Description of Greece: A Pausanias Reader

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{1.1.1} Belonging to the Greek mainland [ēpeiros], facing the Cyclades Islands and the Aegean Sea, is the headland [akrā] named Sounion, jutting out from the land of Attica. When one has rounded the headland [akrā] one sees a harbor and a temple [nāos] of Athena of-Sounion [Souniás] on the peak [koruphē] of the headland [akrā]. Farther on is Laurion, where once the Athenians had silver mines, and a small uninhabited island called the Island of Patroklos. [1] You see, a fortification was built on it and a palisade constructed by Patroklos, who was admiral in command of the Egyptian trireme ships sent by Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy, son of Lagos, to help the Athenians, when Antigonos, son of Demetrios, was ravaging their country, which he had invaded with an army, and at the same time was blockading them by sea with a fleet. [2]

{1.1.2} The [harbor city] Peiraieus was a deme [dēmos] from early times, though it was not a seaport [epineion] before Themistocles became an archon [arkhōn] of the Athenians. [3] Their seaport [epi-neion] had been Phaleron, for at this place the sea comes nearest to Athens, and from here it is said that Menestheus sailed off with his fleet for Troy, and before him Theseus, when he went off to give compensation to Minos for the death of Androgeōs. But when Themistocles became archon [arkhōn], since he thought that the [harbor city] Peiraieus was more conveniently situated for those who sail, and had three harbors [limenes] as against one at Phaleron, he made it [= Peiraieus] the Athenian seaport [epi-neion]. Even up to my time there were ship-sheds [neōs oikoi] there, and near the largest harbor [limēn] is the tomb of Themistocles. For it is said that the Athenians repented of their treatment of Themistocles, and that his relatives took up his bones and brought them from Magnesia. And the children of Themistocles certainly returned [to Athens] and set up in the Parthenon a painting [graphē] in which [the figure] of Themistocles has been painted [graphesthai].

{1.1.3} Worthy of viewing [théā] in the Peiraieus is a precinct [temenos] of Athena and Zeus. Both their statues [agalmata] are of bronze; Zeus holds a scepter and a Nike, Athena a spear. Here is [a painting of] Leosthenes and [of] his sons, painted [graphein] by Arkesilaos. This Leosthenes at the head of the Athenians and the united Greeks defeated the Macedonians in Boeotia and again outside Thermopylae forced them into Lamia over against Oitē, and hemmed them in there. [4] It [= the painting] is in the long portico [stoā], where is located an agora for those living near the sea—those farther away from the harbor [limēn] have another—but behind the portico near the sea stand a Zeus and a [personified] Dēmos, the work [ergon] of Leokhares. And by the sea Konon [5] built a sanctuary [hieron] of Aphrodite, after he had crushed the Lacedaemonian warships off Knidos in the Carian peninsula. [6] You see, the people of Knidos honor [tīmân] Aphrodite greatly, and they have sanctuaries [hiera] of the goddess; the oldest is to her as Doritis [‘Bountiful’], the next in age as Akraia [‘of the Headland’], while the newest is to the Aphrodite called ‘of Knidos’ by people generally, but Euploia [‘Good Sailing’] by the people of Knidos themselves.

{1.1.4} The Athenians have also another harbor [limēn], at Mounukhia, with a temple [nāos] of Artemis of Mounukhia, and yet another at Phaleron, as I have already stated, and near it is a sanctuary [hieron] of Demeter. Here there is also a temple [nāos] of Athena Skiras, and one of Zeus some distance away, and altars of the gods named Unknown [Agnōstoi], and of heroes [hērōes], and of the children of Theseus and Phaleros; for this Phaleros is said by the Athenians to have sailed with Jason to Kolkhis. There is also an altar [bōmos] of Androgeōs, son of Minos, though it is called that of Hērōs; those, however, who pay special attention to the study of their local-antiquities [enkhōria] know that it belongs to Androgeōs.

{1.1.5} Twenty stadium-lengths away is the headland [akrā] called Kōlias; to this place, when the Persian fleet was destroyed, the wreckage was carried down by the waves. There is here a statue [agalma] of the Aphrodite surnamed Kōlias, together with goddesses [theai] called Genetyllides [presiding-over-childbirth]. And I am of opinion that the goddesses of the people of Phokaia in Ionia, whom they call Gennaides, are the same as those at Kōlias. On the way from Phaleron to Athens there is a temple [nāos] of Hērā with neither doors nor roof. It is said that Mardonios, son of Gobryas, burned it. But the statue [agalma] there today is, as report goes, the work of Alkamenes. [7] So that this, at any rate, cannot have been desecrated by the Persians.

{1.2.1} As one enters the city, there is a tomb [mnēma] of Antiope the Amazon. This Antiope, Pindar says, was abducted [harpazein] by Peirithoös and Theseus, but Hegias of Troizen has created-poetically [poieîn] about her such things as I will now tell. Hēraklēs was besieging Themiskyra at [the river] Thermodon, and could not take it, but Antiope, having-conceived-a-passion [erastheisa] for Theseus, who was aiding Hēraklēs in his campaign, surrendered the stronghold. These things has Hegias created-poetically [poieîn]. But the Athenians assert that when the Amazons came [to attack Athens], Antiope was shot by Molpadia [the Amazon], while Molpadia was killed by Theseus. The Athenians have a tomb [mnēma] of Molpadia as well.

{1.2.2} As you go up from the Peiraieus you see the ruins of the walls that Konon restored after the naval battle offshore from [the island of] Knidos. You see, those [walls] that had been built by Themistocles after the retreat of the Persians were destroyed during the rule [arkhē] of the so-called Thirty. [8] Along the road are some very well-known tombs [taphoi]: that of Menander, son of Diopeithes, and a cenotaph [mnēma kenon ‘empty tomb’] of Euripides. He [= Euripides] himself went to King Arkhelaos [of Macedonia] and lies buried in Macedonia; as for the way [tropos] he died—many have narrated it—let it be as they say.

{1.2.3} You see, even in his time [= the era of Euripides] poets [poiētai] could live in the company of kings, as earlier still Anacreon resided in the company of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos; also, Aeschylus and Simonides were sent to Hieron at Syracuse. Residing in the company of Dionysius, tyrant in Sicily at a later period, was Philoxenos, and, residing in the company of Antigonos, [9] ruler of Macedonia, were Antagoras of Rhodes and Aratos of Soloi. As for Hesiod and Homer, they either did not have the good fortune of residing in the company of kings or else purposely neglected doing so, Hesiod because of his countryside ways [agroikiā] and reluctance to travel, while Homer, having traveled very far and wide, considered the aid provided by the powerful in the acquisition of wealth to be less important than his fame [doxa] among the hoi polloi. And yet Homer, too, in what he composed [poieîn], makes Demodokos live in the compnay of Alkinoos, and [he makes] Agamemnon leave behind [when the king departed for Troy] a poet [poiētēs] to attend his wife. Not far from the gates is a tomb [taphos], on which is positioned a soldier [stratiōtēs] standing by a horse. Who it is I do not know, but both horse and soldier were carved by Praxiteles.

{1.2.4} On entering the city there is a building for the preparation of the processions [pompai], which are arranged [pempein] in some cases every year, in other cases at longer intervals. Close by is a temple [nāos] of Demeter, with statues [agalmata] of the goddess herself and of her daughter, and of Iakkhos holding a torch. On the wall, in Attic letters, is written that they are works of Praxiteles. Not far from the temple [nāos] is Poseidon on horseback, hurling a spear against the giant [gigas] Polubōtēs, concerning whom is prevalent among the people of Kos the myth [mūthos] about the promontory [akrā] of Khelōnē. But the inscription of our time assigns the likeness [eikōn] to another, and not to Poseidon. Extending from the gate to the Kerameikos there are porticoes [stoai], and in front of them bronze likenesses [eikones] of such as had some title to fame [doxa], both men and women.

{1.2.5} One of the porticoes [stoai] contains shrines [hiera] of gods, and a gymnasium named after Hermes. In it is the abode [oikiā] of Poulutiōn, at which it is said that a mystical-rite [teletē] was once performed [drân] by Athenians of considerable fame, corresponding to the mystical-rite performed at Eleusis. But in my time it was devoted to the worship of Dionysus. This Dionysus they call Melpomenos [from melpesthai ‘sing and dance’], on the same principle as they call Apollo Mousēgētēs ‘Leader of the Muses’. Here there are statues [agalmata] of Athena Paiōniā), of Zeus, of Mnemosyne [‘Memory’] and of the Muses, an Apollo, the votive-offering [anathēma] and work [ergon] of Euboulides, and Akratos, a superhuman force [daimōn] who is one of the attendants of Dionysus [Jones mistakenly says “Apollo” here]; it is only a face [prosōpon] of him, worked-into [en-oikodomeîn] the wall [toikhos]. Situated beyond the precinct [temenos] of Apollo is a building [oikēma] that contains terracotta statues [agalmata]: Amphiktyon, king of Athens, in the act of celebrating-at-a-feast [hestiân] Dionysus and other gods. Here also is Pēgasos of Eleutherai, who introduced the god to the Athenians. Participating-in-the-action [sun-lambanesthai] was the oracle [manteion] at Delphi, which called-to-mind [ana-mnē-sai] that the god once dwelled [epi-dēmeîn] in Athens in the days of Ikarios.

{1.2.6} Amphiktyon acquired the kingdom [basileiā] thus. It is said that Aktaios was the first to become-king [basileuein] of what is now Attica. When Aktaios died, Kekrops received-by-relay [ek-dekhesthai] the rulership [arkhē], housed-together [sun-oikeîn] as he was with the daughter of Aktaios, and there were born to him daughters, Hersē, Aglauros and Pandrosos, and a son Erysikhthon. This son did not become king [basileuein] of the Athenians, but happened to die while his father lived, and the one who inherited-by-relay [ek-dekhesthai] the kingdom of Kekrops was Kranaos, who surpassed at the time the other Athenians with his power. They say that Kranaos had daughters, and among them Atthis; and from her they call the region Attica, which before was named Aktaia. And Amphiktyon, leading an insurrection against Kranaos, although he had his daughter as wife, deposed him from rulership [arkhē]. Afterwards he himself was deposed as the result of an insurrection organized by Erikhthonios and his followers. They say that Erikhthonios was not born of humans [anthrōpoi], but that his parents were Hephaistos and Earth [Gē].

{1.3.1} The locale [khōrion] known as the Kerameikos has its name from the hero Keramos, and they say that he too was son of Dionysus and Ariadne. First on the right is what is called the Royal Portico [Sto ā Basileios], where is seated the archon-king [arkhōn basileus] when holding the yearly rulership [arkhē] that is named after the arkhōn basileus. On the tiling [keramos] of this portico [stoā] are statues [agalmata] made of terracotta, Theseus throwing Skiron into the sea and Day [Hēmerā] carrying away Kephalos, who they say was most beautiful and was abducted [harpazein] by Day, who conceived-a-passion [erasthēnai] for him. His son was Phaethon, afterwards abducted [harpazein] by Aphrodite) […] and he was made a guardian [phulax] of her temple [nāos]. That is what is said by Hesiod, among others, in his verses [epos plural] having to do with women.

{1.3.2} Near the portico [stoā] stand [the statues of] Konon, Timotheus his son, and Euagoras, [10] King of Cyprus, who exacted a gift of Phoenician trireme ships to be given to Konon by King Artaxerxes. This he did as an Athenian whose ancestry connected him with Salamis, for he traced-his-lineage [geneālogeîn] back to Teukros as also to the daughter of Kinyras. Here stand [the statue of] Zeus, called Zeus Eleutherios [‘of Freedom’], and [the statue of] Hadrian as King [basileus], who made-public-displays [apo-deiknusthai] of his benefactions to all the populations that he ruled [arkhein]—and especially to the city of the Athenians.

{1.3.3} Another portico [stoā] is built behind [the one I just talked about], and this one has paintings [graphai] of the gods called the Twelve. On the wall opposite are painted [graphesthai] Theseus, [personified] Democracy [Dēmokratiā], and [personified] Dēmos. The painting [graphē] represents Theseus as the one who established for the Athenians a system of governance [politeuesthai] on-an-equal-footing [ex isou]. In other ways as well did the story [phēmē] spread among the people—the story that Theseus bestowed upon them the management of their own affairs [pragmata], and that from his time onward the people continued to have-a-democratic government [dēmokrateîsthai], until the emergence of Peisistratos, who became-tyrant [turanneîn]. [11] Granted, the majority of people tell and are told many other things as well—things that are not true [alēthē], since people are ignorant of scientific-research [historiā] and consider trustworthy whatever they have heard, from childhood onward, in choruses [khoroi] and tragedies [tragōidiai]. There are stories like that also concerning Theseus, who himself became king, and afterwards, when Menestheus died, the descendants of Theseus remained rulers even to the fourth generation [geneā]. But if I cared about tracing-lineages [geneālogeîn] I should have included in the counting, besides these, the kings starting from Melanthos extending all the way to Kleidikos the son of Aisimides.

{1.3.4} Also painted [graphesthai] here is the exploit, near Mantineia, of the Athenians who were sent to help the Lacedaemonians. [12] Xenophon among others has written a history of the whole war—the taking of the Kadmeia, the defeat of the Lacedaemonians at Leuktra, how the Boeotians invaded the Peloponnesus, and the contingent sent to the Lacedaemonians from the Athenians. The painting [graphē] shows a cavalry battle, in which the most famous men are, among the Athenians, Grylos the son of Xenophon, and, in the Boeotian cavalry, Epameinondas the Theban. These paintings [graphai] were painted [graphein] for the Athenians by Euphranor, and he also did the Apollo surnamed Patrōos [‘Ancestral’] in the temple [nāos] close by. In front of the temple [nāos] is an Apollo that Leokhares made [poieîn]; [also in front is] another Apollo, called Alexikakos [‘averter of evil’], made by Kalamis. They say that the god received this name because, by way of an oracular pronouncement [manteion] from Delphi, he stopped the pestilential disease [nosos] that afflicted the Athenians at the time of the Peloponnesian War. [13]

{1.3.5} Here is built also a sanctuary [hieron] of the Mother of the gods; she [= her statue] is by Pheidias. Close by is the council-chamber [bouleutērion] of those called the Five Hundred, who for a term of a year act-as-councilors [bouleuein] on behalf of the Athenians. In it are a wooden-statue [xoanon] of Zeus Boulaios and an Apollo, the work [tekhnē] of Peisias, and a [personified] Dēmos, a work [ergon] by Lyson. As for the lawgivers [thesmothetai], they were painted [graphein] by Protogenes [14] of Kaunos, and Olbiades painted Kallippos, who led the Athenians to Thermopylae to stop the incursion of the Gauls [Galatai] into Greece. [15]

{1.4.1} These Gauls [Galatai] inhabit the most remote portions of Europe, near a great sea that is not navigable all the way to its extremities [perata], and has tides and fauna quite unlike those of other seas. Through their territory [khōrā] flows the river Ēridanos, on the banks of which the Daughters of Hēlios [‘Sun’] are customarily thought to be lamenting the experience [pathos] of their brother Phaethon. It was late before the name Gauls [Galatai] prevailed; for in ancient times they were called Celts [Keltoi] both among themselves and by others. An army of them gathered and turned towards the Ionian Sea. They dispossessed the Illyrian people and all who dwelled as far away as Macedonia, along with the Macedonians themselves. Then they overran Thessaly. And when they drew near to Thermopylae, the Greeks in general made no move to prevent the incursion of the barbarians, since previously they had been severely defeated by Alexander and Philip. Further, Antipatros and Kassandros [16] afterwards crushed the Greeks, so that, because of their weakness, each state thought it was not shameful to take no part in the defense.

{1.4.2} But the Athenians, although they were more exhausted than any of the Greeks by the long Macedonian war, and had been generally unsuccessful in their battles, nevertheless set forth to Thermopylae with such Greeks as joined them, having made the Kallippos I mentioned their general. Occupying the pass where it was narrowest, they tried to keep the foreigners from entering Greece; but the Celts, having discovered the path by which Ephialtes of Trakhis once led the Persians, [17] overwhelmed the men of Phokis stationed there and crossed Oitē unperceived by the Greeks.

{1.4.3} Then it was that the Athenians put the Greeks under the greatest obligation, and although outflanked offered resistance to the foreigners on two sides. But the Athenians in the fleet suffered most, for the Lamian gulf is a swamp near Thermopylae—the reason being, I think, the hot water that here runs into the sea. These then were more distressed, and the reason is this: taking the Greeks on board, they were forced to sail through the mud, weighed downas they were by arms and men.

{1.4.4} So, they tried to save Greece in the way described, but the Gauls, now south of the Gates [= Thermopylae], cared not at all to capture the other towns, but were very eager to plunder Delphi and the treasures of the god. They were opposed by the people of Delphi themselves and by the men of Phokis who originated from the cities around Mount Parnassus; a force of Aetolians also joined the defenders, for the Aetolians at this time were preeminent for their vigorous resistance. When the forces engaged, not only were thunderbolts [keraunoi] and rocks broken off from Parnassus hurled against the Gauls, but terrifying-shapes [deimata] that looked like armed warriors appeared to the foreigners. They say that two of these apparitions, Hyperokhos and Amadokos, came from the Hyperboreans, and that the third was Pyrrhos son of Achilles. Because of this help in battle the Delphians sacrifice [enagizein] to Pyrrhos [as to a hero], although formerly they held even his tomb [mnēma] in dishonor [atīmiā], as being that of an enemy. [18]

{1.4.5} The greater number of the Gauls crossed over to Asia [Minor] by ship and plundered its coasts. Some time after, the inhabitants of Pergamon, which was called in ancient times Teuthrania, drove the Gauls into this region, away from the sea. Now this population occupied the country on the farther side of the river Sangarios, capturing Ankyra, a city of the Phrygians, which Midas son of Gordios had founded in former time. And the anchor [ankura], which Midas found, was even as late as my time in the sanctuary [hieron] of Zeus, as well as a spring [krēnē] called the Spring of Midas, water from which they say Midas mixed with wine to capture Silenos. Well then, the Pergamenes took Ankyra and Pessinos which is situated under Mount Agdistis, where they say that Attis lies buried.

{1.4.6} They [= the Pergamenes] have spoils-of-war [captured] from the Gauls, and a painting [graphē] that portrays their deed [ergon] against them. The land they dwell in was, they say, in ancient times sacred [hierā] to the Kabeiroi, and they claim that they are themselves Arcadians, being descended from those who crossed into Asia [Minor] with Telephos. Of the wars that they have waged no story [phēmē] has been made public to the world-at-large, except that they have accomplished three most notable achievements: the subjection of the coastal region of Asia [Minor], the expulsion of the Gauls from there, and the exploit of Telephos against the followers of Agamemnon, at a time when the Greeks, after failing to reach Troy, were plundering the plain called Mēion, thinking it Trojan territory. Now I will return from my digression.

{1.5.1} Near to the council-chamber [bouleutērion] of the Five Hundred is what is called Tholos [‘Round House’]; here the presidents [prutaneis] sacrifice [thuein], and there are a few small statues [agalmata] made of silver. Farther up stand statues [andriantes] of heroes [hērōes], from whom afterwards the Athenian subdivisions [phūlai] received their names. Who the man was who established ten phūlai instead of four, and changed their old names to new ones—all this is told by Herodotus [5.69]. [19]

{1.5.2} The heroes known as the eponymous ones [epōnumoi] are [1] Hippothoön son of Poseidon and of Alope daughter of Kerkyon, [2] Antiokhos, whose father was Hēraklēs and whose mother was Meda daughter of Phylas, thirdly, [3] Ajax son of Telamon, and, among the Athenians, [4] Leōs, who is said to have given up [as human sacrifice] his daughters in accordance with what was-said-in-his-oracular-way [khrē-] by the god [Apollo] in order to achieve a salvation [sōtēriā] that was to be communal [koinē] for all; also among the eponymous-heroes [epōnumoi] is [5] Erekhtheus, who conquered the Eleusinians in battle, and killed their general, Immarados the son of Eumolpos; there is also [6] Aigeus, and [7] Oineus the bastard son of Pandion, and [8] Akamas, one of the children of Theseus.

{1.5.3} I saw also among the eponymous-heroes [epōnumoi] the likenesses [eikones] of [9] Kekrops and [10] Pandion, but I do not know who among those who have these names are given the honor [tīmē] [of being venerated as an eponymous hero. I say this because there was an earlier Kekrops who was-ruler [arkhein]—his wife was the daughter of Aktaios—and there was also a later Kekrops—the one who led-a-colonizing-expedition [met-oikeîn] to Euboea. This one was son of Erekhtheus son of Pandion son of Erikhthonios. And there was a king Pandion who was son of Erikhthonios, and another who was son of Kekrops the second. This man [Pandion] was deposed from his rule [arkhē] by the Mētionidai, and when he fled to Megara—for he had as wife the daughter of Pylas king of Megara—his children were banished with him. And Pandion is said to have fallen ill there [in Megara] and died, and on the coast of the region of Megara is his tomb [mnēma], situated on the cliff called the rock of Athena the Aithuia.

{1.5.4} But his sons [= the sons of Pandion] expelled the Mētionidai, and returned from their exile at Megara. Then Aigeus, as the eldest, became king of the Athenians. As for his daughters [by contrast with his sons], on the other hand, there was no benevolent [agathos] superhuman-force [daimōn] to help him raise them, nor did they [= these daughters] leave him with any sons who could avenge him [the same way that his sons avenged him against the Mētionidai]. And yet it was for the sake of [his own] power [dunamis] that he [Pandion] had made a marriage-alliance [kēdos] with the man from Thrace [= Tereus, king of Thrace]. Well, there is no way [poros] for a mortal to evade what is sent by a god as a thing that the god deems to be fitting to send. They say that Tereus, though he was married to Procne, violated Philomela. Thus, [Thracian that he was,] he transgressed Greek custom [nomos]. And, on top of that, he mutilated the body [sōma] of the daughter [of Pandion,] [cutting out her tongue]. By doing so, his action led the women [= the daughters of Pandion] to resort to [what was for them] the necessity of retribution [dikē]. There is also another statue [andrias] of Pandion on the Acropolis, and it is worthy of viewing [théā].

{1.5.5} These are the Athenian eponymous-heroes [epōnumoi] who belong to the ancients [arkhaioi]. [20] And of later date than these they have subdivisions [phūlai] named after the following: Attalos [21] the Mysian [22] and Ptolemy the Egyptian, [23] and within my own time* [24] the emperor Hadrian as King [basileus], [25] who was most observant in giving honor [tīmē] to divinity [tò theion] and who contributed very much to the happiness [eudaimoniā] of those whom he ruled [arkhein]. He never voluntarily entered upon a war, but he reduced the Hebrews [Hebraioi] who lived beyond Syria; they had rebelled. [26] As for the sanctuaries [hiera] of the gods that in some cases he built from the beginning, in others adorned [epi-kosmeîn] them with offerings [anathēmata] and furnishings, and the gifts [dōreai] he gave to Greek cities, and sometimes even to foreigners who asked him, all these acts are inscribed in his honor in the sanctuary [hieron] at Athens that is common [koinon] to all the gods.

{1.6.1} But as for what pertains to Attalos and Ptolemy, it is more ancient in point of time, so that the story [phēmē] no longer remains, and those who attended these kings for the writing-up [sun=graphē] of their deeds fell into neglect even before [= before the story failed]. So, it occurred to me to highlight [dēloûn] their deeds also, and how the rule [arkhē] of Egypt, of the Mysians, and of the neighboring peoples fell into the hands of the ancestors [of these rulers].

{1.6.2} [27] The Macedonians consider Ptolemy to be the son of Philip, the son of Amyntas, though putatively the son of Lagos, asserting that his mother was pregnant when she was married off to Lagos by Philip. And among the distinguished acts of Ptolemy in Asia they mention that it was he who, of all the companions of Alexander, was foremost in helping him when in danger among the Oxydrakai. After the death of Alexander, [28] by withstanding those who would have conferred all his empire [arkhē] upon Aridaios, the son of Philip, he became chiefly responsible for the division of the various nations [ethnē] into the kingdoms [basileiai].

{1.6.3} He crossed over to Egypt in person, and killed Kleomenes, whom Alexander had appointed satrap of that country, considering him a friend of Perdikkas, and therefore not faithful to himself; and the Macedonians who had been entrusted with the task of carrying the corpse [nekros] of Alexander to Aigai, he persuaded to hand it over to him. And he proceeded to entomb [thaptein] it, in the ritual-way [nomos] of the Macedonians, in Memphis, but, knowing that Perdikkas would make war, he kept Egypt garrisoned. And Perdikkas took Aridaios, son of Philip, and the boy Alexander, whom Rōxanē, daughter of Oxyartes, had borne to Alexander, to create some decorum for the military campaign, but really he was plotting to take from Ptolemy his kingdom in Egypt. But being expelled from Egypt, and having lost his reputation as a soldier, and being in other respects unpopular with the Macedonians, he was killed by his bodyguards.

{1.6.4} The death of Perdikkas immediately raised Ptolemy to power, who both reduced the Syrians and Phoenicia, and also welcomed Seleukos, son of Antiokhos, who was in exile, having been expelled by Antigonos; he further himself prepared to attack Antigonos. He prevailed on Kassandros, son of Antipatros, and Lysimakhos, who was king in Thrace, to join in the war, on the grounds that Seleukos was in exile and that the growth of the power of Antigonos was dangerous to them all.

{1.6.5} For a time Antigonos prepared for war, and was by no means confident of the issue; but on learning that the revolt of Cyrene had called Ptolemy to Libya, he immediately reduced the Syrians and Phoenicians by a sudden attack, handed them over to Demetrios, his son, a man who for all his youth had already a reputation for good sense, and went down to the Hellespont. But he led his army back without crossing, on hearing that Demetrios had been overcome by Ptolemy in battle. But Demetrios had not altogether evacuated the country before Ptolemy, and having surprised a force of Egyptians, killed a few of them. Then on the arrival of Antigonos Ptolemy did not wait for him but returned to Egypt.

{1.6.6} When the winter was over, Demetrios sailed to Cyprus and overcame in a naval action Menelaos, [29] the satrap of Ptolemy, and afterwards Ptolemy himself, who had crossed over to bring help. Ptolemy fled to Egypt, where he was besieged by Antigonos on land and by Demetrios with a fleet. In spite of his extreme peril Ptolemy saved his empire [arkhē] by making a stand with an army at Pēlousion while offering resistance with warships from the river. Antigonos now abandoned all hope of reducing Egypt, under the circumstances, and dispatched Demetrios against the Rhodians with a fleet and a large army, hoping, if the island were won, to use it as a base against the Egyptians. But the Rhodians displayed daring and ingenuity in the face of the besiegers, while Ptolemy helped them with all the forces he could muster.

{1.6.7} Antigonos thus failed to reduce Egypt or, later, Rhodes, and shortly afterwards he offered battle to Lysimakhos, and to Kassandros and the army of Seleukos, but he lost most of his forces, and was himself killed, having suffered most by reason of the length of the war with Eumenes. Of the kings who put down Antigonos I hold that the most unholy [an-hosios] was Kassandros, who although he had recovered the throne of Macedonia with the aid of Antigonos, nevertheless came to fight against a benefactor.

{1.6.8} After the death of Antigonos, Ptolemy again reduced the Syrians and Cyprus, and also restored Pyrrhos to Thesprotia on the mainland. Cyrene rebelled; but Magas, the son of Berenikē (who was at this time married to Ptolemy) captured Cyrene in the fifth year of the rebellion. If this Ptolemy really was the son of Philip, son of Amyntas, he must have inherited from his father his madness [tò epi-manes] for women, for, while wedded to Eurydikē, the daughter of Antipatros, although he had children he went into a state-of-passion [erōs] for Berenikē, whom Antipatros had sent to Egypt with Eurydikē. Having conceived-a-passion [erastheis] for this woman, he had children by her, and when his end drew near he left the kingdom of Egypt to Ptolemy (after whom the Athenians name their phulē) being the son of Berenikē and not of the daughter of Antipatros.

{1.7.1} This Ptolemy, having-conceived-a-passion [erastheis] for Arsinoe, his full sister, married her, violating Macedonian custom [nomizomena] in doing so, but following that of his Egyptian subjects. Secondly he put to death his brother Argaios, who was, it is said, plotting against him; and it was he who brought down from Memphis the corpse [nekros] of Alexander. [30] He put to death another brother also, son of Eurydikē, on discovering that he was creating disaffection among the Cypriotes. Then Magas, the half-brother of Ptolemy, who had been entrusted with the governorship of Cyrene by his mother Berenikē—she had borne him to Philip, a Macedonian but of no note and of lowly origin—induced the people of Cyrene to revolt from Ptolemy and marched against Egypt.

{1.7.2} Ptolemy fortified the entrance into Egypt and awaited the attack of the Cyrenaeans. But while on the march Magas was informed that the Marmaridai, a tribe of Libyan nomads, had revolted, and thereupon fell back upon Cyrene. Ptolemy resolved to pursue, but was checked owing to the following circumstance. When he was preparing to meet the attack of Magas, he engaged mercenaries, including some four thousand Gauls. Discovering that they were plotting to seize Egypt, he led them through the river to a deserted island. There they perished at one another’s hands or by famine.

{1.7.3} Magas, who was married to Apame, daughter of Antiokhos, son of Seleukos, persuaded Antiokhos to break the treaty that his father Seleukos had made with Ptolemy and to attack Egypt. When Antiokhos resolved to attack, Ptolemy dispatched forces against all the subjects of Antiokhos—he sent plunderers to overrun the lands of the weaker, and an army to hold back the stronger—so that Antiokhos never had an opportunity to attack Egypt. I have already stated how this Ptolemy sent a fleet to help the Athenians against Antigonos and the Macedonians, but it did very little to save Athens. His children were born of Arsinoe—not his sister, but the daughter of Lysimakhos. His sister who had wedded him happened to die before this, leaving no issue, and there is in Egypt a district called Arsinoites after her.

{1.8.1} It is pertinent to add here a report about Attalos, because he too is one of the Athenian eponymous-heroes [epōnumoi]. A Macedonian by the name of Dokimos, a general of Antigonos, who afterwards surrendered both himself and his property to Lysimakhos, had a Paphlagonian eunuch called Philetairos. All that Philetairos did to further the revolt from Lysimakhos, and how he won over Seleukos, will form an episode in my account of Lysimakhos. Attalos, however, son of Attalos and nephew of Philetairos, received the kingdom from his cousin Eumenes, who handed it over. The greatest of his achievements was his forcing the Gauls to withdraw from the seacoast into the region that they still hold.

{1.8.2} After the likenesses [eikones] of the eponymous-heroes [epōnumoi] come statues [agalmata] of gods, Amphiaraos, and Eirene [‘Peace’] carrying the boy Ploutos [‘Wealth’[. Here stands a bronze figure of Lycurgus (Lukourgos), son of Lykophron, and of Kallias, who, as most of the Athenians say, brought about the peace between the Greeks and Artaxerxes, son of Xerxes. [31] Here also is Demosthenes, whom the Athenians forced to retire to Kalaureia, the island off Troizen, and then, after receiving him back, banished again after the disaster at Lamia.

{1.8.3} Exiled for the second time [32] Demosthenes crossed once more to Kalaureia, and committed suicide there by taking poison, being the only Greek exile whom Arkhias failed to bring back to Antipatros and the Macedonians. This Arkhias was a man from Thourioi who undertook the unholy [an-hosion] task of bringing to Antipatros for punishment those who had opposed the Macedonians before the Greeks met with their defeat in Thessaly. Such was Demosthenes’ reward for his great devotion [eu-noia] to Athens. I think it is well said, the saying that no man who has unsparingly thrown himself into political-life [politeiā] trusting in the loyalty of the democracy [tà tou dēmou] has ever met with a beautiful death.

{1.8.4} Near the likeness [eikōn] of Demosthenes is a sanctuary [hieron] of Ares, where are placed two statues [agalmata] of Aphrodite, one of Ares made by Alkamenes, and one of Athena made by a man from Paros by the name of Lokros. There is also a statue [agalma] of Enyo, made by the sons of Praxiteles. About the temple stand [images of] Hēraklēs, Theseus, Apollo binding his hair with a fillet [tainiā], and statues [andriantes] of Kalades, who it is said to have framed laws for the Athenians, and of Pindar, and this likeness [eikōn] [of Pindar] is one of the rewards the Athenians gave him for praising [ep-aineîn] them in a song that he made [poieîn].

{1.8.5} Close by stand statues of Harmodios and Aristogeiton, who killed Hipparkhos. [33] The reason [aitiā] for this deed and the way it was done have been related by others; of the statues [andriantes] some were made by Kritios, the old ones being the work of Antenor. When Xerxes captured Athens after the Athenians had abandoned the city he took away these statues also among the spoils, but they were afterwards restored to the Athenians by Antiokhos.

{1.8.6} Before the entrance of the theater [theatron] that they call the Odeum [ōideion] are statues of Egyptian kings. They are all alike called Ptolemy, but each has his own surname. For they call one Philometor, and another Philadelphos, while the son of Lagos is called Soter, a name given him by the Rhodians. Of these, Philadelphos is he whom I have mentioned before among the eponymous-heroes [epōnumoi], and near him is a likeness [eikōn] of his sister Arsinoe.

{1.9.1} The one called Philometor is eighth in descent from Ptolemy son of Lagos, and his surname was given him in sarcastic mockery [khleuasmos], for we know of none of the kings who was so hated by his mother. Although he was the eldest of her children she would not allow him to be called to the throne, but prevailed on his father before the call came to send him to Cyprus. Among the reasons assigned for Kleopatra’s enmity towards her son is her expectation that Alexander the younger of her sons would prove more subservient, and this consideration induced her to urge the Egyptians to choose Alexander as king.

{1.9.2} When the people [plēthos] offered opposition, she dispatched Alexander for the second time to Cyprus, ostensibly as general, but really because she wished by this means to make Ptolemy more afraid of her. Finally she covered with wounds those eunuchs she thought were best disposed [toward her, and thus least likely to object], and she presented them to the people [plēthos], pretending that she was the victim of Ptolemy’s machinations, and that he had treated the eunuchs in such a fashion. The people of Alexandria rushed to kill Ptolemy, and when he escaped on board a ship, made Alexander, who returned from Cyprus, their king.

{1.9.3} Retribution for the exile of Ptolemy came upon Kleopatra, for she was put to death by Alexander, whom she herself had made to be king of the Egyptians. When the deed was discovered, and Alexander fled in fear of the citizens, Ptolemy returned and for the second time assumed control of Egypt. He made war against the Thebans, who had revolted, reduced them two years after the revolt, and treated them so cruelly that they were left not even a memorializing [hupomnēma] of their former prosperity, which had so grown that they once surpassed in wealth the richest of the Greeks, even the sanctuary [hieron] of Delphi and the people of Orkhomenos. Shortly after this Ptolemy met with his appointed fate [moira], and the Athenians, who had been benefited by him in many ways, which I need not stop to relate, set up a bronze [statue] of him and of Berenikē, his only legitimate child.

{1.9.4} Next in line after the Egyptians are set up the statues of Philip and of his son Alexander. The events of their lives were too important to make digressive remarks [parerga] in what is another story. In the case of the Egyptians, they had their tokens of gratitude bestowed upon them because the honor [tīmē] they received was genuine and because they were benefactors, but it was rather the sycophancy [kolakeiā] of the people [plēthos] that resulted in tokens of gratitude to Philip and Alexander, since they set up a [statue of] Lysimakhos also not so much out of goodwill [eunoiā] as because they thought it would serve their immediate ends.

{1.9.5} This Lysimakhos was a Macedonian by birth and one of Alexander’s bodyguards [doruphoroi], whom Alexander once in anger shut up in a chamber with a lion, and afterwards found that he had overpowered the beast. Henceforth he always treated him with respect, and honored him as much as the noblest Macedonians. After the death of Alexander, Lysimakhos ruled those of the Thracians, who are neighbors of the Macedonians, who had been under the sway of Alexander and before him of Philip. These would comprise but a small part of Thrace. If populations be compared with populations no people except the Celts are more numerous than the Thracians taken all together, and for this reason no one before the Romans reduced the whole Thracian population. But the Romans have subdued all Thrace, and they also hold such Celtic territory as is worth possessing, but they have intentionally overlooked the parts that they consider useless through excessive cold or barrenness.

{1.9.6} Then Lysimakhos made war against his neighbors, first the Odrysai, secondly the Getai and their king Dromikhaites. Engaging with men not unversed in warfare and far his superiors in number, he himself escaped from a position of extreme danger, but his son Agathokles, who was serving with him then for the first time, was taken prisoner by the Getai. Lysimakhos met with other reverses afterwards, and attaching great importance to the capture of his son made peace with Dromikhaites, yielding to the king of the Getai the parts of his empire beyond the Istros, and, chiefly under compulsion, giving him his daughter in marriage. Others say that not Agathokles but Lysimakhos himself was taken prisoner, regaining his liberty when Agathokles made a treaty with the king of the Getai on his behalf. On his return he married to Agathokles Lysandra, the daughter of Ptolemy, son of Lagos, and of Eurydikē.

{1.9.7} He also crossed with a fleet to Asia (Minor) and helped to overthrow the empire [arkhē] of Antigonos. [34] And he founded the modern city of Ephesos, extending as far as the coast, bringing to it as settlers people of Lebedos and Kolophon, after destroying their cities, so that the iambic poet Phoenix composed-a-lament [thrēneîn] for the capture of Kolophon. Mermesianax, the one who wrote [graphein] elegies [elegeia], was, I think, no longer living, otherwise he too would certainly have been moved by the taking of Kolophon to make-a-lament [oduresthai]. Lysimakhos also went to war with Pyrrhos-son-of-Aiakidēs. Waiting for his departure from Epeiros—Pyrrhos was of a very roving disposition—he ravaged Epeiros until he reached the royal tombs [thēkai].

{1.9.8} The next parts of the story are not credible [pista] to me, but Hieronymos of Kardia writes [graphein] that he [= Lysimachus] destroyed the tombs [thēkai] and cast out the bones of the corpses. But this Hieronymos has a reputation generally of being biased against all the kings [basileîs] except for Antigonos, and of being unfairly partial towards him. As to the treatment of the tombs [taphoi] of the people of Epeiros, it is perfectly plain that it was malice that made him record that a Macedonian destroyed the tombs [thēkai] of the dead. Besides, Lysimakhos was surely aware that they were the ancestors not of Pyrrhos only but also of Alexander. In fact, Alexander was a native of Epeiros and descended from the lineage of the Aiakidai on his mother’s side, and the subsequent alliance between Pyrrhos and Lysimakhos proves that even as enemies they were not irreconcilable. Possibly Hieronymos had grievances against Lysimakhos, especially for his destroying the city of the people of Kardia and founding Lysimakheia in its stead on the isthmus of the Thracian Chersonesus.

{1.10.1} As long as Aridaios reigned, and after him Kassandros and his sons, friendly relations continued between Lysimakhos and Macedon. But when the kingdom devolved upon Demetrios, son of Antigonos, Lysimakhos, henceforth expecting that war would be declared upon him by Demetrios, resolved to take aggressive action. He was aware that Demetrios inherited a tendency to aggrandize, and he also knew that he visited Macedonia at the summons of Alexander and Kassandros, and on his arrival murdered Alexander himself [35] and ruled the Macedonians in his stead.

{1.10.2} For these reasons he clashed with Demetrios at Amphipolis and came near to being pushed out from Thrace, [36] but after Pyrrhos came to his aid he mastered Thrace and afterwards extended his empire at the expense of the Nestians and Macedonians. The greater part of Macedonia was under the control of Pyrrhos himself, who came from Epeiros with an army and was at that time on friendly terms with Lysimakhos. When, however, Demetrios crossed over into Asia (Minor) and made war on Seleukos, the alliance between Pyrrhos and Lysimakhos lasted only as long as Demetrios continued hostilities; when Demetrios submitted to Seleukos, the friendship between Lysimakhos and Pyrrhos was broken, and when war broke out Lysimakhos fought against Antigonos son of Demetrios and against Pyrrhos himself, had much the better of the struggle, conquered Macedonia and forced Pyrrhos to retreat to Epeiros.

{1.10.3} Erotic-passion [erōs] has a way of bringing many calamities [sumphrorai] for humans . Lysimakhos, although by this time of mature age and considered happy [eudaimōn] in respect of his children, and although Agathokles had children by Lysandra, nevertheless married Lysandra’s sister Arsinoe. This Arsinoe, fearing for her children, lest on the death of Lysimakhos they should fall into the hands of Agathokles, is said for this reason to have plotted against Agathokles. People have already written [graphein] about how Arsinoe got into a state of erotic-passion [erōs] for Agathokles, and, being unsuccessful, they say that she plotted against his life. They say also that Lysimakhos discovered later his wife’s machinations, but by now, toward the end, he had no resources left, having lost all who were near-and-dear [philoi] to him.

{1.10.4} Since Lysimakhos, then, entrusted to Arsinoe the murder of Agathokles, Lysandra fled to Seleukos, taking along her children and her brothers, who were taking refuge with Ptolemy and who finally adopted this course. They were accompanied on their escape to Seleukos by Alexander, who was the son of Lysimakhos by an Odrysian woman. So, going up to Babylon, they entreated Seleukos to make war on Lysimakhos. And, at the same time, Philetairos, to whom the property of Lysimakhos had been entrusted, aggrieved at the death of Agathokles and suspicious of the treatment he would receive at the hands of Arsinoe, seized Pergamon-on-the-Kaïkos, and sending a herald offered both the property and himself to Seleukos.

{1.10.5} Lysimakhos, hearing of all these things, lost no time in crossing into Asia (Minor), [37] and, taking the initiative, he attacked Seleukos, suffered a severe defeat, and was killed. Alexander, his son by the Odrysian woman, after interceding long with Lysandra, won possession of his body and afterwards conveyed [komizein] it to the Chersonesus and buried it, where his tomb is still to be seen between the village of Kardia and Paktye.

{1.11.1} Such were the things that happened in connection with Lysimakhos. The Athenians have also a likeness [eikōn] of Pyrrhos. This Pyrrhos was not related to Alexander, except by way of genealogy [genos]. Pyrrhos was son of Aiakidēs, son of Arybbas, but Alexander was son of Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemos, and the father of Neoptolemos and Arybbas was Alketas, son of Tharypos. And from Tharypos to Pyrrhos, son of Achilles, are fifteen generations [geneai]. Now, Pyrrhos was the first who after the capture of Troy disdained to return to Thessaly, but sailing to Epeiros dwelled there following the oracular-pronouncements [khrēsmoi] of Helenos. By Hermione Pyrrhos had no child, but by Andromache he had Molossos, Pielos, and Pergamos, who was the youngest. Helenos also had a son, Kestrinos, being married to Andromache after the killing of Pyrrhos at Delphi.

{1.11.2} Helenos on his death passed his rulership [arkhē] to Molossos, son of Pyrrhos, so that Kestrinos with volunteers from the people of Epeiros took possession of the region beyond the river Thyamis, while Pergamos crossed into Asia (Minor) and killed Areios, despot in Teuthrania, who fought with him in single combat for the rulership [arkhē], and gave his name to the city which is still called after him. [38] For Andromache, who accompanied him, there is still a hero-shrine [hērōion] in the city. [39] Pielos remained behind in Epeiros, and to him as ancestor Pyrrhos-son-of-Aiakidēs and his fathers traced their descent, and not to Molossos.

{1.11.3} Down to the time of Alketas, son of Tharypos, Epeiros too was under one king. But the sons of Alketas after a quarrel agreed to rule with equal authority, remaining faithful to their compact; and afterwards, when Alexander, son of Neoptolemos, died among the Leukanoi, and Olympias returned to Epeiros through fear of Antipatros, it was Aiakidēs, son of Arybbas, who continued in allegiance to Olympias and joined in her campaign against Aridaios and the Macedonians, although the men of Epeiros refused to accompany him.

{1.11.4} Olympias on her victory behaved in-unholy-ways [an-hosia] in the matter of the death of Aridaios, and in even more-unholy-ways [an-hosia] with regard to certain Macedonian men, and for this reason was considered to have deserved her subsequent treatment at the hands of Kassandros; so Aiakidēs at first was not received even by the people of Epeiros because of their hatred of Olympias, and when afterwards they forgave him, his return to Epeiros was next opposed by Kassandros. When a battle occurred at Oineadai between Philip-brother-of-Kassandros and Aiakidēs, it was Aiakidēs who was wounded and who shortly after met what was fated [tò khreōn]. [40]

{1.11.5} The people of Epeiros accepted Alketas as their king, being the son of Arybbas and the elder brother of Aiakidēs, but of an uncontrollable temper [thūmos] and on this account banished by his father. Immediately on his arrival he began to take out his insanity [mainesthai] on the people of Epeiros, until they rose up and put him and his children to death at night. After killing him they brought back Pyrrhos-son-of-Aiakidēs. No sooner had he arrived than Kassandros made war on him, while he was young in years and before he had consolidated his empire [arkhē]. When the Macedonians attacked him, Pyrrhos went to Ptolemy, son of Lagos, in Egypt. Ptolemy gave him as wife the half-sister of his children, and restored him by way of an Egyptian force.

{1.11.6} The first Greeks that Pyrrhos attacked on becoming king were the people of Corcyra. He saw that the island was near his own territory, and he did not wish others to have a base from which to attack him. My account of Lysimakhos has already related how he [= Pyrrhos] fared, after taking Corcyra, in his war with Lysimakhos—how he expelled Demetrios and ruled Macedonia until he was in turn expelled by Lysimakhos, the most important of his achievements until he waged war against the Romans,

{1.11.7} being the first Greek we know of to do so. For no further battle, it is said, took place between Aeneas and Diomedes with his Argives. One of the many ambitions of the Athenians was to reduce all Italy, but the disaster at Syracuse [41] prevented an encounter then with the Romans. Alexander, son of Neoptolemos, of the same family as Pyrrhos but older, died among the Leukanoi before he could engage the Romans in battle.

{1.12.1} So Pyrrhos was the first to cross the Ionian Sea from Greece to attack the Romans. [42] And even he crossed on the invitation of the people of Tarentum. For they were already involved in a war with the Romans, but were no match for them unaided. Pyrrhos was already in their debt, because they had sent a fleet to help him in his war with Corcyra, but the most cogent arguments of the envoys of Tarentum were their accounts of Italy, how its prosperity was equal to that of the whole of Greece, and their plea that it was unholy [an-hosion] to dismiss them when they had come as friends and suppliants in their hour of need. When the envoys urged these considerations, Pyrrhos remembered the capture of Troy, which he took to be an omen of his success in the war, as he was a descendant of Achilles making war upon a settlement [apoikiā] of Trojans.

{1.12.2} Pleased with this proposal, and being a man who never lost time when once he had made up his mind, he immediately proceeded to man war ships and to prepare transports to carry horses and men-at-arms. There are books [biblia] written by men of no renown when it comes to writing-things-up [sun-graphē], which are called commentaries [hupomnēmata]. When I read these I marveled [thaumazein] greatly both at the personal bravery of Pyrrhos in battle, and also at the forethought [pronoia] he displayed whenever a conflict was imminent. So, on this occasion also when crossing to Italy with a fleet he eluded the observation of the Romans, and for some time after his arrival they were unaware of his presence; it was only when the Romans made an attack upon the people of Tarentum that he appeared on the scene with his army, and his unexpected assault naturally threw his enemies into confusion.

