii. 8; viii. 3, 8, 12.

  Manto, daughter of Tiresias, vii. 3; ix. 10, 33.

  Marathon, i. 15, 32; iv. 25; x. 20.

  Mardonius, son of Gobryas, i. 1, 27; iii. 4; vii. 25; ix. 1, 2, 23.
    Panic of his men, i. 40; ix. 25.

  Marpessa, the Widow, viii. 47, 48.

  Marsyas, i. 24; ii. 7; viii. 9; x. 30.

  Martiora, ix. 21.

  Mausoleums, viii. 16.

  Mausolus, viii. 16.

  Medea, ii. 3, 12; viii. 11.

  Medusa, the Gorgon, i. 21; ii. 20, 21; v. 10, 12, 18; viii. 47; ix.
        34.

  Megalopolis, ii. 9, 27; iv. 29; vi. 12; viii. 27, 30, 33; ix. 14.
    Its theatre, ii. 27.

  Megara, i. 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44; vii. 15.

  Megaris, i. 39, 44.

  Meleager, ii. 7; iv. 2; x. 31.

  Melicerta, i. 44; ii. 1; ix. 34.

  Memnon, his statue, i. 42.

  Memnonides, birds so called, x. 31.

  Memphis, i. 18.

  Menander, i. 2, 21.

  Menelaus, the son of Atreus and husband of Helen, iii. 1, 14, 19; v.
        18; x. 25, 26.

  Menestratus, ix. 26.

  Miletus, vii. 2, 24; viii. 24, 49; x. 33.

  Milo, of Croton, his wonderful strength, vi. 14.

  Miltiades, son of Cimon, i. 32; ii. 29; vi. 19; vii. 15; viii. 52.

  Minos, i. 17, 27; ii. 30, 34; iii. 2; vii. 2, 4; viii. 53.

  Minotaur, i. 27; iii. 18.

  Minyad, the poem so called, iv. 33; ix. 5; x. 28, 31.

  Mirrors, remarkable ones, vii. 21; viii. 37.

  Mithridates, king of Pontus, i. 20; iii. 23; ix. 7.

  Money, its substitute in old times, iii. 12.

  Moon enamoured of Endymion, v. 1.
    Full moon and the Lacedæmonians, i. 28.

  Mullets, love mud, iv. 34.

  Mummius, ii. 1, 2; vii. 15, 16.
    His gifts at Olympia, v. 10, 24.

  Musæus, i. 14, 22, 25; iv. 1; x. 5, 7, 9, 12.

  Muses, the, ix. 29.

  Mycenæ, ii. 15, 16; v. 23; vii. 25; viii. 27, 33; ix. 34.

  Myrtilus, the son of Hermes, ii. 18; v. 1, 10; vi. 20; viii. 14.
    Myrtle, sacred to Aphrodite, vi. 24.

  Myrtoan sea, why so called, viii. 14.

  Myus, its mosquitoes, vii. 2.


  Nabis, tyrant at Sparta, iv. 29; vii. 8; viii. 50.

  Naked, its meaning among the ancients. See Note, x. 27.

  Names, confusion in same names general, viii. 15.
    Different method of giving names among Greeks and Romans, vii. 7.

  Narcissus, ix. 31, 41.

  Naupactian poems, ii. 3; iv. 2; x. 38.

  Naupactus, iv. 24, 26; vi. 16; ix. 25, 31; x. 38.

  Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, i. 22; v. 19.

  Neda, river, iv. 20, 36; v. 6; viii. 38, 41.

  Neleus, iv. 2, 36; v. 8; x. 29, 31.
    His posterity, ii. 18; iv. 3.

  Nemean games, ii. 15, 24; vi. 16; viii. 48; x. 25.

  Nemesis, i. 33; vii. 5, 20; ix. 35.

  Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, the Retribution of, iv. 17.
    (As to Neoptolemus generally, see _Pyrrhus_.)

  Nereids, ii. 1; iii. 26; v. 19.

  Nereus, iii. 21.