{1.12.3} And being perfectly aware that he was no match for the Romans, he prepared to let loose against them his elephants. The first European to acquire elephants was Alexander, after subduing Poros and the power of the Indians; after his death others of the kings got them but Antigonos more than any; Pyrrhos captured his beasts in the battle with Demetrios. When on this occasion they came in sight the Romans were seized with panic, and did not believe they were animals.

{1.12.4} For although the use of ivory in arts and crafts all men obviously have known for a long time, the actual beasts, before the Macedonians crossed into Asia, nobody had seen at all except for the Indians themselves, for the Libyans, and for their neighbors. This is proved by Homer, who describes the couches and houses of the more prosperous kings as ornamented with ivory, but never mentions the beast; but if he had seen or heard about it he would, in my opinion, have been much more likely to speak of it than of the battle between the dwarf-men and cranes. [43]

{1.12.5} Pyrrhos was brought over to Sicily by an embassy of the Syracusans. The Carthaginians had crossed over and were destroying the Greek cities, and had set up a siege of Syracuse, the only city now remaining. When Pyrrhos heard this from the envoys he abandoned Tarentum and the Italiots on the coast, and crossing into Sicily forced the Carthaginians to raise the siege of Syracuse. In his self-conceit, although the Carthaginians, being Phoenicians of Tyre by ancient descent, were more experienced seafarers than any other non-Greek people of that day, Pyrrhos was nevertheless encouraged to engage them in a naval battle, employing the people of Epeiros, the majority of whom, even after the capture of Troy, knew nothing of the sea nor even as yet how to use salt. Witness the words of Homer in the Odyssey:

Nothing they know of the sea, and they mix not salt with what they eat. [44]

{1.13.1} Defeated on this occasion, Pyrrhos retreated with the remainder of his vessels to Tarentum. Here he met with a serious reverse. And his withdrawal, for he knew that the Romans would not let him depart without striking a blow, he contrived in the following manner. On his return from Sicily and his defeat, he first sent various dispatches to Asia (Minor) and to Antigonos, asking some of the kings for troops, some for money, and Antigonos for both. When the envoys returned and their dispatches were delivered, he summoned those in authority, whether from Epeiros or from Tarentum, and without reading any of the dispatches declared that reinforcements would come. A report spread quickly even to the Romans that Macedonians and men from Asia (Minor) also were crossing to the aid of Pyrrhos. The Romans, on hearing this, made no move, but Pyrrhos, on the approach of that very night, crossed to the headlands of the mountain called Keraunion.

{1.13.2} After the defeat in Italy, Pyrrhos gave his forces a rest and then declared war on Antigonos, his chief ground of complaint being the failure to send reinforcements to Italy. Overpowering the native troops of Antigonos and his Gallic mercenaries he pursued them to the coast cities, and himself reduced upper Macedonia and the Thessalians. The extent of the fighting and the decisive character of the victory of Pyrrhos are shown best by the Celtic armor dedicated in the sanctuary of Itonian Athena between Pherai and Larisa, with this inscription on them:

These shields did the Molossian one, as a gift to Itonian Athena,
{1.13.3} hang up, Pyrrhos did, taking them from the bold Gauls [Galatai],
having destroyed the entire army of Antigonos. No big wonder [thauma],
since the Aiakidai are masters of the spear, even now as also in the past.

These shields then are here, but the shields of the Macedonians themselves he dedicated to Dodonian Zeus. They too have an inscription:

These [shields] once ravaged the golden land of Asia,
and they brought slavery upon the Greeks.
Now ownerless they lie by the columns of the temple [nāos] of Zeus,
spoils from boastful Macedonia.

Pyrrhos came very near to reducing Macedonia entirely, but,

{1.13.4} being usually readier to do what came first to hand, he was prevented by Kleonymos. This Kleonymos, who persuaded Pyrrhos to abandon his Macedonian adventure and to go to the Peloponnesus, was a Lacedaemonian who led a hostile army into the Lacedaemonian territory for a reason I will relate after giving the descent of Kleonymos. Pausanias, who was in command of the Greeks at Plataea, [45] was the father of Pleistoanax, he of Pausanias, and he of Kleombrotos, who was killed at Leuktra fighting against Epameinondas and the Thebans. Kleombrotos was the father of Agesipolis and Kleomenes, and, Agesipolis dying without issue, Kleomenes ascended the throne.

{1.13.5} Kleomenes had two sons, the elder being Akrotatos and the younger Kleonymos. Now Akrotatos died first; and when afterwards Kleomenes died, a claim to the throne was put forward by Areus son of Akrotatos, and Kleonymos took steps to induce Pyrrhos to enter the country. Before the battle of Leuktra [46] the Lacedaemonians had suffered no disaster, so that they even refused to admit that they had yet been defeated in a land battle. For Leonidas, they said, had won the victory, [47] but his followers were insufficient for the entire destruction of the Persians; the achievement of Demosthenes and the Athenians on the island of Sphakteria [48] was no victory, but only a trick in war.

{1.13.6} Their first reverse took place in Boeotia, and they afterwards suffered a severe defeat at the hands of Antipatros and the Macedonians. [49] Thirdly the war with Demetrios [50] came as an unexpected misfortune to their land. Invaded by Pyrrhos and seeing a hostile army for the fourth time, they arrayed themselves to meet it along with the Argives and Messenians who had come as their allies. Pyrrhos won the day, and came near to capturing Sparta without further fighting, but desisted for a while after ravaging the land and carrying off plunder. [51] The citizens prepared for a siege, and Sparta even before this in the war with Demetrios had been fortified with deep trenches and strong stakes, and at the most vulnerable points with buildings as well.

{1.13.7} Just about this time, while the Laconian war was dragging on, Antigonos, having recovered the Macedonian cities, hastened to the Peloponnesus being well aware that if Pyrrhos were to reduce Lacedaemon and the greater part of the Peloponnesus, he would not return to Epeiros but to Macedonia to make war there again. When Antigonos was about to lead his army from Argos into Laconia, Pyrrhos himself reached Argos. Victorious once more he dashed into the city along with the exiles, and his formation not unnaturally was broken up.

{1.13.8} When the fighting was now taking place by sanctuaries and houses, and in the narrow lanes, between detached bodies in different parts of the city, Pyrrhos, left by himself, was wounded in the head. It is said that his death [52] was caused by a blow from a tile thrown by a woman. The Argives however declare that it was not a woman who killed him but Demeter in the likeness of a woman. This is what the Argives themselves relate about his end, and Lykeas, the exegete [ex-hēgetēs] for the local-population {epikhōrioi], has also said so in hexameters [epē]. They [= the Argives] have a sanctuary [hieron] of Demeter, built in accordance with an oracular-saying [khrēnai], on the spot where Pyrrhos died,

{1.13.9} and, in there, Pyrrhos is buried. I consider it a wonder [thauma] that, of those who are called Aiakidai, three met their end [teleutē] in the same kinds of way through the agency of the god [ek tou theou]—if, as Homer says, Achilles was killed by Alexander, son of Priam, and by Apollo, and if the people of Delphi were bidden by the Pythia to slay Pyrrhos, son of Achilles, and if the end of the son of Aiakidēs was such as the Argives say and as Lykeas has said-in-poetry [poieîn]. What Hieronymos of Kardia has written [graphein], however, is different, since a man who associates with royalty cannot help being partial in what he writes up [sun-graphein]. If Philistos had just-cause [aitiā dikaiā] in suppressing the most unholy [an-hosia] deeds of Dionysius, because he expected to be restored to Syracuse from exile, surely Hieronymos may be fully forgiven for writing [graphein] to please Antigonos.

{1.14.1} In this way did the period when the people of Epeiros reached their zenith come-to-a-catastrophic-end [kata-strephein]. As you enter the Odeum [ōideion], you find situated there, among other things that are also worthy of viewing [théā], a figure of Dionysus. Nearby is a fountain [krēnē] called Enneakrounos [‘Nine Streams’]; the way it is now is the way it had been arranged [kosmeîsthai] by Peisistratos. Unlike the cisterns [phreata] that are found all over the city, this fountain is really a freshwater spring [pēgē]. Looming over the fountain [krēnē] are two shrines [nāoi]. One of them is sacred to Demeter and the Maiden [Korē]. Inside the other one, a statue [agalma] of Triptolemos has been set up. I will write down [graphein] the things that pertain to him [= Triptolemos], but I will omit whatever part of the things-that-are-said [logos] pertains to Dēiopē.

{1.14.2} The Greeks [Hellēnes] who dispute [amphisbēteîn], more than anyone else, the claims made by the people of Athens regarding their antiquity [arkhaiotēs] and also regarding the gifts they say they have received from the gods [theoi], are the people of Argos, just as among those who are non-Greeks [barbaroi] the Egyptians compete with the Phrygians. So, it is said [by the people of Argos] that when Demeter came to Argos she was received by Pelasgos into his home [oikos], and that Khrysanthis, knowing about the abduction [harpagē] of the Maiden [Korē], related-the-story [di-hēgeîsthai] to her. They say that, at a later point, Trokhilos, revealer-of-the-mysteries [hierophantēs], fled from Argos because of the enmity of Agenor, came to Attica, and married a woman of Eleusis, by whom he had two children, Eubouleus and Triptolemos. This is what-is-said [logos] by the people of Argos. But the people of Athens and those who inhabit Athens with them […] know that Triptolemos, son of Keleus, was the first to sow-seed [speirein] for getting cultivated grain-to-be-harvested [karpos].

{1.14.3} There are on one hand verses [epē] of Musaeus—if in fact even these verses really belong to Musaeus—that say, in the singing [āidesthai = aeidesthai], that Triptolemos is the son of Ōkeanos and Earth. There are on the other hand verses of Orpheus—again, I do not think that these verses belong to Orpheus—saying that Eubouleus and Triptolemos are sons of Dysaules, and that because they made-revelations [mēnuein] to Demeter about her daughter, she gave them as her gift the sowing [speirein] of grains-to-be-harvested [karpoi]. But Khoirilos, an Athenian, who made [poieîn] a drama [drâma] called Alopē, says that Kerkyon and Triptolemos were brothers, that their mother was the daughter of Amphiktyon, and that the father of Triptolemos was Raros—while the father of Kerkyon was Poseidon. I was getting ready to go further in connection with this thing-that-is-said [logos], telling about however many things the sacred-place [hieron] has available for interpretation [ex-hēgēsis]—I mean, the sacred place that is called Eleusinion, but a vision [opsis] that came from a dream [oneirar] held me back. As for things that it is divinely-allowed [hosion] to write down [graphein] in addressing everyone, I will turn [apo-trepesthai] to these things while turning away from other things.

{1.14.4} In front of the temple [nāos], where is also the statue [agalma] of Triptolemos, is a bronze bull being led as it were to sacrifice [thusiā], and what has been made [pe-poíētai] there is a seated figure of Epimenides of Knossos, who they say came to a field [agros], entered a cave [spēlaion] there, and fell-asleep [koimâsthai]. The sleep [hupnos] did not leave him before the fortieth year, and afterwards he made [poieîn] verses [epē] and purified [kathairein] Athens and other cities. But Thales, who stopped the plague [nosos] for the Lacedaemonians, was not related to Epimenides in any way, and did not belong to the same city. The one I mentioned first was from Knossos, but Thales was from Gortyn, according to Polymnastos of Kolophon, who composed [poieîn] verses [epē] with reference to him for the Lacedaemonians.

{1.14.5} Still farther off is a shrine [nāos] of Eúkleia ‘goddess of good glory [kleos]’, this too being a thank-offering [anathēma] having to do with [the victory over] the Persians [Mēdoi] who had landed at Marathon. It is in-responsiveness-to [epi + dative case] this victory [nīkē] that the Athenians have- their most lofty -thoughts [phroneîn ‘have thoughts’ + malista ‘most of all’]. A special example is Aeschylus. When the completion [teleutē] of his life was coming into view for him, he reminisced [mnēmoneuein] not about any of his other deeds, even though he had reached such heights of glory [doxa] with his poetry [poiēsis] and with his participation in the naval battles of Artemision and at Salamis. Instead, he just wrote down [graphein] [in an epigram] his name, his father’s name, the name of his city of origin [= Athens], and how he had as his witnesses for affirming his manly-valor [andreiā] the grove [alsos] at Marathon—and the Persians [Mēdoi] who had landed there.

{1.14.6} Looming over the Kerameikos and the portico [stoā] called the King’s Portico [Stoā Baslileios] is a temple [nāos] of Hephaistos. No wonder [thauma], I thought, that next to it stands a statue [agalma] of Athena, because I know the thing-that-is-said [logos] in-responsiveness-to [epi + dative case] Erikhthonios. And when I saw that the statue [agalma] of Athena had gray [glaukoi] eyes I made-inquiries-and-found-out [heuriskein] that the myth [mūthos] comes from the Libyans. For it has been said by the Libyans that the goddess is the daughter of Poseidon and of the [personified] lake [limnē] Tritonis, so that, for this reason, she has gray [glaukoi] eyes like Poseidon.

{1.14.7} Nearby is a sanctuary [hieron] of Aphrodite the celestial one [Ouraniā]; the first humans [anthrōpoi] to establish the custom of worshipping [sebesthai] her were the Assyrians, and then, after the Assyrians, the Paphians of Cyprus and the Phoenicians who live at Askalon in Palestine [Palaistinē]; it is from the Phoenicians that the people of Kythēra learned the practice of worshipping [sebesthai] her. Among the Athenians it was Aigeus who established [kathistasthai] the practice, who thought that he was childless (he had, in fact, no children at the time) and that his sisters had suffered their misfortune [sumphorā] because of the wrath [mēnīma] of Aphrodite the celestial one [Ouraniā]. The statue [agalma], as it exists even in my time, is of Parian marble and is the work [ergon] of Pheidias. One of the Athenian demes [dēmoi] is that of the Athmoneis, who say that Porphyrion, an earlier king than Aktaios, founded their sanctuary [hieron] of the celestial one [Ouraniā]. But the traditions current among the demes [dēmoi] often differ altogether from those of the city [polis].

{1.15.1} As you go to the portico [stoā] that they call painted [poikilē], because of its paintings [graphai], there is a bronze statue of Hermes of-the-Marketplace [agoraios], and near it a gate [pulē]. Placed over it [= the gate] is a trophy [tropaion] erected by the Athenians, who in a cavalry action overcame Pleistarkhos, to whose command his brother Kassandros had entrusted his cavalry and mercenaries. This portico [stoā] contains [wall paintings that represent], first, the Athenians arrayed against the Lacedaemonians at Oinoe in the Argive territory. What has been painted [graphesthai] is not the critical-point [akmē] of the struggle [agōn] nor when the action [ergon] had advanced as far as the display [epideixis] of deeds of valor, but the beginning of the fight when the combatants were about to close in on each other.

{1.15.2} On the middle wall are [wall paintings that represent] the Athenians and Theseus fighting with the Amazons. So it seems that only the women did not lose through their defeats their reckless courage in the face of danger; Themiskyra was taken by Hēraklēs, and afterwards the army that they [= the Amazons] dispatched to Athens was destroyed, but nevertheless they [= the Amazons] came to Troy to fight all the Greeks [Hellēnes] as well as the Athenians themselves. Next after the Amazons are shown the Greeks [Hellēnes] when they have taken Troy [Ilion], and the kings assembled on account of the outrage [tolmēma] committed by Ajax against Cassandra. The painting [graphē] includes Ajax himself, Cassandra, and other captive women.

{1.15.3} At the concluding part of the painting [graphē] are [represented] the men who fought at Marathon, namely, the men from [the city of] Plataea-in-Boeotia and the men from all the territory-of-Athens [= Attica]. They are at the moment of coming into contact in hand-to-hand combat with the foreigners [barbaroi, = the Persians]. At this point, the two sides are evenly matched for the action [ergon], but then, in a close-up of the battle [makhē], the foreigners [barbaroi] are starting to turn and run, heading for the marshland [helos] and crowding each other [into the morass]. At the outer edges of the painting are [represented] the [beached] ships of the Phoenician navy and the Greeks [Hellēnes] who are slaughtering those of the foreigners [barbaroi] who are scrambling to climb on board. And at this point is painted [graphesthai] also the hero [hērōs] by the name of Marathon, after whom the plain [pedíon] called Marathon gets its name. Also represented [eikazesthai] is Theseus as he appeared when he was coming back up from under the earth. Also, Athena and Hēraklēs. Let me explain: you see [= gar], the people of Marathon were the first to establish-the-custom-of-venerating [nomizein] Hēraklēs as a god [theos]. Featured most prominently in the painting [graphē] are Kallimakhos, who had been elected commander-in-chief [polem-arkhos] by the Athenians, and Miltiades, one of the generals [stratēgoi]. Also [featured is] a hero [hērōs] called Ekhetlos, about whom I will make mention [mnēmē] at a later point as well. [53]

{1.15.4} Here are dedicated bronze shields, and some have an inscription [saying] that they are taken from the Skiōnaioi and their allies, [54] while others, smeared with pitch lest they should be worn by age and rust, are said to be those of the Lacedaemonians who were taken prisoners in the island of Sphakteria. [55]

{1.16.1} Here are placed bronze statues [andriantes], one, in front of the portico [stoā], of Solon, who wrote [graphein] the laws [nomoi] for the Athenians, [56] and, a little farther away, one of Seleukos, whose future prosperity was foreshadowed by signs [sēmeia] that were not at all unclear [aphanes-]. When he was about to set forth from Macedonia with Alexander, and was sacrificing [thuein] at Pella to Zeus, the wood [xula] that was placed on the altar [bōmos] moved all-by-itself [automato-] toward the statue [agalma] and caught-fire [haptesthai] without the application of fire. After Alexander died, Seleukos, in fear of Antigonos, who had arrived at Babylon, fled to Ptolemy, son of Lagos, and then returned again to Babylon. On his return he overcame the army of Antigonos and killed Antigonos himself, afterwards capturing Demetrios, son of Antigonos, who had advanced with an army.

{1.16.2} After these successes, which were shortly followed by the fall of Lysimakhos, he [= Seleukos] entrusted to his son Antiokhos all his empire [arkhē] in Asia (Minor), and himself proceeded rapidly towards Macedonia, having with him an army both of Greeks and of foreigners [barbaroi]. But Ptolemy, brother of Lysandra, had taken refuge with him from Lysimakhos; this man [= Ptolemy], who was in any case prone to be-daring [tolmân] and for this reason was called Thunderbolt [Keraunos], [accomplished quite a daring act] when the army of Seleukos had advanced as far as Lysimakheia: he [= Ptolemy] killed Seleukos by stealth. Then he turned over to the [other] kings [basileîs] his possessions [= the possessions of Seleukos], [57] while he [= Ptolemy] ruled-as-king [basileuein] over Macedonia until, being as far as we know the first of the kings [basileîs] to dare [tolmân] to face the Gauls [Galatai] in battle, he was killed by these foreigners [barbaroi]. [58] The empire [arkhē] was restored-to-safety [sōzesthai] by Antigonos son of Demetrios.

{1.16.3} I am persuaded that Seleukos was the most righteous [dikaios], and in particular the most pious-in-ritual [eu-sebēs] of the kings [baslileîs]. For one thing, it was Seleukos who sent-back [kata-pempein] to Brankhidai for the people of Miletus the bronze Apollo that had been carried [ana-komizesthai] by Xerxes to Ecbatana in Persia. For another thing, when he founded [oikizein] Seleukeia on the river Tigris and brought to it Babylonians as settlers [sunoikoi], he spared the wall [teikhos] of Babylon as well as the sanctuary [hieron] of Bēl, near which he permitted the Chaldaeans to settle [oikeîn].

{1.17.1} In the Agora of the Athenians there are things that are not meaningful [epi-sēma] to all [though they are meaningful to me]. Among such things is an altar [bōmos] [sacred] to Pity [Eleos] [personified]. Of all the other gods [theoi] he [= Eleos] is the most helpful [ōphelimos] in the life [bios] of-humans [anthrōpinos] and in the vicissitudes of their affairs [pragmata], but only the Athenians, alone among the Greeks [Hellēnes], assign [nemein] to him [= Eleos] honors [tīmai] [of worship]. And they [= the Athenians] have institutionalized not only those things that pertain to love-of-humanity [philanthrōpiā] but they also piously-engage-in-rituals [eusebeîn] more than the others. You see, they also have an altar [bōmos] [sacred] to Decency [Aidōs] [personified], one to Special-Wording [Phēmē] [personified], and one to Initiative [Hormē] [personified]. It is clear [dēla], visibly [enargōs] so, that those who excel in piously-engaging-in-ritual [eu-sebeîn] have an equally great share in good [khrēstē] fortune [tukhē].

{1.17.2} Not far from the Agora is a gymnasium that is named after Ptolemy, its founder. In this gymnasium are stone Hermai worthy of viewing [théā] and a likeness [eikōn] in bronze of Ptolemy. Here also is Juba the Libyan and Khrysippos [59] of Soloi. Close by the gymnasium is a sanctuary [hieron] of Theseus, where are paintings [graphai] of Athenians battling Amazons. [The story of] this war [polemos] has also been crafted [poieîsthai] for them on the shield [aspis] of their [statue of] Athena and upon the base [bathron] of the [statue of] Olympian Zeus. There has also been painted [graphesthai] in the sanctuary [hieron] of Theseus the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapithai. Theseus has already killed a Centaur, but, for the others [= the other fighters], the fighting is still undecided.

{1.17.3} The painting [graphē] on the third wall [of the sanctuary of Theseus] is not clear [saphēs] for those who have not inquired-about-and-learned [punthanesthai] what is said [legein]. It [= the lack of clarity] is due partly to the passage of time and partly to the fact that Mikon [the painter] did not paint [graphein] the entirety of what is said to have happened. When Minos was bringing to Crete Theseus and the rest of the group-that-was sent [stolos], which was a group of young-ones [paides], he [= Minos] conceived a passion [erâsthai] for Periboia, and, when Theseus opposed him with the greatest kind of opposition [imaginable], he [= Minos] got angry and hurled insults at him [= Theseus], saying that he [= Theseus] was not the son of Poseidon, claiming that he [= Theseus] could not bring-back-to-safety [ana-sōzein] for him the signet-ring [sphrāgis] that he [= Minos] happened to be wearing, if he [= Minos] threw it into the sea. Saying these things, Minos is said to have thrown the signet-ring [sphrāgis], but they say that Theseus came up [for air] from out of the sea holding that signet-ring [sphrāgis] and holding also a gold garland [stephanos] that Amphitrite gave him.

{1.17.4} With regard to the end [teleutē] of Theseus many things have been said, and these things are not [mutually] consistent. They say he was kept tied-down [deesthai] until he was brought-back [an-agein] by Hēraklēs [to the light of day], but, of all the things I heard, the most believable [pithanon] is as follows. Theseus invaded Thesprotia to carry off the wife of the Thesprotian king, and in this way lost the greater part of his army, and both he and Peirithoös—he too was taking part in the expedition, being eager for the marriage—were taken captive. The Thesprotian king kept them tied-down [deein] at Kikhyros.

{1.17.5} Among the things worthy of seeing [théā] at Thesprotia are a sanctuary [hieron] of Zeus at Dodona and an oak [phēgos] sacred [hierā] to the god [theos]. Near Kikhyros is a lake called Akherousia, and a river called Akheron. There is also Kokytos, a stream of water [hudōr] that is the-farthest-away-from-giving-any-pleasure [aterpestaton]. I think it was because Homer had seen these places that he acted boldly in putting into his poetry [poiēsis] the things having to do with Hadēs, and gave to the rivers there the names of those in Thesprotia. While Theseus was thus held-back [ekhesthai], the sons of Tyndareus [= the Dioskouroi] led their armed forces against Aphidna, captured it, and restored Menestheus to the kingship.

{1.17.6} Now Menestheus took no account of the children of Theseus, who had secretly withdrawn to Elephenor in Euboea, but he was aware that Theseus, if ever he was-brought-back-to-safety [ana-komizesthai] from Thesprotia, would be a powerful antagonist, and so he curried favor with the people [dēmos], with the result that Theseus, when he had been brought-back-home-to-safety [ana-sōzesthai], was expelled [after his homecoming]. Theseus now set-off-on-a-voyage [stellesthai] to [reach a man called] Deukalion in Crete. Being carried off-course by winds to the island of Skyros he was treated splendidly by the inhabitants, thanks to the fame [doxa] of his lineage [genos] and to the worthiness of his own achievements. For this very reason, Lykomedes plotted his death. And-from-what-I-have-just-said-you-can-now-see-why [men dē] the Athenians had their hero-precinct [sēkos] [of Theseus]. This was after the Persians landed at Marathon. It was when Kimon, son of Miltiades, removed the population of Skyros, thus exacting vindication [dikē] for the death of Theseus, and brought-to-safety [komizein] his bones to Athens.{1.18.1} The sanctuary [hieron] of the Dioskouroi is ancient. They themselves are represented as standing, while their sons are seated on horses. Here Polygnotus [60] painted [graphein] the marriage of the daughters of Leukippos, which was [a story that was] pertinent to them [= the Dioskouroi], while Mikon painted those who sailed with Jason to the land of Kolkhis. He [=Mikon] focused his [artistic] effort on Akastos and the horses of Akastos.

{1.18.2} Looming over the sanctuary [hieron] of the Dioskouroi is a sacred-enclosure [temenos] of Aglauros. It was to Aglauros and her sisters, Herse and Pandrosos, that they say Athena gave Erikhthonios, whom she had hidden in a box [kibōtos], forbidding them to pry curiously into what was entrusted to their charge. Pandrosos, they say, obeyed, but the other two opened the box [kibōtos], and went mad [mainesthai] when they saw Erikhthonios, and they threw themselves down the steepest part of the Acropolis. Here it was that the Persians [Mēdoi] climbed [up the Acropolis] and killed the Athenians who thought that they understood the oracle [61] better than did Themistocles, and fortified the Acropolis with logs and stakes. [62]

{1.18.3} Close by is the Prytaneion [‘city hall’], in which the laws of Solon are inscribed, and statues [agalmata] are placed of the goddesses Eirene [‘Peace’] and Hestia [‘Hearth’], while among the statues-of-humans [andriantes] is Autolykos, a contestant in the pankration. [63] And, you see [gar], the likenesses of Miltiades and Themistocles have had their inscriptions reinscribed to refer to a Roman and a Thracian.

{1.18.4} As you descend from here to the lower part of the city, there is a sanctuary [hieron] of Serapis, whose worship the Athenians introduced from Ptolemy. Of the Egyptian sanctuaries [hiera] of Serapis the most famous is at Alexandria, the oldest at Memphis. Into the second of these two neither stranger nor priest may enter, until they make-a-funeral-for [thaptein] Apis. Not far from the sanctuary of Serapis is the place where they say that Peirithoös and Theseus made their pact before setting forth to Lacedaemon and afterwards to Thesprotia.

{1.18.5} Close by is built a temple [nāos] of Eileithuia, who they say came from the Hyperboreans to Delos as a helper [boēthoos] to Leto in her labor; and from Delos the name spread to other populations. The people of Delphi sacrifice [thuein] to Eileithuia and sing a hymn [humnos] of Olen. But the Cretans customarily-think [nomizein] that Eileithuia was born at Amnisos in the territory of Knossos, and that Hērā was her mother. Only among the Athenians are the wooden-figures [xoana] of Eileithuia draped [kaluptesthai] all the way to the feet. The women told me that two [of these xoana] are Cretan, being offerings [anathēmata] of Phaedra, and that the third [xoanon], which is the oldest, Erysikhthon brought [komizein] from Delos.

{1.18.6} Before you enter the sanctuary [hieron] of Olympian Zeus—Hadrian as ‘King’ [basileus] of the Romans dedicated [anatithenai] the temple [nāos] and the statue [agalma] [of Zeus], so worthy of viewing [théa], which in size exceeds all other statues [agalmata] except for the colossi [kolossoi] in Rhodes and in Rome, and is made of ivory and gold with an artistic skill [tekhnē] that is remarkable when the size is taken into account—before you enter, as I say, there are statues [eikones] of Hadrian, two of Thasian stone, two of Egyptian. In front of the columns [kiones] stand bronze statues that the Athenians call apoikoi poleis. The whole perimeter of the precinct is about four stadium-lengths, and it is full of statues; for every city has dedicated a likeness [eikōn] of Hadrian as King [basileus], but the Athenians have surpassed them all in dedicating [anatithenai], in the back part of the temple, the colossus [kolossos] [of Zeus], so worthy of viewing [théā].

{1.18.7} Within the perimeter are antiquities: a bronze Zeus, a shrine [nāos] of Kronos and Rhea, and an enclosure [temenos] of Earth [Gē] surnamed Olympian [Olumpiā]. There is an opening in the floor here, which is the width of a cubit, and they say that it was here that the water flowed off after the cataclysm that occurred in the time of Deukalion, and into it they cast every year ground wheat mixed with honey.

{1.18.8} On top of a column [kiōn] is a statue [andrias] of Isocrates, in whose memory [mnēmē] three things are to be noted: his being most-painstaking [epiponōtatos] in continuing to have students [mathētai] up to the end of his ninety-eight years, his being most-moderate [sōphronestatos] in keeping aloof from politics [politeiā] and from officiousness in public-affairs [koina], and his being most-devoted-to-freedom [eleutherōtatos] in dying a voluntary death, distressed as he was at the news of the battle at Khairōneia. [64] There are also statues in Phrygian marble of Persians supporting a bronze tripod; both the figures and the tripod are worthy of viewing [théā]. The ancient sanctuary [hieron] of Olympian Zeus the Athenians say was built by Deukalion, and they show as a sign [sēmeion]—that Deukalion resided [oikeîn] in Athens—a tomb [taphos] that is not far from the present temple [nāos].

{1.18.9} Hadrian constructed other buildings also for the Athenians: a temple [nāos] of Hērā and Zeus Panhellēnios [‘belonging to all Hellenes’], a sanctuary [hieron] that was common [koinon] to all the gods, and, most famous of all, a hundred columns [kiones] of Phrygian marble. The walls [toikhoi] too are constructed of the same material as the porticoes [stoai]. And there are rooms there adorned with a gilded roof and with alabaster stone, as well as with statues [agalmata] and paintings [graphai]. In them are kept books [biblia]. There is also a gymnasium named after Hadrian; of this too the columns [kiones] are a hundred in number, from the Libyan quarries.

{1.19.1} Close to the temple of Olympian Zeus is a statue [agalma] of the Pythian Apollo. There is further a sanctuary of Apollo surnamed Delphinios. The story has it that when the temple was finished with the exception of the roof Theseus arrived in the city, a stranger as yet to everybody. When he came to the temple of the Delphinian, wearing a tunic that reached to his feet and with his hair neatly plaited, those who were building the roof mockingly inquired what a marriageable virgin was doing wandering about by herself. The only answer that Theseus made was to loose, it is said, the oxen from the cart close by, and to throw them higher than the roof of the temple they were building.

{1.19.2} Concerning the district called The Gardens, and the temple of Aphrodite, there is no story that is told by them, nor yet about the Aphrodite which stands near the temple. Now the shape of it is square, like that of the Hermai, and the inscription declares that Aphrodite the celestial one [Ourania] is the oldest of those called Fates. But the statue [agalma] of Aphrodite in the Gardens is the work of Alkamenes, and one of the most note worthy things in Athens.

{1.19.3} There is also the place called Kynosarges, sacred to Hēraklēs; the story of the white dog may be known by reading the oracle. There are altars of Hēraklēs and Hebe, who they think is the daughter of Zeus and wife to Hēraklēs. An altar has been built to Alkmene and to Iolaos, who shared with Hēraklēs most of his labors. The Lyceum [Lukeion] has its name from Lykos [Lukos], the son of Pandion, but it was considered sacred to Apollo from the beginning down to my time, and here was the god first named Lykios [Lukios]. It is said that the Termilai also, to whom Lykos came when he fled from Aigeus, were called Lykioi [Lukioi] after him.

{1.19.4} Behind the Lyceum is a monument of Nisos, who was killed while king of Megara by Minos, and the Athenians carried him here and buried him. About this Nisos there is a legend. His hair, they say, was red, and it was fated that he should die on its being cut off. When the Cretans attacked the country, they captured by assault the other cities of the region of Megara, but Nisaia, in which Nisos had taken refuge, they besieged. The story says how the daughter of Nisos, falling in love here with Minos, cut off her father’s hair.

{1.19.5} Such is the legend. The rivers that flow through Athenian territory are the Ilissos and its tributary the Eridanos, whose name is the same as that of the Celtic river. This Ilissos is the river by which Oreithyia was playing when, according to the story, she was carried off by the North Wind. With Oreithyia he lived in wedlock, and be cause of the tie between him and the Athenians he helped them by destroying most of the foreigners’ warships. The Athenians hold that the Ilissos is sacred to other deities as well, and on its bank is an altar of the Muses of Ilissos. The place too is pointed out where the Peloponnesians killed Kodros, son of Melanthos and king of Athens.

{1.19.6} Across the Ilissos is a district called Agrai and a temple of Artemis Agrotera (the Huntress). They say that Artemis first hunted here when she came from Delos, and for this reason the statue [agalma] holds a bow. A marvel to the eyes, though not so impressive to hear of, is a race-course of white marble, the size of which can best be estimated from the fact that beginning in a crescent on the heights above the Ilissos it descends in two straight lines to the river bank. This was built by Herodes, an Athenian, and the greater part of the Pentelic quarry was exhausted in its construction.

{1.20.1} Leading from the Prytaneion is a road called Tripods. The place takes its name from the shrines, large enough to hold the tripods which stand upon them, of bronze, but containing very remarkable works of art, including a Satyr, of which Praxiteles is said to have been very proud. Phryne once asked of him the most beautiful of his works, and the story goes that lover-like he agreed to give it, but refused to say which he thought the most beautiful. So a slave of Phryne rushed in saying that a fire had broken out in the studio of Praxiteles, and the greater number of his works were lost, though not all were destroyed.

{1.20.2} Praxiteles at once started to rush through the door crying that his labor was all wasted if indeed the flames had caught his Satyr and his Love. But Phryne ordered him to stay and be of good courage, for he had suffered no grievous loss, but had been trapped into confessing which were the most beautiful of his works. So Phryne chose the statue of Love; while a Satyr is in the temple of Dionysus close by, a boy holding out a cup. The Love standing with him and the Dionysus were made by Thymilos.

{1.20.3} The oldest sanctuary of Dionysus is near the theater. Within the precincts are two temples and two statues of Dionysus, the Eleuthereus (Deliverer) and the one Alkamenes made of ivory and gold. There are paintings here—Dionysus bringing Hephaistos up to the sky [ouranos]. One of the Greek legends is that Hephaistos, when he was born, was thrown down by Hērā. In revenge he sent as a gift a golden chair with invisible fetters. When Hērā sat down she was held fast, and Hephaistos refused to listen to any other of the gods save Dionysus—in him he reposed the fullest trust—and after making him drunk Dionysus brought him to the sky [ouranos]. Besides this picture there are also represented Pentheus and Lycurgus (Lukourgos) paying the penalty of their insolence to Dionysus, Ariadne asleep, Theseus putting out to sea, and Dionysus on his arrival to carry off Ariadne.

{1.20.4} Near the sanctuary of Dionysus and the theater is a structure that is said to be a replica of Xerxes’ tent. It has been rebuilt, for the old building was burned by the Roman general Sulla when he took Athens. [65] The cause of the war was this. Mithridates was king over the foreigners around the Black Sea. Now the grounds on which he made war against the Romans, how he crossed into Asia, and the cities he took by force of arms or made his friends, I must leave for those to find out who wish to know the history of Mithridates, and I shall confine my narrative to the capture of Athens.

{1.20.5} There was an Athenian, Aristion, whom Mithridates employed as his envoy to the Greek cities. He induced the Athenians to join Mithridates rather than the Romans, although he did not induce all, but only the lower orders, and only the turbulent among them. The respectable Athenians fled to the Romans of their own accord. In the engagement that ensued the Romans won a decisive victory; Aristion and the Athenians they drove in flight into the city, Arkhelaos and the foreigners into the Peiraieus. This Arkhelaos was another general of Mithridates, whom earlier than this the Magnesians, who inhabit the region of Mount Sipylos, wounded when he raided their territory, killing most of the foreigners as well. So Athens was invested.

{1.20.6} Taxilos, a general of Mithridates, was at the time besieging Elateia in Phokis, but on receiving the news he withdrew his troops towards Attica. Learning this, the Roman general entrusted the siege of Athens to a portion of his army, and with the greater part of his forces advanced in person to meet Taxilos in Boeotia. On the third day from this, news came to both the Roman armies; Sulla heard that the Athenian fortifications had been stormed, and the besieging force learned that Taxilos had been defeated in battle near Khairōneia. When Sulla returned to Attica he imprisoned in the Kerameikos the Athenians who had opposed him, and one chosen by lot out of every ten he ordered to be led to execution.

{1.20.7} Sulla abated nothing of his wrath against the Athenians, and so a few effected an escape to Delphi, and asked if the time were now come when it was fated for Athens also to be made desolate, receiving from the Pythia the response about the wine skin. Afterwards Sulla was smitten with the disease which I learn attacked Pherecydes the Syrian. Although Sulla’s treatment of the Athenian people was so savage as to be unworthy of a Roman, I do not think that this was the cause of his calamity, but rather the vengeance of the suppliants’ Protector, for he had dragged Aristion from the sanctuary of Athena, where he had taken refuge, and killed him. Thus was Athens sorely afflicted by the war with Rome, but she flourished again when Hadrian was emperor.

{1.21.1} In the theater the Athenians have portrait statues of poets, both tragic and comic, but they are mostly of undistinguished persons. With the exception of Menander no poet of comedy represented here won a reputation, but tragedy has two illustrious representatives, Euripides and Sophocles. There is a legend that after the death of Sophocles the Lacedaemonians invaded Attica, and their commander saw in a vision Dionysus, who ordered him to honor, with all the customary honors of the dead, the new Siren. He interpreted the dream as referring to Sophocles and his poetry, and down to the present day people are used to liken to a Siren whatever is enchanting in both poetry and prose.

{1.21.2} The likeness of Aeschylus is, I think, much later than his death and than the painting that depicts the action at Marathon. Aeschylus himself said that, when he was a young man and once fell asleep while he was guarding the grapes in a vineyard, Dionysus appeared to him and ordered him to make [poieîn] tragedy. When day came, in obedience to the vision, he made an attempt and hereafter found composing [poieîn] quite easy.

{1.21.3} Such were his words. On the South wall, as it is called, of the Acropolis, which faces the theater, there is dedicated a gilded head of Medusa the Gorgon, and round it is crafted an aegis. At the top of the theater is a cave in the rocks under the Acropolis. This also has a tripod over it, wherein are Apollo and Artemis slaying the children of Niobe. This Niobe I myself saw when I had gone up to Mount Sipylos. When you are near it is a beetling crag, with not the slightest resemblance to a woman, mourning or otherwise; but if you go further away you will think you see a woman in tears, with head bowed down.

{1.21.4} On the way to the Athenian Acropolis from the theater is the tomb of Kalos. Daidalos murdered this Kalos, who was his sister’s son and a student of his craft, and therefore he fled to Crete; afterwards he escaped to Kokalos in Sicily. The sanctuary of Asklepios is worth seeing both for its paintings and for the statues [agalmata] of the god and his children. In it there is a spring, by which they say that Poseidon’s son Halirrhothios deflowered Alkippe the daughter of Ares, who killed the ravisher and was the first to be put on his trial for the shedding of blood.

{1.21.5} Among the votive offerings there is a Sauromatic breastplate. On seeing this a man will say that no less than Greeks are foreigners skilled in the arts. For the Sauromatai have no iron, neither mined by them selves nor yet imported. They have, in fact, no dealings at all with the foreigners around them. To meet this deficiency they have contrived inventions. In place of iron they use bone for their spear-blades, and cornel-wood for their bows and arrows, with bone points for the arrows. They throw a lasso round any enemy they meet, and then turning round their horses upset the enemy caught in the lasso.

{1.21.6} Their breastplates they make in the following fashion. Each man keeps many mares, since the land is not divided into private allotments, nor does it bear anything except wild trees, as the people are nomads. These mares they not only use for war, but also sacrifice them to the local gods and eat them for food. Their hoofs they collect, clean, split, and make from them as it were python scales. Whoever has never seen a python must at least have seen a pine-cone still green. He will not be mistaken if he liken the product from the hoof to the segments that are seen on the pine-cone. These pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen, and then use them as breastplates that are as handsome and strong as those of the Greeks. For they can withstand blows of missiles and those struck in close combat.

{1.21.7} Linen breastplates are not so useful to fighters, for they let the iron pass through, if the blow be a violent one. They aid hunters, how ever, for the teeth of lions or leopards break off in them. You may see linen breastplates dedicated in other sanctuaries, notably in that at Gryneion, where there is a most beautiful grove of Apollo, with cultivated trees, and all those which, although they bear no fruit, are pleasing to smell or look upon.

{1.22.1} After the sanctuary of Asklepios, as you go by this way towards the Acropolis, there is a temple of Themis. Before it is raised a sepulchral mound to Hippolytus. The end of his life, they say, came from curses. Everybody, even a foreigner who has learned Greek, knows about the love of Phaedra and the wickedness the nurse dared commit to serve her. The Troizenians too have a tomb of Hippolytus, and their legend about it is this.

{1.22.2} When Theseus was about to marry Phaedra, not wishing, should he have children, Hippolytus either to be their subject or to be king in their stead, sent him to Pittheus to be brought up and to be the future king of Troizen. Afterwards Pallas and his sons rebelled against Theseus. After putting them to death he went to Troizen for purification, and Phaedra first saw Hippolytus there. Falling in love with him she contrived the plot for his death. The Troizenians have a myrtle with every one of its leaves pierced; they say that it did not grow originally in this fashion, the holes being due to Phaedra’s disgust with love and to the pin that she wore in her hair.

{1.22.3} When Theseus had united into one state the many Athenian demes [dēmoi], he established the cults of Aphrodite surnamed ‘common to the district’ [Pan-dēmos] and of Persuasion. The old statues [agalmata] no longer existed in my time, but those I saw were the work of no inferior artists. There is also a sanctuary of Earth Kourotrophos and of Demeter Chloe [Khloē]. You can learn all about their names by conversing with the priests.

{1.22.4} There is but one entry to the Acropolis. It affords no other, being precipitous throughout and having a strong wall. The gateway has a roof of white marble, and down to the present day it is unrivalled for the beauty and size of its stones. Now as to the statues of the horsemen, I cannot tell for certain whether they are the sons of Xenophon or whether they were made merely to beautify the place. On the right of the gateway is a temple of Wingless Nike. From this point the sea is visible, and here it was that, according to legend, Aigeus threw himself down to his death.

{1.22.5} For the ship that carried the young people to Crete began her voyage with black sails; but Theseus, who was sailing on an adventure against the bull of Minos, as it is called, had told his father beforehand that he would use white sails if he should sail back victorious over the bull. But the loss of Ariadne made him forget the signal. Then Aigeus, when from this eminence he saw the vessel borne by black sails, thinking that his son was dead, threw himself down to destruction. There is in Athens a sanctuary dedicated to him, and called the hero-shrine of Aigeus.

{1.22.6} On the left of the gateway is a building with pictures. Among those not effaced by time I found Diomedes taking the Athena from Troy, and Odysseus in Lemnos taking away the bow of Philoctetes. There in the pictures is Orestes killing Aigisthos, and Pylades killing the sons of Nauplios who had come to help Aigisthos. And there is Polyxena about to be sacrificed near the tomb of Achilles. Homer did well in passing by this barbarous act. I think too that he showed poetic insight in making Achilles capture Skyros, differing entirely from those who say that Achilles lived in Skyros with the maidens, as Polygnotus has represented in his picture. He also painted Odysseus coming upon the women washing clothes with Nausikaa at the river, just like the description in Homer. There are other pictures, including a portrait of Alcibiades,

{1.22.7} and in the picture are emblems of the victory his horses won at Nemeā. There is also Perseus journeying to Seriphos, and carrying to Polydektes the head of Medusa, the legend about whom I am unwilling to relate in my description of Attica. Included among the paintings—I omit the boy carrying the water-jars and the wrestler of Timainetos [66] —is Musaeus. I have read verses in which Musaeus receives from the North Wind the gift of flight, but, in my opinion, Onomacritus wrote them, and there are no certainly genuine works of Musaeus except a hymn to Demeter written for the Lykomidai.

{1.22.8} Right at the very entrance [Propylaia] to the Acropolis are a Hermes (called Hermes of the Propylaia) and statues of the Graces [Kharites], which they say were sculpted by Socrates, the son of Sophroniskos, who the Pythia testified was the wisest of men, a title she refused to Anakharsis, although he desired it and came to Delphi to win it.

{1.23.1} Among the sayings of the Greeks is one that there were seven wise men. Two of them were the despot of Lesbos and Periandros the son of Kypselos. And yet Peisistratos and his son Hippias were more humane than Periandros, wiser too in warfare and in statecraft, until, on account of the murder of Hipparkhos, Hippias vented his passion against all and sundry, including a woman named Leaina [meaning ‘Lioness’].

{1.23.2} What I am about to say has never before been committed to writing, but is generally credited among the Athenians. When Hipparkhos died, Hippias tortured Leaina to death, because he knew she was the mistress of Aristogeiton, and therefore could not possibly, he held, be in ignorance of the plot. As a recompense, when the tyranny of the Peisistratidai was at an end, the Athenians put up a bronze lioness in memory of the woman, which they say Kallias dedicated and Kalamis made.

{1.23.3} Close by is a bronze statue of Diitrephes shot through by arrows. [67] Among the acts reported of this Diitrephes by the Athenians is his leading back home the Thracian mercenaries who arrived too late to take part in the expedition of Demosthenes against Syracuse. He also made a landing at Euripos-at-Khalkis, where the Boeotians had an inland town Mykalessos, marched up to this town from the coast, and captured it. Of the inhabitants the Thracians put to the sword not only the combatants but also the women and children. I have evidence to bring. All the Boeotian towns which the Thebans sacked were inhabited in my time, as the people escaped just before the capture; so if the foreigners had not exterminated the people of Mykalessos the survivors would have afterwards reoccupied the town.

{1.23.4} I was greatly surprised to see the statue of Diitrephes pierced with arrows, because the only Greeks whose custom it is to use that weapon are the Cretans. For the men of Opountian Lokris, whom Homer represents as coming to Troy with bows and slings, we know were armed as heavy infantry by the time of the Persian wars. Neither indeed did the Malians continue the practice of the bow; in fact, I believe that they did not know it before the time of Philoctetes, and gave it up soon after. Near the statue of Diitrephes—I do not wish to write of the less distinguished portraits—are statues [agalmata] of gods; of Hygieia, whom legend calls daughter of Asklepios, and of Athena, also surnamed Hygieia.

{1.23.5} There is also a smallish stone, just large enough to serve as a seat to a little man. On it legend says Silenos rested when Dionysus came to the land. The oldest of the Satyrs they call Silenoi. Wishing to know better than most people who the Satyrs are I have inquired from many about this very point. Euphemos of Caria said that on a voyage to Italy he was driven out of his course by winds and was carried into the outer sea, beyond the course of seamen. He affirmed that there were many uninhabited islands, while in others lived wild men. The sailors did not wish to make a landing at the latter,

{1.23.6} because, having made a landing before, they had some experience of the inhabitants, but on this occasion they had no choice in the matter. The islands were called Satyrides by the sailors, and the inhabitants were red haired, and had upon their flanks tails not much smaller than those of horses. As soon as they caught sight of their visitors, they ran down to the ship without uttering a cry and assaulted the women in the ship. At last the sailors in fear cast a foreign woman on to the island. Her the Satyrs outraged not only in the usual way, but also in a most shocking manner.

{1.23.7} I remember looking at other things also on the Athenian Acropolis, a bronze boy holding the sprinkler, by Lykios son of Myron, and Myron’s Perseus after beheading Medusa. There is also a sanctuary of Brauronian Artemis; the statue [agalma] is the work of Praxiteles, but the goddess derives her name from the deme [dēmos] of Brauron. The old wooden image is in Brauron, the Artemis-in-Tauroi as she is called.

{1.23.8} There is the horse called Dourios [‘Wooden’] set up there, made of bronze. That the work of Epeios was a contrivance to make a breach in the Trojan wall is known to everybody who does not attribute utter nonsense to the Phrygians. But legend says of that horse that it contained the most valiant of the Greeks, and the design of the bronze figure fits in well with this story. Menestheus and Teukros are peeping out of it, and so are the sons of Theseus.

{1.23.9} Of the statues that stand after the horse, the likeness of Epikharinos who practiced the race in armor was made by Kritios, while Oinobios performed a kind service for Thucydides the son of Oloros. [68] He succeeded in getting a decree passed for the return of Thucydides to Athens, who was treacherously murdered as he was returning, and there is a monument to him not far from the gate known as the Melitides.

{1.23.10} The stories of Hermolykos the athlete who competed in the pankration and of Phormion [69] the son of Asopikhos I omit, as others have told them. About Phormion, however, I have a detail to add. Quite one of the best men in Athens and distinguished for the fame of his ancestors he chanced to be heavily in debt. So he withdrew to the deme [dēmos] Paiania and lived there until the Athenians elected him to command a naval expedition. But he refused the office on the ground that before his debts were discharged he lacked the spirit to face his troops. So the Athenians, who were absolutely determined to have Phormion as their commander, paid all his creditors.

{1.24.1} In this place is a statue of Athena striking Marsyas the Silenos for taking up the aulos [‘double-reed’] that the goddess wished to be cast away for good. Opposite these I have mentioned is represented the fight which legend says Theseus fought with the so-called Bull of Minos, whether this was a man or a beast of the nature he is said to have been in the accepted story. For even in our time women have given birth to far more extraordinary monsters than this.

{1.24.2} There is also a statue of Phrixos the son of Athamas carried ashore to the land of Kolkhis by the ram. Having sacrificed the animal to some god or other, presumably to the one called by the Orkhomenians Laphystios, he has cut out the thighs in accordance with Greek custom and is watching them as they burn. Next come other statues, including one of Hēraklēs strangling the serpents as the legend describes. There is Athena too coming up out of the head of Zeus, and also a bull dedicated by the Council of the Areiopagos on some occasion or other, about which, if one cared, one could make many conjectures.

{1.24.3} I have already stated that the Athenians are far more devoted to religion than other men. They were the first to surname Athena Ergane (Worker); they were the first to set up limbless Hermai, and the temple of their goddess is shared by the Spirit of Good men. Those who prefer artistic workmanship to mere antiquity may look at the following: a man wearing a helmet, by Kleoitas, whose nails the artist has made of silver, and a statue [agalma] of Earth beseeching Zeus to rain upon her; perhaps the Athenians themselves needed showers, or may be all the Greeks had been plagued with a drought. There also are set up Timotheus the son of Konon and Konon himself; Procne too, who has already made up her mind about the boy, and Itys as well—a group dedicated by Alkamenes. Athena is represented displaying the olive plant, and Poseidon the wave,

{1.24.4} and there is a statue [agalma] of Zeus, one made by Leokhares [70] and another one called Polieus (‘of the city’), the customary mode of sacrificing to whom I will give without adding the traditional reason thereof. Upon the altar of Zeus Polieus they place barley mixed with wheat and leave it unguarded. The ox, which they keep already prepared for sacrifice, goes to the altar and partakes of the grain. One of the priests they call the ox-slayer, who kills the ox and then, casting aside the axe here according to the ritual runs away. The others bring the axe to trial, as though they know not the man who did the deed.

{1.24.5} Their ritual, then, is such as I have described. As you enter the temple that they name the Parthenon, all the sculptures you see on what is called the [east] pediment [aetos] show the birth of Athena, but those on the rear [= west] pediment show the contest between Athena and Poseidon over the ownership of the land [of Athens]. The statue [agalma] itself is made of ivory and gold. On the middle of her helmet is placed a likeness [eikōn] of the Sphinx—the tale of the Sphinx I will give when I come to my description of Boeotia—and on either side of the helmet are griffins [grupes] in relief.

{1.24.6} These griffins, Aristeas [71] of Prokonnesos says in his poem, fight for the gold with the Arimaspi beyond the Issedones. The gold which the griffins guard, he says, comes out of the earth; the Arimaspi are men all born with one eye; griffins are beasts like lions, but with the beak and wings of an eagle. I will say no more about the griffins.

{1.24.7} The statue [agalma] of Athena is standing, with a tunic [khitōn] reaching to the feet, and on her breast the head of Medusa is worked in ivory. She holds a statue of Nike about four cubits high, and in the other hand a spear; at her feet lies a shield and near the spear is a serpent [drakōn]. This serpent [drakōn] would be Erikhthonios. On the pedestal of the statue [agalma] is the birth of Pandora in relief. Hesiod and others have sung how this Pandora was the first woman; before Pandora was born there was as yet no womankind. The only portrait statue I remember seeing here is one of the emperor Hadrian, and at the entrance one of Iphikrates, [72] who accomplished many remarkable achievements.

{1.24.8} Opposite the temple is a bronze Apollo, and the statue [agalma] is said to be the work of Pheidias. They call it the Locust God, because once when locusts were devastating the land the god said that he would drive them from Attica. That he did drive them away they know, but they do not say how. I myself know that locusts have been destroyed three times in the past on Mount Sipylos, and not in the same way. Once a gale arose and swept them away; on another occasion violent heat came on after rain and destroyed them; the third time sudden cold caught them and they died.

{1.25.1} Such were the fates I saw befall the locusts. On the Athenian Acropolis is a statue of Pericles, the son of Xanthippos, and one of Xanthippos himself, who fought against the Persians at the naval battle of Mykale. [73] But that of Pericles stands apart, while near Xanthippos stands Anacreon of Teos, the first poet after Sappho of Lesbos to devote himself to love songs, and his posture is as it were that of a man singing when he is drunk. Deinomenes [74] made the two female figures which stand near, Io, the daughter of Inakhos, and Kallisto, the daughter of Lykaon, of both of whom exactly the same story is told, to wit, love of Zeus, wrath of Hērā, and metamorphosis, Io becoming a cow and Kallisto a bear.

{1.25.2} By the south wall are represented the legendary war with the giants, who once dwelled about Thrace and on the isthmus of Pallene, the battle between the Athenians and the Amazons, the engagement with the Persians at Marathon and the destruction of the Gauls in Mysia. [75] Each is about two cubits, and all were dedicated by Attalos. There stands too Olympiodoros, who won fame for the greatness of his achievements, especially in the crisis when he displayed a brave confidence among men who had met with continuous reverses, and were therefore in despair of winning a single success in the days to come.

{1.25.3} For the disaster at Khairōneia [76] was the beginning of misfortune for all the Greeks, and especially did it enslave those who had been blind to the danger and such as had sided with Macedon. Most of their cities Philip captured; with Athens he nominally came to terms, but really imposed the severest penalties upon it, taking away the islands and putting an end to its maritime empire. For a time the Athenians remained passive, during the reign of Philip and subsequently of Alexander. But when on the death of Alexander the Macedonians chose Aridaios to be their king, though the whole empire had been entrusted to Antipatros, the Athenians now thought it intolerable if Greece should be for ever under the Macedonians, and themselves embarked on war besides inciting others to join them.

{1.25.4} The cities that took part were, of the Peloponnesians, Argos, Epidaurus, Sikyon, Troizen, the Eleians, the Phliasians, Messene; on the other side of the Corinthian isthmus the people of Lokris, the people of Phokis, the Thessalians, Karystos, the Acarnanians belonging to the Aetolian League. The Boeotians, who occupied the Thebaid territory now that there were no Thebans left to dwell there, in fear lest the Athenians should injure them by founding a settlement on the site of Thebes, refused to join the alliance and lent all their forces to furthering the Macedonian cause.

{1.25.5} Each city ranged under the alliance had its own general, but as commander-in-chief was chosen the Athenian Leosthenes, both because of the fame of his city and also because he had the reputation of being an experienced soldier. He had already proved himself a general benefactor of Greece. All the Greeks that were serving as mercenaries in the armies of Darius and his satraps Alexander had wished to deport to Persia, but Leosthenes was too quick for him, and brought them by sea to Europe. On this occasion too his brilliant actions surpassed expectation, and his death produced a general despair which was chiefly responsible for the defeat. A Macedonian garrison was set over the Athenians, and occupied first Mounukhia and afterwards Peiraieus also and the Long Walls. [77]

{1.25.6} On the death of Antipatros Olympias came over from Epeiros, killed Aridaios, and for a time occupied the throne; but shortly afterwards she was besieged by Kassandros, taken and delivered up to the people. Of the acts of Kassandros when he came to the throne my narrative will deal only with such as concern the Athenians. He seized the fort of Panactum in Attica and also Salamis, and established as tyrant in Athens Demetrios the son of Phanostratos, a man who had won a reputation for wisdom. This tyrant was put down by Demetrios the son of Antigonos, a young man of strong Greek sympathies.

{1.25.7} But Kassandros, inspired by a deep hatred of the Athenians, made a friend of Lakhares, who up to now had been the popular champion, and induced him also to arrange a tyranny. We know no tyrant who proved so cruel to man and so impious to the gods. Although Demetrios the son of Antigonos was now at variance with the Athenian people, he notwithstanding deposed Lakhares too from his tyranny, who, on the capture of the fortifications, escaped to Boeotia. Lakhares took golden shields from the Acropolis, and stripped even the statue [agalma] of Athena of its removable ornament; he was accordingly suspected of being a very wealthy man,

{1.25.8} and was murdered by some men of Coronea for the sake of this wealth. After freeing the Athenians from tyrants Demetrios the son of Antigonos did not restore the Peiraieus to them immediately after the flight of Lakhares, but subsequently overcame them and brought a garrison even into the upper city, fortifying the place called the Museum [Mouseion]. This is a hill right opposite the Acropolis within the old city boundaries, where legend says Musaeus used to sing, and, dying of old age, was buried. Afterwards a monument also was erected here to a Syrian. At the time to which I refer Demetrios fortified and held it.

{1.26.1} But afterwards a few men called to mind their forefathers, and the contrast between their present position and the ancient glory of Athens, and without more ado forthwith elected Olympiodoros to be their general. He led them against the Macedonians [78] , both the old men and the youths, and trusted for military success more to enthusiasm than to strength. The Macedonians came out to meet him, but he overcame them, pursued them to the Museum, and captured the position.

{1.26.2} So Athens was delivered from the Macedonians, and though all the Athenians fought memorably, Leokritos the son of Protarkhos is said to have displayed most daring in the engagement. For he was the first to scale the fortification, and the first to rush into the Museum; and when he fell fighting, the Athenians did him great honor, dedicating his shield to Zeus of Freedom and in inscribing on it the name of Leokritos and his exploit.

{1.26.3} This is the greatest achievement of Olympiodoros, not to mention his success in recovering Peiraieus and Mounukhia; and again, when the Macedonians were raiding Eleusis he collected a force of Eleusinians and defeated the invaders. Still earlier than this, when Kassandros had invaded Attica, Olympiodoros sailed to Aetolia and induced the Aetolians to help. This allied force was the main reason why the Athenians escaped war with Kassandros. Olympiodoros has not only honors in Athens, both on the Acropolis and in the town hall but also a portrait at Eleusis. Likewise the people of Phokis who originate from Elateia dedicated at Delphi a bronze statue of Olympiodoros for help in their revolt from Kassandros.

{1.26.4} Near the statue of Olympiodoros stands a bronze statue [agalma] of Artemis surnamed Leukophryne, dedicated by the sons of Themistocles; for the Magnesians, whose city the King had given him to rule, hold Artemis Leukophryne in honor. But my narrative must not linger, as my task is a general description of all Greece. Endoios was an Athenian by birth and a pupil of Daidalos, who also, when Daidalos was in exile because of the death of Kalos, followed him to Crete. Made by him is a statue [agalma] of Athena seated, with an inscription that Kallias dedicated the image, but Endoios made it.

{1.26.5} There is also a building called the Erekhtheion. Before the entrance is an altar of Zeus the Most High, on which they never sacrifice a living creature but offer cakes, not being accustomed to use any wine either. Inside the entrance are altars, one to Poseidon, on which in obedience to an oracle they sacrifice also to Erekhtheus, the second to the hero Boutes, and the third to Hephaistos. On the walls are paintings representing members of the clan Boutadai; there is also inside—the building is double—sea-water in a cistern. This is no great marvel, for other inland regions have similar wells, in particular Aphrodisias in Caria. But this cistern is remarkable for the noise of waves it sends forth when a south wind blows. On the rock is the outline of a trident. Legend says that these appeared as evidence in support of Poseidon’s claim to the land.

{1.26.6} Both the city and the whole of the land are alike sacred to Athena; for even those who in their demes [dēmoi] have an established worship of other gods nevertheless hold Athena in honor. But the most holy thing that was so considered by all many years before the unification of the demes [dēmoi] is the statue [agalma] of Athena which is on what is now called the Acropolis, but in early days the Polis (City). A tale [phēmē] concerning it says that it fell from the sky [ouranos]; whether this is true or not I shall not discuss. A golden lamp [lúkhnon] for the goddess was made by Kallimakhos. [79]

{1.26.7} Having filled the lamp with oil, they wait until the same day next year, and the oil is sufficient for the lamp during the interval, although it is lit up both day and night. The wick in it is of Carpasian flax, [80] the only kind of flax which is fire-proof, and a bronze palm above the lamp reaches to the roof and draws off the smoke. The Kallimakhos who made the lamp, although not of the first rank of artists, was yet of unparalleled cleverness, so that he was the first to drill holes through stones, and gave himself the title of Refiner of Art, or perhaps others gave the title and he adopted it as his.

{1.27.1} In the temple of Athena Polias (of the City) is a wooden Hermes, said to have been dedicated by Kekrops, but not visible because of myrtle boughs. The votive offerings worth noting are, of the old ones, a folding chair made by Daidalos, Persian spoils, namely the breastplate of Masistios, who commanded the cavalry at Plataea, [81] and a scimitar said to have belonged to Mardonios. Now Masistios I know was killed by the Athenian cavalry. But Mardonios was opposed by the Lacedaemonians and was killed by a Spartan; so the Athenians could not have taken the scimitar to begin with, and furthermore the Lacedaemonians would scarcely have let them carry it off.

{1.27.2} About the olive they have nothing to say except that it was testimony the goddess produced when she contended for their land. Legend also says that when the Persians set Athens on fire the olive was burned down, but on the very day it was burned it grew again to the height of two cubits. Adjoining the temple of Athena is the temple of Pandrosos, the only one of the sisters to be faithful to the trust.

{1.27.3} I was much amazed at something that is not generally known, and so I will describe the circumstances. Two maidens dwell not far from the temple of Athena Polias, called by the Athenians Bearers of the Sacred Offerings. For a time they live with the goddess, but when the festival comes round they perform at night the following rites. Having placed on their heads what the priestess of Athena gives them to carry—neither she who gives nor they who carry have any knowledge what it is—the maidens descend by the natural underground passage that goes across the adjacent precincts, within the city, of Aphrodite in the Gardens. They leave down below what they carry and receive something else which they bring back covered up. These maidens they henceforth let go free, and take up to the Acropolis others in their place.

{1.27.4} By the temple of Athena is the simulacrum of an old woman about a cubit high, the inscription calling her a handmaid of Lysimakhe, and large bronze statues [agalmata] of men facing each other for a fight, one of whom they call Erekhtheus, the other Eumolpos; and yet those Athenians who are acquainted with antiquity must surely know that this victim of Erekhtheus was Immaradus, the son of Eumolpos.

{1.27.5} On the pedestal are also statues of Theainetos, who was seer to Tolmides, and of Tolmides himself, who when in command of the Athenian fleet inflicted severe damage upon the enemy, especially upon the Peloponnesians who dwell along the coast, burned the dock-yards at Gythion and captured Boiai, belonging to the ‘provincials’ [perioikoi], and the island of Cythera. He made a descent on Sikyonia, and, attacked by the citizens as he was ravaging the country, he put them to flight and chased them to the city. Returning afterwards to Athens, he conducted Athenian colonists to Euboea and Naxos and invaded Boeotia with an army. Having ravaged the greater part of the land and reduced Khairōneia by way of a siege, he advanced into the territory of Haliartos, where he was killed in battle and all his army defeated. [82] Such was the history of Tolmides that I learned.

{1.27.6} There are also old statues [agalmata] of Athena, no limbs of which indeed are missing, but they are rather black and too fragile to bear a blow. For they too were caught by the flames when the Athenians had gone on board their ships and the King captured the city emptied of its able-bodied inhabitants. There is also a boar-hunt (I do not know for certain whether it is the Calydonian boar) and Kyknos fighting with Hēraklēs. This Kyknos is said to have killed, among others, Lykos the Thracian, a prize having been proposed for the winner of the duel, but near the river Peneios he was himself killed by Hēraklēs.

{1.27.7} One of the Troizenian legends about Theseus is the following. When Hēraklēs visited Pittheus at Troizen, he laid aside his lion’s skin to eat his dinner, and there came in to see him some Troizenian children with Theseus, then about seven years of age. The story goes that when they saw the skin the other children ran away, but Theseus slipped out not much afraid, seized an axe from the servants and straightway attacked the skin in earnest, thinking it to be a lion.

{1.27.8} This is the first Troizenian legend about Theseus. The next is that Aigeus placed boots and a sword under a rock as tokens for the child, and then sailed away to Athens; Theseus, when sixteen years old, pushed the rock away and departed, taking what Aigeus had deposited. There is a representation of this legend on the Acropolis, everything in bronze except the rock.

{1.27.9} There is another deed [ergon] that they [= the Athenians] have represented-in-the-form-of-a-dedicatory-offering [ana-tithenai], and here is the tale [logos] that pertains to that deed. The land of the Cretans and especially the part that is next to the river Tethris was ravaged by a bull. You see, beasts [thēria] in ancient times were much more formidable for humans. For example, there is the Nemean lion. And the lion of Parnassus. And so many serpents [drakontes] in many parts of Greece [Hellas]. And then there are the boars of Calydon and Erymanthos.

Also the one from Krommyon in the land of Corinth. Itwas said that some [of these beasts] were sent up from the earth down below, that others were sacred [hiera] to the gods, while still others had been let loose for the punishment [tīmōriā] of humankind. In the case of this bull as well, the Cretans say that it was sent by Poseidon to their land because, although Minos was ruler [arkhōn] of the Greek [Hellēnikē] Sea, he did not give more honor [tīmē] to Poseidon than to the other gods.

{1.27.10} Anyway, they say that this bull was conveyed [komizesthai] from Crete to the Peloponnesus, and became one of what are called the Twelve Labors [āthloi] of Hēraklēs. When he was set loose on the Plain of the Argives he fled [pheugein] through the isthmus of Corinth and then fled [pheugein] further into the land of Attica as far as the Attic deme [dēmos] of Marathon, killing everyone he encountered, including Androgeōs, son of Minos. Minos then sailed against Athens with his navy, not believing that the Athenians were innocent of the death of Androgeōs, and oppressed them so badly that it was finally agreed that they [= the Athenians] would bring seven girls [parthenoi] and seven boys [paides] to the Minotaur who was said to dwell [oikeîn] in the Labyrinth [laburinthos] at Knossos. But, later on, Theseus is said to have driven the bull of Marathon to the Acropolis, where he sacrificed [thuein] it to the goddess [Athena]. And the dedicatory-offering [ana-thēma] [that signals this deed] is from the deme [dēmos] of Marathon.

{1.28.1} Why they set up a bronze statue of Kylon in spite of his plotting a tyranny [83] , I cannot say for certain; but I infer that it was because he was very beautiful to look upon, and of no undistinguished fame, having won an Olympian victory in the double foot-race, while he had married the daughter of Theagenes, tyrant of Megara.

{1.28.2} Above and beyond the things that I have listed so far in my inventory, there are two tithes [dekatai] dedicated by the Athenians in the aftermath of wars. There is first a bronze statue [agalma] of Athena, tithe [dekatē] from the [victory over the] Persians who landed at Marathon. It is the work [tekhnē] of Pheidias, but the reliefs upon the shield, including the fight between Centaurs and Lapithai, are said to be the metalwork of someone named Mys, [84] for whom they say Parrhasios son of Euenor designed this and the rest of his works [erga]. The point of the spear of this Athena and the crest of her helmet are already visible to those sailing to Athens as they pass by Cape Sounion. The other tithe [dekatē] is a bronze chariot, offered by the Boeotians and by the people of Khalkis in Euboea. [85] There are two other offerings, a statue of Pericles, the son of Xanthippos, and the best worth seeing of the works of Pheidias, the statue [agalma] of Athena called Lemnian after those who dedicated it.

{1.28.3} All the Acropolis is surrounded by a wall; a part was constructed by Kimon, son of Miltiades, but all the rest is said to have been built round it by the Pelasgians, who once lived under the Acropolis. The builders, they say, were Agrolas and Hyperbios. On inquiring who they were I could discover nothing except that they were Sicilians originally who emigrated to Akarnania.

{1.28.4} Descending, not to the lower city, but to just beneath the Propylaia [‘Gateway’], you see a fountain [pēgē] and near it a sacred space [hieron] of Apollo in a cave [spēlaion]. It was here, according to traditional-thinking [nomizein], that Apollo had sex with Kreousa, daughter of Erekhtheus. [There seems to be a gap here in the text.] When the Persians had landed in Attica, Philippides was sent as a messenger [from Marathon] to Lacedaemon. When he returned [to Marathon], he said that the Lacedaemonians had postponed sending out [any reinforcements], on the grounds that it was their custom not to go out to fight before the circle of the moon was full. Philippides went on to say that near Mount Parthenios he had been met by Pan, who told him that he is kindly-disposed [eu-nous] to the Athenians and would come as their ally [summakhos] to Marathon. This deity, then, gets honored [tīmâsthai] in return for this message [angeliā].

{1.28.5} There is also the Hill of Ares [Areiopagos], so named because Ares was the first to be tried here; my narrative has already told that he killed Halirrhothios, and what were his grounds for this act. Afterwards, they say, Orestes was tried for killing his mother, and there is an altar to Athena Areia ([‘Warlike’]), which he dedicated on being acquitted. The unhewn stones on which stand the defendants and the prosecutors, they call the stone of Hubris [‘Outrage’] and the stone of Anaideia [‘Shamelessness’].

{1.28.6} Close by is a sanctuary of the goddesses which the Athenians call the Semnai [‘the august ones’], but Hesiod in the Theogony calls them Erinyes [‘Furies’]. It was Aeschylus who first represented them with snakes in their hair. But on the statues [agalma] neither of these nor of any of the under-world deities is there anything terrible. There are statues [agalmata ]of Pluto [Ploutōn], Hermes, and Earth, by which sacrifice those who have received an acquittal on the Hill of Ares; sacrifices are also offered on other occasions by both citizens and aliens.

{1.28.7} Within the precincts is a monument to Oedipus, whose bones, after diligent inquiry, I found were brought from Thebes. The account of the death of Oedipus in the drama of Sophocles I am prevented from believing by Homer, who says that after the death of Oedipus Mekisteus came to Thebes and took part in the funeral games.

{1.28.8} The Athenians have other law courts as well, which are not so famous. We have the Parabystum and the Triangle; the former is in an obscure part of the city, and in it the most trivial cases are tried; the latter is named from its shape. The names of Green Court and Red Court, due to their colors, have lasted down to the present day. The largest court, to which the greatest numbers come, is called Heliaia. One of the other courts that deal with bloodshed is called […] Palladium, into which are brought cases of involuntary homicide. All are agreed that Demophon was the first to be tried there, but as to the nature of the charge accounts differ.

{1.28.9} It is reported that after the capture of Troy Diomedes was returning home with his fleet when night overtook them as in their voyage they were off Phaleron. The Argives landed, under the impression that it was hostile territory, the darkness preventing them from seeing that it was Attica. Thereupon they say that Demophon, he too being unaware of the facts and ignorant that those who had landed were Argives, attacked them and, having killed a number of them, went off with the Palladium. An Athenian, however, not seeing before him in the dark, was knocked over by the horse of Demophon, trampled upon and killed. Whereupon Demophon was brought to trial, some say by the relatives of the man who was trampled upon, others say by the Argive commonwealth.

{1.28.10} At Delphinium are tried those who claim that they have committed justifiable homicide, the plea put forward by Theseus when he was acquitted, after having killed Pallas, who had risen in revolt against him, and his sons. Before Theseus was acquitted it was the established custom among all men for the shedder of blood to go into exile, or, if he remained, to be put to a similar death. The Court in the Prytaneion, as it is called, where they try iron and all similar inanimate things, had its origin, I believe, in the following incident. It was when Erekhtheus was king of Athens that the ox-slayer first killed an ox at the altar of Zeus Polieus. Leaving the axe where it lay he went out of the land into exile, and the axe was forthwith tried and acquitted, and the trial has been repeated year by year down to the present.

{1.28.11} Furthermore, it is also said that inanimate objects have on occasion of their own accord inflicted righteous retribution upon men, of this the scimitar of Cambyses affords the best and most famous instance. [86] Near the sea at the Peiraieus is Phreattys. Here it is that men in exile, when a further charge has been brought against them in their absence, make their defense on a ship while the judges listen on land. The legend is that Teukros first defended himself in this way before Telamon, urging that he was guiltless in the matter of the death of Ajax. Let this account suffice for those who are interested to learn about the law courts.

{1.29.1} Near the Hill of Ares is shown a ship built for the procession of the Panathenaia. This ship, I suppose, has been surpassed in size by others, but I know of no builder who has beaten the vessel at Delos, with its nine banks of oars below the deck.

{1.29.2} Outside the city, too, in the demes [dēmoi] and on the roads, the Athenians have sanctuaries of the gods, and tombs of heroes and of men. The nearest is the Academy, once the property of a private individual, but in my time a gymnasium. As you go down to it you come to a precinct of Artemis, and wooden images of Ariste (Best) and Kalliste (Fairest). In my opinion, which is supported by the poems of Pamphos, these are surnames of Artemis. There is another account of them, which I know but shall omit. Then there is a small temple, into which every year on fixed days they carry the statue [agalma] of Dionysus Eleuthereus.

{1.29.3} Such are their sanctuaries here, and of the tombs the first is that of Thrasyboulos son of Lykos, in all respects the greatest of all famous Athenians, whether they lived before him or after him. The greater number of his achievements I shall pass by, but the following facts will suffice to bear out my assertion. He put down what is known as the tyranny of the Thirty, [87] setting out from Thebes with a force amounting at first to sixty men; he also persuaded the Athenians, who were torn by factions, to be reconciled, and to abide by their compact. His is the first tomb, and after it come those of Pericles, Khabrias, [88] and Phormion. [89]

{1.29.4} There is also a monument [mnēma] for all the Athenians who happened to die in war, whether in battles [makhai] at sea or on land, except for those who had their struggle [agōnizesthai] at Marathon. These, on account of their manly valor [andragathiā], have their burial-places [taphoi] on the field-of-battle [khōrā], but the others lie along the road to the Academy [Akadēmiā], and over their burial-places [taphoi] stand slabs [stēlai] that say [by way of inscriptions] the name and the deme [dēmos] of each. First were buried those who in Thrace, after a victorious advance as far as Drabeskos, [90] were unexpectedly attacked by the Edonians and slaughtered. There is also a legend that they were struck by lightning.

{1.29.5} Among the generals were Leagros, to whom was entrusted chief command of the army, and Sophanes of Decelea, who killed when he came to the help of the Aeginetans Eurybates the Argive, who won the prize in the pentathlon [91] at the Nemean games. This was the third expedition which the Athenians dispatched out of Greece. For against Priam and the Trojans war was made with one accord by all the Greeks; but by themselves the Athenians sent armies, first with Iolaos to Sardinia, secondly to what is now Ionia, and thirdly on the present occasion to Thrace.

{1.29.6} Before the monument is a slab on which are horsemen fighting. Their names are Melanopos and Makartatos, who met their death fighting against the Lacedaemonians and Boeotians on the borders of Eleon and Tanagra. There is also a tomb of Thessalian horsemen who, by reason of an old alliance, came when the Peloponnesians with Arkhidamos invaded Attica with an army for the first time, [92] and close by that of Cretan bowmen. Again there are monuments to Athenians: to Cleisthenes, who invented the system of the phulai at present existing, [93] and to horsemen who died when the Thessalians shared the fortune of war with the Athenians.

{1.29.7} Here too lie the men of Kleone, who came with the Argives into Attica; [94] the occasion whereof I shall set forth when in the course of my narrative I come to the Argives. There is also the tomb of the Athenians who fought against the Aeginetans before the Persian invasion. It was surely a just decree even for a democracy when the Athenians actually allowed slaves a public funeral, and to have their names inscribed on a slab, which declares that in the war they proved good men and true to their masters. There are also monuments of other men, their fields of battle lying in various regions. Here lie the most renowned of those who went against Olynthus, [95] and Melesandros who sailed with a fleet along the Maeander into upper Caria; [96]

{1.29.8} also those who died in the war with Kassandros, and the Argives who once fought as the allies of Athens. It is said that the alliance between the two peoples was brought about thus. Sparta was once shaken by an earthquake, and the Helots seceded to Ithome. [97] After the secession the Lacedaemonians sent for help to various places, including Athens, which dispatched picked troops under the command of Kimon, the son of Miltiades. These the Lacedaemonians dismissed, because they suspected them.

{1.29.9} The Athenians regarded the insult as intolerable, and on their way back made an alliance with the Argives, the immemorial enemies of the Lacedaemonians. Afterwards, when a battle was imminent at Tanagra, [98] the Athenians opposing the Boeotians and Lacedaemonians, the Argives reinforced the Athenians. For a time the Argives had the better, but night came on and took from them the assurance of their victory, and on the next day the Lacedaemonians had the better, as the Thessalians betrayed the Athenians.

{1.29.10} It occurred to me to tell of the following men also, firstly Apollodoros, commander of the mercenaries, who was an Athenian dispatched by Arsites, satrap of Phrygia by the Hellespont, and saved their city for the Perinthians when Philip had invaded their territory with an army. [99] He, then, is buried here, and also Euboulos [100] the son of Spintharos, along with men who though brave were not attended by good fortune; some attacked Lakhares when he was tyrant, others planned the capture of the Peiraieus when in the hands of a Macedonian garrison, but before the deed could be accomplished were betrayed by their accomplices and put to death.

{1.29.11} Here also lie those who fell near Corinth. [101] The god [theos] showed most distinctly here and again at Leuktra [102] that those whom the Greeks call brave are as nothing if Good Fortune be not with them, seeing that the Lacedaemonians, who had on this occasion overcome Corinthians and Athenians, and furthermore Argives and Boeotians, were afterwards at Leuktra so utterly overthrown by the Boeotians alone. After those who were killed in Corinth, we come across elegiac verses declaring that one and the same slab has been erected to those who died in Euboea and Chios, [103] and to those who perished in the remote parts of the continent of Asia, or in Sicily.

{1.29.12} The names of the generals are inscribed with the exception of Nikias, and among the private soldiers are included the Plataeans along with the Athenians. This is the reason why Nikias was passed over, and my account is identical with that of Philistos, who says that while Demosthenes made a truce for the others and excluded himself, attempting to commit suicide when taken prisoner, Nikias voluntarily submitted to the surrender. [104] For this reason Nikias had not his name inscribed on the slab, being condemned as a voluntary prisoner and an unworthy soldier.

{1.29.13} On another slab are the names of those who fought in the region of Thrace and at Megara [105] , and when Alcibiades persuaded the Arcadians in Mantineia and the Eleians to revolt from the Lacedaemonians [106] , and of those who were victorious over the Syracusans before Demosthenes arrived in Sicily. Here were buried also those who fought in the sea-fights near the Hellespont [107] , those who opposed the Macedonians at Khairōneia [108] , those who were killed at Delium in the territory of Tanagra [109] , the men Leosthenes led into Thessaly, those who sailed with Kimon to Cyprus [110] , and of those who with Olympiodoros [111] expelled the garrison not more than thirteen men.

{1.29.14} The Athenians declare that when the Romans were waging a border war they sent a small force to help them, and later on five Attic warships assisted the Romans in a naval action against the Carthaginians. Accordingly these men also have their tomb here. The achievements of Tolmides and his men, and the manner of their death, I have already set forth, and any who are interested may take note that they are buried along this road. Here lie too those who with Kimon achieved the great feat of winning a land and naval victory on one and the same day. [112]

{1.29.15} Here also are buried Konon and Timotheus, father and son, the second pair thus related to accomplish illustrious deeds, Miltiades and Kimon being the first; Zeno too, the son of Mnaseas and Khrysippos [113] of Soloi, Nikias the son of Nikomedes, the best painter from life of all his contemporaries, Harmodios and Aristogeiton, who killed Hipparkhos, the son of Peisistratos; there are also two orators, Ephialtes, who was chiefly responsible for the abolition of the privileges of the Areiopagos [114] , and Lycurgus (Lykourgos), [115] the son of Lykophron;

{1.29.16} Lycurgus (Lykourgos) provided for the state-treasury six thousand five hundred talents more than Pericles, the son of Xanthippos, collected, and furnished for the procession of the goddess golden figures of Nike and ornaments for a hundred girls; for war he provided arms and missiles, besides increasing the fleet to four hundred warships. As for buildings, he completed the theater that others had begun, while during his political life he built ship-sheds [neōs oikoi] at the dockyards in Peiraieus. He built also the gymnasium near what is called the Lyceum. Everything made of silver or gold became part of the plunder that Laoites made away with when he became tyrant, but the buildings remained to my time.

{1.30.1} Before the entrance to the Academy is an altar to Eros, with an inscription that Kharmos was the first Athenian to dedicate an altar to that god. The altar within the city called the altar of Ant-eros they say was dedicated by resident aliens, because the Athenian Meles, spurning the love of Timagoras, a resident alien, ordered him to ascend to the highest point of the rock and cast himself down. Now Timagoras took no account of his life, and was ready to gratify the youth in any of his requests, so he went and cast himself down. When Meles saw that Timagoras was dead, he suffered such pangs of remorse that he threw himself from the same rock and so died. From this time the resident aliens worshipped as Ant-eros the avenging spirit of Timagoras.

{1.30.2} In the Academy is an altar to Prometheus, and from it they run to the city carrying burning torches. The contest is while running to keep the torch still alight; if the torch of the first runner goes out, he has no longer any claim to victory, but the second runner has. If his torch also goes out, then the third man is the victor. If all the torches go out, no one is left to be winner. There is an altar to the Muses, and another to Hermes, and one insider to Athena, and they have built one to Hēraklēs. There is also an olive tree, accounted to be the second that appeared.

{1.30.3} Not far from the Academy is the monument of Plato, to whom the god [theos] foretold [pro-sēmainein] that he would be the best [aristos] when it comes to philosophy. The manner of the foretelling [pro-sēmainein] was this. On the night before Plato was to become his pupil Socrates dreamed that saw a swan [kuknos] fly into his insides [kolpos]. Now the swan is a bird with a reputation for the art of the Muses [mousikē], because, they say, a practitioner of the art of the Muses [mousikos] by the name of Swan [Kuknos] became king of the Ligyes on the other side of the Eridanos beyond the Celtic territory, and after his death by the will of Apollo he was changed into the bird. I am ready to believe that a practitioner of the art of the Muses [mousikos] became king of the Ligyes, but I cannot believe that a bird was generated out of a man.

{1.30.4} In this part of the country is seen the tower of Timon, the only man to see that there is no way to be happy except to shun other men. There is also pointed out a place called the Kolōnos Hippios [‘Hill of Horses’], the first point in Attica, they say, that Oedipus reached—this account too differs from that given by Homer, but it is nevertheless current tradition—and an altar to Poseidon Hippios [‘Horse God’], and to Athena Hippia [‘Horse Goddess’], and a hero-shrine [hērōion] that is sacred to Peirithoos and Theseus, Oedipus and Adrastos. The grove and temple of Poseidon were burned by Antigonos [116] when he invaded Attica, who at other times also ravaged the land of the Athenians.

{1.31.1} The small demes [dēmoi] of Attica, which were founded severally as chance would have it, presented the following noteworthy features. At Alimus is a sanctuary of Demeter Lawgiver and of the Maiden, and at Zoster (Waistband) on the coast is an altar to Athena, as well as to Apollo, to Artemis and to Leto. The story is that Leto did not give birth to her children here, but loosened her waistband with a view to her delivery, and the place received its name from this incident. Prospalta has also a sanctuary of the Maiden and Demeter, and Anagyrus a sanctuary of the Mother of the gods. At Cephale the chief cult is that of the Dioskouroi, for the in habitants call them the Great gods.

{1.31.2} At Prasiai is a temple of Apollo. Hither they say are sent the first-fruits of the Hyperboreans, and the Hyperboreans are said to hand them over to the Arimaspi, the Arimaspi to the Issedones, from these the Scythians bring them to Sinope, thence they are carried by Greeks to Prasiai, and the Athenians take them to Delos. The first-fruits are hidden in wheat straw, and they are known of none. There is at Prasiai a monument to Erysikhthon, who died on the voyage home from Delos, after the sacred mission thither.

{1.31.3} How Amphiktyon banished Cranaus, his kinsman by marriage and king of Athens, I have already related. They say that fleeing with his supporters to the deme [dēmos] of Lamptrai he died and was buried there, and at the present day there is a monument to Kranaos at Lamptrai. At Potamoi in Attica is also the tomb of Ion the son of Xouthos—for he too dwelled among the Athenians and was their commander-in-chief in the war with Eleusis.

{1.31.4} Such is the legend. Phlya and Myrrhinus have altars of Apollo Dionysodotos, Artemis Light-bearer, Dionysus Flower-god, the Ismenian nymphs and Earth, whom they name the Great goddess; a second temple contains altars of Demeter Anesidora (Sender-up of Gifts), Zeus Ktesios (God of Gain), Tithrone Athena, the Maiden First-born and the goddesses styled August. The wooden image at Myrrhinοus is of Κolainis.

{1.31.5} Athmonia worships Artemis Amarysia. On inquiry I discovered that the guides knew nothing about these deities, so I give my own conjecture. Amarynthos is a town in Euboea, the inhabitants of which worship Amarysia, while the festival of Amarysia which the Athenians celebrate is no less splendid than the Euboean. The name of the goddess, I think, came to Athmonia in this fashion and the Kolainis in Myrrhinous is named after Kolainos. I have already written that many of the inhabitants of the demes [dēmoi] say that they were ruled by kings even before the reign of Kekrops. Now Kolainos, say the Myrrhinusians, is the name of a man who ruled before Kekrops became king.

{1.31.6} There is a deme [dēmos] called Akharnai, where they worship Apollo Agyieus (God of Streets) and Hēraklēs, and there is an altar of Athena Hygieia. And they call upon the name of Athena Horse-goddess and Dionysus Singer and Dionysus Ivy, saying that the plant ivy first appeared there.

{1.32.1} The Attic mountains are Pentelikos, where there are quarries, Parnes, where there is hunting of wild boars and of bears, and Hymettos, which grows the most suitable pasture for bees, except that of the Alazones. [117] For these people have actually bees ranging free, tamely following the other creatures when they go to pasture. These bees are not kept shut up in hives, and they work in any part of the land they happen to visit. They produce a solid mass from which you cannot separate either wax or honey. Such then is its nature.

{1.32.2} The Athenians have also statues [agalmata]of gods on their mountains. On Pentelikos is a statue [agalma] of Athena, on Hymettos one of Zeus Hymettios. There are altars both of Zeus Rain-god and of Apollo Foreseer. On Parnes is a bronze Zeus Parnethios, and an altar to Zeus Semaleus (Sign-giving). There is on Parnes another altar, and on it they make sacrifice, calling Zeus sometimes Rain-god, sometimes Averter of Ills. Ankhesmos is a mountain of no great size, with a statue [agalma] of Zeus Ankhesmios.

{1.32.3} Before turning to a description of the islands, I follow up further on matters having to do with the demes [dēmoi] [of Attica]. There is a deme [dēmos] called Marathon, equally distant from the city [polis] of the Athenians and from Karystos in Euboea. It was at this point in Attica that the foreigners [barbaroi, = Persians] landed, were defeated [krateîsthai] in battle, and lost some of their ships as they were trying to pull away [from the shore]. [118] On the plain [pedíon] is the tomb [taphos] of the Athenians, and upon it are slabs [stēlai] with [inscriptions of] the names of those killed, organized by way of their subdivisions [phūlai]; and there is another tomb for the men of Plataea from Boeotia and also for the slaves. You see, slaves too fought there, and it was the first time that this happened.

{1.32.4} There is also an individual monument [mnēma] for one man, Miltiades son of Kimon, although his end [teleutē] happened later, after he had failed to capture Paros and for this reason had been put on trial by the Athenians. At this place [= Marathon] every night you can hear horses neighing and you can sense that men are fighting in combat. No one who has deliberately set out to experience this vision [théā] in-full-view [en-argēs] has ever really had any success, but still, if something is experienced in some alternative way by someone who has no ear for such things, this is no cause for anger [orgē] on the part of the spirits [daimones]. The people of Marathon worship [sebesthai] both those who died in the fighting, calling them heroes [hērōes], and also [the hero] Marathon, from whom the deme [dēmos] derives its name, and then Hēraklēs, saying that they were the first among the Greeks to establish-the-custom-of-venerating [nomizein] him as a god [theos].

{1.32.5} They [= the people of Marathon] tell about something that happened at the battle [makhē] [of Marathon]. It was the presence of a man who had the looks [eidos] of a farmer [agr-oikos]—and implements [skeuē] to match. Wielding a plough [arotron] he slaughtered with it many of the foreigners [barbaroi, = Persians], and then, after having done what-was-done [ergon] he disappeared [= became a-phanēs]. When the Athenians consulted the god [Apollo], he did not give-an-oracular-answer [khrēsai] with regard to him [= the man with the plough] but simply commanded them to honor [tīmân] Ekhetlaios (= he of the plough-handle) as a hero [hērōs]. A trophy-column [tropaion] of white marble has been made [to mark the turning-point or tropaion of the battle of Marathon]. The Athenians say that they buried the Persians, since it is a universally [pantōs] holy-thing [hosion] for the corpse [nekros] of a human to be covered by the earth, but I could not find any tomb [taphos] for them. There was neither a tumulus [khōma] nor any other marker [sēmeion] to be seen. They must have carried them [= the dead Persians], just as they found them, to some ditch and tossed them in.

{1.32.6} In Marathon is a spring [pēgē] called Makaria, and what they say about it is as follows. When Hēraklēs left Tiryns, fleeing from Eurystheus, he went to live with his friend Keyx, who was king of Trakhis. When Hēraklēs departed the life of humans [anthrōpoi], Eurystheus demanded his children. But the king of Trakhis sent them to Athens, saying that he was weak while Theseus was hardly powerless to protect them. The arrival of the children as suppliants [hiketai] caused for the first time war between Peloponnesians and Athenians, since Theseus refused to give them up [= the children of Hēraklēs] at the demand of Eurystheus. And they say that an oracle [khrēsmos] was given the Athenians that one of the children of Hēraklēs must die a voluntary death, or else victory [nīkē] could not be theirs. Then Makaria, daughter of Deianeira and Hēraklēs, slaughtered [apo-sphazein] herself and gave to the Athenians the upper hand [kratos] in the war and to the spring [pēgē] her own name.

{1.32.7} There is at Marathon a lake [limnē] which for the most part is marshy [hel-ōdēs]. Into this lake fell the foreigners [barbaroi, = the Persians] as they were turning and running [after the battle], since they did not know their way around the roads, and it is said that much of the slaughter [phonos] that followed was because of this. Above the lake are the stone stables of the horses of Artaphernes, and there are marks [sēmeia] of his tent [skēnē] on the rocks. Out of the lake flows a river, providing near the lake itself water suitable for cattle, but near its mouth it becomes saline and full of sea fish. A little beyond the plain is the Hill of Pan and a Cave of Pan, which is worth seeing [théā]. The entrance to it is narrow, but farther in are chambers and baths and the so-called Pan’s herd of goats, which are rocks that look very much like goats.

{1.33.1} At some distance from Marathon is Brauron, where, according to the legend, Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, landed carrying the statue [agalma] of Artemis when she fled from Tauroi; leaving the statue [agalma] there she came to Athens also and afterwards to Argos. There is indeed an old wooden image of Artemis here, but who in my opinion have the one taken from the foreigners I will set forth in another place.

{1.33.2} About sixty stadium-lengths from Marathon as you go along the road by the sea to Oropos stands Rhamnous. The houses [oikēseis] for human habitation are on the coast, but a little way inland is a sacred space [hieron] of Nemesis, who of all the gods [theoi] is the most inexorable toward humans who-commit-outrage [hubristai]. It is thought that the wrath [mēnīma] of this goddess [theos feminine] countered the foreigners [barbaroi, = Persians] who landed at Marathon. Scornfully thinking that nothing stood in the way of their capturing Athens, they were bringing a piece of Parian marble for the making [poiēsis] of a trophy [tropaion], as if their task were already finished.

{1.33.3} Of this marble Pheidias made a statue [agalma] of Nemesis, and on the head of the goddess [theos feminine] is a garland [stephanos] picturing deer and small statues [agalmata] of Nike. In her left hand she holds an apple branch, in her right hand a cup on which are crafted the figures of Aethiopians. As to the Aethiopians, I could hazard no guess myself, nor could I accept the statement of those who are convinced that the Aethiopians have been carved upon the cup because of the river Okeanos. For the Aethiopians, they say, dwell near it, and Okeanos is the father of Nemesis.