  Nero, the Roman Emperor, ii. 17, 37; v. 12, 25, 26; vii. 17; ix. 27;
        x. 7.

  Nessus, iii. 18; x. 38.

  Nestor, iii. 26; iv. 3, 31, 36.

  Nicias, the Athenian General, i. 29.

  Nicias, animal painter, i. 29; iii. 19; iv. 31; vii. 22.

  Nicopolis, founded by Augustus, v. 23; vii. 18; x. 8, 38.

  Nicostratus, v. 21.

  Night, v. 18; vii. 5.

  Night-attack, ingenious, x. 1.

  Nightingales at Orpheus’ tomb, ix. 30.

  Nile, famous river of Egypt, i. 33; ii. 5; iv. 34; v. 7, 14; viii.
        24; x. 32.

  Nineveh, viii. 33.

  Niobe, i. 21; ii. 21; v. 11, 16; viii. 2.

  Nisus, i. 19, 39; ii. 34.

  North wind, viii. 27. (_Boreas._)

  Nymphs, iii. 10; iv. 27; ix. 24; x. 31.

  Nymphon, ii. 11.


  Oceanus, i. 33.

  Ocnus, x. 29.
    See Note.

  Octavia, her temple at Corinth, ii 3.

  Odeum at Athens, i. 8, 14; vii. 20.

  Odysseus, (the Latin _Ulysses_,) i. 22, 35; iii. 12, 20; iv. 12; v.
        25; vi. 6; viii. 3, 14, 44; x. 8, 26, 28, 29, 31.

  Œdipodia, ix. 5.

  Œdipus, i. 28, 30; ix. 2, 5, 26; x. 5.

  Œnobius, i. 23.

  Œnomaus, v. 1, 10, 14, 17, 20, 22; vi. 18, 20, 21; viii. 14, 20.

  Œnotria, viii. 3.

  Œta, Mount, iii. 4; vii. 15; x. 22.

  Olen, i. 18; ii. 13; v. 7; viii. 21; ix. 27; x. 5.

  Oligarchies, established by Mummius, vii. 16, Note.

  Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, mother of Alexander the Great, i.
        11, 25; iv. 14; viii 7; ix. 7.

  Olympus, Mount, in Thessaly, vi. 5.

  Olynthus, iii. 5.

  Onatas, ÆEginetan statuary, v. 25, 27; vi. 12; viii. 42; x. 13.

  Onga, ix. 12.

  Onomacritus, i 22; viii. 31, 37; ix. 35.

  Ophioneus, the seer, iv. 10, 12, 13.

  Ophitea, legend about, x. 33.

  Opportunity, the youngest son of Zeus, v. 14.

  Oracles, ambiguous, viii. 11.
    (Compare case of ‘Jerusalem’ in Shakspere, 2 Henry IV., Act iv.,
        Scene iv., 233-241.)

  Orestes, son of Agamemnon, i. 28; ii. 18, 31; iii. 1, 16, 22; vii.
        25; viii. 5, 34.

  Orithyia, i. 19; v. 19.

  Orontes, a river in Syria, vi. 2; viii. 20, 29, 33; x. 20.

  Orpheus, i. 14, 37; ii. 30; iii. 13, 14, 20; v. 26; vi. 20; ix. 17,
        27, 30.

  Osiris, x. 32.

  Osogo, viii. 10.

  Ostrich, ix. 31.

  Otilius, vii. 7; x. 36.

  Otus and Ephialtes, ix. 29.

  Ox-killer, i. 24, 28.

  Oxen given in barter, iii. 12.

  Oxyartes, father of Roxana, i. 6.

  Oxylus, curious tale about, v. 3.

  Ozolian, x. 38.


  Palæmon, i. 44; ii. 2; viii. 48.

  Palamedes, ii. 20; x. 31.

  Palladium, i. 28; ii. 23.

  Pamphus, i. 38, 39; vii. 21; viii. 35, 37; ix. 27, 29, 31, 35.

  Pan, i. 28; viii. 26, 31, 36, 38, 54.

  Panic fear, x. 23.

  Parian stone, i. 14, 33, 43; v. 11, 12; viii. 25.

  Paris, iii. 22; v. 19; x. 31.

  Parnassus, Mount, x. 4, 5, 6, 8, 32, 33.

  Parrots come from India, ii. 28.
    (Did Pausanias remember Ovid’s “Psittacus Eois imitatrix ales ab
        Indis.” Amor. ii. 6. 1.)

  Parthenon at Athens, i. 24; viii. 41.

  Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, iii. 24; iv. 28; x. 13, 26, 30.

  Patroclus, Egyptian Admiral, i. 1; iii. 6.

  Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, i. 13; iii. 17; viii. 52.

  Pausanias, a Macedonian, murderer of Harpalus, ii. 33.

  Peacock sacred to Hera, ii. 17.

  Peace with Wealth, i. 8; ix. 16.

  Pegasus, ii. 4, 31; ix. 31.

  Pelagos, viii. 11.
    See Oracles, ambiguous.

  Peleus, father of Achilles, i. 37; ii. 29; iii. 18; v. 18; viii. 45;
        x. 30.

  Pelias, iv. 2; v. 8, 17; viii. 11; x. 30.

  Pelion, Mount, x. 19.

  Peloponnesian War, iii. 7; iv. 6; viii. 41, 52.

  Pelops, ii. 18, 22, 26; v. 1, 8, 10, 13, 17; vi. 20, 21, 24; viii.
        14; ix. 40.

  Pencala, river in Phrygia, viii. 4; x. 32.

  Penelope, wife of Odysseus, iii. 12, 13, 20; viii. 12.

  Pentelicus, a mountain in Attica, famous for its stone quarries, i.
        19, 32.

  Penthesilea, v. 11; x. 31.

  Pentheus, i. 20; ii. 2; ix. 2, 5.

  Periander, son of Cypselus, one of the Seven Wise Men, i. 23; x. 24.

  Pericles, i. 25, 28, 29; viii. 41.

  Perjury punished, ii. 2, 18; iv. 22; v. 24.

  Pero, the matchless daughter of Neleus, x. 31.

  Perseus, son of Danae, and grandson of Acrisius, i. 22; ii. 15, 16,
        20, 21, 22, 27; iii. 17; iv. 35; v. 18.

  Persians, i. 18, 32, 33; iii. 9; ix. 32.
    Their shields called _Gerrha_, viii. 50; x. 19.

  Petroma, viii. 15.

  Phæacians, iii. 18; viii. 29.

  Phædra, the wife of Theseus, enamoured of her stepson Hippolytus, i.
        22; ii. 32; ix. 16; x. 29.

  Phaennis, a prophetess, x. 15, 20.

  Phaethon, i. 3.

  Phalanthus, x. 10, 13.

  Phalerum, i. 1, 28.

  Phemonoe, first priestess of Apollo at Delphi, x. 5, 6, 12.

  Phidias, famous Athenian statuary, i. 3, 4, 24, 28, 33, 40; v. 10,
        11; vi. 4, 25, 26; vii. 27; ix. 4, 10; x. 10.
    His descendants, v. 14.

  Philammon, father of Thamyris, iv. 33; x. 7.

  Philip, oracle about the two Philips, vii. 8.

  Philip, the son of Amyntas, i. 6, 25; ii. 20; iii. 7, 24; iv. 28; v.
        4; vii. 7, 10, 11; viii. 7, 27; ix. 1, 37; x. 2, 3, 36.

  Philip, the son of Demetrius, i. 36; ii. 9; vi. 16; vii. 7, 8; viii.
        8, 50; x. 33, 34.

  Philoctetes, v. 13; viii. 8, 33; x. 27.

  Philomela, i. 5, 14, 41; x. 4.

  Philomelus, x. 2, 8, 33.

  Philopœmen, son of Craugis, iv. 29; vii. 9; viii. 27, 49, 51, 52.

  Phocian Resolution, x. 1.

  Phocian War, iv. 28; ix. 6; x. 3.

  Phœbe, see Hilaira.

  Phœnix, x. 26.