{1.33.4} It is not the river Okeanos, but the farthest part of the sea navigated by man, near which dwell the Iberians and the Celts, and Okeanos surrounds the island of Britain. But of the Aethiopians beyond Syene, those who live farthest in the direction of the Red Sea are the Ichthyophagoi (Fish-eaters), and the gulf round which they live is called after them. The most righteous of them inhabit the city Meroe and what is called the Aethiopian plain. These are they who show the Table of the Sun, [119] and they have neither sea nor river except the Nile.

{1.33.5} There are other Aethiopians who are neighbors of the Mauroi and extend as far as the Nasamones. For the Nasamones, whom Herodotus calls the Atlantes, and those who profess to know the measurements of the earth, named the Lixitai, are the Libyans who live the farthest close to Mount Atlas, and they do not till the ground at all, but live on wild vines. But neither these Aethiopians nor yet the Nasamones have any river. For the water near Atlas, which provides a beginning to three streams, does not make any of the streams a river, as the sand swallows it all up at once. So the Aethiopians dwell near no river Okeanos.

{1.33.6} The water from Atlas is muddy, and near the source were crocodiles of not less than two cubits, which when the men approached dashed down into the spring. The thought has occurred to many that it is the reappearance of this water out of the sand which gives the Nile to Egypt. Mount Atlas is so high that its peaks are said to touch the sky [ouranos], but is inaccessible because of the water and the presence everywhere of trees. Its region indeed near the Nasamones is known, but we know of nobody yet who has sailed along the parts facing the sea. I must now resume.

{1.33.7} Neither this nor any other ancient statue [agalma] of Nemesis has wings, for not even the holiest wooden images of the Smyrnaeans have them, but later artists, convinced that the goddess manifests herself most as a consequence of love, give wings to Nemesis as they do to Love. I will now go on to describe what is figured on the pedestal of the statue [agalma], having made this preface for the sake of clearness. The Greeks say that Nemesis was the mother of Helen, while Leda suckled and nursed her. The father of Helen the Greeks like everybody else hold to be not Tyndareus but Zeus.

{1.33.8} Having heard this legend Pheidias has represented Helen as being led to Nemesis by Leda, and he has represented Tyndareus and his children with a man Hippeus by name standing by with a horse. There are Agamemnon and Menelaos and Pyrrhos, the son of Achilles and first husband of Hermione, the daughter of Helen. Orestes was passed over because of his crime against his mother, yet Hermione stayed by his side in everything and bore him a child. Next upon the pedestal is one called Epochus and another youth; the only thing I heard about them was that they were brothers of Oinoe, from whom the deme [dēmos] has its name.

{1.34.1} The land of Oropus, between Attica and the land of Tanagra, which originally belonged to Boeotia, in our time belongs to the Athenians, who always fought for it but never won secure possession until Philip gave it to them after taking Thebes. The city is on the coast and affords nothing remarkable to record. About twelve stadium-lengths from the city is a sanctuary of Amphiaraos.

{1.34.2} Legend says that when Amphiaraos was exiled from Thebes the earth opened and swallowed both him and his chariot. Only they say that the incident did not happen here, the place called the Chariot being on the road from Thebes to Khalkis. The divinity of Amphiaraos was first established among the Oropians, from whom afterwards all the Greeks received the cult. I can enumerate other men also born at this time who are worshipped among the Greeks as gods; some even have cities dedicated to them, such as Elaious in Chersonnesus dedicated to Protesilaos, and Lebadea of the Boeotians dedicated to Trophonios. The Oropians have both a temple and a white marble statue [agalma] of Amphiaraos.

{1.34.3} The altar shows parts. One part is to Hēraklēs, Zeus, and Apollo Healer, another is given up to heroes and to wives of heroes, the third is to Hestia and Hermes and Amphiaraos and the children of Amphilokhos. But Alkmaion, because of his treatment of Eriphyle, is honored neither in the temple of Amphiaraos nor yet with Amphilokhos. The fourth portion of the altar is to Aphrodite and Panacea, and further to Iaso, Hygieia and Athena Healer. The fifth is dedicated to the nymphs and to Pan, and to the rivers Akhelōos and Kephisos. The Athenians too have an altar to Amphilokhos in the city, and there is at Mallus in Cilicia an oracle of his which is the most trustworthy of my day.

{1.34.4} The Oropians have near the temple a spring, which they call the Spring of Amphiaraos; they neither sacrifice into it nor are accustomed to use it for purifications or for lustral water. But when a man has been cured of a disease through a response the custom is to throw silver and coined gold into the spring, for by this way they say that Amphiaraos rose up after he had become a god. Iophon of Knossos, a guide, produced responses in hexameter verse, saying that Amphiaraos gave them to the Argives who were sent against Thebes. These verses unrestrainedly appealed to popular taste. Except those whom they say Apollo inspired of old none of the seers uttered oracles, but they were good at explaining dreams and interpreting the flights of birds and the entrails of victims.

{1.34.5} My opinion is that Amphiaraos devoted himself most to the exposition of dreams. It is manifest that, when his divinity was established, it was a dream oracle that he set up. One who has come to consult Amphiaraos is accustomed first to purify himself. The mode of purification is to sacrifice to the god, and they sacrifice not only to him but also to all those whose names are on the altar. And when all these things have been first done, they sacrifice a ram, and, spreading the skin under them, go to sleep and await enlightenment in a dream.

{1.35.1} There are islands not far from Attica. Of the one called the Island of Patroklos I have already given an account. [120] There is another when you have sailed past Sounion with Attica on the left. On this they say that Helen landed after the capture of Troy,

{1.35.2} and for this reason the name of the island is Helene. Salamis lies over against Eleusis, and stretches as far as the territory of Megara. It is said that the first to give this name to the island was Cychreus, who called it after his mother Salamis, the daughter of Asopos, and afterwards it was colonized by the Aeginetans with Telamon. Philaios the son of Eurysakes the son of Ajax, is said to have handed the island over to the Athenians, having been made an Athenian by them. Many years afterwards the Athenians drove out all the Salaminians, having discovered that they had been guilty of treachery in the war with Kassandros, [121] and mainly of set purpose had surrendered to the Macedonians. They sentenced to death Aiskhetades, who on this occasion had been elected general for Salamis, and they swore never to forget the treachery of the Salaminians.

{1.35.3} There are still the remains of a marketplace, a temple of Ajax and his statue [agalma] in ebony. Even at the present day the Athenians pay honors to Ajax himself and to Eurysaces, for there is an altar of Eurysaces also in Athens. In Salamis is shown a stone not far from the harbor, on which they say that Telamon sat when he gazed at the ship in which his children were sailing away to Aulis to take part in the joint expedition of the Greeks.

{1.35.4} Those who dwell about Salamis say that it was when Ajax died that the flower first appeared in their country. It is white and tinged with red, both flower and leaves being smaller than those of the lily; there are letters on it like to those on the iris. About the judgment concerning the armor I heard a story of the Aeolians who afterwards settled at Ilion, to the effect that when Odysseus suffered shipwreck the armor was cast ashore near the tomb of Ajax. As to the hero’s size, a Mysian was my informant.

{1.35.5} He said that the sea flooded the side of the tomb facing the beach and made it easy a enter the tomb, and he told me to form an estimate of the size of the corpse in the following way. The bones on his knees, called by doctors the knee-pan, were in the case of Ajax as big as the discus of a boy in the pentathlon. I saw nothing to wonder at in the stature of those Celts who live farthest of on the borders of the land which is uninhabited because of the cold; these people, the Cabares, are no bigger than Egyptian corpses. But I will relate all that appeared to me worth seeing.

{1.35.6} For the Magnesians on the Lethaios, Protophanes, one of the citizens, won at Olympia in one day victories in the pankration [122] and in wrestling. Into the tomb of this man robbers entered, thinking to gain some advantage, and after the robbers people came in to see the corpse, which had ribs not separated but joined together from the shoulders to the smallest ribs, those called by doctors bastard. Before the city of the Milesians is an island called Lade, and from it certain islets are detached. One of these they call the islet of Asterios, and say that Asterios was buried in it, and that Asterios was the son of Anax, and Anax the son of Earth. Now the corpse is not less than ten cubits.

{1.35.7} But what really caused me surprise is this. There is a small city of upper Lydia called The Doors of Temenus. There a crest broke away in a storm, and there appeared bones the shape of which led one to suppose that they were human, but from their size one would never have thought it. At once the story spread among the multitude that it was the corpse of Geryon, the son of Khrysaor, and that the seat also was his. For there is a man’s seat carved on a rocky spur of the mountain. And a torrent they called the river Okeanos, and they said that men ploughing met with the horns of cattle, for the story is that Geryon reared excellent cows.

{1.35.8} And when I criticized the account and pointed out to them that Geryon is at Gadeira, where there is, not his tomb, but a tree showing different shapes, the guides of the Lydians related the true story, that the corpse is that of Hyllos, a son of Earth, from whom the river is named. They also said that Hēraklēs from his sojourning with Omphale called his son Hyllos after the river.

{1.36.1} But I will return to my subject. In Salamis is a sanctuary of Artemis, and also a trophy erected in honor of the victory which Themistocles the son of Neokles won for the Greeks. [123] There is also a sanctuary of Cychreus. When the Athenians were fighting the Persians at sea, a serpent is said to have appeared in the fleet, and the god in an oracle told the Athenians that it was Cychreus the hero.

{1.36.2} Before Salamis there is an island called Psyttalea. Here they say that about four hundred of the Persians landed, and when the fleet of Xerxes was defeated, these also were killed after the Greeks had crossed over to Psyttalea. The island has no artistic statue [agalma], only some roughly carved-wooden-images [xoana] of Pan.

{1.36.3} As you go to Eleusis from Athens along what the Athenians call the Sacred Way you see the tomb of Anthemokritos. [124] The Megarians committed against him a most wicked deed, for when he had come as a herald to forbid them to encroach upon the land in future they put him to death. For this act the wrath of the Two Goddesses lies upon them even to this day, for they are the only Greeks that not even the emperor Hadrian could make more prosperous.

{1.36.4} After the tombstone of Anthemokritos comes the tomb of Molottos, who was deemed worthy of commanding the Athenians when they crossed into Euboea [125] to reinforce Plutarch, [126] and also a place called Skiron, which received its name for the following reason. The Eleusinians were making war against Erekhtheus when there came from Dodona a seer called Skiros, who also set up at Phaleron the ancient sanctuary of Athena Skiras. When he fell in the fighting the Eleusinians buried him near a torrent, and the hero has given his name to both place and torrent.

{1.36.5} Close by is the tomb of Kephisodoros, who was champion of the people and opposed to the utmost Philip, the son of Demetrios, king of Macedon. Kephisodoros induced to become allies of Athens two kings, Attalos the Mysian and Ptolemy the Egyptian, and, of the self-governing peoples, the Aetolians with the Rhodians and the Cretans among the islanders.

{1.36.6} As the reinforcements from Egypt, Mysia, and Crete were for the most part too late, and the Rhodians, whose strength lay only in their fleet, were of little help against the Macedonian men-at-arms, Kephisodoros sailed with other Athenians to Italy and begged aid of the Romans. [127] They sent a force and a general, who so reduced Philip and the Macedonians that afterwards Perseus, the son of Philip, lost his throne and was himself taken prisoner to Italy. This Philip was the son of Demetrios. Demetrios was the first of this house to hold the throne of Macedon, having put to death Alexander, son of Kassandros, as I have related in a former part of my account.

{1.37.1} After the tomb of Kephisodoros is the tomb of Heliodoros Halis. [128] A portrait of this man is also to be seen in the great temple of Athena. Here too is the tomb of Themistocles, son of Poliarkhos, and grandson of the Themistocles who fought the sea fight against Xerxes and the Persians. Of the later descendants I shall mention none except Acestium. She, her father Xenokles, his father Sophocles, and his father Leon, all of them up to her great-grandfather Leon won the honor of being torch-bearer, and in her own lifetime she saw as torch-bearers, first her brother Sophocles, after him her husband Themistocles, and after his death her son Theophrastus. Such was the fortune, they say, that happened to her.

{1.37.2} A little way past the tomb of Themistocles is a precinct sacred to Lacius, a hero, a deme [dēmos] called after him Lakiadai, and the tomb of Nikokles of Tarentum, who won a unique reputation as a harpist. There is also an altar of Zephyrus and a sanctuary of Demeter and her daughter. With them Athena and Poseidon are worshipped. There is a legend that in this place Phytalus welcomed Demeter in his home, for which act the goddess gave him the fig tree. This story is borne out by the inscription on the tomb of Phytalus:

Hero and king, Phytalus here welcome gave to Demeter, August goddess, when first she created fruit of the harvest;
Sacred fig is the name which mortal men have assigned it.
Whence Phytalos and his lineage have received honors immortal.

{1.37.3} Before you cross the Kephisos you come to the tomb of Theodoros, the best tragic actor of his day. [129] By the river is a statue [agalma] of Mnesimache, and a votive statue [anathēma] of her son cutting his hair as a gift for Kephisos. That this habit has existed from ancient times among all the Greeks may be inferred from the poetry of Homer, [130] who makes Peleus vow that on the safe return of Achilles from Troy he will cut off the young man’s hair as a gift for the Spercheus.

{1.37.4} Across the Kephisos is an ancient altar of Zeus Meilichios (Gracious). At this altar Theseus obtained purification at the hands of the descendants of Phytalus after killing brigands, including Sinis who was related to him through Pittheus. Here is the tomb of Theodektes [131] of Phaselis, and also that of Mnesitheus. They say that he was a skillful physician and dedicated statues [agalmata], among which is a representation of Iakkhos. On the road stands a small temple called that of Cyamites. [132] I cannot state for certain whether he was the first to sow beans, or whether they gave this name to a hero because they may not attribute to Demeter the discovery of beans. Whoever has been initiated at Eleusis or has read what are called the Orphica [133] knows what I mean.

{1.37.5} Of the tombs, the largest and most beautiful are that of a Rhodian who settled in Athens, and the one made by the Macedonian Harpalos, who ran away from Alexander and crossed with a fleet from Asia to Europe. On his arrival in Athens he was arrested by the citizens, but ran away after bribing among others the friends of Alexander. But before this he married Pythonikē, whose family I do not know, but she was a courtesan in Athens and in Corinth. His love for her was so great that when she died he made her a tomb which is the most noteworthy of all the old Greek tombs.

{1.37.6} There is a sanctuary in which are set statues [agalmata] of Demeter, her daughter, Athena, and Apollo. At the first it was built in honor of Apollo only. For legend says that Kephalos, the son of Deion, having helped Amphitryon to destroy the Teleboans, was the first to dwell in that island which now is called after him Kephallenia, and that he resided till that time at Thebes, exiled from Athens because he had killed his wife Procris. In the tenth generation afterwards Khalkinos and Daitos, descendants of Kephalos, sailed to Delphi and asked the god for permission to return to Athens.

{1.37.7} He ordered them first to sacrifice to Apollo in that spot in Attica where they should see a man-of-war running on the land. When they reached the mountain called the Many-colored Mountain a snake was seen hurrying into its hole. In this place they sacrificed to Apollo; afterwards they came to Athens and the Athenians made them citizens. After this is a temple of Aphrodite, before which is a note worthy wall of unfinished stone.

{1.38.1} The streams called Rheitoi are rivers only in so far as they are currents, for their water is sea water. It is a reasonable belief that they flow beneath the ground from the Euripus of the people of Kalkhis, and fall into a sea of a lower level. They are said to be sacred to the Maiden and to Demeter, and only the priests of these goddesses are permitted to catch the fish in them. Anciently, I learn, these streams were the boundaries between the land of the Eleusinians and that of the other Athenians,

{1.38.2} and the first to dwell on the other side of the Rheitoi was Crocon, where at the present day is what is called the palace of Crocon. This Crocon the Athenians say married Saesara, daughter of Keleus. Not all of them say this, but only those who belong to the deme [dēmos] of Skambonidai. I could not find the tomb of Crocon, but Eleusinians and Athenians agreed in identifying the tomb of Eumolpos. This Eumolpos they say came from Thrace, being the son of Poseidon and Khione. Khione they say was the daughter of the wind Boreas and of Oreithyia. Homer says nothing about the lineage of Eumolpos, but in his poems styles him ‘manly’.

{1.38.3} When the Eleusinians fought with the Athenians, Erekhtheus, king of the Athenians, was killed, as was also Immaradus, son of Eumolpos. These were the terms on which they concluded the war: the Eleusinians were to have in dependent control of the mysteries, but in all things else were to be subject to the Athenians. The ministers of the Two Goddesses were Eumolpos and the daughters of Keleus, whom Pamphos and Homer agree in naming Diogenia, Pammerope, and the third Saesara. Eumolpos was survived by Keryx, the younger of his sons whom the Kerykes themselves say was a son of Aglauros, daughter of Kekrops, and of Hermes, not of Eumolpos.

{1.38.4} There is also a shrine of the hero Hippothoön, after whom the phulē is named, and close by one of Zarex. The latter they say learned music from Apollo, but my opinion is that he was a Lacedaemonian who came as a stranger to the land, and that after him is named Zarax, a town in the Laconian territory near the sea. If there is a native Athenian hero called Zarex, I have nothing to say concerning him.

{1.38.5} At Eleusis flows a Kephisos which is more violent than the Kephisos I mentioned above, and by the side of it is the place they call Erineus, saying that Pluto [Ploutōn] descended there to the lower world after carrying off the Maiden. Near this Kephisos Theseus killed a brigand named Polypemon and surnamed Procrustes.

{1.38.6} The Eleusinians have a temple of Triptolemos, of Artemis of the Portal, and of Poseidon Father, and a well called Kallikhoron (beautiful place for dance and song), where first the women of the Eleusinians danced and sang in praise of the goddess. They say that the plain called Rharium was the first to be sown and the first to grow crops, and for this reason it is the custom to use sacrificial barley and to make cakes for the sacrifices from its produce. Here there is shown a threshing-floor called that of Triptolemos and an altar.

{1.38.7} My dream forbade the description of the things within the wall of the sanctuary, and the uninitiated are of course not permitted to learn that which they are prevented from seeing. The hero Eleusis, after whom the city is named, some assert to be a son of Hermes and of Daeira, daughter of Okeanos; there are poets, however, who have made Ogygus father of Eleusis. Ancient legends, deprived of the help of poetry, have given rise to many fictions, especially concerning the pedigrees of heroes.

{1.38.8} When you have turned from Eleusis to Boeotia you come to the Plataean land, which borders on Attica. Formerly Eleutherai formed the boundary on the side towards Attica, but when it came over to the Athenians henceforth the boundary of Boeotia was Kithairon. The reason why the people of Eleutherai came over was not because they were reduced by war, but because they desired to share Athenian citizenship and hated the Thebans. In this plain is a temple of Dionysus, from which the old wooden image was carried off to Athens. The image at Eleutherai at the present day is a copy of the old one.

{1.38.9} A little farther on is a small cave, and beside it is a spring of cold water. The legend about the cave is that Antiope after her labor placed her babies into it; as to the spring, it is said that the shepherd who found the babies washed them there for the first time, taking off their swaddling clothes. Of Eleutherai there were still left the ruins of the wall and of the houses. From these it is clear that the city was built a little above the plain close to Kithairon.

{1.39.1} There is another road from Eleusis, which leads to Megara. As you go along this road you come to a well called Anthium (Flowery Well). Pamphos in his poems describes how Demeter in the likeness of an old woman sat at this well after the abduction of her daughter, how the daughters of Keleus thence took her as an Argive woman to their mother, and how Metaneira thereupon entrusted to her the rearing of her son.

{1.39.2} A little farther on from the well is a sanctuary of Metaneira, and after it are tombs of those who went against Thebes. For Creon, who at that time ruled in Thebes as guardian of Laodamas the son of Eteokles, refused to allow the relatives to take up and bury their dead. But Adrastos having supplicated Theseus, the Athenians fought with the Boeotians, and Theseus being victorious in the fight carried the dead to the Eleusinian territory and buried them here. The Thebans, however, say that they voluntarily gave up the dead for burial and deny that they engaged in battle.

{1.39.3} After the tombs of the Argives is the tomb of Alope, who, legend says, being mother of Hippothoön by Poseidon was on this spot put to death by her father Kerkyon. He is said to have treated strangers wickedly, especially in wrestling with them against their will. So even to my day this place is called the Wrestling Ground of Kerkyon, being a little way from the tomb of Alope. Kerkyon is said to have killed all those who tried a bout with him except Theseus, who out matched him mainly by his skill. For Theseus was the first to discover the art of wrestling, and through him afterwards was established the teaching of the art. Before him men used in wrestling only size and strength of body. Such in my opinion are the most famous legends and sights among the Athenians, and from the beginning my narrative has picked out of much material the things that deserve to be recorded.

{1.39.4} Next to Eleusis is the district called Megaris. This too belonged to Athens in ancient times, Pylas the king having left it to Pandion. My evidence is this; in the land is the tomb of Pandion, and Nisos, while giving up the rule over the Athenians to Aigeus, the eldest of all the family, was himself made king of Megara and of the territory as far as Corinth. Even at the present day the port of the Megarians is called Nisaia after him. Subsequently in the reign of Kodros the Peloponnesians made an expedition against Athens. Having accomplished nothing brilliant, on their way home they took Megara from the Athenians, and gave it as a dwelling-place to such of the Corinthians and of their other allies as wished to go there.

{1.39.5} In this way the Megarians changed their customs and dialect and became Dorians, and they say that the city received its name when Car the son of Phoroneus was king in this land. It was then they say that sanctuaries of Demeter were first made by them, and then that men used the name Megara (Chambers). This is their history according to the Megarians themselves. But the Boeotians declare that Megareus, son of Poseidon, who dwelled in Onkhestos, came with an army of Boeotians to help Nisos wage the war against Minos; that falling in the battle he was buried on the spot, and the city was named Megara from him, having previously been called Nisa.

{1.39.6} In the twelfth generation after Car the son of Phoroneus the Megarians say that Lelex arrived from Egypt and became king, and that in his reign the tribe Leleges received its name. Lelex they say begat Kleson, Kleson Pylas and Pylas Skiron, who married the daughter of Pandion and afterwards disputed with Nisos, the son of Pandion, about the throne, the dispute being settled by Aiakos, who gave the kingship to Nisos and his descendants, and to Skiron the leadership in war. They say further that Nisos was succeeded by Megareus, the son of Poseidon, who married Iphinoe, the daughter of Nisos, but they ignore altogether the Cretan war and the capture of the city in the reign of Nisos.

{1.40.1} There is in the city a fountain, which was built for the citizens by Theagenes, [134] whom I have mentioned previously as having given his daughter in marriage to Kylon the Athenian. This Theagenes upon becoming tyrant built the fountain, which is noteworthy for its size, beauty and the number of its pillars. Water flows into it called the water of the Sithnid nymphs. The Megarians say that the Sithnid nymphs are native, and that one of them mated with Zeus; that Megaros, a son of Zeus and of this nymph, escaped the flood in the time of Deukalion, and made his escape to the heights of Gerania. The mountain had not yet received this name, but was then named Gerania (Crane Heights) because cranes were flying and Megaros swam towards the cry of the birds.

{1.40.2} Not far from this fountain is an ancient sanctuary, and in our day likenesses [eikónes] stand in it of Roman emperors, and a bronze statue [agalma] is there of Artemis surnamed Savior. There is a story that a detachment of the army of Mardonios, having over run Megaris, [135] wished to return to Mardonios at Thebes, but that by the will of Artemis night came on them as they marched, and missing their way they turned into the hilly region. Trying to find out whether there was a hostile force near they shot some missiles. The rock near groaned when struck, and they shot again with greater eagerness,

{1.40.3} until at last they used up all their arrows thinking that they were shooting at the enemy. When the day broke, the Megarians attacked, and being men in armor fighting against men without armor who no longer had even a supply of missiles, they killed the greater number of their opponents. For this reason they had an image made of Artemis Savior. Here are also statues [agalmata] of the gods named the Twelve, said to be the work of Praxiteles. But the image of Artemis herself was made by Strongylion.

{1.40.4} After this when you have entered the precinct of Zeus called the Olympieion you see a note worthy temple. But the statue [agalma] of Zeus was not finished, for the work was interrupted by the war of the Peloponnesians against the Athenians, in which the Athenians every year ravaged the land of the Megarians with a fleet and an army, damaging public revenues and bringing private families to dire distress. The face of the statue [agalma] of Zeus is of ivory and gold, the other parts are of clay and gypsum. The artist is said to have been Theokosmos, a native, helped by Pheidias. Above the head of Zeus are the Seasons and Fates, and all may see that he is the only god obeyed by Destiny, and that he apportions the seasons as is due. Behind the temple lie half-worked pieces of wood, which Theokosmos intended to overlay with ivory and gold in order a complete the statue [agalma] of Zeus.

{1.40.5} In the temple itself is dedicated a bronze ram of a galley. This ship they say that they captured off Salamis in a naval action with the Athenians. The Athenians too admit that for a time they evacuated the island before the Megarians, saying that afterwards Solon [136] wrote elegiac poems and encouraged them, and that thereupon the Athenians challenged their enemies, won the war and recovered Salamis. But the Megarians say that exiles from themselves, whom they call Dorycleans, reached the colonists in Salamis and betrayed the island to the Athenians.

{1.40.6} After the precinct of Zeus, when you have ascended the citadel, which even at the present day is called Caria from Car, son of Phoroneus, you see a temple of Dionysus Nyktelios (Nocturnal), a sanctuary built to Aphrodite Epistrophia (She who turns humans to love), an oracle called that of Night and a temple of Zeus Konios (Dusty) without a roof. The statue [agalma] of Asklepios and also that of Hygieia were made by Bryaxis. Here too is what is called the Chamber of Demeter, built, they say, by Kar when he was king.

{1.41.1} On coming down from the citadel, where the ground turns northwards, is the tomb of Alkmene, near the Olympieum. They say that as she was walking from Argos to Thebes she died on the way at Megara, and that the Herakleidai fell to disputing, some wishing to carry the corpse of Alkmene back to Argos, others wishing to take it to Thebes, as in Thebes were buried Amphitryon and the children of Hēraklēs by Megara. But the god in Delphi gave them an oracle that it was better for them to bury Alkmene in Megara.

{1.41.2} From this place the local guide took us to a place which he said was named Rhous (Stream), for that water once flowed here from the mountains above the city. But Theagenes, who was tyrant at that time, turned the water into another direction and made here an altar to Akhelōos. Close by is the tomb of Hyllos, son of Hēraklēs, who fought a duel with an Arcadian, Ekhemos the son of Aeropos. Who the Ekhemos was who killed Hyllos I will tell in another part of my narrative, but Hyllos also is buried at Megara. These events might correctly be called an expedition of the Herakleidai into the Peloponnesus in the reign of Orestes.

{1.41.3} Not far from the tomb of Hyllos is a temple of Isis, and beside it one of Apollo and of Artemis. They say that Alkathoos made it after killing the lion from Kithairon, as he is called. By this lion they say many were killed, including Euhippos, the son of Megareus their king, whose elder son Timalkos had before this been killed by Theseus while on a campaign with the Dioskouroi against Aphidna. Megareus they say promised that he who killed the lion of Kithairon should marry his daughter and succeed him in the kingdom. Alkathoos therefore, son of Pelops, attacked the beast and overcame it, and when he came to the throne he built this sanctuary, surnaming Artemis as Agrotera [‘Huntress’] and Apollo Agraios [‘Hunter’].

{1.41.4} Such is the account of the Megarians; but although I wish my account to agree with theirs, yet I cannot accept everything they say. I am ready to believe that a lion was killed by Alkathoos on Kithairon, but what historian has recorded that Timalkos the son of Megareus came with the Dioskouroi to Aphidna? And supposing he had gone there, how could one hold that he had been killed by Theseus, when Alcman wrote a poem on the Dioskouroi, [137] in which he says that they captured Athens and carried into captivity the mother of Theseus, but Theseus himself was absent?

{1.41.5} Pindar in his poems agrees with this account, saying that Theseus, wishing to be related to the Dioskouroi, carried off Helen and kept her until he departed to carry out with Peirithoos the marriage that they tell of. Whoever has studied genealogy finds the Megarians guilty of great silliness, since Theseus was a descendant of Pelops. The fact is that the Megarians know the true story but conceal it, not wishing it to be thought that their city was captured in the reign of Nisos, but that both Megareus, the son-in-law of Nisos, and Alkathoos, the son-in-law of Megareus, succeeded their respective fathers-in-law as king.

{1.41.6} It is evident that Alkathoos arrived from Elis just at the time when Nisos had died and the Megarians had lost everything. Witness to the truth of my statements the fact that he built the wall afresh from the beginning, the old one round the city having been destroyed by the Cretans. Let so much suffice for Alkathoos and for the lion, whether it was on Kithairon or elsewhere that the killing took place that caused him to make a temple to Artemis Agrotera and Apollo Agraios. On going down from this sanctuary you see the shrine of the hero Pandion. My narrative has already told how Pandion was buried on what is called the Rock of Athena Aithuia (Gannet). He receives honors from the Megarians in the city as well.

{1.41.7} Near the shrine of the hero Pandion is the tomb of Hippolyte. I will record the account the Megarians give of her. When the Amazons, having marched against the Athenians because of Antiope, were over come by Theseus, most of them met their death in the fight, but Hippolyte, the sister of Antiope and on this occasion the leader of the women, escaped with a few others to Megara. Having suffered such a military disaster, being in despair at her present situation and even more hopeless of reaching her home in Themiskyra, she died of a broken heart, and the Megarians gave her burial. The shape of her tomb is like an Amazonian shield. {1.41.8} Not far from this is the tomb of Tereus, who married Procne the daughter of Pandion. The Megarians say that Tereus was king of the region around what is called Pagai(Springs) of Megaris, but my opinion, which is confirmed by extant evidence, is that he ruled over Daulis beyond Khairōneia, for in ancient times the greater part of what is now called Greece was inhabited by foreigners. When Tereus did what he did to Philomela and Itys suffered at the hands of the women, Tereus found himself unable to seize them.

{1.41.9} He committed suicide in Megara, and the Megarians forthwith raised him a barrow, and every year sacrifice to him, using in the sacrifice gravel instead of barley meal; they say that the bird called the hoopoe appeared here for the first time. The women came to Athens, and while lamenting their sufferings and their revenge, perished through their tears; their reported metamorphosis into a nightingale and a swallow is due, I think, to the fact that the note of these birds is plaintive and like a lamentation.

{1.42.1} The Megarians have another citadel, which is named after Alkathoos. As you ascend this citadel you see on the right the tomb of Megareus, who at the time of the Cretan invasion came as an ally from Onkhestos. There is also shown a hearth of the gods called Prodomeis (Builders before). They say that Alkathoos was the first to sacrifice to them, at the time when he was about to begin the building of the wall.

{1.42.2} Near this hearth is a stone, on which they say Apollo laid his lyre when he was helping Alkathoos in the building. I am confirmed in my view that the Megarians used to be tributary to the Athenians by the fact that Alkathoos appears to have sent his daughter Periboia with Theseus to Crete in payment of the tribute. On the occasion of his building the wall, the Megarians say, Apollo helped him and placed his lyre on the stone; and if you happen to hit it with a pebble it sounds just as a lyre does when struck.

{1.42.3} This made me marvel, but the colossus in Egypt made me marvel far more than anything else. In Egyptian Thebes, on crossing the Nile to the so called Pipes, I saw a statue [agalma], still sitting, which gave out a sound. The many call it Memnon, who they say from Aethiopia overran Egypt and as far as Susa. The Thebans, however, say that it is a statue [agalma], not of Memnon, but of a native named Phamenoph, and I have heard some say that it is Sesostris. This statue [agalma] was broken in two by Cambyses, and at the present day from head to middle it is thrown down; but the rest is seated, and every day at the rising of the sun it makes a noise, and the sound one could best liken to that of a harp or lyre when a string has been broken.

{1.42.4} The Megarians have a council chamber which once, they say, was the tomb of Timalkos, who just now I said was not killed by Theseus. On the top of the citadel is built a temple of Athena, with a statue [agalma] gilded except the hands and feet; these and the face are of ivory. There is another sanctuary built here, of Athena Nike, and yet a third of Athena Aiantis. About the last the Megarian guides have omitted to record anything, but I will write what I take to be the facts. Telamon the son of Aiakos married Periboia the daughter of Alkathoos; so my opinion is that Ajax, who succeeded to the throne of Alkathoos, made the statue [agalma] of Athena.

{1.42.5} The ancient temple of Apollo was of brick, but the emperor Hadrian afterwards built it of white marble. The Apollo called Pythian and the one called Dekatephoros (Bringer of Tithes) are very like the Egyptian wooden images, but the one surnamed Arkhegetes (Founder) resembles Aeginetan works. They are all alike made of ebony. I have heard a man of Cyprus, who was skilled at sorting herbs for medicinal purposes, say that the ebony does not grow leaves or bear fruit, or even appear in the sunlight at all, but consists of underground roots which are dug up by the Aethiopians, who have men skilled at finding ebony.

{1.42.6} There is also a sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros (Lawgiver). On going down from it you see the tomb of Kallipolis, son of Alkathoos. Alkathoos had also an elder son, Ischepolis, whom his father sent to help Meleagros to destroy the wild beast in Aetolia. There he died, and Kallipolis was the first to hear of his death. Running up to the citadel, at the moment when his father was preparing a fire to sacrifice to Apollo, he flung the logs from the altar. Alkathoos, who had not yet heard of the fate of Ischepolis, judged that Kallipolis was guilty of impiety, and forthwith, angry as he was, killed him by striking his head with one of the logs that had been flung from the altar.

{1.42.7} On the road to the Town-hall is the shrine of the heroine Ino, about which is a fencing of stones, and beside it grow olives. The Megarians are the only Greeks who say that the corpse of Ino was cast up on their coast, that Kleso and Tauropolis, the daughters of Kleson, son of Lelex, found and buried it, and they say that among them first was she named Leukothea, and that every year they offer her sacrifice.

{1.43.1} They say that there is also a shrine of the heroine Iphigenia; for she too according to them died in Megara. Now I have heard another account of Iphigenia that is given by Arcadians and I know that Hesiod, in his poem A Catalogue of Women, says that Iphigenia did not die, but by the will of Artemis is Hekate. With this agrees the account of Herodotus, that the Tauroi near Scythia sacrifice castaways to a maiden who they say is Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon. Adrastos also is honored among the Megarians, who say that he too died among them when he was leading back his army after taking Thebes, and that his death was caused by old age and the fate of Aigialeus. A sanctuary of Artemis was made by Agamemnon when he came to persuade Calchas, who dwelled in Megara, to accompany him to Troy.

{1.43.2} In the Town-hall are buried, they say, Euhippos the son of Megareus and Ischepolis the son of Alkathoos. Near the Town-hall is a rock. They name it Anaklethris (Recall), because Demeter (if the story be credible) here too called her daughter back when she was wandering in search of her. Even in our day the Megarian women hold a performance that is a mimic representation of the legend.

{1.43.3} In the city are tombs of Megarians. They made one for those who died in the Persian invasion, and what is called the Aisymnion (Shrine of Aisymnos) was also a tomb of heroes. When Agamemnon’s son Hyperion, the last king of Megara, was killed by Sandion for his greed and violence, they resolved no longer to be ruled by one king, but to have elected magistrates and to obey one another in turn. Then Aisymnos, who had a reputation second to none among the Megarians, came to the god in Delphi and asked in what way they could be prosperous. The oracle in its reply said that they would fare well if they took counsel with the majority. This utterance they took to refer to the dead, and built a council chamber in this place in order that the tomb of their heroes might be within it.

{1.43.4} Between this and the hero-shrine of Alkathoos, which in my day the Megarians used as a record office, was the tomb, they said, of Pyrgo, the wife of Alkathoos before he married Euaikhme, the daughter of Megareus, and the tomb of Iphinoe, the daughter of Alkathoos; she died, they say, a maid. It is customary for the girls to bring libations to the tomb of Iphinoe and to offer a lock of their hair before their wedding, just as the daughters of the Delians once cut their hair for Hekaerge and Opis.

{1.43.5} Beside the entrance to the sanctuary of Dionysus is the tomb of Astykrateia and Manto. They were daughters of Polyidus, son of Koiranos, son of Abas, son of Melampos, who came to Megara to purify Alkathoos when he had killed his son Kallipolis. Polyidus also built the sanctuary of Dionysus, and dedicated a wooden image that in our day is covered up except the face, which alone is exposed. By the side of it is a Satyr of Parian marble made by Praxiteles. This Dionysus they call Patrous (Paternal); but the statue [agalma] of another, that they surname Dasyllios, they say was dedicated by Euchenor, son of Koiranos, son of Polyidus.

{1.43.6} After the sanctuary of Dionysus is a temple of Aphrodite, with an ivory statue [agalma] of Aphrodite surnamed Praxis (Action). This is the oldest object in the temple. There is also Persuasion and another goddess, whom they name Consoler, works of Praxiteles. By Scopas are Love and Desire and Yearning, if indeed their functions are as different as their names. Near the temple of Aphrodite is a sanctuary of Fortune, the image being one of the works of Praxiteles. In the temple close by are Muses and a bronze Zeus by Lysippos.

{1.43.7} The Megarians have also the tomb of Koroibos. The poetical story of him, although it equally concerns Argos, I will relate here. They say that in the reign of Krotopos at Argos, Psamathe, the daughter of Krotopos, bore a son to Apollo, and being in dire terror of her father, exposed the child. He was found and destroyed by sheepdogs of Krotopos, and Apollo sent Vengeance to the city to punish the Argives. They say that she used to snatch the children from their mothers, until Koroibos to please the Argives slew Vengeance. Whereat as a second punishment plague fell upon them and stayed not. So Koroibos of his own accord went to Delphi to submit to the punishment of the god for having slain Vengeance.

{1.43.8} The Pythia would not allow Koroibos to return to Argos, but ordered him to take up a tripod and carry it out of the sanctuary, and where the tripod should fall from his hands, there he was to build a temple of Apollo and to dwell himself. At Mount Gerania the tripod slipped and fell unawares. Here he dwelled in the village called the Little Tripods. The tomb of Koroibos is in the marketplace of the Megarians. The story of Psamathe and of Koroibos himself is carved on it in elegiac verses and further, upon the top of the tomb is represented Koroibos slaying Vengeance. These are the oldest stone statues [agalmata] I am aware of having seen among the Greeks.

{1.44.1} Near Koroibos is buried Orsippos who won the foot-race at Olympia by running naked when all his competitors wore waistbands according to ancient custom. [138] They say also that Orsippos when general afterwards annexed some of the neighboring territory. My own opinion is that at Olympia he intentionally let the waistband slip off him, realizing that a naked man can run more easily than one girt.

{1.44.2} As you go down from the marketplace you see on the right of the street called Straight a sanctuary of Apollo Prostaterios (Protecting). You must turn a little aside from the road to discover it. In it is a noteworthy Apollo, Artemis also, and Leto, and other statues [agalmata], made by Praxiteles. In the old gymnasium near the gate called the Gate of the Nymphs is a stone of the shape of a small pyramid. This they name Apollo Karinos, and here there is a sanctuary of the Eileithuiai. Such are the sights that the city had to show.

{1.44.3} When you have gone down to the port, which to the present day is called Nisaia, you see a sanctuary of Demeter Malophoros (Sheep-bearer or Apple-bearer). One of the accounts given of the surname is that those who first reared sheep in the land named Demeter Malophoros. The roof of the temple one might conclude has fallen in through age. There is a citadel here, which also is called Nisaia. Below the citadel near the sea is the tomb of Lelex, who they say arrived from Egypt and became king, being the son of Poseidon and of Libya, daughter of Epaphus. Parallel to Nisaia lies the small island of Minoa, where in the war against Nisos anchored the fleet of the Cretans.

{1.44.4} The hilly part of Megaris borders upon Boeotia, and in it the Megarians have built the city Pagai and another one called Aigosthena. As you go to Pagai, on turning a little aside from the highway, you are shown a rock with arrows stuck all over it, into which the Persians once shot in the night. In Pagai a noteworthy relic is a bronze statue [agalma] of Artemis surnamed Savior, in size equal to that at Megara and exactly like it in shape. There is also a hero-shrine of Aigialeus, son of Adrastos. When the Argives made their second attack on Thebes he died at Glisas early in the first battle, and his relatives carried him to Pagaiin Megaris and buried him, the shrine being still called the Aigialeion.

{1.44.5} In Aigosthena is a sanctuary of Melampos, son of Amythaon, and a small figure of a man carved upon a slab. To Melampos they sacrifice and hold a festival every year. They say that he divines neither by dreams nor in any other way. Here is something else that I heard in Erenea, a village of the Megarians. Autonoe, daughter of Kadmos, left Thebes to live here owing to her great grief at the death of Aktaion, the manner of which is told in legend, and at the general misfortune of her father’s house. The tomb of Autonoe is in this village.

{1.44.6} On the road from Megara to Corinth are tombs, including that of the Samian aulos-player Telephanes, [139] said to have been made by Kleopatra, daughter of Philip, son of Amyntas. There is also the tomb of Car, son of Phoroneus, which was originally a mound of earth, but afterwards, at the command of the oracle, it was adorned with mussel stone. The Megarians are the only Greeks to possess this stone, and in the city also they have made many things out of it. It is very white, and softer than other stone; in it throughout are sea mussels. Such is the nature of the stone. The road called Skironian to this day and named after Skiron, was made by him when he was war minister of the Megarians, and originally they say was constructed for the use of active men. But the emperor Hadrian broadened it, and made it suitable even for chariots to pass each other in opposite directions.

{1.44.7} There are legends about the rocks, which rise especially at the narrow part of the road. As to the Molurian, it is said that from it Ino flung her self into the sea with Melikertes, the younger of her children. Learkhos, the elder of them, had been killed by his father. One account is that Athamas did this in a fit of madness; another is that he vented on Ino and her children unbridled rage when he learned about the famine that befell the Orkhomenians and the supposed death of Phrixos, the cause of which was not divine power [tò theion] but the fact that Ino, the step-mother, had intrigued for all these things.

{1.44.8} Then it was that she fled to the sea and cast herself and her son from the Molurian Rock. The son, they say, was landed on the Corinthian Isthmus by a dolphin, and honors were offered to Melikertes, then renamed Palaimon, including the celebration of the Isthmian games. The Molurian dock they thought sacred to Leukothea and Palaimon; but those after it they consider accursed, in that Skiron, who dwelled by them, used to cast into the sea all the strangers he met. A tortoise used to swim under the rocks to seize those that fell in. Sea tortoises are like land tortoises except in size and for their feet, which are like those of seals. Retribution for these deeds overtook Skiron, for he was cast into the same sea by Theseus.

{1.44.9} On the top of the mountain is a shrine [nāos] of Zeus surnamed Aphesios ([derived from the verb aphienai ‘release’] Releaser). It is said that, on the occasion of the drought that once afflicted the Greeks [Hellēnes], Aiakos in obedience to oracular instructions sacrificed in Aegina to Zeus Pan-Hellēnios, and that Zeus created-a-release-from [aphienai], saving [komizen] them [from the drought] and thus gaining the name Aphesios [derived from the verb aphienai ‘release’]. Here there are also statues [agalmata] of Aphrodite, Apollo, and Pan.

{1.44.10} Farther on is the tomb of Eurystheus. The story is that he fled from Attica after the battle with the Herakleidai and was killed here by Iolaos. When you have gone down from this road you see a sanctuary of Apollo Latous, after which is the boundary between Megara and Corinth, where legend says that Hyllos, son of Hēraklēs, fought a duel with the Arcadian Ekhemos.

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{2.1.1} The Corinthian land is a portion of the Argive, and is named after Korinthos. That Korinthos was a son of Zeus I have never known anybody say seriously except the majority of the Corinthians. Eumēlos, the son of Amphilytos, [140] of the family called Bakkhidai, who is said to have composed the epic poem, says in his Corinthian History (if indeed the history be his) that Ephyra, the daughter of Okeanos, dwelled first in this land; that afterwards Marathon, the son of Epopeus, the son of Aloeus, the son of Hēlios [Sun], fleeing from the lawless violence of his father, migrated to the sea coast of Attica; that on the death of Epopeus he came to Peloponnesus, divided his kingdom among his sons, and returned to Attica; and that Asopia was renamed after Sikyon, and Ephyraia after Korinthos.

{2.1.2} Corinth is no longer inhabited by any of the old Corinthians, but by colonists sent out by the Romans. This change is due to the Achaean League. [141] The Corinthians, being members of it, joined in the war against the Romans, which Kritolaos, when appointed general of the Achaeans, brought about by persuading to revolt both the Achaeans and the majority of the Greeks outside the Peloponnesus. When the Romans won the war, they carried out a general disarmament of the Greeks [142] and dismantled the walls of such cities as were fortified. Corinth was laid waste by Mummius, who at that time commanded the Romans in the field, and it is said that it was afterwards refounded by Caesar, [143] who was the author of the present constitution of Rome. Carthage, too, they say, was refounded in his reign.

{2.1.3} In the Corinthian territory is also the place called Cromyon from Cromus the son of Poseidon. Here they say that Phaia was bred; overcoming this sow was one of the traditional achievements of Theseus. Farther on the pine still grew by the shore at the time of my visit, and there was an altar of Melikertes. At this place, they say, the boy was brought ashore by a dolphin; Sisyphus found him lying and gave him burial on the Isthmus, establishing the Isthmian games in his honor.

{2.1.4} At the beginning of the Isthmus is the place where the brigand Sinis used to take hold of pine trees and draw them down. All those whom he overcame in fight he used to tie to the trees, and then allow them to swing up again. Thereupon each of the pines used to drag to itself the bound man, and as the bond gave way in neither direction but was stretched equally in both, he was torn in two. This was the way in which Sinis himself was slain by Theseus. For Theseus rid of evildoers the road from Troizen to Athens, killing those whom I have enumerated and, in sacred Epidaurus, Periphetes, thought to be the son of Hephaistos, who used to fight with a bronze club.

{2.1.5} The Corinthian Isthmus stretches on the one hand to the sea at Kenkhreai, and on the other to the sea at Lekhaion. For this is what makes the region to the south mainland. He who tried to make the Peloponnesus an island gave up before digging through the Isthmus. Where they began to dig is still to be seen, but into the rock they did not advance at all. So it still is mainland as its nature is to be. Alexander the son of Philip wished to dig through Mimas, and his attempt to do this was his only unsuccessful project. The people of Knidos began to dig through their isthmus, but the Pythian priestess stopped them. So difficult it is for man to alter by violence the things that belong to the gods [tà theia].

{2.1.6} A legend of the Corinthians about their land is not peculiar to them, for I believe that the Athenians were the first to relate a similar story to glorify Attica. The Corinthians say that Poseidon had a dispute with Hēlios [Sun] about the land, and that Briareos arbitrated between them, assigning to Poseidon the Isthmus and the parts adjoining, and giving to Hēlios the height above the city. Ever since, they say, the Isthmus has belonged to Poseidon.