  Phormio, son of Asopichus, i. 23, 29; x. 11.

  Phormio, the fisherman of Erythræ, vii. 5.

  Phormio inhospitable to Castor and Pollux, iii. 16.

  Phoroneus, ii. 15, 19, 20, 21.

  Phrixus, son of Athainas, i. 24; ix. 34, 38.

  Phrontis, the pilot of Menelaus, x. 25.

  Phryne, beloved by Praxiteles, i. 20; ix. 27; x. 15.

  Phrynichus, play of, x. 31.

  Phytalus, i. 37.

  Pillars, viii. 45.

  Pindar, i. 8; ix. 22, 23, 25; x. 24.
    Quoted or alluded to, i. 2, 41; iii. 25; iv. 2, 30; v. 14, 22; vi.
        2; vii. 2, 26; ix. 22; x. 5, 16, 22.

  Piræus, i. 1.

  Pirithous, son of Zeus, and friend of Theseus, i. 17, 30; v. 10;
        viii. 45; x. 29.

  Pisander of Camirus, ii. 37; viii. 22.

  Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, i. 3, 23; ix. 6.
    Collects Homer’s Poems, vii. 26.

  Pittacus of Mitylene, one of the Seven Wise Men, x. 24.

  Plane-trees, wonderful, vii. 22, with Note.

  Platanistas at Sparta, iii. 11, 14.

  Platæa, battle at, v. 23; vi. 3; ix. 2; x. 15.

  Plato, the famous, i. 30; iv. 32.
    Quoted, vii. 17.
    Cited, x. 24.

  Pluto, i. 38; ii. 36; ix. 23.

  Poets, at kings’ courts, i. 3.
    Statues of, ix. 30.

  Pollux, see Dioscuri.

  Polybius, viii. 9, 30, 37, 44, 48.

  Polycletus, Argive statuary, ii. 17, 20, 22, 24, 27; vi. 2, 4, 7, 9,
        13; viii. 31.

  Polycrates, i. 2; viii. 14.

  Polydamas, vi. 5.

  Polydectes, i. 22.

  Polygnotus, famous Thasian painter, i. 18, 22; ix. 4; x. 25, 26, 27,
        28, 29, 30, 31.

  Polynices, son of Œdipus, ii. 19, 20, 25; iv. 8; ix. 5; x. 10.

  Polyxena, i. 22; x. 25.

  Pomegranate, ii. 17; vi. 14; viii. 37; ix. 25.

  Poplar, ii. 10; v. 13, 14.

  Poseidon, (the Latin _Neptune_,) i. 24, 27, 30; ii. 1, 4, 22, 30; iv.
        42; vi. 25; viii. 10, 25, 42.

  Praxias, x. 19.

  Praxiteles, the famous, lover of Phryne, i. 2, 20, 23, 40, 43, 44;
        ii. 21; v. 17; vi. 26; ix. 1, 2, 11, 27, 39; x. 15, 37.

  Priam, ii. 24; iv. 17; x. 25, 27.

  Priapus, ix. 31.

  Processions, i. 2, 29; ii. 35; vii. 18; x. 18.

  Procne, i. 24, 41.

  Procrustes, i. 38.

  Prœtus, ii. 7, 12, 16, 25; viii. 18; x. 10.

  Prometheus, ii. 14, 19; v. 10; x. 4.

  Promontory called _Ass’ jawbone_, iii. 22, 23.

  Prophetical men and women, x. 12, with Note.

  Proserpine, i. 38; ii. 36; iv. 30; viii. 31, 42, 53; ix. 23, 31.

  Proteus, iii. 18; viii. 53.

  Proverbs, see ii. 9; iv. 17; vi. 3, 10; vii. 12; ix. 9, 30, 37; x. 1,
        14, 17, 29.

  Providence, v. 25.

  Prusias, viii. 11.

  Psamathe, i. 43; ii. 19.

  Psyttalea, island of, i. 36; iv. 36.

  Ptolemies proud of calling themselves Macedonians, x. 7, cf. vi. 3.
    Much about the various Ptolemies in, i. 6, 7, 8, 9.

  Purple, iii. 21; v. 12.

  Puteoli, iv. 35; viii. 7.

  Pylades, i. 22; ii. 16, 29; iii. 1.

  Pylæ, that is Thermopylæ, ix. 15.

  Pylos, iv. 2, 3, 31, 36.

  Pyramids, ix. 36.

  Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus), the son of Achilles, i. 4, 11, 13; ii. 23;
        iii. 20, 25, 26; iv. 17; x. 7, 23, 24, 25, 26.

  Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, i. 6, 9, 10, 11; iv. 29, 35.

  Pythionice, i. 37.

  Pytho, v. 3; x. 6.


  Quoits, ii. 16; v. 3; vi. 14.


  Return from Ilium, Poem so called, x. 28, 29, 30.

  Rhea, viii. 8, 36; ix. 2, 41.

  Rhegium, iv. 23, 26; v. 25.

  Rhianus, iv. 1, 6, 15, 17.

  Rhinoceros, v. 12; ix. 21.
    Called also Ethiopian bull.

  Rhœcus of Samos, viii. 14; ix. 41; x. 38.

  Rose, sacred to Aphrodite, vi. 24.

  Roxana, wife of Alexander the Great, i. 6; ix. 7.


  Sacadas, ii. 22; iv. 27; vi. 14; ix. 30; x. 7.

  Sacrifices, remarkable, vii. 18; viii. 29, 37.

  Sails, an invention of Dædalus, ix. 11.

  Salamis, i. 35, 36, 40.

  Samos, vii. 2, 4, 10.

  Sanctuaries, not to be approached by the profane, viii. 5; x. 32,
        (Procul o, procul este, profani!)

  Sappho, the Lesbian Poetess, i. 25, 29; viii. 18; ix. 27, 29.

  Sardinia, x. 17.

  Sardis, iii. 9; iv. 24.

  Sardonic laughter, x. 17.

  Saturnus. See Cronos.

  Satyrs, i. 23.
    Satyr of Praxiteles, i. 20.

  Scamander, v. 25.

  Scedasus and his two daughters, ix. 13.

  Scimetar of Cambyses, i. 28.

  Scipio, viii. 30.

  Sciron, killed by Theseus, i. 3, 44.

  Scopas, i. 43; ii. 10, 22; vi. 25; viii. 28, 45, 47; ix. 10, 17.

  Scorpion with wings, ix. 21.

  Scylla, daughter of Nisus, legend about, ii. 34.

  Scyllis of Scione, famous diver, x. 19.

  Scythians, travel in waggons, viii. 43.
    (Compare Horace, Odes, Book iii. Ode 24. 9-11. “Campestres
        melius Scythae, Quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos,
        Vivunt.”)

  Sea, Red, i. 33.
    Dead, v. 7.

  Seasons, v. 11, 17; ix. 35.

  Seleucia, on the Orontes, i. 16; viii. 33.

  Seleucus, son of Antiochus, i. 6, 16.

  Semele, daughter of Cadmus, mother of Dionysus by Zeus, ii. 31, 37;
        iii. 24; ix. 5.

  Serapis, i. 18; ii. 4, 34; iii. 14, 22, 25; iv. 32; vii. 21; ix. 24.

  Ser, and the Seres, vi. 26.

  Seriphus, i. 22.

  Serpents, remarkable ones, viii. 4, 16.
    None in Sardinia, x. 17.

  Sheep, accompanying Spartan kings to war, ix. 13.

  Shields, Used by the Celts in fording rivers, x. 20.

  Ship at Delos, i. 29.

  Sibyl, ii. 7; vii. 8; x. 9.

  Sibyls, various, x. 12.

  Sicily, a small hill near Athens, viii. 11.

  Sight suddenly lost and recovered, iv. 10, 12; x. 38.

  Silenus, i. 4, 23; ii. 22; iii. 25.
    Sileni mortal, vi. 24.

  Simonides, i. 2; iii. 8; vi. 9; ix. 2; x. 27.