{2.1.7} Worth seeing here are a theater and a white-marble race-course. Within the sanctuary of the god stand on the one side portrait statues of athletes who have won victories at the Isthmian games, on the other side pine trees growing in a row, the greater number of them rising up straight. On the temple, which is not very large, stand bronze Tritons. In the front part of the temple are statues [agalmata], two of Poseidon, a third of Amphitrite, and a Sea, which also is of bronze. The offerings inside were dedicated in our time by Herodes the Athenian, four horses, gilded except for the hoofs, which are of ivory,

{2.1.8} and two gold Tritons beside the horses, with the parts below the waist of ivory. On the car stand Amphitrite and Poseidon, and there is the boy Palaimon upright upon a dolphin. These too are made of ivory and gold. On the middle of the base on which the car is has been crafted a Sea holding up the young Aphrodite, and on either side are the nymphs called Nereids. I know that there are altars to these in other parts of Greece, and that some Greeks have even dedicated to them precincts by shores, where honors are also paid to Achilles. In Gabala is a holy sanctuary of Doto, where there was still remaining the robe by which the Greeks say that Eriphyle was bribed to wrong her son Alkmaion.

{2.1.9} Among the reliefs on the base of the statue of Poseidon are the sons of Tyndareus, because these too are saviors of ships and of sea-faring men. The other offerings are statues [agalmata] of Calm and of Sea, a horse like a whale from the breast onward, Ino and Bellerophontes, and the horse Pegasus [Pegasos].

{2.2.1} Within the enclosure is on the left a temple of Palaimon, with statues [agalmata] in it of Poseidon, Leukothea, and Palaimon himself. There is also what is called his Holy of Holies, and an underground descent to it, where they say that Palaimon is concealed. Whosoever, whether Corinthian or stranger, swears falsely here, can by no means escape from his oath. There is also an ancient sanctuary called the altar of the Cyclopes, and they sacrifice to the Cyclopes upon it.

{2.2.2} The tombs of Sisyphus and of Neleus—for they say that Neleus came to Corinth, died of disease, and was buried near the Isthmus—I do not think that anyone would look for after reading Eumēlos. For he says that not even to Nestor did Sisyphus show the tomb of Neleus, because it must be kept unknown to everybody alike, and that Sisyphus is indeed buried on the Isthmus, but that few Corinthians, even those of his own day, knew where the tomb was. The Isthmian games were not interrupted even when Corinth had been laid waste by Mummius, but so long as it lay deserted the celebration of the games was entrusted to the Sikyonians, and when it was rebuilt the honor was restored to the present inhabitants.

{2.2.3} The names of the Corinthian harbors were given them by Lekhes and Cenchrias, said to be the children of Poseidon and Peirene the daughter of Akhelōos, though in the poem called The Great Ehoiai Peirene is said to be a daughter of Oibalos. In Lechaion are a sanctuary and a bronze statue [agalma] of Poseidon, and on the road leading from the Isthmus to Cenchreae a temple and ancient wooden-statue [xoanon]of Artemis. In Kenkhreai are a temple and a stone statue [agalma] of Aphrodite, after it on the mole running into the sea a bronze statue of Poseidon, and at the other end of the harbor sanctuaries of Asklepios and of Isis. Right opposite Kenkhreai is Helen’s Bath. It is a large stream of salt, tepid water, flowing from a rock into the sea.

{2.2.4} As one goes up to Corinth are tombs, and by the gate is buried Diogenes of Sinope, whom the Greeks surname the Dog. Before the city is a grove of cypresses called Craneum. Here are a precinct of Bellerophontes, a temple of Aphrodite Melainis and the tomb of Lais, upon which is set a lioness holding a ram in her fore-paws.

{2.2.5} There is in Thessaly another tomb which claims to be that of Lais, for she went to that country also when she fell in love with Hippostratos. The story is that originally she was of Hycara in Sicily. Taken captive while yet a girl by Nikias and the Athenians, she was sold and brought to Corinth, where she surpassed in beauty the courtesans of her time, and so won the admiration of the Corinthians that even now they claim Lais as their own.

{2.2.6} The things worthy of mention in the city include the extant remains of antiquity, but the greater number of them belong to the period of its second ascendancy. On the marketplace, where most of the sanctuaries are, stand Artemis surnamed Ephesian and wooden images of Dionysus, which are covered with gold with the exception of their faces; these are ornamented with red paint. They are called Lysius and Baccheus,

{2.2.7} and I too give the story told about them. They say that Pentheus treated Dionysus despitefully, his crowning outrage being that he went to Kithairon, to spy upon the women, and climbing up a tree beheld what was done. When the women detected Pentheus, they immediately dragged him down, and joined in tearing him, living as he was, limb from limb. Afterwards, as the Corinthians say, the Pythian priestess commanded them by an oracle to discover that tree and to worship it equally with the god. For this reason they have made these images from the tree.

{2.2.8} There is also a temple of Fortune, with a standing statue [agalma] of Parian marble. Beside it is a sanctuary for all the gods. Hard by is built a fountain, on which is a bronze Poseidon; under the feet of Poseidon is a dolphin spouting water. There is also a bronze Apollo surnamed Clarius and a statue [agalma] of Aphrodite made by Hermogenes of Cythera. There are two bronze, standing statues [agalmata] of Hermes, for one of which a temple has been made. The images of Zeus also are in the open; one had not a surname, another they call Khthonios (of the Lower World) and the third Most High.

{2.3.1} In the middle of the marketplace is a bronze Athena, on the pedestal of which are made-in-relief-figures [agalmata] of the Muses. Above the marketplace is a temple of Octavia the sister of Augustus, who was emperor of the Romans after Caesar, the founder of the modern Corinth.

{2.3.2} On leaving the marketplace along the road to Lekhaion you come to a gateway, on which are two gilded chariots, one carrying Phaethon the son of Hēlios [Sun], the other Hēlios himself. A little farther away from the gateway, on the right as you go in, is a bronze Hēraklēs. After this is the entrance to the water of Peirene. The legend about Peirene is that she was a woman who became a spring because of her tears shed in lamentation for her son Cenchrias, who was unintentionally killed by Artemis.

{2.3.3} The spring is ornamented with white marble, and there have been made chambers like caves, out of which the water flows into an open-air well. It Is pleasant to drink, and they say that the Corinthian bronze, when red-hot, is tempered by this water, since bronze … the Corinthians have not. Moreover near Peirene are a statue [agalma] and a sacred enclosure of Apollo; in the latter is a painting of the exploit of Odysseus against the suitors.

{2.3.4} Proceeding on the direct road to Lekhaion we see a bronze statue [agalma] of a seated Hermes. By him stands a ram, for Hermes is the god who is thought most to care for and to increase flocks, as Homer puts it in the Iliad:

Son was he of Phorbas, the dearest of Trojans to Hermes,
Rich in flocks, for the god vouchsafed him wealth in abundance.

Iliad 14.490

The story told at the mysteries of the Mother about Hermes and the ram I know but do not relate. After the image of Hermes come Poseidon, Leukothea, and Palaimon on a dolphin.

{2.3.5} The Corinthians have baths in many parts of the city, some put up at the public charge and one by the emperor Hadrian. The most famous of them is near the Poseidon. It was made by the Spartan Eurykles, who beautified it with various kinds of stone, especially the one quarried at Krokeai in Laconia. On the left of the entrance stands a Poseidon, and after him Artemis hunting. Throughout the city are many springs [krēnai], for the Corinthians have a copious supply of flowing water, besides the water which the emperor Hadrian brought from Lake Stymphalos, but the most noteworthy is the one by the side of the statue [agalma] of Artemis. Over it is a Bellerophontes, and the water flows through the hoof of the horse Pegasus [Pegasos].

{2.3.6} As you go along another road from the marketplace [agorā], which leads to Sikyon, you can see on the right of the road a temple [nāos] of Apollo, which has a bronze statue [agalma] of him. A little farther along the way is a well called the Spring [krēnē] of Glauke. Into this well they say she [= Glauke] threw herself, thinking that the water would be a cure for [the pain that she was suffering from] the magical drugs [pharmaka] of Medea. Above this spring [krēnē] has been built what is called the Odeum [ōideion], beside which is the tomb [mnēma] of Medea’s children. Their names were Mermeros and Pheres, and they are said to have been stoned to death by the Corinthians because—as is also said—they had brought to Glauke the gifts [dōra] [from Medea].

{2.3.7} And, since their death was violent and unjust, the infant offspring [nēpia tekna] of the Corinthians kept on being destroyed by them [= the ghosts of the children of Medea] until, in accordance with what the god [= Apollo] said-as-an-oracular pronouncement [khrēnai], yearly sacrifices [thusiai] were established in their honor and a figure of Terror [Deima] was set-up-in-compensation [epi-stēnai]. This figure still exists, even in my time: it is the image [eikōn] of a woman rather frightful to look at. After Corinth was destroyed by the Romans and the old Corinthians were wiped out, the new settlers no longer observed the custom of offering those sacrifices [thusiai] to the sons of Medea, nor do their children [who are initiated into the hero cult of the children of Medea] cut their hair for them or wear black clothes.

{2.3.8} On the occasion referred to Medea went to Athens and lived with Aigeus, but subsequently she was detected plotting against Theseus and fled from Athens also; coming to the land then called Aria she caused its inhabitants to be named after her Medes. The son, whom she brought with her in her flight to the Arii, they say she had by Aigeus, and that his name was Mēdos. Hellanicus, however, calls him Polyxenos and says that his father was Jason.

{2.3.9} The Greeks have an epic poem called Naupactia. In this Jason is represented as having removed his home after the death of Pelias from Iolkos to Corcyra, and Mermerus, the elder of his children, to have been killed by a lioness while hunting on the mainland opposite. Of Pheres is recorded nothing. But Kinaithon of Lacedaemon, another writer of pedigrees in verse, said that Jason’s children by Medea were a son Medeus and a daughter Eriopis; he too, however, gives no further information about these children.

{2.3.10} Eumēlos said that Hēlios [Sun] gave the Asopian land to Aloeus and Ephyraia to Aietes. When Aietes was departing for Kolkhis he entrusted his land to Bounos, the son of Hermes and Alkidameiā, and when Bounos died Epopeus the son of Aloeus extended his kingdom to include the Ephyraeans. Afterwards, when Korinthos, the son of Marathon, died childless, the Corinthians sent for Medea from Iolkos and bestowed upon her the kingdom.

{2.3.11} Through her Jason was king in Corinth, and Medea, as her children were born, carried each to the sanctuary of Hērā and concealed them, doing so in the belief that so they would be immortal. At last she learned that her hopes were vain, and at the same time she was detected by Jason. When she begged for pardon he refused it, and sailed away to Iolkos. For these reasons Medea too departed, and handed over the kingdom to Sisyphus.

{2.4.1} This is the account that I read, and not far from the tomb is the temple of Athena Khalinitis (Bridler). For Athena, they say, was the divinity who gave most help to Bellerophontes, and she delivered to him Pegasus [Pegasos], having herself broken in and bridled him. The statue [agalma] of hers is of wood [xoanon], but face, hands and feet are of white marble.

{2.4.2} That Bellerophontes was not an absolute king, but was subject to Proitos and the Argives is the belief of myself and of all who have read carefully the Homeric poems. [144] When Bellerophontes migrated to Lycia it is clear that the Corinthians none the less were subject to the despots at Argos or Mycenae. By themselves they provided no leader for the campaign against Troy, but shared in the expedition as part of the forces, Mycenaean and other, led by Agamemnon.

{2.4.3} Sisyphus had other sons besides Glaukos, the father of Bellerophontes a second was Ornytion, and besides him there were Thersandros and Almus. Ornytion had a son Phokos, reputed to have been begotten by Poseidon. He migrated to Tithorea in what is now called Phokis, but Thoas, the younger son of Ornytion, remained behind in Corinth. Thoas begat Damophon, Damophon begat Propodas, and Propodas begat Doridas and Hyanthidas. While these were kings the Dorians took the field against Corinth, their leader being Aletes, the son of Hippotas, the son of Phylas, the son of Antiokhos, the son of Hēraklēs. So Doridas and Hyanthidas gave up the kingship to Aletes and remained in Corinth, but the Corinthian people were conquered in battle and expelled by the Dorians.

{2.4.4} Aletes himself and his descendants reigned for five generations to Bacchis, the son of Prumnis, and, named after him, the Bakkhidai reigned for five more generations to Telestes, the son of Aristodemos. Telestes was killed in hate by Arieus and Perantas, and there were no more kings, but Prytanes (‘Presidents’) taken from the Bakkhidai and ruling for one year, until Kypselos, the son of Eetion, became tyrant and expelled the Bakkhidai. [145] Kypselos was a descendant of Melas, the son of Antasus. Melas from Gonoussa above Sikyon joined the Dorians in the expedition against Corinth. When the god expressed disapproval Aletes at first ordered Melas to withdraw to other Greeks, but afterwards, mistaking the oracle, he received him as a settler. Such I found to be the history of the Corinthian kings.

{2.4.5} Now the sanctuary of Athena Khalinitis is by their theater, and near is a naked wooden image of Hēraklēs, said to be a work of Daidalos. All the works of this artist, although rather uncouth to look at, are nevertheless distinguished by a kind of inspiration. Above the theater is a sanctuary of Zeus surnamed in the Latin tongue Capitolinus, which might be rendered into Greek , ‘Koruphaios’. Not far from this theater is the ancient gymnasium, and a spring called Lerna. Pillars stand around it, and seats have been made to refresh in summer time those who have entered it. By this gymnasium are temples of Zeus and Asklepios. The statues [agalmata] of Asklepios and of Hygieia are of white marble, that of Zeus is of bronze.

{2.4.6} The Acrocorinth is a mountain peak above the city, assigned to Hēlios by Briareos when he acted as adjudicator, and handed over, the Corinthians say, by Hēlios to Aphrodite. As you go up this Acrocorinth you see two precincts of Isis, one if Isis surnamed Pelagian (Marine) and the other of Egyptian Isis, and two of Serapis, one of them being of Serapis called ‘Canopus’. After these are altars to Hēlios, and a sanctuary of Necessity and Force, into which it is not customary to enter.

{2.4.7} Above it are a temple of the Mother of the gods and a throne; the image and the throne are made of stone. The temple of the Fates and that of Demeter and the Maiden have statues [agalmata] that are not exposed to view. Here, too, is the temple of Hērā Bounaia set up by Bounos the son of Hermes. It is for this reason that the goddess is called Bounaia.

{2.5.1} As you go up to the summit of the Acrocorinth, there is a shrine [nāos] of Aphrodite. The statues [agalmata] there are Aphrodite herself, armed, also Hēlios, also Eros with a bow. The spring [pēgē], which is behind the shrine [nāos], they say was the gift of Asopos to Sisyphus, who knew, so they also say, that Zeus had abducted Aegina, the daughter of Asopos, but refused to give information to the seeker before he had some spring-water given him on the Acrocorinth. When Asopos granted this request, Sisyphus turned informer, and because of that he receives—if anyone believes it—punishment in Hādēs. I have heard people say that this spring-water and Peirene are the same, and that the water in the city flows there underground all the way from here.

{2.5.2} This Asopos rises in the Phliasian territory, flows through the Sikyonian, and empties itself into the sea here. His daughters, say the Phliasians, were Corcyra, Aegina, and Thebe. Corcyra and Aegina gave new names to the islands called Scheria and Oinone, while from Thebe is named the city below the Kadmeia. The Thebans do not agree, but say that Thebe was the daughter of the Boeotian, and not of the Phliasian, Asopos.

{2.5.3} The other stories about the river are current among both the Phliasians and the Sikyonians, for instance that its water is foreign and not native, in that the Maeander, descending from Kelainai through Phrygia and Caria, and emptying itself into the sea at Miletus, goes to the Peloponnesus and forms the Asopos. I remember hearing a similar story from the Delians, that the stream which they call Inopus comes to them from the Nile. Further, there is a story that the Nile itself is the Euphrates, which disappears into a marsh, rises again beyond Aethiopia and becomes the Nile.

{2.5.4} Such is the account I heard of the Asopos. When you have turned from the Acrocorinth into the mountain road you see the Teneatic gate and a sanctuary of Eileithuia. The town called Tenea is just about sixty stadium-lengths distant. The inhabitants say that they are Trojans who were taken prisoners in Tenedos by the Greeks, and were permitted by Agamemnon to dwell in their present home. For this reason they honor Apollo more than any other god.

{2.5.5} As you go from Corinth, not into the interior but along the road to Sikyon, there is on the left not far from the city a burned temple. There have, of course, been many wars carried on in Corinthian territory, and naturally houses and sanctuaries outside the wall have been fired. But this temple, they say, was Apollo’s, and Pyrrhos the son of Achilles burned it down. Subsequently I heard another account, that the Corinthians built the temple for Olympian Zeus, and that suddenly fire from some quarter fell on it and destroyed it.

{2.5.6} The Sikyonians, the neighbors of the Corinthians at this part of the border, say about their own land that Aigialeus was its first and aboriginal inhabitant, that the district of the Peloponnesus still called Aigialos was named after him because he reigned over it, and that he founded the city Aigialeia on the plain. Their citadel, they say, was where is now their sanctuary of Athena; further, that Aigialeus begat Europs, Europs Telchis, and Telchis Apis.

{2.5.7} This Apis reached such a height of power before Pelops came to Olympia that all the territory south of the Isthmus was called after him Apia. Apis begat Thelxion, Thelxion Aigyros, the Thourimakhos, and Thourimakhos Leukippos. Leukippos had no male issue, only a daughter Calchinia. There is a story that this Calchinia mated with Poseidon; her child was reared by Leukippos, who at his death handed over to him the kingdom. His name was Peratos.

{2.5.8} What is reported of Plemnaios, the son of Peratos, seemed to me very wonderful. All the children borne to him by his wife died the very first time they wailed. At last Demeter took pity on Plemnaios, came to Aigialeia in the guise of a strange woman, and reared for Plemnaios his son Orthopolis. Orthopolis had a daughter Khrysorthe, who is thought to have borne a son named Koronos to Apollo. Koronos had two sons, Korax and a younger one Lamedon.

{2.6.1} Korax died without issue, and at about this time came Epopeus from Thessaly and took the kingdom. In his reign the first hostile army is said to have invaded the land, which before this had enjoyed unbroken peace. The reason was this. Antiope, the daughter of Nykteus, had a name among the Greeks for beauty, and there was also a report that her father was not Nykteus but Asopos, the river that separates the territories of Thebes and Plataea.

{2.6.2} This woman Epopeus carried off but I do not know whether he asked for her hand or adopted a bolder policy from the beginning. The Thebans came against him in arms, and in the battle Nykteus was wounded. Epopeus also was wounded, but won the day. Nykteus they carried back ill to Thebes, and when he was about to die he appointed to be regent of Thebes his brother Lykos for Labdacus, the son of Polydoros, the son of Kadmos, being still a child, was the ward of Nykteus, who on this occasion entrusted the office of guardian to Lykos. He also besought him to attack Aigialeia with a larger army and bring vengeance upon Epopeus; Antiope herself, if taken, was to be punished.

{2.6.3} As to Epopeus, he forthwith offered sacrifice for his victory and began a temple of Athena, and when this was complete he prayed the goddess to make known whether the temple was finished to her liking, and after the prayer they say that olive oil flowed before the temple. Afterwards Epopeus also died of his wound, which he had neglected at first, so that Lykos had now no need to wage war. For Lamedon, the son of Koronos, who became king after Epopeus, gave up Antiope. As she was being taken to Thebes by way of Eleutherai, she was delivered there on the road.

{2.6.4} On this matter Asios the son of Amphiptolemos [146] says in his poem:

Zethus and Amphion had Antiope for their mother,
Daughter of Asopos, the swift, deep-eddying river,
Having conceived of Zeus and Epopeus, shepherd of peoples. [147]

Homer traces their descent to the more august side of their family, and says that they were the first founders of Thebes, in my opinion distinguishing the lower city from the Kadmeia.

{2.6.5} When Lamedon became king he took to wife an Athenian woman, Pheno, the daughter of Klytios. Afterwards also, when war had arisen between him and Arkhandros and Arkhiteles, the sons of Achaeus, he brought in as his ally Sikyon from Attica, and gave him Zeuxippe his daughter to wife. This man became king, and the land was named after him Sikyonia, and the city Sikyon instead of Aigiale. But they say that Sikyon was not the son of Marathon, the son of Epopeus, but of Metion the son of Erekhtheus. Asios confirms their statement, while Hesiod makes Sikyon the son of Erekhtheus, and Ibycus says that his father was Pelops.

{2.6.6} Sikyon had a daughter Khthonophyle, and they say that she and Hermes were the parents of Polybus. Afterwards she married Phlias, the son of Dionysus, and gave birth to Androdamas. Polybus gave his daughter Lysianassa to Talaos the son of Bias, king of the Argives; and when Adrastos fled from Argos he came to Polybus at Sikyon, and afterwards on the death of Polybus he became king at Sikyon. When Adrastos returned to Argos, Ianiskos, a descendant of Klytios the father-in-law of Lamedon, came from Attica and was made king, and when Ianiskos died he was succeeded by Phaistos, said to have been one of the children of Hēraklēs.

{2.6.7} After Phaistos in obedience to an oracle migrated to Crete, the next king is said to have been Zeuxippos, the son of Apollo and the nymph Syllis. On the death of Zeuxippos, Agamemnon led an army against Sikyon and king Hippolytus, the son of Rhopalus, the son of Phaistos. In terror of the army that was attacking him, Hippolytus agreed to become subject to Agamemnon and the Mycenaeans. This Hippolytus was the father of Lacestades. Phalkes the son of Temenus, with the Dorians, surprised Sikyon by night, but did Lacestades no harm, because he too was one of the Herakleidai, and made him partner in the kingdom.

{2.7.1} From that time the Sikyonians became Dorians and their land a part of the Argive territory. The city built by Aigialeus on the plain was destroyed by Demetrios the son of Antigonos, [148] who founded the modern city near what was once the ancient citadel. The reason why the Sikyonians grew weak it would be wrong to seek; we must be content with Homer’s saying about Zeus:

Many, indeed, are the cities of which he has leveled the strongholds.

Iliad 2.117 and 9.24

When they had lost their power there came upon them an earthquake, which almost depopulated their city and took from them many of their famous sights. It damaged also the cities of Caria and Lycia, and the island of Rhodes was very violently shaken, so that it was thought that the Sibyl had had her utterance about Rhodes [149] fulfilled.

{2.7.2} When you have come from the Corinthian to the Sikyonian territory you see the tomb of Lykos the Messenian, whoever this Lykos may be; for I can discover no Messenian Lykos who practiced the pentathlon or won a victory at Olympia. This tomb is a mound of earth, but the Sikyonians themselves usually bury their dead in a uniform manner. They cover the body in the ground, and over it they build a basement of stone upon which they set pillars. Above these they put something very like the pediment of a temple. They add no inscription, except that they give the dead man’s name without that of his father and bid him farewell.

{2.7.3} After the tomb of Lykos, but on the other side of the Asopos, there is on the right the Olympium, and a little farther on, to the left of the road, the tomb of Eupolis, the Athenian comic poet. Farther on, if you turn in the direction of the city, you see the tomb of Xenodice, who died in childbirth. It has not been made after the native fashion, but so as to harmonize best with the painting, which is very well worth seeing.

{2.7.4} Farther on from here is the tomb of the Sikyonians who were killed at Pellene, at Dyme of the Achaeans, in Megalopolis and at Sellasia. [150] Their story I will relate more fully presently. By the gate they have a spring in a cave, the water of which does not rise out of the earth, but flows down from the roof of the cave. For this reason it is called the Dripping Spring.

{2.7.5} On the modern citadel is a sanctuary of Fortune of the Height, and after it one of the Dioskouroi. Their statues [agalmata] and that of Fortune are of wood [xoana]. On the stage of the theater built under the citadel is a statue of a man with a shield, who they say is Aratos, the son of Kleinias. After the theater is a temple of Dionysus. The god is of gold and ivory, and by his side are Bacchic women [Bakkhai] of white marble. These women they say are sacred [hierai] to Dionysus and are-maddened [mainesthai] by his inspiration. The Sikyonians have also some statues [agalmata] that are kept secret. These one night in each year they carry to the temple of Dionysus from what they call the Kosmeterion, and they do so with lighted torches and hymns [humnoi] that are local [epikhōrioi]

{2.7.6} The first is the one named Baccheus, set up by Androdamas, the son of Phlias, and this is followed by the one called Lysios (Deliverer), brought from Thebes by the Theban Phanes at the command of the Pythian priestess. Phanes came to Sikyon when Aristomakhos, the son of Kleodaios, failed to understand the oracle [151] given him, and therefore failed to return to the Peloponnesus. As you walk from the temple of Dionysus to the marketplace you see on the right a temple of Artemis of the lake. A look shows that the roof has fallen in, but the inhabitants cannot tell whether the statue [agalma] had been saved [komizesthai] and taken elsewhere or whether it was destroyed on the spot.

{2.7.7} Within the marketplace is a sanctuary of Persuasion; this too has no statue [agalma]. The worship of Persuasion was established among them for the following reason. When Apollo and Artemis had killed Pythō they came to Aigialeia to obtain purification. Dread coming upon them at the place now named Fear, they turned aside to Carmanor in Crete, and the people of Aigialeia were smitten by a plague. When the seers ordered them to propitiate Apollo and Artemis,

{2.7.8} they sent seven boys and seven girls as suppliants to the river Sythas. They say that the deities, persuaded by these, came to what was then the citadel, and the place that they reached first is the sanctuary of Persuasion. Conformable with this story is the ceremony they perform at the present day; the children go to the Sythas at the feast of Apollo, and having brought, as they pretend, the deities to the sanctuary of Persuasion, they say that they take them back again to the temple of Apollo. The temple stands in the modern marketplace, and was originally, it is said, made by Proitos, because in this place his daughters recovered from their madness.

{2.7.9} It is also said that in this temple Meleagros dedicated the spear with which he slew the boar. There is also a story that the aulos [‘double-reed’] of Marsyas is dedicated here. When the Silenos met with his disaster, the river Marsyas carried the aulos [‘double-reed’] to the Maeander; reappearing in the Asopos it was cast ashore in the Sikyonian territory and given to Apollo by the shepherd who found them. I found none of these offerings still in existence, for they were destroyed by fire when the temple was burned. The temple that I saw, and its statue [agalma], were dedicated by Pythokles.

{2.8.1} The precinct near the sanctuary of Persuasion that is devoted to Roman emperors was once the house of the tyrant Kleon. He became tyrant in the modern city there was another tyranny while the Sikyonians still lived in the lower city, [152] that of Cleisthenes, the son of Aristonymos, the son of Myron. Before this house is a hero-shrine of Aratos, [153] whose achievements eclipsed those of all contemporary Greeks. His history is as follows.

{2.8.2} After the despotism of Kleon, many of those in authority were seized with such an ungovernable passion for tyranny that two actually became tyrants together, Euthydemos and Timokleidas. These were expelled by the people, who made Kleinias, the father of Aratos, their champion. A few years afterwards Abantidas became tyrant. Before this time Kleinias had met his death, and Aratos went into exile, either of his own accord or because he was compelled to do so by Abantidas. Now Abantidas was killed by some natives, and his father Paseas immediately became tyrant.

{2.8.3} He was killed by Nikokles, who succeeded him. [154] This Nikokles was attacked by Aratos with a force of Sikyonian exiles and Argive mercenaries. Making his attempt by night, he eluded some of the defenders in the darkness; the others he overcame, and forced his way within the wall. Day was now breaking, and taking the populace with him he hastened to the tyrant’s house. This he easily captured, but Nikokles himself succeeded in making his escape. Aratos restored equality of political rights to the Sikyonians, striking a bargain for those in exile; he restored to them their houses and all their other possessions which had been sold, compensating the buyers out of his own purse.

{2.8.4} Moreover, as all the Greeks were afraid of the Macedonians and of Antigonos, the guardian of Philip, the son of Demetrios, he induced the Sikyonians, who were Dorians, to join the Achaean League. He was immediately elected general by the Achaeans, and leading them against the the people of Lokris in Amphissa and into the land of the Aetolians, their enemies, he ravaged their territory. Corinth was held by Antigonos, and there was a Macedonian garrison in the city, but he threw them into a panic by the suddenness of his assault, winning a battle and killing among others Persaios, the commander of the garrison, who had studied philosophy under Zeno, the son of Mnaseas.

{2.8.5} When Aratos had liberated Corinth, the League was joined by the Epidaurians and Troizenians inhabiting Argolian Acte, and by the Megarians among those beyond the Isthmus, while Ptolemy made an alliance with the Achaeans. The Lacedaemonians and king Agis, the son of Eudamidas, surprised and took Pellene by a sudden onslaught, but when Aratos and his army arrived they were defeated in an engagement, evacuated Pellene, and returned home under a truce.

{2.8.6} After his success in the Peloponnesus, Aratos thought it a shame to allow the Macedonians to hold unchallenged Peiraieus, Mounukhia, Salamis, and Sounion; but not expecting to be able to take them by force he bribed Diogenes, the commander of the garrisons, to give up the positions for a hundred and fifty talents, himself helping the Athenians by contributing a sixth part of the sum. He induced Aristomakhos also, the tyrant of Argos, to restore to the Argives their democracy and to join the Achaean League; he captured Mantineia from the Lacedaemonians who held it. But no man finds all his plans turn out according to his liking, and even Aratos was compelled to become an ally of the Macedonians and Antigonos in the following way.

{2.9.1} Kleomenes, the son of Leonidas, the son of Kleonymos, having succeeded to the kingship at Sparta, resembled Pausanias [155] in being dissatisfied with the established constitution and in aiming at a tyranny. A more fiery man than Pausanias, and no coward, he quickly succeeded by spirit and daring in accomplishing all his ambition. He poisoned Eurydamidas, the king of the other royal house, while yet a boy, raised to the throne by means of the ephors his brother Epikleidas, destroyed the power of the senate, and appointed in its stead a nominal Council of Fathers. Ambitious for greater things and for supremacy over the Greeks, he first attacked the Achaeans, hoping if successful to have them as allies, and especially wishing that they should not hinder his activities.

{2.9.2} Engaging them at Dyme beyond Patrai, Aratos being still leader of the Achaeans, he won the victory. [156] In fear for the Achaeans and for Sikyon itself, Aratos was forced by this defeat to bring in Antigonos as an ally. Kleomenes had violated the peace which he had made with Antigonos and had openly acted in many ways contrary to treaty, especially in laying waste Megalopolis. So Antigonos crossed into the Peloponnesus and the Achaeans met Kleomenes at Sellasia. [157] The Achaeans were victorious, the people of Sellasia were sold into slavery, and Lacedaemon itself was captured. Antigonos and the Achaeans restored to the Lacedaemonians the constitution of their fathers;

{2.9.3} but of the children of Leonidas, Epikleidas was killed in the battle, and Kleomenes fled to Egypt. Held in the highest honor by Ptolemy, he came to be cast into prison, being convicted of inciting Egyptians to rebel against their king. He made his escape from prison and began a riot among the Alexandrians, but at last, on being captured, he fell by his own hand. The Lacedaemonians, glad to be rid of Kleomenes, refused to be ruled by kings any longer, but the rest of their ancient constitution they have kept to the present day. Antigonos remained a constant friend of Aratos, looking upon him as a benefactor who had helped him to accomplish brilliant deeds.

{2.9.4} But when Philip succeeded to the throne, since Aratos did not approve of his violent treatment of his subjects, and in some cases even opposed the accomplishment of his purposes, he killed Aratos by giving him secretly a dose of poison. This fate came upon Aratos at Aigion, from which place he was carried to Sikyon and buried, and there is still in that city the hero-shrine of Aratos. Philip treated two Athenians, Eurykleides and Mikon, in a similar way. These men also, who were orators enjoying the confidence of the people, he killed by poison.

{2.9.5} After all, Philip himself in his turn was fated to suffer disaster through the fatal cup. Philip’s son, Demetrios, was poisoned by Perseus, his younger son, and grief at the murder brought the father also to his tomb. I mention the incident in passing, with my mind turned to the inspired words of the poet Hesiod, that he who plots mischief against his neighbor directs it first to himself.

{2.9.6} After the hero-shrine of Aratos is an altar to Isthmian Poseidon, and also a Zeus Meilichios (Gracious) and an Artemis named Patroa (Paternal), both of them very inartistic works. The Meilichios is like a pyramid, the Artemis like a pillar. Here too stand their council-chamber and a portico called Cleisthenean from the name of him who built it. It was built from spoils by Cleisthenes, who helped the Amphiktyones in the war at Cirrha. [158] In the marketplace under the open sky is a bronze Zeus, a work of Lysippos, and by the side of it a gilded Artemis.

{2.9.7} Hard by is a sanctuary of Apollo Lykios (wolf-god), now fallen into ruins and not worth any attention. For wolves once so preyed upon their flocks that there was no longer any profit therefrom, and the god, mentioning a certain place where lay a dry log, gave an oracle that the bark of this log mixed with meat was to be set out for the beasts to eat. As soon as they tasted it the bark killed them, and that log lay in my time in the sanctuary of the Wolf-god, but not even the guides of the Sikyonians knew what kind of tree it was.

{2.9.8} Next after this are bronze portrait statues, said to be the daughters of Proitos, but the inscription I found referred to other women. Here there is a bronze Hēraklēs, made by Lysippos the Sikyonian, and hard by stands Hermes of the Marketplace.

{2.10.1} In the gymnasium not far from the marketplace is dedicated a stone Hēraklēs made by Scopas. There is also in another place a sanctuary of Hēraklēs. The whole of the enclosure here they name Paidizē; in the middle of the enclosure is the sanctuary, and in it is an old wooden figure carved by Laphaēs the Phliasian. I will now describe the ritual at the festival. The story is that on coming to the Sikyonian land Phaistos found the people giving offerings to Hēraklēs as to a hero. Phaistos then refused to do anything of the kind, but insisted on sacrificing to him as to a god. Even at the present day the Sikyonians, after slaying a lamb and burning the thighs upon the altar, eat some of the meat as part of a victim given to a god, while the rest they offer as to a hero. The first day of the festival in honor of Hēraklēs they name …; the second they call Herakleia.

{2.10.2} From here is a way to a sanctuary of Asklepios. On passing into the enclosure you see on the left a building with two rooms. In the outer room lies a figure of Sleep, of which nothing remains now except the head. The inner room is given over to the Carnean Apollo; into it none may enter except the priests. In the portico lies a huge bone of a sea-monster, and after it a statue [agalma] of the Dream-god and [a statue of] Sleep, surnamed Epidotes (Bountiful), lulling to sleep a lion. Within the sanctuary on either side of the entrance is a statue [agalma] of Pan seated, and, on the other side, [a statue of] Artemis standing.

{2.10.3} When you have entered you see the god, a beardless figure of gold and ivory made by Kalamis. He holds a staff in one hand, and a cone of the cultivated pine in the other. The Sikyonians say that the god was carried to them from Epidaurus on a carriage drawn by two mules, that he was in the likeness of a serpent, and that he was brought by Nicagora of Sikyon, the mother of Agasikles and the wife of Ekhetīmos. Here are small figures [agalmata] hanging from the roof. She who is on the serpent they say is Aristodama, the mother of Aratos, whom they hold to be a son of Asklepios.

{2.10.4} Such are the noteworthy things that this enclosure presented to me, and opposite is another enclosure, sacred to Aphrodite. The first thing inside is a statue [agalma] of Antiope. They say that her sons were Sikyonians, and because of them the Sikyonians will have it that Antiope herself is related to themselves. After this is the sanctuary of Aphrodite, into which enter only a female verger, who after her appointment may not have intercourse with a man, and a virgin, called the Bath-bearer, holding her sacred office for a year. All others are accustomed to behold the goddess from the entrance, and to pray from that place.

{2.10.5} The statue [agalma], which is seated, was made by the Sikyonian Kanakhos, who also fashioned the Apollo at Didyma of the Milesians, and the Ismenian Apollo for the Thebans. It is made of gold and ivory, having on its head a polos, [159] and carrying in one hand a poppy and in the other an apple. They offer the thighs of the victims, excepting pigs; the other parts they burn for the goddess with juniper wood, but as the thighs are burning they add to the offering a leaf of the paideros.

{2.10.6} This is a plant in the open parts of the enclosure, and it grows nowhere else either in Sikyonia or in any other land. Its leaves are smaller than those of the esculent oak, but larger than those of the holm; the shape is similar to that of the oak-leaf. One side is of a dark color, the other is white. You might best compare the color to that of white-poplar leaves.

{2.10.7} Ascending from here to the gymnasium you see in the right a sanctuary of Artemis Pheraia. It is said that the wooden image was brought from Pherai. This gymnasium was built for the Sikyonians by Kleinias, and they still train the youths here. White marble images are here, an Artemis crafted only to the waist, and a Hēraklēs whose lower parts are similar to the square Hermai.

{2.11.1} Turning away from here towards the gate called Holy you see, not far from the gate, a temple of Athena. Dedicated long ago by Epopeus, it surpassed all its contemporaries in size and splendor. Yet the memory of even this was doomed to perish through lapse of time—it was burned down by lightning—but the altar there, which escaped injury, remains down to the present day as Epopeus made it. Before the altar a barrow has been raised for Epopeus himself, and near the tomb are the gods Averters of evil. Near them the Greeks perform such rites as they are accustomed to do in order to avert misfortunes. They say that the neighboring sanctuary of Artemis and Apollo was also made by Epopeus, and that of Hērā after it by Adrastos. I found no statues [agalmata] remaining in either. Behind the sanctuary of Hērā he built an altar to Pan, and one to Hēlios [Sun] made of white marble.

{2.11.2} On the way down to the plain is a sanctuary of Demeter, said to have been founded by Plemnaios as a thank-offering to the goddess for the rearing of his son. A little farther away from the sanctuary of Hērā founded by Adrastos is a temple of Apollo Karneios. Only the pillars are standing in it; you will no longer find there walls or roof, nor yet in that of Hērā Pioneer. This temple was founded by Phalkes, son of Temenus, who asserted that Hērā guided him on the road to Sikyon.

{2.11.3} On the direct road from Sikyon to Phleious, on the left of the road and just about ten stadium-lengths from it, is a grove called Puraiā, and in it a sanctuary of Hērā Protectress and the Maiden. Here the men celebrate a festival by themselves, giving up to the women the temple called Nymphon for the purposes of their festival. In the Nymphon are statues [agalmata] of Dionysus, Demeter, and the Maiden, with only their faces exposed. The road to Titane is sixty stadium-lengths long, and too narrow to be used by carriages drawn by a yoke.

{2.11.4} At a distance along it, in my opinion, of twenty stadium-lengths, to the left on the other side of the Asopos, is a grove of holm oaks and a temple of the goddesses named by the Athenians the August, and by the Sikyonians the Kindly Ones. On one day in each year they celebrate a festival to them and offer sheep big with young as a burned offering, and they are accustomed to use a libation of honey and water, and flowers instead of garlands. They practice similar rites at the altar of the Fates; it is in an open space in the grove.

{2.11.5} On turning back to the road, and having crossed the Asopos again and reached the summit of the hill, you come to the place where the natives say that Titan first dwelled. They add that he was the brother of Hēlios [Sun], and that after him the place got the name Titane. My own view is that he proved clever at observing the seasons of the year and the times when the sun increases and ripens seeds and fruits, and for this reason was held to be the brother of Hēlios. Afterwards Alexanor, the son of Machaon, the son of Asklepios, came to Sikyonia and built the sanctuary of Asklepios at Titane.

{2.11.6} The neighbors are chiefly servants of the god, and within the enclosure are old cypress trees. One cannot learn of what wood or metal the statue [agalma] is, nor do they know the name of the maker, though one or two attribute it to Alexanor himself. Of the statue [agalma] can be seen only the face, hands, and feet, for it has about it a tunic of white wool and a cloak. There is a similar statue [agalma] of Hygieia; this, too, one cannot see easily because it is so surrounded with the locks of women, who cut them off and offer them to the goddess, and with strips of Babylonian raiment. With whichever of these a votary here is willing to make propitiations, the same instructions have been given to him, to worship this image which they are pleased to call Hygieia.

{2.11.7} There are statues [agalmata] also of Alexanor and of Euamerion; to the former they give offerings as to a hero after the setting of the sun; to Euamerion, as being a god, they give burned sacrifices. If I conjecture aright, the Pergamenes, in accordance with an oracle, call this Euamerion Telesphoros (Accomplisher) while the Epidaurians call him Akesis (Cure). There is also a wooden image of Coronis, but it has no fixed position anywhere in the temple. While to the god are being sacrificed a bull, a lamb, and a pig, they remove Coronis to the sanctuary of Athena and honor her there. The parts of the victims which they offer as a burned sacrifice, and they are not content with cutting out the thighs, they burn on the ground, except the birds, which they burn on the altar.

{2.11.8} In the gable at the ends are figures of Hēraklēs and of Victories. In the portico are dedicated statues [agalmata] of Dionysus and Hekate, with Aphrodite, the Mother of the gods, and Fortune. These are wooden, but Asklepios, surnamed Gortynian, is of stone. They are unwilling to enter among the sacred serpents through fear, but they place their food before the entrance and take no further trouble. Within the enclosure is a bronze statue of a Sikyonian named Granianus, who won the following victories at Olympia: the pentathlon twice, the foot-race, the double-course foot-race twice, once without and once with the shield.

{2.12.1} In Titane there is also a sanctuary of Athena, into which they bring up the image of Coronis. In it is an old wooden figure of Athena, and I was told that it, too, was struck by lightning. The sanctuary is built upon a hill, at the bottom of which is an Altar of the Winds, and on it the priest sacrifices to the winds one night in every year. He also performs other secret rites at four pits, taming the fierceness of the blasts, and he is said to chant as well charms of Medea.

{2.12.2} On reaching Sikyon from Titane, as you go down to the shore you see on the left of the road a temple of Hērā having now neither statue [agalma] nor roof. They say that its founder was Proitos, the son of Abas. When you have gone down to the harbor called the Sikyonians’ and turned towards Aristonautai, the Port of Pellene, you see a little above the road on the left hand a sanctuary of Poseidon. Farther along the highway is a river called the Helisson, and after it the Sythas, both emptying themselves into the sea.

{2.12.3} Phliasia borders on Sikyonia. The city is just about forty stadium-lengths distant from Titane, and there is a straight road to it from Sikyon. That the Phliasians are in no way related to the Arcadians is shown by the passage in Homer that deals with the list of the Arcadians, in which the Sikyonians are not included among the Arcadian confederates. As my narrative progresses it will become clear that they were Argive originally, and became Dorian later after the return of the Herakleidai to the Peloponnesus. I know that most of the traditions concerning the Phliasians are contradictory, but I shall make use of those which have been most generally accepted.

{2.12.4} They say that the first man in this land was Aras, who sprang from the soil. He founded a city around that hillock which even down to our day is called the Arantine Hill, not far distant from a second hill on which the Phliasians have their citadel and their sanctuary of Hebe. Here, then, he founded a city, and after him in ancient times both the land and the city were called Arantia. While he was king, Asopos, said to be the son of Celusa and Poseidon, discovered for him the water of the river which the present inhabitants call after him Asopos. The tomb of Aras is in the place called Celeae, where they say is also buried Dysaules of Eleusis.

{2.12.5} Aras had a son Aoris and a daughter Araethyrea, who, the Phliasians say, were experienced hunters and brave warriors. Araethyrea died first, and Aoris, in memory of his sister, changed the name of the land to Araethyrea. This is why Homer, in making a list of Agamemnon’s subjects, has the verse: Orneaiwas their home and Araethyrea the delightful. [160] The tombs of the children of Aras are, in my opinion, on the Arantine Hill and not in any other part of the land. On the top of them are far-seen tombstones, and before the celebration of the mysteries of Demeter the people look at these tombs and call Aras and his children to the libations.

{2.12.6} The Argives say that Phlias, who has given the land its third name, was the son of Ceisus, the son of Temenus. This account I can by no means accept, but I know that he is called a son of Dionysus, and that he is said to have been one of those who sailed on the Argo. The verses of the Rhodian poet confirm me in my opinion:

Came after these Phlias from Araethyrea to the muster;
Here did he dwell and prosper, because Dionysus his father
Cared for him well, and his home was near to the springs of Asopos.

The account goes on to say that the mother of Phlias was Araethyrea and not Khthonophyle. The latter was his wife and bore him Androdamas.

{2.13.1} On the return of the Herakleidai disturbances took place throughout the whole of the Peloponnesus except Arcadia, so that many of the cities received additional settlers from the Dorian lineage, and their inhabitants suffered yet more revolutions. The history of Phleious is as follows. The Dorian Rhegnidas, the son of Phalkes, the son of Temenus, attacked it from Argos and Sikyonia. Some of the Phliasians were inclined to accept the offer of Rhegnidas, which was that they should remain on their own estates and receive Rhegnidas as their king, giving the Dorians with him a share in the land.

{2.13.2} Hippasus and his party, on the other hand, urged the citizens to defend themselves, and not to give up many advantages to the Dorians without striking a blow. The people, however, accepted the opposite policy, and so Hippasus and any others who wished fled to Samos. Great-grandson of this Hippasus was Pythagoras, the celebrated sage. For Pythagoras was the son of Mnesarkhos, the son of Euphranor, the son of Hippasus. This is the account the Phliasians give about themselves, and the Sikyonians in general agree with them.

{2.13.3} I will now add an account of the most remarkable of their famous sights. On the Phliasian citadel is a grove of cypress trees and a sanctuary which from ancient times has been held to be peculiarly holy. The earliest Phliasians named the goddess to whom the sanctuary belongs Ganymeda; but later authorities call her Hebe, whom Homer [161] mentions in the duel between Menelaos and Alexander, saying that she was the cup-bearer of the gods; and again he says, in the descent of Odysseus to Hades, [162] that she was the wife of Hēraklēs. Olen, [163] in his hymn to Hērā, says that Hērā was reared by the Seasons, and that her children were Ares and Hebe. Of the honors that the Phliasians pay to this goddess the greatest is the pardoning of suppliants.

{2.13.4} All those who seek sanctuary here receive full forgiveness, and prisoners, when set free, dedicate their fetters on the trees in the grove. The Phliasians also celebrate a yearly festival which they call Ivy-cutters. There is no statue [agalma], either kept in secret or openly displayed, and the reason for this is set forth in a sacred legend of theirs though on the left as you go out is a temple of Hērā with a statue [agalma] of Parian marble.

{2.13.5} On the citadel is another enclosure, which is sacred to Demeter, and in it are a temple and statue [agalma] of Demeter and [one of] her daughter. Here there is also a bronze statue [agalma] of Artemis, which appeared to me to be ancient. As you go down from the citadel you see on the right a temple of Asklepios with a statue [agalma] of the god as a beardless youth. Below this temple is built a theater. Not far from it is a sanctuary of Demeter and old, seated statues [agalmata].

{2.13.6} On the marketplace is a votive offering, a bronze she-goat for the most part covered with gold. The following is the reason why it has received honors among the Phliasians. The constellation which they call the Goat on its rising causes continual damage to the vines. In order that they may suffer nothing unpleasant from it, the Phliasians pay honors to the bronze goat on the marketplace and adorn the image with gold. Here also is the tomb of Aristias, the son of Pratinas. [164] This Aristias and his father Pratinas composed satyric plays more popular than any save those of Aeschylus.