  Sinis, i. 37; ii. 1. (Pityocamptes.)

  Sirens, ix. 34; x. 6.

  Sisters, love of by brothers, i. 7; iv. 2; ix. 31.

  Sisyphus, son of Æolus, ii. 1, 3, 5; x. 31.

  Sleep the god most friendly to the Muses, ii. 31.

  Smyrna, v. 8; vii. 5.

  Snake, story about, x. 33.

  Socrates, i. 22, 30; ix. 35.

  Solon, i. 16, 18; x. 24.

  Sophocles, i. 21, 28.

  Sosigenes, viii. 31.

  Sosipolis, vi. 20, 25.

  Sparta, iii. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

  Sparti, viii. 11; ix. 5. Note. ix. 10.

  Speech, ill-advised, iii. 7, 8.

  Sperchius, river, x. 20, 21, 22, 23.

  Sphacteria, i. 13, 15; iii. 5; iv. 36; v. 26; vi. 22.

  Sphinx, the, ix. 26.

  Spiders, ix. 6.

  Stade. See Note, i. 1.

  Stesichorus, iii. 19.

  Stratagems of Homer, iv. 28.

  Strongyle, a volcanic island, x. 11.

  Stymphelides, birds so called, viii. 22.

  Styx, river, viii. 17, 18.

  Submission to an enemy, technical term for, Note on x. 20.
    See also iii. 12.

  Sulla, i. 20; ix. 7, 33; x. 20.

  Sun-shade used by ladies, vii. 22.

  Sunium, i. 1, 28.

  Suppliants not to be injured with impunity, vii. 24, 25.
    See also iii. 4; iv. 24.

  Sus, river, ix. 30.

  Susa, i. 42; iii. 9, 16; iv. 31; vi. 5.

  Swallows, idiosyncrasy of at Daulis, x. 4.

  Swan-eagles, viii. 17.


  Tænarum, promontory of, iii. 14, 25; iv. 24.

  Tantalus, ii. 22; v. 13; x. 30, 31.

  Taraxippus, vi. 20.

  Tarentum, iii. 12; x. 10, 13.

  Tarsus, viii. 28.

  Telamon, son of Æacus, i. 35, 42; ii. 29; viii. 45.

  Telesilla, ii. 20, 28, 35.

  Tellias of Elis, x. 1, 13.

  Tenedos, x. 14.
    Tenedian axe, x. 14.

  Tereus, i. 5, 41; ix. 16; x. 4.

  Teucer, son of Telamon, i. 28; viii. 15.

  Thamyris, iv. 33; ix. 5, 30; x. 7, 30.

  Thebes, ii. 6; iv. 27; vii. 15, 17; viii. 33; ix. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8.

  Themis, v. 17; viii. 25; x. 5.

  Themisto, reputed by some mother of Homer, x. 24.

  Themistocles, i. 1, 36; viii. 50, 52; x. 14.

  Theoclus, Messenian seer, iv. 16, 20, 21.

  Theodorus of Samos, iii. 12; viii. 14; ix. 41; x. 38.
    His seal carved out of an emerald for Polycrates, viii. 14.

  Thermopylæ, vii. 15; ix. 32; x. 20, 21.

  Thersites, x. 31.

  Theseus, i. 1, 2, 3, 17, 19, 22, 27, 37, 39, 41, 44; ii. 1, 22, 30,
        32; iii. 18, 24; v. 10, 11; vii. 17; viii. 45, 48; ix. 31, 40;
        x. 29.

  Thetis, mother of Achilles, v. 18, 22.

  Thucydides, the famous Historian, i. 23; vi. 19.
    Possibly alluded to, i. 8.

  Thyestes, ii. 18.

  Thyiades, x. 4, 19, 32.

  Thyrsus of Dionysus, iv. 36; viii. 31.

  Tiger, ix. 21.

  Timagoras, tragic story of, i. 30.

  Timon of Athens, the famous Misanthrope, i. 30.

  Timotheus, the Milesian harper and poet, iii. 12; viii. 50.

  Tiphys, the pilot of the Argo, ix. 32.