{2.13.7} Behind the marketplace is a building which the Phliasians name the House of Divination. Into it Amphiaraos entered, slept the night there, and then first, say the Phliasians, began to divine. According to their account Amphiaraos was for a time an ordinary person and no diviner. Ever since that time the building has been shut up. Not far away is what is called the Omphalos (Navel), the center of all the Peloponnesus, if they speak the truth about it. Farther on from the Omphalos they have an old sanctuary of Dionysus, a sanctuary of Apollo, and one of Isis. The statue [agalma] of Dionysus is visible to all, and so also is that of Apollo, but the image of Isis only the priests may behold.

{2.13.8} The Phliasians tell also the following legend. When Hēraklēs came back safe from Libya, bringing the apples of the Hesperides, as they were called, he visited Phleious on some private matter. While he was staying there Oineus came to him from Aetolia. He had already allied himself to the lineage of Hēraklēs, and after his arrival on this occasion either he entertained Hēraklēs or Hēraklēs entertained him. Be this as it may, displeased with the drink given him Hēraklēs struck on the head with one of his fingers the boy Cyathus, the cup-bearer of Oineus, who died on the spot from the blow. A chapel keeps the memory of the deed fresh among the Phliasians; it is built by the side of the sanctuary of Apollo, and it contains statues [agalmata] made of stone representing Cyathus holding out a cup to Hēraklēs.

{2.14.1} Celeae is some five stadium-lengths distant from the city, and here they celebrate the mysteries in honor of Demeter, not every year but every fourth year. The initiating priest is not appointed for life, but at each celebration they elect a fresh one, who takes, if he cares to do so, a wife. In this respect their custom differs from that at Eleusis, but the actual celebration is modeled on the Eleusinian rites. The Phliasians themselves admit that they copy the ‘performance’ at Eleusis.

{2.14.2} They say that it was Dysaules, the brother of Keleus, who came to their land and established the mysteries, and that he had been expelled from Eleusis by Ion, when Ion, the son of Xuthus, was chosen by the Athenians to be commander-in-chief in the Eleusinian war. Now I cannot possibly agree with the Phliasians in supposing that an Eleusinian was conquered in battle and driven away into exile, for the war terminated in a treaty before it was fought out, and Eumolpos himself remained at Eleusis.

{2.14.3} But it is possible that Dysaules came to Phleious for some other reason than that given by the Phliasians. I do not believe either that he was related to Keleus, or that he was in any way distinguished at Eleusis, otherwise Homer would never have passed him by in his poems. For Homer is one of those who have written in honor of Demeter, and when he is making a list of those to whom the goddess taught the mysteries he knows nothing of an Eleusinian named Dysaules. These are the verses:

She to Triptolemos taught, and to Diokles, driver of horses,
Also to mighty Eumolpos, to Keleus, leader of peoples,
Cult of the holy rites, to them all her mystery telling.

{2.14.4} At all events, this Dysaules, according to the Phliasians, established the mysteries here, and he it was who gave to the place the name Celeae. I have already said that the tomb of Dysaules is here. So the tomb of Aras was made earlier, for according to the account of the Phliasians Dysaules did not arrive in the reign of Aras, but later. For Aras, they say, was a contemporary of Prometheus, the son of Iapetos, and three generations of men older than Pelasgus the son of Arkas and those called in Athens aboriginals. On the roof of what is called the Anactorum they say is dedicated the chariot of Pelops.

{2.15.1} These are the things that I found most worthy of mention among the Phliasians. On the road from Corinth to Argos is a small city Kleonai. They say that Kleones was a son of Pelops, though there are some who say that Kleone was one of the daughters of Asopos, that flows by the side of Sikyon. Be this as it may, one or other of these two accounts for the name of the city. Here there is a sanctuary of Athena, and the statue [agalma] is a work of Skyllis and Dipoinos. [165] Some hold them to have been the pupils of Daidalos, but others will have it that Daidalos took a wife from Gortyn, and that Dipoinos and Skyllis were his sons by this woman. Kleonai possesses this sanctuary and the tomb of Eurytos and Kteatos. The story is that as they were going as ambassadors from Elis to the Isthmian contest they were here shot by Hēraklēs, who charged them with being his adversaries in the war against Augeias.

{2.15.2} From Kleonai to Argos are two roads; one is direct and only for men who are physically fit, the other goes along the pass called Trētos, is narrow like the other, being surrounded by mountains, but is nevertheless more suitable for vehicles. In these mountains is still shown the cave of the famous lion, and the place [khōrion] called Neméā is distant some fifteen stadium-lengths. In Neméā is a temple [nāos] of Nemean [Nemeios] Zeus, which is worth seeing [théā], but I found that the roof had caved in and that there was no longer any statue [agalma] [of Zeus] left. Around the temple is a grove of cypress trees, and here it is, they say, that Opheltes was placed by his nurse in the grass and killed by the serpent [drakōn].

{2.15.3} The Argives offer-sacrifices [thuein] to Zeus the Nemean [Nemeios] in Nemeā, and elect a priest of Nemean Zeus; moreover they offer a prize for a race in armor at the winter celebration of the Nemean games. In this place is the tomb of Opheltes; around it is a fence of stones, and within the enclosure are altars. There is also a mound of earth which is the tomb of Lycurgus [Lykourgos] the father of Opheltes. The spring [pēgē] they call Adrasteia for some reason [aitiā] or other, perhaps because Adrastos found it. The land was named, they say, after Nemeā, who was another daughter of Asopos. Above Nemeā is Mount Apesas, where they say that Perseus first made-sacrifice [thuein] to Zeus of Apesas.

{2.15.4} Going upland to [the pass called] Trētos and then down again along the road to Argos, you see on the left the ruins [ereipia] of Mycenae. The Greeks are generally aware that the founder [oikistēs] of Mycenae was Perseus, but I will also write down the cause [aitiā] of its foundation [oikismos] and the pretext [prophasis] that theArgives gave when they at a later point destroyed Mycenae. In the region now called Argolis, some things most ancient are not memorialized [mnēmoneuein] while other things are, and here is one such thing: they say that Inakhos was once their king and that he named the river Inakhos after himself and that he sacrificed to Hērā.

{2.15.5} There is also another tale [logos] told [legesthai] that goes like this… that Phoroneus was the first to be born in this land, and that Inakhos, the father of Phoroneus, was not a man but the river. This river, with the rivers Kephisos and Asterion, arbitrated [dikazein] concerning possession of the land between Poseidon and Hērā. They decided [krinein] that the land belonged to Hērā, and so Poseidon made their waters disappear. For this reason neither Inakhos nor either of the other rivers I have mentioned provides any water except whenver the god [= Zeus] makes rain. In summer their streams are dry except for those at Lerna. Phoroneus, the son of Inakhos, was the first to gather together humans [anthrōpoi] into a commonality [koinon], who up to that time had been scattered and living-in-settlements[oikeîn] all by themselves. The place into which they were first gathered was named the City [Astu] of Phoroneus.

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

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

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

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

Τυρώ τ’ Ἀλκμήνη τε ἐϋστέφανός τε Μυκήνη
Tyro and Alkmēnē and the fair-garlanded lady Mycene [Mukēnē], the-one-with-the-beautiful-garlands [eu-stephanos].

She is said to have been the daughter of Inakhos and the wife of Arestōr in the {Hesiodic] poetry [epē] that the Greeks call the Great Ēhoiai. So they say that the name of the citadel [polis] originated from her [= Mycene = Mukēnē]. But the tradition that is attributed to Acusilaus (Akousilaos), that Myceneus [Mukēneus] was the son of Sparton [Spartōn], and Sparton of Phoroneus, I cannot accept [apo-dekhesthai], because the Lacedaemonians themselves do not accept it either. I say this because, although the Lacedaemonians have at Amyklai an image [eikōn] of a woman [gunē] named Spartē, even they would be amazed at the mere mention of a Spartōn, son of Phoroneus.

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

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

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

{2.17.1} Fifteen stadium-lengths distant from Mycenae is on the left the Hēraion. Alongside the road flows the rivulet called ‘the-water-that-makes-free’ [Eleutherion]. The women who attend the sacred space [hieron] use it [= the water] in purifications [katharsia] and for sacrifices [thusai] that are mystical [apo-rrhētoi]. The sacred space [hieron] itself is on a lower part of Euboea. Euboea is the name they give to the hill here, saying that Asterion the river had three daughters, Euboea, Prosymna, and Akraia, and that they were nurses [trophoi] of Hērā.

{2.17.2} The hill opposite the Hēraion they name after Akraia, while the environs of the sacred space [hieron] they name after Euboea, and, further, the land beneath the Hēraion they name after Prosymna. This on flows above the Hēraion, and falling into a cleft disappears. On its banks grows a plant, which also is called asterion. They offer the plant itself to Hēra, and from its leaves they weave garlands [stephanoi] for her.

{2.17.3} It is said that the architect of the temple [nāos] was Eupolemos, an Argive. The sculptures carved above the columns [kiones] refer not only to the birth [genesis] of Zeus and the battle between the gods and the giants but also to the Trojan war and the capture of Ilion. Before the entrance stand statues [andriantes] of women who have been priestesses [hiereiai] of Hērā and of various heroes [hērōes], including Orestes. I say it this way because the statue that has an inscription on it claiming that it represents the Emperor Augustus is really, they say, the statue of Orestes. In the front-part-of-the-temple [pro-nāos] are on the one side ancient statues [agalmata] of the Graces [Kharites], and on the right a couch [klinē] of Hērā and a votive offering [anathēma], that is, the shield [aspis] that Menelaos once took from Euphorbos at Troy. [166]

{2.17.4} The statue [agalma] of Hērā is seated on a throne [thronos]; it [= the statue] is huge in size, made of gold and ivory, and is a work of Polycleitus. She is wearing [on her head] a garland [stephanos] that features Graces [Kharites] and Seasons [Hōrai] worked upon it, and in one hand she holds a pomegranate while in the other a scepter [skēptron]. About the pomegranate … I must let go of this subject, since its story [logos] is somewhat mystical [apo-rrhētos]. The presence of a cuckoo seated on the scepter [skēptron] they explain by telling how, when Zeus lusted [erân] for Hērā as virgin [parthenos], he changed himself into this bird, and she caught it to be her plaything [paignion]. This story [logos] and similar things said about the gods I write down without accepting [apodekhesthai] them, but I write them down nevertheless.

{2.17.5} By the side of Hērā stands what is said to be a statue [agalma] of Hēbē fashioned by Naukydes; it, too, is of ivory and gold. By its side is an old statue [agalma] of Hērā on a pillar [kiōn]. The oldest statue is made of wild-pear wood, and was dedicated in Tiryns by Peirasos, son of Argos, and when the Argives destroyed Tiryns they carried it away to the Hēraion. I myself saw it, a small, seated statue [agalma].

{2.17.6} Of the votive offerings [anathēmata] the following are worth speaking-about [logos]. There is an altar [bōmos] upon which is worked in relief the legendary [legomenon] wedding of Hēbē and Hēraklēs. This is of silver, but the peacock dedicated by the Emperor Hadrian is of gold and gleaming stones. He dedicated it because they hold the bird to be sacred to Hērā. Also deposited here are a golden garland [stephanos] and a purple robe [peplos], offerings [anathēmata] of Nero.

{2.17.7} Above this temple are the foundations of the earlier temple and such parts of it as were spared by the flames. It had burned down because sleep overpowered Khryseis, the priestess of Hērā, when the lamp before the garlands set fire to them. Khryseis went to Tegea and supplicated Athena Alea. Although so great a disaster had befallen them the Argives did not take down the statue of Khryseis; it is still in position in front of the burned temple.

{2.18.1} By the side of the road from Mycenae to Argos there is on the left hand a hero-shrine [hērōion] of Perseus. He gets honors [tīmai], as I discovered, from the local-population-nearby [proskhōrioi] here as well [as inside the walls of Mycenae], but the greatest honors are paid to him in Seriphos and among the Athenians, who have a precinct [temenos] sacred to Perseus and an altar [bōmos] of Dictys and Klymene, who are called the saviors [sōtēres] of Perseus. Advancing a little way in the Argive territory from this hero-shrine [hērōion] one sees on the right the tomb [taphos] of Thyestes. On it is a ram [krios] made of stone, because Thyestes obtained a golden lamb [arēn] after seducing his brother’s wife. Atreus was not restrained by prudence [logismos] from retaliating, but contrived the slaughter of the children of Thyestes and the banquet that is sung about in songs.

{2.18.2} But as to what followed, I cannot say for certain whether Aigisthos began the injustice [adikiā] or whether Agamemnon was first to commit injustice in killing Tantalos the son of Thyestes. It is said that Tantalos had lived-with [sun-oikeîn]Clytaemnestra, having received her from Tyndareus when she was still a virgin. I myself do not wish to condemn them of having been wicked by nature [phusis]; but if the pollution [miasma] of Pelops and the avenging spirit of Myrtilos dogged their steps so long, it was after all only consistent that the Pythian priestess said to the Spartan Glaukos, the son of Epikydes, who consulted her about breaking his oath, that the punishment for this also comes upon the descendants.

{2.18.3} A short distance beyond the Rams [krioi]—this is the name they give to the tomb of Thyestes—there is on the left a place [khōrion] called Mysia and a sanctuary [hieron] of Demeter Mysia, so named after a man Mysios who, say the Argives, was another one of those who acted as a host [xenos] to Demeter. In any case, this sanctuary has no roof, but inside it is another shrine [nāos], built of baked brick, in it are wooden-statues of the Maiden [Korē], Pluto [Ploutōn], and Demeter. Farther on is the river called Inakhos, and on the other side of it an altar [bōmos] of Hēlios [the Sun]. After this you will come to a gate [pulē] named after the sanctuary [hieron] that is near it. This sanctuary belongs to Eileithuia.

{2.18.4} The Argives are the only Greeks that I know of who have been divided into three kingdoms. For in the reign of Anaxagoras, son of Argeus, son of Megapenthes, the women were smitten with madness, and straying from their homes they roamed about the country, until Melampos the son of Amythaon cured them of the plague on condition that he himself and his brother Bias had a share of the kingdom equal to that of Anaxagoras. Now descended from Bias five men, Neleids on their mother’s side, occupied the throne for four generations down to Kyanippos, son of Aigialeus, and descended from Melampos six men in six generations down to Amphilokhos, son of Amphiaraos.

{2.18.5} But the native house of the lineage of Anaxagoras ruled longer than the other two. For Iphis, son of Alector, son of Anaxagoras, left the throne to Sthenelus, son of Capaneus his brother. After the capture of Troy, Amphilokhos migrated to the people now called the Amphilochians, and, Kyanippos having died without issue, Cylarabes, son of Sthenelus, became sole king. However, he too left no offspring, and Argos was seized by Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who was a neighbor. Besides his ancestral dominion, he had extended his rule over the greater part of Arcadia and had succeeded to the throne of Sparta; he also had a contingent of allies from Phokis always ready to help him.

{2.18.6} When Orestes became king of the Lacedaemonians, they themselves consented to accept him for they considered that the sons of the daughter of Tyndareus had a claim to the throne prior to that of Nikostratos and Megapenthes, who were sons of Menelaos by a slave woman. On the death of Orestes, there succeeded to the throne Tisamenus, the son of Orestes and of Hermione, the daughter of Menelaos. The mother of Penthilos, the bastard son of Orestes, was, according to the poet Cinaethon, Erigone, the daughter of Aigisthos.

{2.18.7} It was in the reign of this Tisamenus that the Herakleidai returned to the Peloponnesus; they were Temenus and Kresphontes, the sons of Aristomakhos, together with the sons of the third brother, Aristodemos, who had died. Their claim to Argos and to the throne of Argos was, in my opinion, most just, because Tisamenus was descended from Pelops, but the Herakleidai were descendants of Perseus. Tyndareus himself, they made out, had been expelled by Hippokoön, and they said that Hēraklēs, having killed Hippokoön and his sons, had given the land in trust to Tyndareus. They gave the same kind of account about Messenia also, that it had been given in trust to Nestor by Hēraklēs after he had taken Pylos.

{2.18.8} So they expelled Tisamenus from Lacedaemon and Argos, and the descendants of Nestor from Messenia, namely Alkmaion, son of Sillus, son of Thrasymedes, Peisistratos, son of Peisistratos, and the sons of Paion, son of Antilokhos, and with them Melanthos, son of Andropompus, son of Borus, son of Penthilos, son of Periclymenus. So Tisamenus and his sons went with his army to the land that is now Achaea.

{2.18.9} To what people Peisistratos retreated I do not know, but the rest of the Neleidai went to Athens, and the clans of the Painonidai and of the Alkmaionidai were named after them. Melanthos even came to the throne, having deposed Thymoetes the son of Oxyntes; for Thymoetes was the last Athenian king descended from Theseus.

{2.19.1} It is not to my purpose that I should set forth here the history of Kresphontes and of the sons of Aristodemos. But Temenus openly employed, instead of his sons, Delphontes, son of Antimakhos, son of Thrasyanor, son of Ktesippos, son of Hēraklēs, as general in war and as adviser on all occasions. Even before this he had made him his son-in-law, while Hyrnetho was his favorite daughter; he was accordingly suspected of intending to divert the throne to her and Delphontes. For this reason his sons plotted against him, and Ceisus, the eldest of them, seized the kingdom.

{2.19.2} But from the earliest times the Argives have loved freedom and self-government, and they limited to the utmost the authority of their kings, so that to Medon, the son of Ceisus, and to his descendants was left a kingdom that was such only in name. Meltas, the son of Lacedas, the tenth descendant of Medon, was condemned by the people and deposed altogether from the kingship.

{2.19.3} The most famous building in the city of Argos is the sanctuary of Apollo Lykios (wolf-god). The modern statue [agalma] was made by the Athenian Attalos, but the original temple and wooden-statue [xoanon] were the offering of Danaos. I am of opinion that in those days all statues called xoana, especially Egyptian ones, were made of wood. The reason why Danaos founded a sanctuary of Apollo Lykios was this. On coming to Argos he claimed the kingdom against Gelanor, the son of Sthenelas. Many plausible arguments were brought forward by both parties, and those of Sthenelas were considered as fair as those of his opponent; so the people, who were sitting in judgment, put off, they say, the decision to the following day.

{2.19.4} At dawn a wolf fell upon a herd of oxen that was pasturing before the wall, and attacked and fought with the bull that was the leader of the herd. It occurred to the Argives that Gelanor was like the bull and Danaos like the wolf, for as the wolf will not live with men, so Danaos up to that time had not lived with them. It was because the wolf overcame the bull that Danaos won the kingdom. Accordingly, believing that Apollo had brought the wolf on the herd, he founded a sanctuary of Apollo Lykios.

{2.19.5} Here is dedicated the throne of Danaos, and here Is placed a statue of Biton, in the form of a man carrying a bull on his shoulders. According to the poet Lykeas, when the Argives were holding a sacrifice to Zeus at Nemeā, Biton by sheer physical strength took up a bull and carried it there. Next to this statue is a fire which they keep burning, calling it the fire of Phoroneus. For they do not admit that fire was given to mankind by Prometheus, but insist in assigning the discovery of fire to Phoroneus.

{2.19.6} As to the wooden images of Aphrodite and Hermes, the one they say was made by Epeios, while the other is a votive offering of Hypermnestra. She was the only one of the daughters of Danaos who neglected his command, [167] and was accordingly brought to justice by him, because be considered that his life was in danger so long as Lynkeus was at large, and that the refusal to share in the crime of her sisters increased the disgrace of the contriver of the deed. On her trial she was acquitted by the Argives, and to commemorate her escape she dedicated an image of Aphrodite, the Bringer of Nike.

{2.19.7} Within the temple is a statue of Ladas, the swiftest runner of his time, and one of Hermes with a tortoise which he has caught to make a lyre. Before the temple is a pit with a relief representing a fight between a bull and a wolf, and with them a maiden throwing a rock at the bull. The maiden is thought to be Artemis. Danaos dedicated these, and some pillars hard by and wooden images of Zeus and Artemis.

{2.19.8} Here are tombs; one is that of Linos, the son of Apollo by Psamathe, the daughter of Krotopos; the other, they say, is that of Linos the poet. The story of the latter Linos is more appropriate to another part of my narrative, and so I omit it here, while I have already given the history of the son of Psamathe in my account of Megara. After these is an image of Apollo, God of Streets, and an altar of Zeus, God of Rain, where those who were helping Polyneikes in his efforts to be restored to Thebes swore an oath together that they would either capture Thebes or die. As to the tomb of Prometheus, their account seems to me to be less probable than that of the Opuntians, but they hold to it nevertheless.

{2.20.1} Passing over a statue [eikōn] of Creugas, a boxer, and a trophy that was set up to celebrate a victory over the Corinthians, you come to a seated statue [agalma] of Zeus Meilikhios (Gracious), made of white marble by Polycleitus. [168] I discovered that it was made for the following reason. Ever since the Lacedaemonians began to make war upon the Argives there was no cessation of hostilities until Philip, the son of Amyntas, forced them to stay within the original boundaries of their territories. Before this, if the Lacedaemonians were not engaged on some business outside the Peloponnesus, they were always trying to annex a piece of Argive territory; or if they were busied with a war beyond their borders it was the turn of the Argives to retaliate.

{2.20.2} When the hatred of both sides was at its height, the Argives resolved to maintain a thousand picked men. The commander appointed over them was the Argive Bryas. His general behavior to the men of the people was violent, and a girl who was being taken to the bridegroom he seized from those who were escorting her and ravished. When night came on, the girl waited until he was asleep and put out his eyes. Detected in the morning, she took refuge as a suppliant with the people. When they did not give her up to the Thousand for punishment both sides took up arms; the people won the day, and in their anger left none of their opponents alive. [169] Subsequently they had recourse to purifications for shedding kindred blood; among other things they dedicated a statue [agalma] of Zeus Meilikhios.

{2.20.3} Hard by are Kleobis and Biton carved in relief on stone, themselves drawing the carriage and taking in it their mother to the sanctuary of Hērā. Opposite them is a sanctuary of Nemean Zeus, and an upright bronze statue [agalma] of the god made by Lysippos. Going forward from this you see on the right the tomb of Phoroneus, to whom even in our time they bring offerings as to a hero. Over against the Nemean Zeus is a temple of Fortune, which must be very old if it be the one in which Palamedes dedicated the dice that he had invented.

{2.20.4} The tomb near this they call that of the maenad Chorea, saying that she was one of the women who joined Dionysus in his expedition against Argos, and that Perseus, being victorious in the battle, put most of the women to the sword. To the rest they gave a common grave, but to Chorea they gave burial apart because of her high rank.

{2.20.5} A little farther on is a sanctuary of the Seasons. On coming back from here you see statues of Polyneikes, the son of Oedipus, and of all the chieftains who with him were killed in battle at the wall of Thebes. These men Aeschylus has reduced to the number of seven only, although there were more chiefs than this in the expedition, from Argos, from Messene, with some even from Arcadia. But the Argives have adopted the number seven from the drama of Aeschylus, and near to their statues are the statues of those who took Thebes: Aigialeus, son of Adrastos; Promakhos, son of Parthenopaeus, son of Talaos; Polydoros, son of Hippomedon; Thersandros; Alkmaion and Amphilokhos, the sons of Amphiaraos; Diomedes, and Sthenelus. Among their company were also Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, and Adrastos and Timeas, sons of Polyneikes.

{2.20.6} Not far from the statues are shown the tomb of Danaos and a cenotaph of the Argives who met their death at Troy or on the journey home. Here there is also a sanctuary of Zeus the Savior. Beyond it is a building where the Argive women bewail Adonis. On the right of the entrance is the sanctuary of Kephisos. It is said that the water of this river was not utterly destroyed by Poseidon, but that just in this place, where the sanctuary is, it can be heard flowing under the earth.

{2.20.7} Beside the sanctuary of Kephisos is a head of Medusa made of stone, which is said to be another of the works of the Cyclopes. The ground behind it is called even at the present time the Place of Judgment, because it was here that they say Hypermnestra was brought to judgment by Danaos. Not far from this is a theater. In it are some noteworthy sights, including a representation of a man killing another, namely the Argive Perilaos, the son of Alcenor, killing the Spartan Othryadas. Before this, Perilaos had succeeded in winning the prize for wrestling at the Nemean games.

{2.20.8} Above the theater is a sanctuary of Aphrodite, and before the image is a slab with a representation crafted on it in relief of Telesilla, the lyric poetess. Her books lie scattered at her feet, and she herself holds in her hand an helmet, which she is looking at and is about to place on her head. Telesilla was a distinguished woman who was especially renowned for her poetry. It happened that the Argives had suffered an awful defeat at the hands of Kleomenes, the son of Anaxandrides, and the Lacedaemonians. Some fell in the actual fighting; others, who had fled to the grove of Argos, also perished. At first they left sanctuary under an agreement, which was treacherously broken, and the survivors, when they realized this, were burned to death in the grove. So when Kleomenes led his troops to Argos there were no men to defend it. [170]

{2.20.9} But Telesilla mounted on the wall all the slaves and such as were incapable of bearing arms through youth or old age, and she herself, collecting the arms in the sanctuaries and those that were left in the houses, armed the women of vigorous age, and then posted them where she knew the enemy would attack. When the Lacedaemonians came on, the women were not dismayed at their battlecry, but stood their ground and fought valiantly. Then the Lacedaemonians, realizing that to destroy the women would be an invidious success while defeat would mean a shameful disaster, gave way before the women.

{2.20.10} This fight had been foretold by the Pythian priestess in the oracle quoted by Herodotus, who perhaps understood to what it referred and perhaps did not:

But when the time shall come that the female conquers in battle,
Driving away the male, and wins great glory in Argos,
Many an Argive woman will tear both cheeks in her sorrow.
Such are the words of the oracle referring to the exploit of the women.

{2.21.1} Having descended thence, and having turned again to the marketplace, we come to the tomb of Cerdo, the wife of Phoroneus, and to a temple of Asklepios. The sanctuary of Artemis, surnamed Persuasion, is another offering of Hypermnestra after winning the trial to which she was brought by her father because of Lynkeus. Here there is also a bronze statue of Aeneas, and a place called Delta. I intentionally do not discuss the origin of the name, because I could not accept the traditional accounts.

{2.21.2} In front of it stands an altar of Zeus Phyxios, and near is the tomb of Hypermnestra, the mother of Amphiaraos, the other tomb being that of Hypermnestra, the daughter of Danaos, with whom is also buried Lynkeus. Opposite these is the tomb of Talaos, the son of Bias; the history of Bias and his descendants I have already given.

{2.21.3} A sanctuary of Athena Trumpet they say was founded by Hegeleos. This Hegeleos, according to the story, was the son of Tyrsenus, and Tyrsenus was the son of Hēraklēs and the Lydian woman; Tyrsenus invented the trumpet, and Hegeleos, the son of Tyrsenus, taught the Dorians with Temenus how to play the instrument, and for this reason gave Athena the surname Trumpet. Before the temple of Athena is, they say, the tomb of Epimenides. The Argive story is that the Lacedaemonians made war upon the people of Knossos and took Epimenides alive; they then put him to death for not prophesying good luck to them, and the Argives taking his body buried it here.

{2.21.4} The building of white marble in just about the middle of the marketplace is not, as the Argives declare, a trophy in honor of a victory over Pyrrhos of Epeiros, but it can be shown that his body was burned here, and that this is his monument, on which are carved in relief the elephants and his other instruments of warfare. This building then was set up where the pyre stood, but the bones of Pyrrhos lie in the sanctuary of Demeter, beside which, as I have shown in my account of Attica, his death occurred. At the entrance to this sanctuary of Demeter you can see a bronze shield of Pyrrhos hanging dedicated over the door.

{2.21.5} Not far from the building in the marketplace of Argos is a mound of earth, in which they say lies the head of the Gorgon Medusa. I omit the miraculous, but give the rational parts of the story about her. After the death of her father, Phorcus, she reigned over those living around Lake Tritonis, going out hunting and leading the Libyans to battle. On one such occasion, when she was encamped with an army over against the forces of Perseus, who was followed by picked troops from the Peloponnesus, she was assassinated by night. Perseus, admiring her beauty even in death, cut off her head and carried it to show the Greeks.

{2.21.6} But Prokles, the son of Eucrates, a Carthaginian, thought a different account more plausible than the preceding. It is as follows. Among the incredible monsters to be found in the Libyan desert are wild men and wild women. Prokles affirmed that he had seen a man from them who had been brought to Rome. So he guessed that a woman wandered from them, reached Lake Tritonis, and harried the neighbors until Perseus killed her; Athena was supposed to have helped him in this exploit, because the people who live around Lake Tritonis are sacred to her.

{2.21.7} In Argos, by the side of this monument of the Gorgon, is the tomb of Gorgophone (Gorgon-kilIer), the daughter of Perseus. As soon as you hear the name you can understand the reason why it was given her. On the death of her husband, Perieres, the son of Aeolus, whom she married when a virgin, she married Oibalos, being the first woman, they say, to marry a second time; for before this wives were accustomed, on the death of their husbands, to live as widows.

{2.21.8} In front of the tomb is a trophy of stone made to commemorate a victory over an Argive Laphaes. When this man was tyrant I write what the Argives themselves say concerning themselves—the people rose up against him and cast him out. He fled to Sparta, and the Lacedaemonians tried to restore him to power, but were defeated by the Argives, who killed the greater part of them and Laphaes as well. Not far from the trophy is the sanctuary of Leto; the statue [agalma] is a work of Praxiteles.

{2.21.9} The statue [eikōn] of the maiden beside the goddess they call Chloris (Pale), saying that she was a daughter of Niobe, and that she was called Meliboea at the first. When the children of Amphion were destroyed by Apollo and Artemis, she alone of her sisters, along with Amyclas, escaped; their escape was due to their prayers to Leto. Meliboea was struck so pale by her fright, not only at the time but also for the rest of her life, that even her name was accordingly changed from Meliboea to Chloris.

{2.21.10} Now the Argives say that these two built originally the temple to Leto, but I think that none of Niobe’s children survived, for I place more reliance than others on the poetry of Homer, one of whose verses bears out my view:Though they were only two, yet they gave all to destruction. [171] So Homer knows that the house of Amphion was utterly overthrown.

{2.22.1} The temple of Hērā Anthea (Flowery) is on the right of the sanctuary of Leto, and before it is a tomb of women. They were killed in a battle against the Argives under Perseus, having come from the Aegean Islands to help Dionysus in war; for which reason they are surnamed Haliai (Women of the Sea). Facing the tomb of the women is a sanctuary of Demeter, surnamed Pelasgian from Pelasgus, son of Triopas, its founder, and not far from the sanctuary is the tomb of Pelasgus.

{2.22.2} Opposite the tomb is a small bronze vessel supporting ancient images [agalmata] of Artemis, Zeus, and Athena. Now Lykeas in his poem says that the statue [agalma] is of Zeus Mekhaneus (Contriver), and that here the Argives who set out against Troy swore to persist in the war until they either took Troy or met their end fighting. Others have said that in the bronze vessel lie the bones of Tantalos.

{2.22.3} Now that the Tantalos is buried here who was the son of Thyestes or Broteas (both accounts are given) and married Clytaemnestra before Agamemnon did, I will not gainsay; but the tomb of him who legend says was son of Zeus and Pluto [Ploutōn]—it is worth seeing—is on Mount Sipylos. I know because I saw it. Moreover, no constraint came upon him to flee from Sipylos, such as afterwards forced Pelops to run away when Ilus the Phrygian launched an army against him. But I must pursue the inquiry no further. The ritual performed at the pit hard by they say was instituted by Nikostratos, a native. Even at the present day they throw into the pit burning torches in honor of the Maiden who is daughter of Demeter.

{2.22.4} Here is a sanctuary of Poseidon, surnamed Prosklystios (Flooder), for they say that Poseidon inundated the greater part of the country because Inakhos and his assessors decided that the land belonged to Hērā and not to him. Now it was Hērā who induced Poseidon to send the sea back, but the Argives made a sanctuary to Poseidon Prosklystios at the spot where the tide ebbed.

{2.22.5} Going on a little further you see the tomb of Argos, reputed to be the son of Zeus and Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus. After these comes a temple of the Dioskouroi. The statues [agalmata] represent the Dioskouroi themselves and their sons, Anaxis and Mnasinous, and with them are their mothers, Hilaeira and Phoebe. They are of ebony wood, and were made by Dipoinos and Skyllis. The horses, too, are mostly of ebony, but there is a little ivory also in their construction.

{2.22.6} Near the Lords is a sanctuary of Eilethyia, dedicated by Helen when, Theseus having gone away with Peirithoos to Thesprotia, Aphidna had been captured by the Dioskouroi and Helen was being brought to Lacedaemon. For it is said that she was with child, was delivered In Argos, and founded there the sanctuary of Eilethyia, giving the daughter she bore to Clytaemnestra, who was already wedded to Agamemnon, while she herself subsequently married Menelaos.

{2.22.7} And on this matter the poets Euphorion of Khalkis and Alexander of Pleuron, and even before them, Stesichorus of Himera, agree with the Argives in asserting that Iphigenia was the daughter of Theseus. [172] Over against the sanctuary of Eilethyia is a temple of Hekate, and the statue [agalma] is a work of Scopas. This one is of stone, while the bronze statues [agalmata] opposite, also of Hekate, were made respectively by Polycleitus and his brother Naukydes, son of Mothon.

{2.22.8} As you go along a straight road to a gymnasium, called Cylarabis after the son of Sthenelus, you come to the tomb of Licymnius, the son of Electryon, who, Homer says, was killed by Tleptolemos, the son of Hēraklēs for which homicide Tleptolemos was banished from Argos. On turning a little aside from the road to Cylarabis and to the gate there, you come to the tomb of Sacadas, who was the first to play at Delphi the Pythian tune of the aulos [‘double-reed’];

{2.22.9} the hostility of Apollo to players of the aulos [‘double-reed’], which had lasted ever since the rivalry of Marsyas the Silenos, is supposed to have stayed because of this Sacadas. In the gymnasium of Cylarabes is an Athena called Pania; they show also the tombs of Sthenelus and of Cylarabes himself. Not far from the gymnasium has been built a common grave of those Argives who sailed with the Athenians to enslave Syracuse and Sicily.

{2.23.1} As you go from here along a road called Hollow there is on the right a temple of Dionysus; the statue [agalma], they say, is from Euboea. For when the Greeks, as they were returning from Troy, met with the shipwreck at Caphereus, those of the Argives who were able to escape to land suffered from cold and hunger. Having prayed that someone of the gods should prove himself a savior in their present distress, straightway as they advanced they came upon a cave of Dionysus; in the cave was a statue [agalma] of the god, and on this occasion wild she-goats had gathered there to escape from the storm. These the Argives killed, using the flesh as food and the skins as raiment. When the storm was over and the Argives, having refitted their ships, were returning home, they took with them the wooden image from the cave, and continue to honor it to the present day.

{2.23.2} Very near to the temple of Dionysus you will see the house of Adrastos, farther on a sanctuary of Amphiaraos, and opposite the sanctuary the tomb of Eriphyle. Next to these is a precinct of Asklepios, and after them a sanctuary of Baton. Now Baton belonged to the same family as Amphiaraos, to the Melampodidai, and served as his charioteer when he went forth to battle. When the rout took place at the wall of Thebes, the earth opened and received Amphiaraos and his chariot, swallowing up this Baton at the same time.

{2.23.3} Returning from Hollow Street, you see what they say is the tomb of Hyrnetho. If they allow that it is merely a cenotaph erected to the memory of the lady, their account is likely enough but if they believe that the corpse lies here I cannot credit it, and leave anyone to do so who has not learned the history of Epidaurus.

{2.23.4} The most famous sanctuary of Asklepios at Argos contains at the present day a white-marble statue [agalma] of the god seated, and by his side stands Hygieia. There are also seated figures of Xenophilus and Straton, who made the statues [agalmata]. The original founder of the sanctuary was Sphyrus, son of Makhaon and brother of the Alexanor who is honored among the Sikyonians in Titane.

{2.23.5} The Argives, like the Athenians and Sikyonians, worship Artemis Pheraia, and they, too, assert that the statue [agalma] of the goddess was brought from Pherai in Thessaly. But I cannot agree with them when they say that in Argos are the tombs of Deianeira, the daughter of Oineus, and of Helenos, son of Priam, and that there is among them the statue [agalma] of Athena that was brought from Troy, thus causing the capture of that city. For the Palladium, as it is called, was manifestly brought to Italy by Aeneas. As to Deianeira, we know that her death took place near Trakhis and not in Argos, and her tomb is near Herakleia, at the foot of Mount Oitē.

{2.23.6} The story of Helenos, son of Priam, I have already given: that he went to Epeiros with Pyrrhos, the son of Achilles; that, wedded to Andromache, he was guardian to the children of Pyrrhos and that the district called Kestrine received its name from Kestrinos, son of Helenos. Now even the guides of the Argives themselves are aware that their account is not entirely correct. Nevertheless they hold to their opinion, for it is not easy to make the multitude change their views. The Argives have other things worth seeing;

{2.23.7} for instance, an underground building over which was the bronze chamber which Akrisios once made to guard his daughter. Perilaos, however, when he became tyrant, pulled it down. Besides this building there is the tomb of Krotopos and a temple of Cretan Dionysus. For they say that the god, having made war on Perseus, afterwards laid aside his enmity, and received great honors at the hands of the Argives, including this precinct set specially apart for himself.

{2.23.8} It was afterwards called the precinct of the Cretan god, because, when Ariadne died, Dionysus buried her here. But Lykeas says that when the temple was being rebuilt an earthenware coffin was found, and that it was Ariadne’s. He also said that both he himself and other Argives had seen it. Near the temple of Dionysus is a temple of Aphrodite the celestial one [Ourania].

{2.24.1} The citadel they call Larisa, after the daughter of Pelasgus. After her were also named two of the cities in Thessaly, the one by the sea and the one by the river Pēneios. As you go up the citadel you come to the sanctuary of Hērā of the Height, and also a temple of Apollo, which is said to have been first built by Pythaeus when he came from Delphi. The present statue [agalma] is a bronze standing figure called Apollo Deiradiotes, because this place, too, is called Deiras (Ridge). Oracular responses are still given here, and the oracle acts in the following way. There is a woman who prophesies, being debarred from intercourse with a man. Every month a lamb is sacrificed at night, and the woman, after tasting the blood, becomes inspired by the god.

{2.24.2} Adjoining the temple of Apollo Deiradiotes is a sanctuary of Athena Oxyderces (Sharp-sighted), dedicated by Diomedes, because once when he was fighting at Troy the goddess removed the mist from his eyes. Adjoining it is the race-course, in which they hold the games in honor of Nemean Zeus and the festival of Hērā. As you go to the citadel there is on the left of the road another tomb of the children of Aigyptos. For here are the heads apart from the bodies, which are at Lerna. For it was at Lerna that the youths were murdered, and when they were dead their wives cut off their heads, to prove to their father that they had done the dreadful deed.

{2.24.3} On the top of Larisa is a temple of Zeus, surnamed Larisaean, which has no roof; the wooden statue [agalma] I found no longer standing upon its pedestal. There is also a temple of Athena worth seeing. Here are placed votive offerings, including a wooden image of Zeus, which has two eyes in the natural place and a third on its forehead. This Zeus, they say, was a paternal god of Priam, the son of Laomedon, set up in the uncovered part of his court, and when Troy was taken by the Greeks Priam took sanctuary at the altar of this god. When the spoils were divided, Sthenelus, the son of Capaneus, received the image, and for this reason it has been dedicated here.

{2.24.4} The reason for its three eyes one might infer to be this. That Zeus is king in the sky [ouranos] is a saying common to all men. As for him who is said to rule under the earth, there is a verse of Homer which calls him, too, Zeus:

Zeus of the Underworld [kata-khthonios], and the dreaded [epainē] Persephoneia.

Iliad 9.457

The god in the sea, also, is called Zeus by Aeschylus, the son of Euphorion. So whoever made the image made it with three eyes, as signifying that this same god rules in all the three ‘allotments’ of the Universe, as they are called.

{2.24.5} From Argos are roads to various parts of the Peloponnesus, including one to Teges on the side towards Arcadia. On the right is Mount Lykone, which has trees on it, chiefly cypresses. On the top of the mountain is built a sanctuary of Artemis Orthia (of the Steep), and there have been made white-marble statues [agalmata] of Apollo, Leto, and Artemis, which they say are works of Polycleitus. On descending again from the mountain you see on the left of the highway a temple of Artemis.

{2.24.6} A little farther on there is on the right of the road a mountain called Chaon. At its foot grow cultivated trees, and here the water of the Erasinos rises to the surface. Up to this point it flows from Stymphalos in Arcadia, just as the Rheitoi, near the sea at Eleusis, flow from the Euripus. At the places where the Erasinos gushes forth from the mountain they sacrifice to Dionysus and to Pan, and to Dionysus they also hold a festival called Tyrbe (Throng).

{2.24.7} On returning to the road that leads to Tegea you see Cenchreae on the right of what is called the Wheel. Why the place received this name they do not say. Perhaps in this case also it was Cenchrias, son of Peirene, that caused it to be so called. Here are common graves of the Argives who conquered the Lacedaemonians in battle at Hysiai. [173] This fight took place, I discovered, when Peisistratos was archon [arkhōn] in Athens, in the fourth year of the twenty-seventh Olympiad, in which the Athenian, Eurybotos, won the foot-race. On coming down to a lower level you reach the ruins of Hysiai, which once was a city in Argolis, and here it is that they say the Lacedaemonians suffered their reverse.

{2.25.1} The road from Argos to Mantineia is not the same as that to Tegea, but begins from the gate at the Ridge. On this road is a sanctuary built with two rooms, having an entrance on the west side and another on the east. At the latter is a wooden-statue [xoanon] of Aphrodite, and at the west entrance one of Ares. They say that the statues [agalmata] are votive offerings of Polyneikes and of the Argives who joined him in the campaign to redress his wrongs.

{2.25.2} Farther on from here, across the torrent called Kharadros (Gully), is Oinoe, named, the Argives say, after Oineus. The story is that Oineus, who was king in Aetolia, on being driven from his throne by the sons of Agrios, took refuge with Diomedes at Argos, who aided him by an expedition into Calydonia, but said that he could not remain with him, and urged Oineus to accompany him, if he wished, to Argos. When he came, he gave him all the attention that it was right to give a father’s father, and on his death buried him here. After him the Argives name the place Oinoe.

{2.25.3} Above Oinoe is Mount Artemisios, with a sanctuary of Artemis on the top. On this mountain are also the springs of the river Inakhos. For it really has springs, though the water does not run far.

{2.25.4} Here I found nothing else that is worth seeing. There is another road, that leads to Lyrcea from the gate at the Ridge. The story is that to this place came Lynkeus, being the only one of the fifty brothers to escape death, and that on his escape he raised a beacon here. Now to raise the beacon was the signal he had agreed with Hypermnestra to give if he should escape Danaos and reach a place of safety. She also, they say, lighted a beacon on Larisa as a sign that she too was now out of danger. For this reason the Argives hold every year a beacon festival.

{2.25.5} At the first the place was called Lyncea; its present name is derived from Lyrcus, a bastard son of Abas, who afterwards dwelled there. Among the ruins are several things not worth mentioning, besides a figure of Lyrcus upon a slab. The distance from Argos to Lyrcea is about sixty stadium-lengths, and the distance from Lyrcea to Orneaiis the same. Homer in the Catalogue makes no mention of the city Lyrcea, because at the time of the Greek expedition against Troy it already lay deserted; Omeae, however, was inhabited, and in his poem he places it [174] on the list before Phleious and Sikyon, which order corresponds to the position of the towns in the Argive territory.

{2.25.6} The name is derived from Orneus, the son of Erekhtheus. This Orneus begat Peteos, and Peteos begat Menestheus, who, with a body of Athenians, helped Agamemnon to destroy the kingdom of Priam. From him then did Orneai get its name, and afterwards the Argives removed all its citizens, who thereupon came to live at Argos. At Orneaiare a sanctuary and an upright wooden image of Artemis; there is besides a temple devoted to all the gods in common. On the further side of Orneaiare Sikyonia and Phliasia.

{2.25.7} On the way from Argos to Epidauria there is on the right a building made very like a pyramid, and on it in relief are created shields of the Argive shape. Here took place a fight for the throne between Proitos and Akrisios; the contest, they say, ended in a draw, and a reconciliation resulted afterwards, as neither could gain a decisive victory. The story is that they and their hosts were armed with shields, which were first used in this battle. For those that fell on either side was built here a common tomb, as they were fellow citizens and kinsmen.

{2.25.8} Going on from here and turning to the right, you come to the ruins of Tiryns. The Tirynthians also were removed by the Argives, who wished to make Argos more powerful by adding to the population. The hero Tiryns, from whom the city derived its name, is said to have been a son of Argos, a son of Zeus. The wall, which is the only part of the ruins still remaining, is a work of the Cyclopes made of unfinished stones, each stone being so big that a pair of mules could not move the smallest from its place to the slightest degree. Long ago small stones were so inserted that each of them binds the large blocks firmly together.

{2.25.9} Going down seawards, you come to the chambers of the daughters of Proitos. On returning to the highway you will reach Medea on the left hand. They say that Electryon, the father of Alkmene, was king of Medea, but in my time nothing was left of it except the foundations.

{2.25.10} On the straight road to Epidaurus is a village Lessa, in which is a temple of Athena with a wooden image exactly like the one on the citadel Larisa. Above Lessa is Mount Arachnaeus, which long ago, in the time of Inakhos, was named Sapyselaton. On it are altars to Zeus and Hērā. When rain is needed they sacrifice to them here.

{2.26.1} At Lessa the Argive territory joins that of Epidaurus. But before you reach Epidaurus itself you will come to the sanctuary of Asklepios. Who dwelled in this land before Epidaurus came to it I do not know, nor could I discover from the natives the descendants of Epidaurus either. But the last king before the Dorians arrived in the Peloponnesus was, they say, Pityreus, a descendant of Ion, son of Xuthus, and they relate that he handed over the land to Deiphontes and the Argives without a struggle.

{2.26.2} He went to Athens with his people and dwelled there, while Deiphontes and the Argives took possession of Epidauria. These on the death of Temenus seceded from the other Argives; Deiphontes and Hyrnetho through hatred of the sons of Temenus, and the army with them, because it respected Deiphontes and Hyrnetho more than Ceisus and his brothers. Epidaurus, who gave the land its name, was, the Eleians say, a son of Pelops but, according to Argive opinion and the poem the Great Eoeae, the father of Epidaurus was Argos, son of Zeus, while the Epidaurians maintain that Epidaurus was the child of Apollo.

{2.26.3} That the land is especially sacred to Asklepios is due to the following reason. The Epidaurians say that Phlegyas came to the Peloponnesus, ostensibly to see the land, but really to spy out the number of the inhabitants, and whether the greater part of them was warlike. For Phlegyas was the greatest soldier of his time, and making forays in all directions he carried off the crops and lifted the cattle.

{2.26.4} When he went to the Peloponnesus, he was accompanied by his daughter, who all along had kept hidden from her father that she was with child by Apollo. In the country of the Epidaurians she bore a son, and exposed him on the mountain called Nipple at the present day, but then named Myrtium. As the child lay exposed he was given milk by one of the goats that pastured about the mountain, and was guarded by the watchdog of the herd. And when Aresthanas (for this was the herdsman’s name)

{2.26.5} discovered that the tale of the goats was not full, and that the watchdog also was absent from the herd, he left, they say, no stone unturned, and on finding the child desired to take him up. As he drew near he saw lightning that flashed from the child, and, thinking that it was something divine, as in fact it was, he turned away. Presently it was reported over every land and sea that Asklepios was discovering everything he wished to heal the sick, and that he was raising dead men to life.

{2.26.6} There is also another tradition concerning him. Coronis, they say, when with child with Asklepios, had intercourse with Ischys, son of Elatos. She was killed by Artemis to punish her for the insult done to Apollo, but when the pyre was already lighted Hermes is said to have snatched the child from the flames.

{2.26.7} The third account is, in my opinion, the farthest from the truth; it makes Asklepios to be the son of Arsinoe, the daughter of Leukippos. For when Apollophanes the Arcadian, came to Delphi and asked the god if Asklepios was the son of Arsinoe and therefore a Messenian, the Pythian priestess gave this response: —O Asklepios, born to bestow great joy upon mortals, Pledge of the mutual love I enjoyed with Phlegyas’ daughter, Lovely Coronis, who bare thee in rugged land Epidaurus. This oracle makes it quite certain that Asklepios was not a son of Arsinoe, and that the story was a fiction invented by Hesiod, or by one of Hesiod’s interpolators, just to please the Messenians.

{2.26.8} There is other evidence that the god was born in Epidaurus for I find that the most famous sanctuaries of Asklepios had their origin from Epidaurus. In the first place, the Athenians, who say that they gave a share of their mystic rites to Asklepios, call this day of the festival Epidauria, and they allege that their worship of Asklepios dates from then. Again, when Arkhias, son of Aristaechmus, was healed in Epidauria after spraining himself while hunting about Pindasus, he brought the cult to Pergamon.

{2.26.9} From the one at Pergamon has been built in our own day the sanctuary of Asklepios by the sea at Smyrna. Further, at Balagraiof the Cyreneans there is an Asklepios called Healer, who like the others came from Epidaurus. From the one at Cyrene was founded the sanctuary of Asklepios at Lebene, in Crete. There is this difference between the Cyreneans and the Epidaurians, that whereas the former sacrifice goats, it is against the custom of the Epidaurians to do so.

{2.26.10} That Asklepios was considered a god from the first, and did not receive the title only in course of time, I infer from several signs, including the evidence of Homer, who makes Agamemnon say about Makhaon:Talthybios, with all speed go summon me hither Makhaon, mortal son of Asklepios. [175] As who should say, ‘human son of a god’.

{2.27.1} The sacred grove of Asklepios is surrounded on all sides by boundary marks. No death or birth takes place within the enclosure the same custom prevails also in the island of Delos. All the offerings, whether the offerer be one of the Epidaurians themselves or a stranger, are entirely consumed within the bounds. At Titane too, I know, there is the same rule.

{2.27.2} The statue [agalma] of Asklepios [inside his temple] is, in size, half as big as the Olympian Zeus in Athens, and is made of ivory and gold. An inscription reveals that the artist was Thrasymedes, a Parian, son of Arignotos. The god is sitting on a seat throne [thronos] grasping a staff [baktēriā]; the other hand he is holding over the head of the serpent [drakōn]; there is also a figure of a dog lying by his side. On the throne [thronos] are worked in relief the deeds [erga] of Argive heroes [hērōes]—Bellerophontes against the Chimaera, and Perseus, who has cut off the head of Medusa. Over on the side of the temple is the place where the suppliants [hiketai] of the god fall asleep [= go into a state of incubation].

{2.27.3} Nearby [= near the Temple of Asklepios] has been built a circular building [oikēma … peripheres] of white marble, called Tholos, which is worth seeing [théā]. In it is a picture by Pausias representing Love, who has cast aside his bow and arrows, and is carrying instead of them a lyre that he has taken up. Here there is also another work of Pausias, Drunkenness drinking out of a crystal cup. You can see even in the painting a crystal cup and a woman’s face through it. Within the enclosure [peribolos] stood slabs [stēlai]; in my time six remained, but in ancient times there were more. On them are inscribed the names of both men and women who have been healed by Asklepios, also the disease also from which each suffered, also the means of cure. The dialect is Doric.

{2.27.4} Apart from the others is an ancient [arkhaiā] slab [stēlē]. It says [that is, the inscription on it says] that Hippolytus dedicated twenty horses to the god. What is said by the people of Aricia agrees with the inscription on this slab, that when Hippolytus was killed because of the curses of Theseus, Asklepios resurrected [an-histanai] him from the dead. On coming to life again he refused to forgive his father for rejecting his entreaties, and he went to the people of Aricia in Italy. There he became king and devoted a precinct to Artemis, where down to my time the prize for the victor in single combat was the priesthood of the goddess. The contest was open to no freeman, but only to slaves who had run away from their masters.

{2.27.5} The people of Epidaurus have a theater [theātron] within the sacred space [hieron], and it is in my opinion very much worth seeing [théā]. I say this because, while the Roman theaters are far superior to those anywhere else in their splendor, and the Arcadian theater at Megalopolis is unequalled for size, what architect could seriously rival Polycleitus in symmetry [harmoniā] and beauty? It was Polycleitus who built both this theater [theātron] and the circular building [oikēma … peripheres]. Within the grove are a temple of Artemis, a statue [agalma] of Epione, a sanctuary of Aphrodite and Themis, a race-course consisting, like most Greek race-courses, of a bank of earth, and a fountain worth seeing for its roof and general splendor.

{2.27.6} A Roman senator, Antoninus, made in our own day a bath of Asklepios and a sanctuary of the gods they call Bountiful. [176] He made also a temple to Hygieia, Asklepios, and Apollo, the last two surnamed Egyptian. He moreover restored the portico that was named the Portico of Cotys, which, as the brick of which it was made had been unburned, had fallen into utter ruin after it had lost its roof. As the Epidaurians about the sanctuary were in great distress, because their women had no shelter in which to be delivered and the sick breathed their last in the open, he provided a dwelling, so that these grievances also were redressed. Here at last was a place in which without sin a human being could die and a woman be delivered.

{2.27.7} Above the grove are the Nipple and another mountain called Cynortium; on the latter is a sanctuary of Maleatian Apollo. The sanctuary itself is an ancient one, but among the things Antoninus made for the Epidaurians are various appurtenances for the sanctuary of the Maleatian, including a reservoir into which the rainwater collects for their use.

{2.28.1} The serpents, including a peculiar kind of a yellowish color, are considered sacred to Asklepios, and are tame with men. These are peculiar to Epidauria, and I have noticed that other lands have their peculiar animals. For in Libya only are to be found land crocodiles at least two cubits long; from India alone are brought, among other creatures, parrots. But the big snakes that grow to more than thirty cubits, such as are found in India and in Libya, are said by the Epidaurians not to be serpents, but some other kind of creature.

{2.28.2} As you go up to Mount Coryphum you see by the road an olive tree called Twisted. It was Hēraklēs who gave it this shape by bending it round with his hand, but I cannot say whether he set it to be a boundary mark against the Asinaeans in Argolis, since in no land, which has been depopulated, is it easy to discover the truth about the boundaries. On the Top of the mountain there is a sanctuary of Artemis Coryphaea (of the Peak), of which Telesilla made mention in an ode.

{2.28.3} On going down to the city of the Epidaurians, you come to a place where wild olives grow; they call it Hyrnethium. I will relate the story of it, which is probable enough, as given by the Epidaurians. Ceisus and the other sons of Temenus knew that they would grieve Deiphontes most if they could find a way to part him and Hyrnetho. So Cerynes and Phalkes (for Agraios, the youngest, disapproved of their plan) came to Epidaurus. Staying their chariot under the wall, they sent a herald to their sister, pretending that they wished to parley with her.

{2.28.4} When she obeyed their summons, the young men began to make many accusations against Deiphontes, and besought her much that she would return to Argos, promising, among other things, to give her to a husband in every respect better than Deiphontes, one who ruled over more subjects and a more prosperous country. But Hyrnetho, pained at their words, gave as good as she had received, retorting that Deiphontes was a dear husband to her, and had shown himself a blameless son-in-law to Temenus; as for them, they ought to be called the murderers of Temenus rather than his sons.

{2.28.5} Without further reply the youths seized her, placed her in the chariot, and drove away. An Epidaurian told Deiphontes that Cerynes and Phalkes had gone, taking with them Hyrnetho against her will; he himself rushed to the rescue with all speed, and as the Epidaurians learned the news they reinforced him. On overtaking the runaways, Deiphontes shot Cerynes and killed him, but he was afraid to shoot at Phalkes, who was holding Hyrnetho, lest he should miss him and become the slayer of his wife; so he closed with them and tried to get her away. But Phalkes, holding on and dragging her with greater violence, killed her, as she was with child.

{2.28.6} Realizing what he had done to his sister, he began to drive the chariot more recklessly, as he was anxious to gain a start before all the Epidaurians could gather against him. Deiphontes and his children—for before this children had been born to him, Antimenes, Xanthippos, and Argeus, and a daughter, Orsobia, who, they say, afterwards married Pamphylos, son of Aigimios—took up the dead body of Hyrnetho and carried it to this place, which in course of time was named Hyrnethium.

{2.28.7} They built for her a hero-shrine, and bestowed upon her various honors; in particular, the custom was established that nobody should carry home, or use for any purpose, the pieces that break off the olive trees, or any other trees, that grow there; these are left there on the spot to be sacred to Hyrnetho.

{2.28.8} Not far from the city is the tomb of Melissa, who married Periandros, the son of Kypselos, and another of Prokles, the father of Melissa. He, too, was tyrant of Epidaurus, as Periandros, his son-in-law, was tyrant of Corinth. [177]

{2.29.1} The most noteworthy things which I found the city of Epidaurus itself had to show are these. There is, of course, a precinct of Asklepios, with statues [agalmata] of the god [theos] himself and of Epione. Epione, they say, was the wife of Asklepios. These are of Parian marble, and are set up in the open. There is also in the city a temple of Dionysus and one of Artemis. The figure of Artemis one might take to be the goddess hunting. There is also a sanctuary of Aphrodite, while the one at the harbor, on a height that juts out into the sea, they say is Hērā’s. The Athena on the citadel, a wooden image worth seeing, they surname Cissaea (Ivy Goddess).

{2.29.2} The Aeginetans dwell in the island that is situated opposite the mainland of Epidauros. It is said that in the beginning there were no humans in it; but after Zeus brought to it, when uninhabited, Aegina, daughter of Asopos, its name was changed from Oinone to Aegina; and when Aiakos, on growing up, asked Zeus for settlers, the god, they say, raised up the inhabitants out of the earth. They can mention no king of the island except Aiakos, since we know of none even of the sons of Aiakos who stayed there; for to Peleus and Telamon befell exile for the murder of Phokos, while the sons of Phokos made their home about Parnassus, in the land that is now called Phokis.

{2.29.3} This name had already been given to the land, at the time when Phokos, son of Ornytion, came to it a generation previously. In the time, then, of this Phokos only the district about Tithorea and Parnassus was called Phokis, but in the time of Aiakos the name spread to all from the borders of the Minyaiat Orkhomenos to Skarphea among the people of Lokris [= Lokroi].

{2.29.4} From Peleus sprang the kings in Epeiros; but as for the sons of Telamon, the lineage of Ajax is undistinguished, because he was a man who lived a private life; though Miltiades, who led the Athenians to Marathon, [178] and Kimon, the son of Miltiades, achieved renown; but the lineage of Teukros continued to be the royal house in Cyprus down to the time of Euagoras. Asios the epic poet says that to Phokos were born Panopeus and Crisus. To Panopeus was born Epeios, who made, according to Homer, the wooden horse; and the grandson of Crisus was Pylades, whose father was Strophios, son of Crisus, while his mother was Anaxibia, sister of Agamemnon. Such was the pedigree of the Aiakidai (lineage of Aiakos), as they are called, but they departed from the beginning to other lands.

{2.29.5} Subsequently a division of the Argives who, under Deiphontes, had seized Epidaurus, crossed to Aegina, and, settling among the old Aeginetans, established in the island Dorian manners and the Dorian dialect. Although the Aeginetans rose to great power, so that their navy was superior to that of Athens, and in the Persian war supplied more ships than any state except Athens, yet their prosperity was not permanent but when the island was depopulated by the Athenians, [179] they took up their abode at Thyrea, in Argolis, which the Lacedaemonians gave them to dwell in. They recovered their island when the Athenian warships were captured in the Hellespont, [180] yet it was never given them to rise again to their old wealth or power.

{2.29.6} Of the Greek islands, Aegina is the most difficult of access, for it is surrounded by sunken rocks and reefs which rise up. The story is that Aiakos devised this feature of set purpose, because he feared piratical raids by sea, and wished the approach to be perilous to enemies. Near the harbor in which vessels mostly anchor is a temple of Aphrodite, and in the most conspicuous part of the city what is called the shrine of Aiakos, a quadrangular enclosure of white marble.

{2.29.7} Made-in-relief at the entrance are the envoys whom the Greeks once dispatched to Aiakos. The reason for the embassy given by the Aeginetans is the same as that which the other Greeks assign. A drought had for some time afflicted Greece, and no rain fell either beyond the Isthmus or in the Peloponnesus, until at last they sent envoys to Delphi to ask what was the cause and to beg for deliverance from the evil. The Pythian priestess ordered them to propitiate Zeus, saying that he would not listen to them unless the one to supplicate him were Aiakos.

{2.29.8} And so envoys came with a request to Aiakos from each city. By sacrifice and prayer to Zeus, God of all the Greeks (Panhellenios), he caused rain to fall upon the earth, and the Aeginetans made these likenesses of those who came to him. Within the enclosure are olive trees that have grown there from of old, and there is an altar which is raised but a little from the ground. That this altar is also the tomb of Aiakos is told as a holy secret.

{2.29.9} Beside the shrine of Aiakos is the tomb of Phokos, a barrow surrounded by a basement, and on it lies a rough stone. When Telamon and Peleus had induced Phokos to compete at the pentathlon, and it was now the turn of Peleus to hurl the stone, which they were using for a discus, he intentionally hit Phokos. The act was done to please their mother; for, while they were both born of the daughter of Skiron, Phokos was not, being, if indeed the report of the Greeks be true, the son of a sister of Thetis. I believe it was for this reason, and not only out of friendship for Orestes, that Pylades plotted the murder of Neoptolemos.

{2.29.10} When this blow of the discus killed Phokos, the sons of Endeis boarded a ship and fled. Afterwards Telamon sent a herald denying that he had plotted the death of Phokos. Aiakos, however, refused to allow him to land on the island, and bade him to make his defense standing on board ship, or if he wished, from a mole raised in the sea. So he sailed into the harbor called Secret, and proceeded to make a mole by night. This was finished, and still remains at the present day. But Telamon, being condemned as implicated in the murder of Phokos, sailed away a second time and came to Salamis.

{2.29.11} Not far from the Secret Harbor is a theater worth seeing; it is very similar to the one at Epidaurus, both in size and in style. Behind it is built one side of a race-course, which not only itself holds up the theater, but also in turn uses it as a support.

{2.30.1} There are three temples close together, one of Apollo, one of Artemis, and a third of Dionysus. Apollo has a naked wooden image of native workmanship, but Artemis is dressed, and so, too, is Dionysus, who is, moreover, represented with a beard. The sanctuary of Asklepios is not here, but in another place, and his statue [agalma] is of stone, and seated.

{2.30.2} Of the gods, the Aeginetans worship most Hekate, in whose honor every year they celebrate mystic rites which, they say, Orpheus the Thracian established among them. Within the enclosure is a temple; its wooden-statue [xoanon] is the work of Myron, [181] and it has one face and one body. It was Alkamenes, [182] in my opinion, who first made three statues [agalmata] of Hekate attached to one another, a figure called by the Athenians Epipurgidia (on the Tower); it stands beside the temple of the Wingless Nike.

{2.30.3} In Aegina, as you go towards the mountain [oros] of Zeus, god of all the Hellenes, you reach a sanctuary [hieron] of Aphaia, in whose honor Pindar composed an ode for the Aeginetans. The Cretans say (the story of Aphaia is Cretan) that Carmanor, who purified Apollo alter he had killed Pythō, was the father of Euboulos, and that the daughter of Zeus and of Carme, the daughter of Euboulos, was Britomartis. She took delight, they say, in running and in the chase, and was very dear to Artemis. Fleeing from Minos, who had fallen in love with her, she threw herself into nets which had been cast (aphemena) for a draught of fishes. She was made a goddess by Artemis, and she is worshipped, not only by the Cretans, but also by the Aeginetans, who say that Britomartis shows herself in their island. Her surname among the Aeginetans is Aphaia; in Crete it is Dictynna (Goddess of Nets).

{2.30.4} The Mountain [oros] of all the Hellenes, except for the sanctuary of Zeus, has, I found, nothing else worthy of mention. This sanctuary, they say, was made for Zeus by Aiakos. The story of Auxesia and Damia, how the Epidaurians suffered from drought, how in obedience to an oracle they had these wooden-statues [xoana]images made of olive wood that they received from the Athenians, how the Epidaurians left off paying to the Athenians what they had agreed to pay, on the ground that the Aeginetans had the statues [agalmata], how the Athenians perished who crossed over to Aegina to fetch them—all this, as Herodotus has described it accurately and in detail, I have no intention of relating, because the story has been well told already; but I will add that I saw the statues [agalmata], and sacrificed to them in the same way as it is customary to sacrifice at Eleusis.

{2.30.5} So much I must relate about Aegina, for the sake of Aiakos and his exploits. Bordering on Epidauria are the Troizenians, unrivalled glorifiers of their own country. They say that Orus was the first to be born in their land. Now, in my opinion, Orus is an Egyptian name and utterly un-Greek; but they assert that he became their king, and that the land was called Oraea after him and that Althepus, the son of Poseidon and of Leis, the daughter of Orus, inheriting the kingdom after Orus, named the land Althepia.

{2.30.6} During his reign, they say, Athena and Poseidon disputed about the land, and after disputing held it in common, as Zeus commanded them to do. For this reason they worship both Athena, whom they name both Polias (Urban) and Sthenias (Strong), and also Poseidon, under the surname of King. And moreover their old coins have as device a trident and a face of Athena.

{2.30.7} After Althepus, Saron became king. They said that this man built the sanctuary for Saronian Artemis by a sea which is marshy and shallow, so that for this reason it was called the Phoebaean lagoon. Now Saron was very fond of hunting. As he was chasing a doe, it so chanced that it dashed into the sea and he dashed in alter it. The doe swam further and further from the shore, and Saron kept close to his prey, until his ardor brought him to the open ocean. Here his strength failed, and he was drowned in the waves. The body was cast ashore at the grove of Artemis by the Phoebaean lagoon, and they buried it within the sacred enclosure, and after him they named the sea in these parts the Saronic instead of the Phoebaean lagoon.

{2.30.8} They know nothing of the later kings down to Hyperes and Anthas. These they assert to be sons of Poseidon and of Alcyone, daughter of Atlas, adding that they founded in the country the cities of Hyperea and Anthea; Aitios, however, the son of Anthas, on inheriting the kingdoms of his father and of his uncle, named one of the cities Poseidonias. When Troizen and Pittheus came to Aitios there were three kings instead of one, but the sons of Pelops enjoyed the balance of power.

{2.30.9} Here is evidence of it. When Troizen died, Pittheus gathered the inhabitants together, incorporating both Hyperea and Anthea into the modern city, which he named Troizen after his brother. Many years afterwards the descendants of Aitios, son of Anthas, were dispatched as colonists from Troizen, and founded Halicarnassus and Myndus in Caria. Anaphlystos and Sphettos, sons of Troizen, migrated to Attica, and the demes [dēmoi] are named after them. As my readers know it already, I shall not relate the story of Theseus, the grandson of Pittheus. There is, however, one incident that I must add.

{2.30.10} On the return of the Herakleidai, the Troizenians too received Dorian settlers from Argos. They had been subject at even an earlier date to the Argives; Homer, too, in the Catalogue, says that their commander was Diomedes. For Diomedes and Euryalus, son of Mecisteus, who were guardians of the boy Kyanippos, son of Aigialeus, led the Argives to Troy. Sthenelus, as I have related above, came of a more illustrious family, called the Anaxagoridai, and he had the best claim to the Kingdom of Argos. Such is the story of the Troizenians, with the exception of the cities that claim to be their colonies. I will now proceed to describe the appointments of their sanctuaries and the remarkable sights of their country.

{2.31.1} In the marketplace of Troizen is a temple of Artemis Savior [Sōteira], with statues [agalmata] of the goddess. It was said that the temple was founded and the name Savior given by Theseus when he returned from Crete after overcoming Asterion the son of Minos. This victory he considered the most noteworthy of his achievements, not so much, in my opinion, because Asterion was the bravest of those killed by Theseus, but because his success in unraveling the difficult Maze and in escaping unnoticed after the exploit made credible the saying that it was divine providence that brought Theseus and his company back in safety.

{2.31.2} In this temple are altars to the gods said to rule under the earth. It is here that they say Semele was brought out of Hades by Dionysus, and that Hēraklēs dragged up the Hound of Hades. [183] But I cannot bring myself to believe even that Semele died at all, seeing that she was the wife of Zeus; while, as for the so-called Hound of Hades, I will give my views in another place.

{2.31.3} Behind the temple is the tomb of Pittheus, on which are placed three seats of white marble. On them they say that Pittheus and two men with him used to sit in judgment. Not far off is a sanctuary of the Muses, made, they told me, by Ardalus, son of Hephaistos. This Ardalus they hold to have invented the aulos [‘double-reed’], and after him they name the Muses Ardalides. Here, they say, Pittheus taught the art of rhetoric, and I have myself read a book purporting to be a treatise by Pittheus, published by a citizen of Epidaurus. Not far from the Muses’ Hall is an old altar, which also, according to report, was dedicated by Ardalus. Upon it they sacrifice to the Muses and to Sleep, saying that Sleep is the god that is dearest to the Muses.

{2.31.4} Near the theater a temple of Artemis Lykaia (Wolfish) was made by Hippolytus. About this surname I could learn nothing from the local guides, but I gathered that either Hippolytus destroyed wolves that were ravaging the land of Troizen, or else that Lykaia is a surname of Artemis among the Amazons, from whom he was descended through his mother. Perhaps there may be another explanation that I am unaware of. The stone in front of the temple, called the Sacred Stone, they say is that on which nine men of Troizen once purified Orestes from the stain of matricide.

{2.31.5} Not far from Artemis Lykaia are altars close to one another. The first of them is to Dionysus, surnamed, in accordance with an oracle, Saotes (Savior); the second is named the altar of the Themides (Laws), and was dedicated, they say, by Pittheus. They had every reason, it seems to me, for making an altar to Hēlios Eleutherios (Sun, God of Freedom), seeing that they escaped being enslaved by Xerxes and the Persians.

{2.31.6} The sanctuary of Thearian Apollo, they told me, was set up by Pittheus; it is the oldest I know of. Now the people of Phokaia, too, in Ionia have an old temple of Athena, which was once burned by Harpagus the Persian, and the Samians also have an old one of Pythian Apollo; these, however, were built much later than the sanctuary at Troizen. The modern statue [agalma] was dedicated by Auliskos, and made by Hermon of Troizen. This Hermon made also the wooden images of the Dioskouroi.

{2.31.7} Under a portico in the marketplace are set up women; both they and their children are of stone. They are the women and children whom the Athenians gave to the Troizenians to be kept safe, when they had resolved to evacuate Athens and not to await the attack of the Persians by land. They are said to have dedicated likenesses, not of all the women—for, as a matter of fact, the statues are not many—but only of those who were of high rank.

{2.31.8} In front of the sanctuary of Apollo is a building called the Booth of Orestes. For before he was purified for shedding his mother’s blood, no citizen of Troizen would receive him into his home; so they lodged him here and gave him entertainment while they purified him, until they had finished the purification. Down to the present day the descendants of those who purified Orestes dine here on appointed days. A little way from the booth were buried, they say, the means of purifying, and from them grew up a bay tree, which, indeed, still remains, being the one before this booth.

{2.31.9} Among the means of purifying which they say they used to purify Orestes was water from Hippocrene (Horse’s Fount) for the Troizenians too have a fountain called the Horse’s, and the legend about it does not differ from the one which prevails in Boeotia. For they, too, say that the earth sent up the water when the horse Pegasus [Pegasos] struck the ground with his hoof, and that Bellerophontes came to Troizen to ask Pittheus to give him Aithra to wife, but before the marriage took place he was banished from Corinth.

{2.31.10} Here there is also a Hermes called Polygius. Against this statue [agalma], they say, Hēraklēs leaned his club. Now this club, which was of wild olive, taking root in the earth (if anyone cares to believe the story), grew up again and is still alive; Hēraklēs, they say, discovering the wild olive by the Saronic Sea, cut a club from it. There is also a sanctuary of Zeus surnamed Savior, which, they say, was made by Aitios, the son of Anthas, when he was king. To a water they give the name River of Gold. They say that when the land was afflicted with a drought for nine years, during which no rain fell, all the other waters dried up, but this River of Gold even then continued to flow as before.

{2.32.1} To Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, is devoted a very famous precinct, in which is a temple with an old statue [agalma]. Diomedes, they say, made these, and, moreover, was the first to sacrifice to Hippolytus. The Troizenians have a priest of Hippolytus, who holds his sacred office for life, and annual sacrifices have been established. They also observe the following custom. Every girl before marriage cuts off a lock for Hippolytus, and, having cut it, she brings it to the temple and dedicates it. They will not have it that he was dragged to death by his horses, and, though they know his tomb, they do not show it. But they believe that what is called the Charioteer in the sky is the Hippolytus of the legend, such being the honor he enjoys from the gods.

{2.32.2} Within this enclosure is a temple of Apollo Seafaring, an offering of Diomedes for having weathered the storm that came upon the Greeks as they were returning from Troy. They say that Diomedes was also the first to hold the Pythian games in honor of Apollo. Of Damia and Auxesia (for the Troizenians, too, share in their worship) they do not give the same account as the Epidaurians and Aeginetans, but say that they were maidens who came from Crete. A general insurrection having arisen in the city, these too, they say, were stoned to death by the opposite party; and they hold a festival in their honor that they call Stoning.

{2.32.3} In the other part of the enclosure is a race-course called that of Hippolytus, and above it a temple of Aphrodite Spy. For from here, whenever Hippolytus practiced his exercises, Phaedra, who was in love with him, used to gaze upon him. Here there still grew the myrtle, with its leaves, as I have described above, pierced with holes. When Phaedra was in despair and could find no relief for her passion, she used to vent her spleen upon the leaves of this myrtle.

{2.32.4} There is also the tomb of Phaedra, not far from the tomb of Hippolytus, which is a barrow near the myrtle. The statue [agalma] of Asklepios was made by Timotheus, but the Troizenians say that it is not Asklepios, but a likeness [eikōn] of Hippolytus. I remember, too, seeing the house of Hippolytus; before it is what is called the Fountain of Hēraklēs, for Hēraklēs, say the Troizenians, discovered the water.

{2.32.5} On the citadel is a temple of Athena, called Sthenias. The woodenstatue [xoanon] itself of the goddess was made by CalIon, of Aegina. [184] Kallon was a pupil of Tectaeus and Angelion, who made the statue [agalma] of Apollo for the Delians. Angelion and Tectaeus were trained in the school of Dipoinos and Skyllis.

{2.32.6} On going down from here you come to a sanctuary of Pan Lyterios (Releasing), so named because he showed to the Troizenian magistrates dreams which supplied a cure for the epidemic that had afflicted Troizenia, and the Athenians more than any other people. Having crossed the sanctuary, you can see a temple of Isis, and above it one of Aphrodite of the Height. The temple of Isis was made by the Halicarnassians in Troizen, because this is their mother-city, but the statue [agalma] of Isis was dedicated by the people of Troizen.

{2.32.7} On the road that leads through the mountains to Hermione is a spring of the river Hyllicus, originally called Taurios (Bull-like), and a rock called the Rock of Theseus; when Theseus took up the boots and sword of Aigeus under it, it, too, changed its name, for before it was called the altar of Zeus Sthenios (Strong). Near the rock is a sanctuary of Aphrodite Nymphia (Bridal), made by Theseus when he took Helen to wife.

{2.32.8} Outside the wall there is also a sanctuary of Poseidon Nurturer (Phytalmios). For they say that, being angry with them, Poseidon smote the land with barrenness, brine (halme) reaching the seeds and the roots of the plants (phuta), [185] until, appeased by sacrifices and prayers, he ceased to send up the brine upon the earth. Above the temple of Poseidon is Demeter Lawbringer (Thesmophoros), set up, they say, by Althepus.

{2.32.9} On going down to the harbor at what is called Celenderis, you come to a place called Birthplace (Genethlion), where Theseus is said to have been born. Before this place is a temple of Ares, for here also did Theseus conquer the Amazons in battle. These must have belonged to the army that strove in Attica against Theseus and the Athenians.

{2.32.10} As you make your way to the Psiphaean Sea you see a wild olive growing, which they call the Bent Rhakos. The Troizenians call rhakos every kind of barren olive—kotinos, phylia, or elaious—and this tree they call Bent because it was when the reins caught in it that the chariot of Hippolytus was upset. Not far from this stands the sanctuary of Saronian Artemis, and I have already given an account of it. I must add that every year they hold in honor of Artemis a festival called Saronia.

{2.33.1} The Troizenians possess islands, one of which is near the mainland, and it is possible to wade across the channel. This was formerly called Sphaeria, but its name was changed to Sacred Island for the following reason. In it is the tomb of Sphairos, who, they say, was charioteer to Pelops. In obedience forsooth to a dream from Athena, Aithra crossed over into the island with libations for Sphairos. After she had crossed, Poseidon is said to have had intercourse with her here. So for this reason Aithra set up here a temple of Athena Apaturia, [186] and changed the name from Sphaeria to Sacred Island. She also established a custom for the Troizenian girls of dedicating their waistbands before wedlock to Athena Apaturia.

{2.33.2} Kalaureia, they say, was sacred to Apollo of old, at the time when Delphi was sacred to Poseidon. Legend adds that the two gods exchanged the two places. They still say this, and quote an oracle:

Delos and Kalaureia alike you love to dwell in,
Pythō, too, the holy, and Taenarum swept by the high winds.

At any rate, there is a holy sanctuary of Poseidon here, and it is served by a maiden priestess until she reaches an age fit for marriage.

{2.33.3} Within the enclosure is also the tomb of Demosthenes. His fate, and that of Homer before him, have, in my opinion, showed most plainly how spiteful the deity is; for Homer, after losing his sight, was, in addition to this great affliction, cursed with a second—a poverty which drove him in beggary to every land; while to Demosthenes it befell to experience exile in his old age and to meet with such a violent end. Now, although concerning him, not only others, but Demosthenes himself, have again and again declared that assuredly he took no part of the money that Harpalos brought from Asia,

{2.33.4} yet I must relate the circumstances of the statement made subsequently. Shortly after Harpalos ran away from Athens and crossed with a squadron to Crete, he was put to death by the servants who were attending him, though some assert that he was assassinated by Pausanias, a Macedonian. The steward of his money fled to Rhodes, and was arrested by a Macedonian, Philoxenos, who also had demanded Harpalos from the Athenians. Having this slave in his power, he proceeded to examine him, until he learned everything about such as had allowed themselves to accept a bribe from Harpalos. On obtaining this information he sent a dispatch to Athens,

{2.33.5} in which he gave a list of such as had taken a bribe from Harpalos, both their names and the sums each had received. Demosthenes, however, he never mentioned at all, although Alexander held him in bitter hatred, and he himself had a private quarrel with him. So Demosthenes is honored in many parts of Greece, and especially by the dwellers in Kalaureia.

{2.34.1} Stretching out far into the sea from Troizenia is a peninsula, on the coast of which has been founded a little town called Methana. Here there is a sanctuary of Isis, and on the marketplace is a statue [agalma] of Hermes, and also one of Hēraklēs. Some thirty stadium-lengths distant from the town are hot baths. They say that it was when Antigonos, son of Demetrios, was king of Macedon that the water first appeared, and that what appeared at once was not water, but fire that gushed in great volume from the ground, and when this died down the water flowed; indeed, even at the present day it wells up hot and exceedingly salt. A bather here finds no cold water at hand, and if he dives into the sea his swim is full of danger. For wild creatures live in it, and it swarms with sharks.

{2.34.2} I will also relate what astonished me most in Methana. The wind called Lips, striking the budding vines from the Saronic Gulf, blights their buds. So while the wind is still rushing on, two men cut in two a rooster whose feathers are all white, and run round the vines in opposite directions, each carrying half of the rooster. When they meet at their starting place, they bury the pieces there.

{2.34.3} Such are the means they have devised against the Lips. The islets, nine in number, lying off the land are called the Isles of Pelops, and they say that when it rains one of them is not touched. If this be the case I do not know, though the people around Methana said that it was true, and I have seen before now men trying to keep off hail by sacrifices and spells.

{2.34.4} Methana, then, is a peninsula of the Peloponnesus. Within it, bordering on the land of Troizen, is Hermione. The founder of the old city, the Hermionians say, was Hermion, the son of Europs. Now Europs, whose father was certainly Phoroneus, Herophanes of Troizen said was an illegitimate child. For surely the kingdom of Argos would never have devolved upon Argos, Niobe’s son, the grandchild of Phoroneus, in the presence of a legitimate son.

{2.34.5} But even supposing that Europs was a legitimate child who died before Phoroneus, I am quite sure that his son was not likely to stand a fair chance against Niobe’s child, whose father was supposed to be Zeus. Subsequently the Dorians from Argos settled, among other places, at Hermion, but I do not think there was war between the two peoples, or it would have been spoken of by the Argives.

{2.34.6} There is a road from Troizen to Hermion by way of the rock which aforetime was called the altar of Zeus Sthenios (Strong) but afterwards Theseus took up the tokens, and people now call it the Rock of Theseus. As you go, then, along a mountain road by way of this rock, you reach a temple of Apollo surnamed Platanistios (God of the Plane tree Grove), and a place called Eilei, where are sanctuaries of Demeter and of her daughter Kore (Maiden). Seawards, on the borders of Hermionis, is a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed Thermasia (Warmth).

{2.34.7} Just about eighty stadium-lengths away is a headland Scyllaeum, which is named alter the daughter of Nisos. For when, owing to her treachery, Minos had taken Nisaia and Megara, he said that now he would not have her to wife, and ordered his Cretans to throw her from the ship. She was drowned, and the waves cast up her body on this headland. They do not show a tomb of her, but say that the sea birds were allowed to tear the corpse to pieces.

{2.34.8} As you sail from Scyllaeum in the direction of the city, you reach another headland, called Bucephala (Ox-head), and, after the headland, islands, the first of which is Haliussa (Salt Island). This provides a harbor where there is good anchorage. After it comes Pityussa (Pine Island), and the third they call Aristerae. On sailing past these you come to another headland, Colyergia, jutting out from the mainland, and after it to an island, called Tricrana (Three Heads), and a mountain, projecting into the sea from the Peloponnesus, called Buporthmus (Oxford). On Buporthmus has been built a sanctuary of Demeter and her daughter, as well as one of Athena, surnamed Promakhorma (Champion of the Anchorage).

{2.34.9} Before Buporthmus lies an island called Aperopia, not far from which is another island, Hydrea. After it the mainland is skirted by a crescent-shaped beach and after the beach there is a spit of land up to a sanctuary of Poseidon, beginning at the sea on the east and extending westwards. It possesses harbors, and is some seven stadium-lengths long, and not more than three stadium-lengths in breadth where it is broadest.

{2.34.10} Here the Hermionians had their former city. They still have sanctuaries here: one of Poseidon at the east end of the spit, and a temple of Athena further inland by the side of the latter are the foundations of a race-course, in which legend says the sons of Tyndareus contended. There is also another sanctuary of Athena, of no great size, the roof of which has fallen in. There is a temple to Hēlios [Sun], another to the Graces, and a third to Serapis and Isis. There are also circuits of large unhewn stones, within which they perform mystic ritual to Demeter.

{2.34.11} Such are the possessions of the Hermionians in these parts. The modern city is just about four stadium-lengths distant from the headland, upon which is the sanctuary of Poseidon, and it lies on a site which is level at first, gently rising up a slope, which presently merges into Prone, for so they name this mountain. A wall stands all round Hermione, a city which I found afforded much to write about, and among the things which I thought I myself must certainly mention are a temple of Aphrodite, surnamed both Pontia (of the Deep Sea) and Limenia (of the Harbor), and a white-marble statue [agalma] of huge size, and worth seeing for its artistic excellence.

{2.34.12} There is also another temple of Aphrodite. Among the honors paid her by the Hermionians is this custom: girls, and widows about to remarry, all sacrifice to her before wedding. Sanctuaries have also been built of Demeter Thermasia (Warmth), one at the border towards Troizenia, as I have stated above, while there is another in Hermione itself.

{2.35.1} Near the latter is a temple of Dionysus of the Black Goatskin. In his honor every year they hold a competition in music, and they offer prizes for swimming-races and boat-races. There is also a sanctuary of Artemis surnamed Iphigenia, and a bronze Poseidon with one foot upon a dolphin. Passing by this into the sanctuary of Hestia, we see no statue [agalma], but only an altar, and they sacrifice to Hestia upon it.

{2.35.2} Of Apollo there are three temples and three statues [agalmata]. One has no surname; the second they call Pythaeus, and the third Horios (of the Borders). The name Pythaeus they have learned from the Argives, for Telesilla tells us that they were the first Greeks to whose country came Pythaeus, who was a son of Apollo. I cannot say for certain why they call the third Horios, but I conjecture that they won a victory, either in war or by arbitration, in a dispute concerning the borders (horoi) of their land, and for this reason paid honors to Apollo Horios.

{2.35.3} The sanctuary of Fortune is said by the Hermionians to be the newest in their city; a colossus of Parian marble stands there. Of their wells, one is very old; nobody can see the water flowing into it, but it would never run dry, even if everybody descended and drew water from it. Another well they made in our own day, and the name of the place from which the water flows into it is Leimon (Meadow).

{2.35.4} The object most worthy of mention is a sanctuary of Demeter on Pron. This sanctuary is said by the Hermionians to have been founded by Klymenos, son of Phoroneus, and Khthonia, sister of Klymenos. But the Argive account is that when Demeter came to Argolis, while Atheras and Mysios afforded hospitality to the goddess, Colontas neither received her into his home nor paid her any other mark of respect. His daughter Khthonia disapproved of this conduct. They say that Colontas was punished by being burned up along with his house, while Khthonia was brought to Hermion by Demeter, and made the sanctuary for the Hermionians.

{2.35.5} At any rate, the goddess herself is called Khthonia, and Khthonia is the name of the festival they hold in the summer of every year. The manner of it is this. The procession is headed by the priests of the gods and by all those who hold the annual magistracies; these are followed by both men and women. It is now a custom that some who are still children should honor the goddess in the procession. These are dressed in white, and wear wreaths upon their heads. Their wreaths are woven of the flower called by the natives kosmosandalon, which, from its size and color, seems to me to be an iris; it even has inscribed upon it the same letters of mourning. [187]

{2.35.6} Those who form the procession are followed by men leading from the herd a full-grown cow, fastened with ropes, and still untamed and frisky. Having driven the cow to the temple, some loose her from the ropes that she may rush into the sanctuary, others, who hitherto have been holding the doors open, when they see the cow within the temple, close the doors.

{2.35.7} Four old women, left behind inside, are they who dispatch the cow. Whichever gets the chance cuts the throat of the cow with a sickle. Afterwards the doors are opened, and those who are appointed drive up a second cow, and a third after that, and yet a fourth. All are dispatched in the same way by the old women, and the sacrifice has yet another strange feature. On whichever of her sides the first cow falls, all the others must fall on the same.

{2.35.8} Such is the manner in which the sacrifice is performed by the Hermionians. Before the temple stand a few statues [eikónes] of the women who have served Demeter as her priestess, and on passing inside you see seats on which the old women wait for the cows to be driven in one by one, and statues [agalmata], of no great age, of Athena and Demeter. But the thing itself that they worship more than all else, I never saw, nor yet has any other man, whether stranger or Hermionian. The old women may keep their knowledge of its nature to themselves.

{2.35.9} There is also another temple, all round which stand statues. This temple is right opposite that of Khthonia, and is called that of Klymenos, and they sacrifice to Klymenos here. I do not believe that Klymenos was an Argive who came to Hermion. ‘Klymenos’ is the surname of the god, whoever legend says is king in the underworld.

{2.35.10} Beside this temple is another; it is of Ares, and has a statue [agalma] of the god, while to the right of the sanctuary of Khthonia is a portico, called by the natives the Portico of Echo. It is such that if a man speaks it reverberates at least three times. Behind the temple of Khthonia are three places which the Hermionians call that of Klymenos, that of Pluto [Ploutōn], and the Acherusian Lake. All are surrounded by fences of stones, while in the place of Klymenos there is also a chasm in the earth. Through this, according to the legend of the Hermionians, Hēraklēs brought up the Hound of Hades.

{2.35.11} At the gate through which there is a straight road leading to Mases, there is a sanctuary of Eileithuia within the wall. Every day, both with sacrifices and with incense, they magnificently propitiate the goddess, and, moreover, there is a vast number of votive gifts offered to Eileithuia. But the statue [agalma] no one may see, except, perhaps, the priestesses.

{2.36.1} Proceeding about seven stadium-lengths along the straight road to Mases, you reach, on turning to the left, a road to Halice. At the present day Halice is deserted, but once it, too, had inhabitants, and there is mention made of citizens of Halice on the Epidaurian slabs on which are inscribed the cures of Asklepios. I know, however, no other authentic document in which mention is made either of the city Halice or of its citizens. Well, to this city also there is a road, which lies midway between Pron and another mountain, called in old days Thornax; but they say that the name was changed because, according to legend, it was here that the transformation of Zeus into a cuckoo took place.

{2.36.2} Even to the present day there are sanctuaries on the tops of the mountains: on Mount Cuckoo one of Zeus, on Pron one of Hērā. At the foot of Mount Cuckoo is a temple, but there are no doors standing, and I found it without a roof or a statue [agalma] inside. The temple was said to be Apollo’s. by the side of it runs a road to Mases for those who have turned aside from the straight road. Mases was in old days a city, even as Homer [188] represents it in the catalogue of the Argives, but in my time the Hermionians were using it as a seaport.

{2.36.3} From Mases there is a road on the right to a headland called Strouthos (Sparrow Peak). From this headland by way of the summits of the mountains the distance to the place called Philanorium and to the Boleoi is two hundred and fifty stadium-lengths. These Boleoi are heaps of unhewn stones. Another place, called Twins, is twenty stadium-lengths distant from here. There is here a sanctuary of Apollo, a sanctuary of Poseidon, and in addition one of Demeter. The statues [agalmata] are of white marble, and are upright.

{2.36.4} Next comes a district, belonging to the Argives, that once was called Asinaia, and by the sea are ruins of Asine. When the Lacedaemonians and their king Nikandros, son of Kharillos, son of Polydektes, son of Eunomos, son of Prytanis, son of Eurypon, invaded Argolis with an army, the Asinaeans joined in the invasion, and with them ravaged the land of the Argives. When the Lacedaemonian expedition departed home, the Argives under their king Eratos attacked Asine.

{2.36.5} For a time the Asinaeans defended themselves from their wall, and killed among others Lysistratos, one of the most notable men of Argos. But when the wall was lost, the citizens put their wives and children on board their vessels and abandoned their own country; the Argives, while leveling Asine to the ground and annexing its territory to their own, left the sanctuary of Apollo Pythaeus, which is still visible, and by it they buried Lysistratos.

{2.36.6} Distant from Argos forty stadium-lengths and no more is the sea at Lerna. On the way down to Lerna the first thing on the road is the Erasinos, which empties itself into the Phrixos, and the Phrixos into the sea between Temenium and Lerna. About eight stadium-lengths to the left from the Erasinos is a sanctuary of the Lords Dioskouroi (Sons of Zeus). Their wooden images have been made similar to those in the city.

{2.36.7} On returning to the straight road, you will cross the Erasinos and reach the river Kheimarros (Winter-torrent). Near it is a circuit of stones, and they say that Pluto [Ploutōn], after carrying off, according to the story, Kore, the daughter of Demeter, descended here to his fabled kingdom underground. Lerna is, I have already stated, by the sea, and here they celebrate mysteries in honor of Lernaean Demeter.

{2.36.8} There is a sacred grove beginning on the mountain they call Pontinos. Now Mount Pontinos does not let the rainwater flow away, but absorbs it into itself. From it flows a river, also called Pontinos. Upon the top of the mountain is a sanctuary of Athena Saitis, now merely a ruin; there are also the foundations of a house of Hippomedon, who went to Thebes to redress the wrongs of Polyneikes, son of Oedipus.

{2.37.1} At this mountain begins the grove, which consists chiefly of plane trees, and reaches down to the sea. Its boundaries are, on the one side the river Pantinos, on the other side another river, called Amymane, after the daughter of Danaos. Within the tomb are statues [agalmata] of Demeter Prosymne and of Dionysus. Of Demeter there is a seated statue [agalma] of no great size.

{2.37.2} Both are of stone, but in another temple is a seated wooden-statue [xoanon] of Dionysus Saotes (Savior), while by the sea is a stone statue [agalma] of Aphrodite. They say that the daughters of Danaos dedicated it, while Danaos himself made the sanctuary of Athena by the Pontinos. The mysteries of the Lernaeans were established, they say, by Philammon. Now the words which accompany the ritual are evidently of no antiquity

{2.37.3} and the inscription also, which I have heard is written on the heart made of orichalcum, was shown not to be Philammon’s by Arriphon, an Aetolian of Triconium by descent, who now enjoys a reputation second to none among the Lycians; excellent at original research, he found the clue to this problem in the following way: the verses, and the prose interspersed among the verses, are all written in Doric. But before the return of the Herakleidai to the Peloponnesus the Argives spoke the same dialect as the Athenians, and in Philammon’s day I do not suppose that even the name Dorians was familiar to all Greek ears.

{2.37.4} All this was proved in the demonstration. At the source of the Amymone grows a plane tree, beneath which, they say, the hydra (water-snake) grew. I am ready to believe that this beast was superior in size to other water-snakes, and that its poison had something in it so deadly that Hēraklēs treated the points of his arrows with its gall. It had, however, in my opinion, one head, and not several. It was Peisandros [189] of Camirus who, in order that the beast might appear more frightful and his poetry might be more remarkable, represented the hydra with its many heads.

{2.37.5} I saw also what is called the Spring of Amphiaraos and the Alcyonian Lake, through which the Argives say Dionysus went down to Hades to bring up Semele, adding that the descent here was shown him by Palymnus. There is no limit to the depth of the Alcyonian Lake, and I know of nobody who by any contrivance has been able to reach the bottom of it since not even Nero, who had ropes made several stadium-lengths long and fastened them together, tying lead to them, and omitting nothing that might help his experiment, was able to discover any limit to its depth.