  Tiresias, vii. 3; ix. 18, 32, 33.

  Tiryns, ii. 16, 17, 25; v. 23; vii. 25; viii. 2, 33, 46; ix. 36.

  Tisias, vi. 17.

  Tissaphernes, iii. 9.

  Titans, the, vii. 18; viii. 37.

  Tityus, iii. 18; x. 4, 11, 29.

  Tomb of Helen, a Jewess, at Jerusalem, viii. 16.

  Tortoises, i. 44; viii. 23.
    Lyres made out of them, ii. 19; viii. 17, 54.

  Townships of Attica, i. 31, 32, 33.

  Traitors, various ones that troubled Greece, vii. 10.

  Trajan, the Emperor, iv. 35; v. 12.

  Treasuries, ix. 36, 37, 38; x. 11.

  Trench, the Great, iv. 6, 17, 20, 22.

  Tripods, v. 17; vii. 4.

  Triptolemus, i. 14, 38; ii. 14; vii. 18; viii. 4.

  Tritons, viii. 2; ix. 20, 21.

  Trœzen, ii. 30, 31, 32, 33, 34.

  Trophies, unwisdom of erecting, ix. 40.

  Trophonius, iv. 16, 32; viii. 10; ix. 11, 37, 39, 40; x. 5.

  Tros, father of Ganymede, v. 24.

  Troy, why it fell, x. 33.
    (Compare Horace, Odes, iii. 3. 18-21. “Ilion, Ilion Fatalis
        incestusque judex Et mulier peregrina vertit In pulverem.”)

  Tyndareus, ii. 18; iii. 1, 15, 17, 18, 21.

  Tyrants, the Thirty, i. 29.

  Tyrtæus, iv. 6, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16.


  Ulysses. See Odysseus.

  Umpires at Olympia, v. 9.

  Unknown gods, i. 1; v. 14.
    (Compare Acts: xvii. 23.)


  Venus. See Aphrodite.

  Vermilion, viii. 39.

  Vespasian, the Roman Emperor, vii. 17.

  Vesta, i. 18; ii. 35; v. 14.

  Vinegar, its effect on Pearls, viii. 18.

  Voice, found through terror, x. 15.

  Volcanic islands, x. 11.

  Vulcan. See Hephæstus.


  Water, various kinds of, iv. 35.

  To whitewash two walls, Proverb, vi. 3. See Note.

  Wine elevating, iii. 19.
    (“Vinum lætificat cor hominis.” Ps. ciii. 15.)

  Wise Men, the Seven, i. 23; x. 24.
    Their famous sayings, especially _Know thyself_, and _Not too much
        of anything_, x. 24.

  Wolves, men turned into, vi. 8; viii. 2.
    Many in the neighbourhood of Croton, vi. 14.
    None in Sardinia, x. 17.

  Word for the day given to soldiers, ix. 27.

  Wordsworth on Daphne.
    See Note, x. 7.

  World, centre of, x. 16.

  Worshipping the deity with other people’s incense, Proverb, ix. 30.


  Xanthippus, father of Pericles, i. 25; iii. 7; viii. 52.

  Xenocrates, iv. 32; ix. 13.

  Xenophon, i. 3; v. 6; ix. 15.

  Xerxes, i. 8; iii. 4; vi. 5; viii. 42, 46; x. 7, 35.


  Young, Dr., On Commentators, Preface, p. vi.


  Zancle, iv. 23.

  Zethus, ii. 6; ix. 5, 8, 17.

  Zeus, (the Latin _Jupiter_,) the chief of the gods, viii. 36.
    Assumed the appearance of Amphitryon, v. 18.
    Traditions about his early years, iv. 33; v. 7; viii. 8, 28, 36, 38.
    His two jars, viii. 24.
    Represented with three eyes, why, ii. 24.



Transcriber’s Notes


A number of typographical errors were corrected silently.

Cover image is in the public domain.

Index was added to table of contents.

Index for Calydonian boar to vol 9 chapter 45 deleted as no such chapter
exists.

Errata was incorporated into text.



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