{2.37.6} This, too, I heard. The water of the lake is, to all appearance, calm and quiet but, although it is such to look at, every swimmer who ventures to cross it is dragged down, sucked into the depths, and swept away. The circumference of the lake is not great, being about one-third of a stadium-length. Upon its banks grow grass and rushes. The nocturnal rites performed every year in honor of Dionysus I must not divulge to the world at large.

{2.38.1} Temenium is in Argive territory, and was named after Temenus, the son of Aristomakhos. For, having seized and strengthened the position, he waged therefrom with the Dorians the war against Tisamenus and the Achaeans. On the way to Temenium from Lerna the river Phrixos empties itself into the sea, and in Temenium is built a sanctuary of Poseidon, as well as one of Aphrodite; there is also the tomb of Temenus, which is worshipped by the Dorians in Argos.

{2.38.2} Fifty stadium-lengths, I conjecture, from Temenium is Nauplia, which at the present day is uninhabited; its founder was Nauplios, reputed to be a son of Poseidon and Amymone. Of the walls, too, ruins still remain and in Nauplia are a sanctuary of Poseidon, harbors, and a spring called Canathus. Here, say the Argives, Hērā bathes every year and recovers her virginity.

{2.38.3} This is one of the sayings told as a holy secret at the mysteries which they celebrate in honor of Hērā. The story told by the people in Nauplia about the ass, how by nibbling down the shoots of a vine he caused a more plenteous crop of grapes in the future, and how for this reason they have carved an ass on a rock, because he taught the pruning of vines—all this I pass over as trivial.

{2.38.4} From Lerna there is also another road, which skirts the sea and leads to a place called Genesium. By the sea is a small sanctuary of Poseidon Genesios. Next to this is another place, called Apobathmi (Steps). The story is that this is the first place in Argolis where Danaos landed with his daughters. From here we pass through what is called Anigraea, along a narrow and difficult road, until we reach a tract on the left which stretches down to the sea;

{2.38.5} it is fertile in trees, especially the olive. As you go up inland from this is a place where three hundred picked Argives fought for this land with an equal number of specially chosen Lacedaemonian warriors. [190] All were killed except one Spartan and two Argives, and here were raised the tombs for the dead. But the Lacedaemonians, having fought against the Argives with all their forces, won a decisive victory; at first they themselves enjoyed the fruits of the land, but afterwards they assigned it to the Aeginetans, when they were expelled from their island by the Athenians. [191] In my time Thyreatis was inhabited by the Argives, who say that they recovered it by the award of an arbitration. [192]

{2.38.6} As you go from these common graves you come to Athene, where Aeginetans once made their home, another village Neris, and a third Eua, the largest of the villages, in which there is a sanctuary of Polemocrates. This Polemocrates is one of the sons of Makhaon, and the brother of Alexanor; he cures the people of the district, and receives honors from the neighbors.

{2.38.7} Above the villages extends Mount Parnon, on which the Lacedaemonian border meets the borders of the Argives and Tegeatae. On the borders stand stone figures of Hermes, from which the name of the place is derived. A river called Tanaus, which is the only one descending from Mount Parnon, flows through the Argive territory and empties itself into the Gulf of Thyrea.

[ back ]

{3.1.1} After the figures of Hermes we reach Laconia on the west. According to the tradition of the Lacedaemonians themselves, Lelex, an aboriginal was the first king in this land, after whom his subjects were named Leleges. Lelex had a son Myles, and a younger one Polycaon. Polycaon retired into exile, the place of this retirement and its reason I will set forth elsewhere. On the death of Myles his son Eurotas succeeded to the throne. He led down to the sea by means of a trench the stagnant water on the plain, and when it had flowed away, as what was left formed a river-stream, he named it Eurotas. [193]

{3.1.2} Having no male issue, he left the kingdom to Lacedaemon, whose mother was Taygete, after whom the mountain was named, while according to report his father was none other than Zeus. Lacedaemon was wedded to Sparta, a daughter of Eurotas. When he came to the throne, he first changed the names of the land and its inhabitants, calling them after himself, and next he founded and named after his wife a city, which even down to our own day has been called Sparta.

{3.1.3} Amyclas, too, son of Lacedaemon, wished to leave some memorial behind him, and built a town in Laconia. Hyakinthos, the youngest and most beautiful of his sons, died before his father, and his tomb is in Amyklai below the image of Apollo. On the death of Amyclas the empire came to Aigalus, the eldest of his sons, and afterwards, when Aigalus died, to Cynortas. Cynortas had a son Oibalos.

{3.1.4} He took a wife from Argos, Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus, and begat a son Tyndareus, with whom Hippokoön disputed about the kingship, claiming the throne on the ground of being the eldest. With the end of Icarius and his partisans he had surpassed Tyndareus in power, and forced him to retire in fear; the Lacedaemonians say that he went to Pellana, but a Messenian legend about him is that he fled to Aphareus in Messenia, Aphareus being the son of Perieres and the brother of Tyndareus on his mother’s side. The story goes on to say that he settled at Thalamaiin Messenia, and that his children were born to him when he was living there.

{3.1.5} Subsequently Tyndareus was brought back by Hēraklēs and recovered his throne. His sons too became kings, as did Menelaos the son of Atreus and son-in-law of Tyndareus, and Orestes the husband of Hermione the daughter of Menelaos. On the return of the Herakleidai in the reign of Tisamenus, son of Orestes, both districts, Messene and Argos, had kings put over them; Argos had Temenus and Messene Kresphontes. In Lacedaemon, as the sons of Aristodemos were twins, there arose two royal houses; for they say that the Pythian priestess approved.

{3.1.6} Tradition has it that Aristodemos himself died at Delphi before the Dorians returned to the Peloponnesus, but those who glorify his fate assert that he was shot by Apollo for not going to the oracle, having learned from Hēraklēs, who met him before he arrived there, that the Dorians would make this return to the Peloponnesus. But the more correct account is that Aristodemos was murdered by the sons of Pylades and Electra, who were cousins of Tisamenus son of Orestes.

{3.1.7} The names given to the sons of Aristodemos were Prokles and Eurysthenes, and although they were twins they were bitter enemies. Their enmity reached a high pitch, but nevertheless they combined to help Theras, the son of Autesion and the brother of their mother Argeia and their guardian as well, to found a colony. This colony Theras was dispatching to the island that was then called Kalliste, [194] and he hoped that the descendants of Membliarus would of their own accord give up the kingship to him. This as a matter of fact they did,

{3.1.8} taking into account that the lineage of Theras went back to Kadmos himself, while they were only descendants of Membliarus, who was a man of the people whom Kadmos left in the island to be the leader of the settlers. And Theras changed the name of the island, renaming it after himself, and even at the present day the people of Thera every year offer to him as their founder the sacrifices that are given to a hero. Prokles and Eurysthenes were of one mind in their eagerness to serve Theras; but in all else their purposes were always widely different.

{3.1.9} Even if they had agreed together, I should never have ventured to include their descendants in a common list; for they did not altogether coincide in respect of age, so that cousins, cousins’ children, and later generations were not born so as to make the steps in one pedigree coincide with those of the other. So I shall give the history of each house by itself separately, instead of combining them both in one narrative.

{3.2.1} Eurysthenes, the elder of the sons of Aristodemos, had, they say, a son Agis, after. whom the lineage of Eurysthenes is called the Agiadae. In his time, when Patreus the son of Preugenes was founding in Achaea a city which even at the present day is called Patraifrom this Patreus, the Lacedaemonians took part in the settlement. They also joined in an expedition oversea to found a colony. Gras the son of Ekhelas the son of Penthilos the son of Orestes was the leader, who was destined to occupy the land between Ionia and Mysia, called at the present day Aeolis; his ancestor Penthilos had even before this seized the island of Lesbos that lies over against this part of the mainland.

{3.2.2} When Ekhestratos, son of Agis, was king at Sparta, the Lacedaemonians removed all the Cynurians of military age, alleging as a reason that freebooters from the Cynurian territory were harrying Argolis, the Argives being their kinsmen, and that the Cynurians themselves openly made forays into the land. The Cynurians are said to be Argives by descent, and tradition has it that their founder was Cynurus, son of Perseus.

{3.2.3} Not many years afterwards Labotas, son of Ekhestratos, became king in Sparta. This Labotas Herodotus, in his history of Croesus, says was in his childhood the ward of Lycurgus (Lykourgos) the lawgiver, but he calls him Leobotes and not Labotas. It was then that the Lacedaemonians first resolved to make war upon the Argives, bringing as charges against them that they were annexing the Cynurian territory which they themselves had captured, and were causing revolts among their subjects the Perioeci (Dwellers around). On this occasion neither of the belligerents, according to the account, achieved anything worthy of mention,

{3.2.4} and the next kings of this house, Doryssus, son of Labotas, and Agesilaos, son of Doryssus, were soon both killed. Lycurgus (Lykourgos) too laid down their laws for the Lacedaemonians in the reign of Artesilaos; some say that he was taught how to do this by the Pythian priestess, others that he introduced Cretan institutions. The Cretans say that these laws of theirs were laid down by Minos, and that Minos was not without divine aid in his deliberations concerning them. Homer too, I think, refers in riddling words to the legislation of Minos in the following verses:

Knossos too, great city, among them, where Minos for nine years
Ruled as king, and enjoyed familiar converse with great Zeus.

Odyssey 19.178

{3.2.5} Of Lycurgus (Lykourgos) I shall make further mention later. Agesilaos had a son Arkhelaos. In his reign the Lacedaemonians took by force of arms Aigys, a city of the Perioeci, and sold the inhabitants into slavery, suspecting them of Arcadian sympathies. Kharilaos, the king of the other house, helped Arkhelaos to destroy Aigys, but the exploits he achieved when leading the Lacedaemonians by himself, these too I shall relate when my narrative comes to treat of those called the Eurypontidai.

{3.2.6} Arkhelaos had a son Teleklos. In his reign the Lacedaemonians conquered in war and reduced Amyklai, Pharis, and Geranthrae, cities of the Perioeci, which were still in the possession of the Achaeans. The inhabitants of Pharis and Geranthrae, panic-stricken at the onslaught of the Dorians, made an agreement to retire from the Peloponnesus under a truce, but those of Amyklai were not driven out at the first assault, but only after a long and stubborn resistance, in which they distinguished themselves by glorious achievements. To this heroism the Dorians bore witness by raising a trophy against the Amyklaians, implying that their success was the most memorable exploit of that time. Not long after this Teleklos was murdered by Messenians in a sanctuary of Artemis. This sanctuary was built on the frontier of Laconia and Messenia, in a place called Limniai(Lakes).

{3.2.7} After the death of Teleklos, Alkamenes his son succeeded to the throne, and the Lacedaemonians sent to Crete Kharmidas the son of Euthys, who was a distinguished Spartan, to put down the civil strife among the Cretans, to persuade them to abandon the weak, inland towns, and to help them to people instead those that were conveniently situated for the coasting voyage. They also laid waste Helos, an Achaean town on the coast, and won a battle against the Argives who came to give aid to the Helots.

{3.3.1} On the death of Alkamenes, Polydoros his son succeeded to the throne, and the Lacedaemonians sent colonies to Croton in Italy and to the people of Lokris [= Lokroi] by the Western headland. The war called the Messenian reached its height in the reign of this king. As to the causes of the war, the Lacedaemonian version differs from the Messenian.

{3.3.2} The accounts given by the belligerents, and the manner in which this war ended, will be set forth later in my narrative. For the present I must state thus much; the chief leader of the Lacedaemonians in the first war against the Messenians was Theopompos the son of Nikandros, a king of the other house. When the war against Messene had been fought to a finish, and Messenia was enslaved to the Lacedaemonians, Polydoros, who had a great reputation at Sparta and was very popular with the masses—for he never did a violent act or said an insulting word to anyone, while as a judge he was both upright and humane—

{3.3.3} his fame having by this time spread throughout Greece, was murdered by Polemarkhos, a member of a distinguished family in Lacedaemon, but, as he showed, a man of an unscrupulous temper. After his death Polydoros received many signal marks of respect from the Lacedaemonians. However, Polemarkhos too has a tomb in Sparta; either he had been considered a good man before this murder, or perhaps his relatives buried him secretly.

{3.3.4} During the reign of Eurycrates, son of Polydoros, the Messenians submitted to be subjects of the Lacedaemonians, neither did any trouble befall from the Argive people. But in the reign of Anaxandros, son of Eurycrates—for destiny was by this time driving the Messenians out of all the Peloponnesus—the Messenians revolted from the Lacedaemonians. For a time they held out by force of arms, but at last they were overcome and retired from the Peloponnesus under a truce. The remnant of them left behind in the land became the slaves of the Lacedaemonians, with the exception of those in the towns on the coast.

{3.3.5} The incidents of the war which the Messenians waged after the revolt from the Lacedaemonians it is not pertinent that I should set forth in the present part of my narrative. Anaxandros had a son Eurycrates, and this second Eurycrates a son Leon. While these two kings were on the throne the Lacedaemonians were generally unsuccessful in the war with Tegea. But in the reign of Anaxandrides, son of Leon, the Lacedaemonians won the war with Tegea in the following manner. A Lacedaemonian, by name Lichas, came to Tegea when there chanced to be a truce between the cities. [195]

{3.3.6} When Lichas arrived the Spartans were seeking the bones of Orestes in accordance with an oracle. Now Lichas inferred that they were buried in a smithy, the reason for this inference being this. Everything that he saw in the smithy he compared with the oracle from Delphi, likening to the winds the bellows, for that they too sent forth a violent blast, the hammer to the “stroke,” the anvil to the “counterstroke” to it, while the iron is naturally a “woe to man,” because already men were using iron in warfare. In the time of those called heroes the god would have called bronze a woe to man.

{3.3.7} Similar to the oracle about the bones of Orestes was the one afterwards given to the Athenians, that they were to bring back Theseus from Scyros to Athens otherwise they could not take Scyros. Now the bones of Theseus were discovered by Kimon the son of Miltiades, who displayed similar sharpness of wit, and shortly afterwards took Scyros.

{3.3.8} I have evidence that in the heroic age weapons were universally of bronze in the verses of Homer [196] about the axe of Peisandros and the arrow of Meriones. My statement is likewise confirmed by the spear of Achilles dedicated in the sanctuary of Athena at Phaselis, and by the sword of Memnon in the temple of Asklepios at Nikomedeia. The point and butt-spike of the spear and the whole of the sword are made of bronze. The truth of these statements I can vouch for.

{3.3.9} Anaxandrides the son of Leon was the only Lacedaemonian to possess at one and the same time two wives and two households. For his first consort, though an excellent wife, had the misfortune to he barren. When the ephors told him to put her away he firmly refused to do so, but made this concession to them, that he would take another wife in addition to her. The fruit of this union was a son, Kleomenes; and the former wife, who up to this time had not conceived, after the birth of Cieomenes bore Dorieus, then Leonidas, and finally Kleombrotos.

{3.3.10} And when Anaxandrides died, the Lacedaemonians, believing Dorieus to be both of a sounder judgment than Kleomenes and a better soldier, much against their will rejected him as their king, and obeyed the laws by giving the throne to the elder claimant Kleomenes.

{3.4.1} Now Dorieus could not bear to stay at Lacedaemon and be subject to his brother, and so he went on a colonizing expedition. As soon as he became king, Kleomenes gathered together an army, both of the Lacedaemonians themselves and of their allies, and invaded Argolis. The Argives came out under arms to meet them, but Kleomenes won the day. Near the battlefield was a grove sacred to Argos, son of Niobe, and on being routed some five thousand of the Argives took refuge therein. Kleomenes was subject to fits of mad excitement, and on this occasion he ordered the Helots to set the grove on fire, and the flames spread all over the grove, which, as it burned, burned up the suppliants with it.

{3.4.2} He also conducted campaigns against Athens, by the first of which he delivered the Athenians from the sons of Peisistratos and won a good report among the Greeks both for himself personally and for the Lacedaemonians; [197] while the second campaign was to please an Athenian, Isagoras, by helping him to establish a tyranny over Athens. [198] When he was disappointed, and the Athenians fought strenuously for their freedom, Kleomenes devastated the country, including, they say, the district called Orgas, which was sacred to the deities in Eleusis. He advanced as far as Aegina, and proceeded to arrest such influential Aeginetans as had shown Persian sympathies, and had persuaded the citizens to give earth and water to king Dareios, son of Hystaspes.

{3.4.3} While Kleomenes was occupied in Aegina, Demaratos, the king of the other house, was slandering him to the Lacedaemonian populace. On his return from Aegina, Kleomenes began to intrigue for the deposition of king Demaratos. He bribed the Pythian prophetess to frame responses about Demaratos according to his instructions, and instigated Leotykhides, a man of royal birth and of the same family as Demaratos, to put in a claim to the throne.

{3.4.4} Leotykhides seized upon the remark that Ariston in his ignorance blurted out when Demaratos was born, denying that he was his child. On the present occasion the Lacedaemonians, according to their wont, referred to the oracle at Delphi the claim against Demaratos, and the prophetess gave them a response which favored the designs of Kleomenes.

{3.4.5} So Demaratos was deposed, not rightfully, but because Kleomenes hated him. Subsequently Kleomenes met his end in a fit of madness for seizing a sword he began to wound himself, and hacked and maimed his body all over. The Argives assert that the manner of his end was a punishment for his treatment of the suppliants of Argos; the Athenians say that it was because he had devastated Orgas; the Delphians put it down to the bribes he gave the Pythian prophetess, persuading her to give lying responses about Demaratos.

{3.4.6} It may well be too that the wrath of heroes and the wrath of gods united together to punish Kleomenes since it is a fact that for a personal wrong Protesilaos, a hero not a bit more illustrious than Argos, punished at Elaeus Artayctes, a Persian; while the Megarians never succeeded in propitiating the deities at Eleusis for having encroached upon the sacred land. As to the tampering with the oracle, we know of nobody, with the exception of Kleomenes, who has had the audacity even to attempt it.

{3.4.7} Kleomenes had no male issue, and the kingdom devolved on Leonidas, son of Anaxandrides and full brother of Dorieus. At this time Xerxes led his host against Greece, and Leonidas with three hundred Lacedaemonians met him at Thermopylae. Now although the Greeks have waged many wars, and so have foreigners among themselves, yet there are but few that have been made more illustrious by the exceptional valor of one man, in the way that Achilles shed luster on the Trojan war and Miltiades on the engagement at Marathon. But in truth the success of Leonidas surpassed, in my opinion, all later as well as all previous achievements.

{3.4.8} For Xerxes, the proudest of all who have reigned over the Medes, or over the Persians who succeeded them, the achiever of such brilliant exploits, was met on his march by Leonidas and the handful of men he led to Thermopylae, [199] and they would have prevented him from even seeing Greece at all, and from ever burning Athens, if the man of Trakhis had not guided the army with Hydarnes by the path that stretches across Oitē, and enabled the enemy to surround the Greeks; so Leonidas was overwhelmed and the foreigners passed along into Greece.

{3.4.9} Pausanias the son of Kleombrotos never became king. For while guardian of Pleistarkhos, the son of Leonidas, who was a child when his father died, he led the Lacedaemonians to Plataea, and afterwards with their fleet to the Hellespont. [200] I cannot praise too highly the way in which Pausanias treated the Coan lady, who was the daughter of a man of distinction among the people of Kos, Hegetorides the son of Antagoras, and the unwilling concubine of a Persian, Pharandates the son of Teaspis.

{3.4.10} When Mardonios fell in the battle of Plataea, and the foreigners were destroyed, Pausanias sent the lady back to Kos, and she took with her the apparel that the Persian had procured for her as well as the rest of her belongings. Pausanias also refused to dishonor the body of Mardonios, as Lampon the Aeginetan advised him to do.

{3.5.1} Shortly after Pleistarkhos the son of Leonidas came to the throne he died, and the kingdom devolved on Pleistoanax, son of the Pausanias who commanded at Plataea. Pleistoanax had a son Pausanias; he was the Pausanias who invaded Attica, ostensibly to oppose Thrasyboulos and the Athenians, but really to establish firmly the despotism of those to whom the government had been entrusted by Lysander. [201] Although he won a battle against the Athenians holding the Peiraens, yet immediately after the battle he resolved to lead his army back home, and not to bring upon Sparta the most disgraceful of reproaches by increasing the despotic power of wicked men.

{3.5.2} When he returned from Athens with only a fruitless battle to his credit, he was brought to trial by his enemies. The court that sat to try a Lacedaemonian king consisted of the senate, “old men” as they were called, twenty eight in number, the members of the ephorate, and in addition the king of the other house. Fourteen senators, along with Agis, the king of the other house, declared that Pausanias was guilty; the rest of the court voted for his acquittal.

{3.5.3} Shortly after this the Lacedaemonians gathered an army against Thebes; the reason for so doing will be given in my account of Agesilaos. On this occasion Lysander came to Phokis, took along with him the entire army of Phokis, and without any further delay entered Boeotia and began assaults upon the wall of Haliartos, the citizens of which refused to revolt from Thebes. Already a band of Thebans and Athenians had secretly entered the city; these came out and offered battle before the wall, and there fell here several Lacedaemonians, including Lysander himself.

{3.5.4} Pausanias was too late for the fight, having been collecting forces from Tegea and Arcadia generally; when he finally reached Boeotia, although he heard of the defeat of the forces with Lysander and of the death of Lysander himself, he nevertheless led his army against Thebes and purposed to take the offensive. Thereupon the Thebans offered battle, and Thrasyboulos was reported to be not far away with the Athenians. He was waiting for the Lacedaemonians to take the offensive, on which his intention was to launch an attack himself against their rear.

{3.5.5} So Pausanias, fearing lest he should be caught between two enemy forces, made a truce with the Thebans and took up for burial those who had fallen under the wall of Haliartos. The Lacedaemonians disapproved of this decision, but the following reason leads me to approve it. Pausanias was well aware that the disasters of the Lacedaemonians always took place when they had been caught between two enemy forces, and the defeats at Thermopylae and on the island of Sphakteria made him afraid lest he himself should prove the occasion of a third misfortune for them.

{3.5.6} But when his fellow citizens charged him with his slowness in this Boeotian campaign, he did not wait to stand his trial, but was received by the people of Tegea as a suppliant of Athena Alea. Now this sanctuary had been respected from early days by all the Peloponnesians, and afforded peculiar safety to its suppliants, as the Lacedaemonians showed in the case of Pausanias and of Leotykhides before him, and the Argives in the case of Khrysis; they never wanted even to ask for these refugees, who were sitting as suppliants in the sanctuary, to be given up.

{3.5.7} When Pausanias fled, his sons Agesipolis and Kleombrotos were still quite boys, and Aristodemos, their nearest relative, was their guardian. This Aristodemos was in command of the Lacedaemonians when they won their success in Corinth.

{3.5.8} When Agesipolis grew up and came to the throne, the first Peloponnesians against whom he waged war were the Argives. When he led his army from the territory of Tegea into that of Argos, the Argives sent a herald to make for them with Agesipolis a certain ancestral truce, which from ancient times had been an established custom between Dorians and Dorians. But Agesipolis did not make the truce with the herald, but advancing with his army proceeded to devastate the land. Then there was an earthquake, but not even so would Agesipolis consent to take away his forces. And yet more than any other Greeks were the Lacedaemonians (in this respect like the Athenians) frightened by signs from the sky [dio-sēmeiai].

{3.5.9} By the time that he was encamping under the wall of Argos, the earthquakes were still occurring, some of the troops had actually been killed by lightning, and some moreover had been driven out of then senses by the thunder. In this circumstance he reluctantly withdrew from Argive territory, and began another campaign, attacking Olynthus. Victorious in the war, having captured most of the cities in Khalkidike, and hoping to capture Olynthus itself, he was suddenly attacked by a disease which ended in his death. [202]

{3.6.1} As Agesipolis died childless, the kingdom devolved upon Kleombrotos, who was general in the battle at Leuktra against the Boeotians. [203] Kleombrotos showed personal bravery, but fell when the battle was only just beginning. In great disasters Providence is peculiarly apt to cut off early the general, just as the Athenians lost Hippocrates the son of Ariphron, who commanded at Delium, and later on Leosthenes in Thessaly. [204]

{3.6.2} Agesipolis, the elder of the sons of Kleombrotos, is not a striking figure in history, and was succeeded by his younger brother Kleomenes. His first son was Akrotatos, his second Kleonymos. Akrotatos did not outlive his father, and when Kleomenes afterwards died, there arose a dispute about the throne between Kleonymos the son of Kleomenes and Areus the son of Akrotatos. So the senators acted as arbitrators, and decided that the dignity was the inheritance of Areus the son of Akrotatos, and not of Kleonymos.

{3.6.3} Deprived of his kingship Kleonymos became violently angry, and the ephors tried to soothe his feelings by bestowing upon him various honors, especially the leadership of the armies, so as to prevent his becoming one day an enemy of Sparta. But at last he committed many hostile acts against his fatherland, and induced Pyrrhos the son of Aiakidēs to invade Laconia.

{3.6.4} While Areus the son of Akrotatos was king in Sparta, Antigonos the son of Demetrios attacked Athens with an army and a fleet. [205] To the help of the Athenians there came the Egyptian expedition with Patroklos, and every available man of the Lacedaemonians with Areus their king at their head.

{3.6.5} Antigonos invested Athens and prevented the Athenian reinforcements from entering the city; so Patroklos dispatched messengers urging Areus and the Lacedaemonians to take the offensive against Antigonos. On their doing so, he would himself, he said, attack the Macedonians in rear; but before such a move it was not fair for Egyptian sailors to attack Macedonians on land. The Lacedaemonians were eager to make the venture, both because of their friendship for Athens and also because they were ambitious to hand down to posterity a famous achievement,

{3.6.6} but as their supplies were exhausted Areus led his army back home, thinking that desperate measures should be reserved for one’s own advantage and not risked recklessly for the benefit of others. After they had held out as long as they could, Antigonos made peace with the Athenians, on condition that he brought a garrison into the Museum to be a guard over them. After a time Antigonos himself removed the garrison from Athens of his own accord while Areus begat Akrotatos, and Akrotatos Areus, who died of disease when he was just about eight years old.

{3.6.7} And as the only male representative of the house of Eurysthenes was Leonidas the son of Kleonymos, by this time a very old man, the Lacedaemonians gave him the throne. Leonidas, it so happened, had a bitter opponent in Lysander, a descendant of Lysander the son of Aristokritos. This Lysander won over to his side Leonidas’ son-in-law Kleombrotos. After gaining his support he brought various charges against Leonidas, in particular that when a boy he had sworn to his father Kleonymos to ruin Sparta.

{3.6.8} So Leonidas ceased to be king and Kleombrotos came to the throne in his stead. Now if Leonidas had given way to impulse and retired, like Demaratos the son of Ariston, either to the king of Macedonia or to the Egyptian king, he would have profited nothing even by the Spartans changing their minds. But as it was, when the citizens sentenced him to exile, he went to Arcadia, whence not many years later he was recalled by the Lacedaemonians, who made him king again.

{3.6.9} Now how Kleomenes the son of Leonidas performed daring feats of valor, and how after him the Spartans ceased to be ruled by kings, I have already shown in my account of Aratos of Sikyon. My narrative also included the manner of his death in Egypt.

{3.7.1} So of the lineage of Eurysthenes, called the Agiadae, Kleomenes the son of Leonidas was the last king in Sparta. I will now relate what I have heard about the other house. Prokles the son of Aristodemos called his son Sous, whose son Eurypon they say reached such a pitch of renown that this house, hitherto called the Prokleidai, came to be named after him the Eurypontidai.

{3.7.2} The son of Eurypon was Prytanis, in whose reign began the enmity of the Lacedaemonians against the Argives, although even before this quarrel they made war against the Cynurians. During the generations immediately succeeding this, while Eunomos the son of Prytanis and Polydektes the son of Eunomos were on the throne, Sparta continued at peace,

{3.7.3} but Kharillos the son of Polydektes devastated the land of the Argives—for he it was who invaded Argolis—and not many years afterwards, under the leadership of Kharillos, took place the campaign of the Spartans against Tegea, when lured on by a deceptive oracle the Lacedaemonians hoped to capture the city and to annex the Tegean plain from Arcadia.

{3.7.4} After the death of Kharillos, Nikandros his son succeeded to the throne, in whose reign the Messenians murdered, in the sanctuary of the Lady of the Lake, Teleklos the king of the other house. Nikandros also invaded Argolis with an army, and laid waste the greater part of the land. The Asinaeans took part in this action with the Lacedaemonians, and shortly after were punished by the Argives, who inflicted great destruction on their fatherland and drove out the inhabitants.

{3.7.5} About Theopompos, the son of Nikandros, who ascended the throne after him, I shall have more to say later on, when I come to the history of Messenia. While Theopompos was still king in Sparta there also took place the struggle of the Lacedaemonians with the Argives for what is called the Thyreatid district. Theopompos personally took no part in the affair, chiefly because of old age and sorrow, for while he was yet alive Arkhidamos died.

{3.7.6} Nevertheless Arkhidamos did not die childless, but left a son Zeuxidamos, whose son Anaxidamos succeeded to the throne. In his reign the Messenians were expelled from the Peloponnesus, being vanquished for the second time by the Spartans. Anaxidamos begat Arkhidamos, and Arkhidamos begat Agesikles. It was the lot of both of these to pass all their lives in peace, undisturbed by any wars.

{3.7.7} Ariston, son of Agesikles, married a wife who, they say, was the ugliest girl in Sparta, but became the most beautiful of her women, because Helen changed her; seven months only after his marriage with her Ariston had born to him a son, Demaratos. As he was sitting in council with the ephors there came to him a servant with the news that a child was born to him. Ariston, forgetting the lines in the Iliad about the birth of Eurystheus, or else never having understood them at all, declared that because of the number of months the child was not his.

{3.7.8} Afterwards he repented of his words. Demaratos, a king of good repute at Sparta, particularly for his helping Kleomenes to free Athens from the Peisistratidai, [206] became a private citizen through the thoughtlessness of Ariston and the hatred of Kleomenes. He retired to king Dareios in Persia, and they say that his descendants remained in Asia for a long time.

{3.7.9} Leotykhides, on coming to the throne in place of Demaratos, took part with the Athenians and the Athenian general Xanthippos, the son of Ariphron, in the engagement of Mykale, [207] and afterwards undertook a campaign against the Aleuadaiin Thessaly. Although his uninterrupted victories in the fighting might have enabled him to reduce all Thessaly, he accepted bribes from the Aleuadae. [208]

{3.7.10} Or, being brought to trial in Lacedaemon he voluntarily went into exile to Tegea, where he sought sanctuary as a suppliant of Athena Alea. Zeuxidamos, the son of Leotykhides, died of disease while Leotykhides was still alive and before he retired into exile so his son Arkhidamos succeeded to the throne after the departure of Leotykhides for Tegea. This Arkhidamos did terrible damage to the land of the Athenians, invading Attica with an army every year, on each occasion carrying destruction from end to end; he also besieged and took Plataea, which was friendly to Athens. [209]

{3.7.11} Nevertheless he was not eager that war should be declared between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, but to the utmost of his power tried to keep the truce between them unbroken. [210] It was Sthenelaidas, an influential Spartan who was an ephor at the time, who was chiefly responsible for the war. Greece, that still stood firm, was shaken to its foundations by this war, and afterwards, when the structure had given way and was far from sound, was finally overthrown by Philip the son of Amyntas.

{3.8.1} Arkhidamos left sons when he died, of whom Agis was the elder and inherited the throne instead of Agesilaos. Arkhidamos had also a daughter, whose name was Kyniska; she was exceedingly ambitious to succeed at the Olympic games, and was the first woman to breed horses and the first to win an Olympic victory. After Kyniska other women, especially women of Lacedaemon, have won Olympic victories, but none of them was more distinguished for their victories than she.

{3.8.2} The Spartans seem to me to be of all men the least moved by poetry and the praise of poets. For with the exception of the epigram upon Kyniska, of uncertain authorship, and the still earlier one upon Pausanias that Simonides wrote on the tripod dedicated at Delphi, there is no poetic composition to commemorate the doings of the royal houses of the Lacedaemonians.

{3.8.3} In the reign of Agis the son of Arkhidamos the Lacedaemonians had several grievances against the people of Elis, being especially exasperated because they were debarred from the Olympic games and the sanctuary at Olympia. So they dispatched a herald commanding the people of Elis to grant home-rule to Lepreum and to any other of their neighbors [211] that were subject to them. The people of Elis replied that, when they saw the cities free that were neighbors of Sparta, they would without delay set free their own subjects; whereupon the Lacedaemonians under king Agis invaded the territory of Elis.

{3.8.4} On this occasion there occurred an earthquake, and the army retired home after advancing as far as Olympia and the Alpheus but in the next year Agis devastated the country and carried off most of the loot. Xenias, a man of Elis who was a personal friend of Agis and the state-friend [212] of the Lacedaemonians, rose up with the rich citizens against the people but before Agis and his army could come to their aid, Thrasydaeus, who at this time championed the interests of the popular party at Elis, overthrew in battle Xenias and his followers and cast them out of the city.

{3.8.5} When Agis led back his army, he left behind Lysistratos, a Spartan, with a portion of his forces, along with the Eleian refugees, that they might help the Lepreans to ravage the land. In the third year of the war [213] the Lacedaemonians under Agis again prepared to invade the territory of Elis. So Thrasydaeus and the Eleians, reduced to dire extremities, agreed to forgo their supremacy over their neighbors, to dismantle the fortifications of their city, and to allow the Lacedaemonians to sacrifice to the god and to compete in the games at Olympia.

{3.8.6} Agis used also to make continual incursions into Attica, and established the fortified post at Decelea to annoy the Athenians. [214] When the Athenian navy was destroyed at Aigospotamoi, [215] Lysander, the son of Aristokritos, and Agis violated the oaths which the Lacedaemonians as a state had sworn by the gods to the Athenians, and it was on their own initiative, and without the approval of the Spartan state, that they put before their allies the proposal to destroy Athens root and branch.

{3.8.7} Such were the most remarkable military achievements of Agis. The rash remark that Ariston made about Demaratos was also made by Agis about his son Leotykhides; at the suggestion of some evil spirit he said in the hearing of the ephors that he did not believe Leotykhides to be his son. Yet Agis, too, repented afterwards; he was at the time being carried home sick from Arcadia, and when he reached Heraia, he not only called the people to witness that he sincerely believed Leotykhides to be his very own son, but also with prayers and tears charged them to take the tidings to the Lacedaemonians.

{3.8.8} After the death of Agis, Agesilaos tried to keep Leotykhides from the throne, recalling to the minds of the Lacedaemonians what Agis once said about Leotykhides. But the Arcadians from Heraia arrived and bore witness for Leotykhides, stating what they had heard the dying Agis say.

{3.8.9} Yet further fuel for the controversy between Agesilaos and Leotykhides was supplied by the oracle that was delivered at Delphi to this effect:

“Sparta beware! though haughty, pay heed to the warning I give thee.
Never let thy sound limbs give birth to a kingdom that lame is.
Too long then shalt thou lie in the clutches of desperate hardships;
Turmoil of war shall arise, o’erwhelming men in its billows.”

{3.8.10} Leotykhides on this occasion said that these words pointed to Agesilaos, who was lame in one of his feet, while Agesilaos interpreted them as alluding to the illegitimacy of Leotykhides. Although they might have done so, the Lacedaemonians did not refer the disputed point to Delphi; the reason was in my opinion that Lysander, the son of Aristokritos, an active supporter of Agesilaos, would have him king at all costs.

{3.9.1} So Agesilaos, son of Arkhidamos, became king, and the Lacedaemonians resolved to cross with a fleet to Asia in order to put down Artaxerxes, son of Dareios. [216] For they were informed by several of their magistrates, especially by Lysander, that it was not Artaxerxes but Cyrus who had been supplying the pay for the fleet during the war with Athens. Agesilaos, who was appointed to lead the expedition across to Asia and to be in command of the land forces, sent round to all parts of the Peloponnesus, except Argos, and to the Greeks north of the Isthmus, asking for allies.

{3.9.2} Now the Corinthians were most eager to take part in the expedition to Asia, but considering it a bad omen that their temple of Zeus surnamed Olympian had been suddenly burned down, they reluctantly remained behind. The Athenians excused themselves on the ground that their city was returning to its former state of prosperity after the Peloponnesian war and the epidemic of plague, and the news brought by messengers, that Konon, son of Timotheus, had gone up to the Persian king, strongly confirmed them in their policy of inactivity.

{3.9.3} The envoy dispatched to Thebes was Aristomelidas, the father of the mother of Agesilaos, a close friend of the Thebans who, when the wall of Plataea had been taken, had been one of the judges voting that the remnant of the garrison should be put to death. Now the Thebans like the Athenians refused, saying that they would give no help. When Agesilaos had assembled his Lacedaemonian forces and those of the allies, and at the same time the fleet was ready, he went to Aulis to sacrifice to Artemis, because Agamemnon too had propitiated the goddess here before leading the expedition to Troy.

{3.9.4} Agesilaos, then, claimed to be king of a more prosperous city than was Agamemnon, and to be like him overlord of all Greece, and that it would be a more glorious success to conquer Artaxerxes and acquire the riches of Persia than to destroy the empire of Priam. But even as he was sacrificing armed Thebans came upon him, threw dawn from the altar the still burning thighbones of the victims, and drove him from the sanctuary.

{3.9.5} Though vexed that the sacrifice was not completed, Agesilaos nevertheless crossed into Asia and launched an attack against Sardes for Lydia at this period was the most important district of lower Asia, and Sardes, pre-eminent for its wealth and resources, had been assigned as a residence to the satrap of the coast region, just as Susa had been to the king himself.

{3.9.6} A battle was fought on the plain of the Hermos with Tissaphernes, satrap of the parts around Ionia, in which Agesilaos conquered the cavalry of the Persians and the infantry, of which the muster on this occasion had been surpassed only in the expedition of Xerxes and in the earlier ones of Dareios against the Scythians and against Athens. The Lacedaemonians, admiring the energy of Agesilaos, added to his command the control of the fleet. But Agesilaos made his brother-in-law, Peisandros, admiral, and devoted himself to carrying on the war vigorously by land.

{3.9.7} The jealousy of some deity prevented him from bringing his plans to their conclusion. For when Artaxerxes heard of the victories won by Agesilaos, and how, by attending to the task that lay before him, he advanced with his army even further and further, he put Tissaphernes to death in spite of his previous services, and sent down to the sea Tithraustes, a clever schemer who had some grudge against the Lacedaemonians.

{3.9.8} On his arrival at Sardes he at once thought out a plan by which to force the Lacedaemonians to recall their army from Asia. He sent Timocrates, a Rhodian, to Greece with money, instructing him to stir up in Greece a war against the Lacedaemonians. Those who shared in this money are said to have been the Argives Kylon and Sodamas, the Thebans Androkleides, Ismenias and Amphithemis, the Athenians Cephalus and Epicrates, with the Corinthians who had Argive sympathies, Polyanthes and Timolaos.

{3.9.9} But those who first openly started the war were the peoplefrom Amphissa in Lokris. For there happened to be a piece of land the ownership of which was a matter of dispute between the people of Lokris and the people of Phokis. Egged on by Ismenias and his party at Thebes, the people of Lokris cut the ripe wheat in this land and drove off the what they had plundered. The men of Phokis on their side invaded Lokris with all their forces, and laid waste the land.

{3.9.10} So the people of Lokris brought in the Thebans as allies, and devastated Phokis. Going to Lacedaemon the men of Phokis inveighed against the Thebans, and set forth what they had suffered at their hands. The Lacedaemonians determined to make war against Thebes, chief among their grievances being the outrageous way the Thebans behaved towards Agesilaos when he was sacrificing at Aulis.

{3.9.11} The Athenians receiving early intimation of the Lacedaemonians’ intentions, sent to Sparta begging them to submit their grievances to a court of arbitration instead of appealing to arms, but the Lacedaemonians dismissed the envoys in anger. The sequel, how the Lacedaemonians set forth and how Lysander died, I have already described in my account of Pausanias. [217]

{3.9.12} And what was called the Corinthian war, which continually became more serious, had its origin in the expedition of the Lacedaemonians into Boeotia. [218] So these circumstances compelled Agesilaos to lead his army back from Asia. Crossing with his fleet from Abydos to Sestos he passed through Thrace as far as Thessaly, where the Thessalians, to please the Thebans, tried to prevent his further progress; there was also an old friendship between them and Athens.

{3.9.13} But Agesilaos put the Thessalian cavalry to flight and passed through Thessaly, and again made his way through Boeotia, winning a victory over Thebes and the allies at Coronea. When the Boeotians were put to flight, certain of them took refuge in the sanctuary of Athena surnamed Itonia. Agesilaos, although suffering from a wound received in the battle, did not sin against the suppliants.

{3.10.1} Not long afterwards the Corinthians in exile for pro-Spartan sympathies held the Isthmian games. The Corinthians in the city made no move at the time, through their fear of Agesilaos but when he marched to Sparta, they too celebrated the Isthmian games along with the Argives. Agesilaos again marched with an army against Corinth, and, as the festival Hyakinthia was at hand, he gave the Amycleans leave to go back home and perform the traditional rites in honor of Apollo and Hyakinthos. This battalion was attacked on the way and annihilated by the Athenians under Iphicrates.

{3.10.2} Agesilaos went also to Aetolia to give assistance to the Aetolians, who were hard pressed in a war with, the Acarnanians; [219] these he compelled to put an end to the war, although they had come very near capturing Calydon and the other towns of the Aetolians. Afterwards he sailed to Egypt, to protect the Egyptians who had revolted from the king of Persia. Agesilaos performed many noteworthy achievements in Egypt, but, being by this time ah old man, he died on the march. Then his dead body was brought home, the Lacedaemonians buried it with greater honors than they had given to any other king.

{3.10.3} In the reign of Arkhidamos, son of Agesilaos, the people of Phokis seized the sanctuary at Delphi. [220] To help in a war with Thebes the people of Phokis hired with its wealth independent mercenaries, but they here also aided publicly by the Lacedaemonians and Athenians, the latter calling to mind some old service rendered by the people of Phokis, the former, too, pretending to be friends when their real reason was, I think, hatred of the Thebans. Theopompos, son of Damasistratos, said that Arkhidamos himself had a share of the Delphic money, and further that Deinicha the wife of Arkhidamos, receiving a bribe from the chief men of Phokis, made Arkhidamos more ready to bring them reinforcements.

{3.10.4} To accept sacred money and to help men who had pillaged the most famous of oracles I do not hold praiseworthy, but the following incident does redound to his praise. The men of Phokis were contemplating the cruel course of killing the Delphians of vigorous age, enslaving the women and children, and levelling the city itself to the ground; it was due to the intercession of Arkhidamos that they escaped this fate at the hands of the men of Phokis.

{3.10.5} Arkhidamos afterwards also crossed over into Italy to help the people of Tarentum to wage war against their foreign neighbors. Here he was killed by the foreigners, and his corpse missed burial owing to the anger of Apollo. Agis, the elder son of this Arkhidamos, met his death fighting against Antipatros and the Macedonians, but while the younger son, Eudamidas, was king, the Lacedaemonians enjoyed peace. The history of Agis, son of Eudamidas, and of Eurydamidas, son of Agis, my account of Sikyon has already set forth.

{3.10.6} On the way from the Hermaithe whole of the region is full of oak trees. The name of the district, Scotitas (Dark), is not due to the unbroken woods but to Zeus surnamed Scotitas, and there is a sanctuary of Zeus Scotitas on the left of the road and about ten stadium-lengths from it. If you go back from the sanctuary to the road, advance a little and then turn again to the left, you come to an image of Hēraklēs and a trophy, which I was told Hēraklēs raised after killing Hippokoön and his sons.

{3.10.7} The third branch from the straight road is on the right, and leads to Caryae (Walnut trees) and to the sanctuary of Artemis. For Caryae is a region sacred to Artemis and the nymphs, and here stands in the open an image of Artemis Caryatis. Here every year the Lacedaemonian girls hold chorus-dances, and they have a traditional native dance. On returning, as you go along the highway, you come to the ruins of Sellasia. The people of this city, as I have stated already, were sold into slavery by the Achaeans after they had conquered in battle the Lacedaemonians under their king Kleomenes, the son of Leonidas. [221]

{3.10.8} In Thornax, which you will reach as you go along, is an image of Apollo Pythaeus, made after the style of the one at Amyklai; the fashion of it I will describe when I come to speak of the latter. For in the eyes of the Lacedaemonians the cult of the Amyklaian is the more distinguished, so that they spent on adorning the image in Amyklai even the gold which Croesus the Lydian sent for Apollo Pythaeus. [222]

{3.11.1} Farther on from Thornax is the city, which was originally named Sparta, but in course of time came to be called Lacedaemon as well, a name which till then belonged to the land. To prevent misconception, I added in my account of Attica that I had not mentioned everything in order, but had made a selection of what was most noteworthy. This I will repeat before beginning my account of Sparta; for from the beginning the plan of my work has been to discard the many trivial stories current among the several communities, and to pick out the things most worthy of mention—an excellent rule which I will never violate.

{3.11.2} The Lacedaemonians who live in Sparta have a marketplace worth seeing; the council-chamber of the senate, and the offices of the ephors, of the guardians of the laws, and of those called the Bidiaeans, are all in the marketplace. The senate is the council which has the supreme control of the Lacedaemonian constitution, the other officials form the executive. Both the ephors and the Bidiaeans are five in number; it is customary for the latter to hold competitions for the boys, particularly the one at the place called Platanistas (Plane tree Grove), while the ephors transact the most serious business, one of them giving his name to the year, just as in Athens this privilege belongs to one of those called the Nine Arkhontes.

{3.11.3} The most striking feature in the marketplace is the portico which they call Persian because it was made from spoils taken in the Persian wars. In course of time they have altered it until it is as large and as splendid as it is now. On the pillars are white-marble figures of Persians, including Mardonios, son of Gobryas. There is also a figure of Artemisia, daughter of Lygdamis and queen of Halicarnassus. It is said that this lady voluntarily joined the expedition of Xerxes against Greece and distinguished herself at the naval engagement off Salamis.

{3.11.4} On the marketplace are temples; there is one of Caesar, the first Roman to covet monarchy and the first emperor under the present constitution, and also one to his son Augustus, who put the empire on a firmer footing, and became a more famous and a more powerful man than his father. His name “Augustus” means in Greek sebastos (reverend).

{3.11.5} At the altar of Augustus they show a bronze statue of Agias. This Agias, they say, by divining for Lysander captured the Athenian fleet at Aigospotamoi with the exception of ten ships of war. [223] These made their escape to Cyprus; all the rest the Lacedaemonians captured along with their crews. Agias was a son of Agelokhos, a son of Tisamenus.

{3.11.6} Tisamenus belonged to the lineage of the Iamidai at Elis, and an oracle was given to him that he should win five most famous contests. So he trained for the pentathlon at Olympia, but came away defeated. And yet he was first in two events, beating Hieronymos of Andros in running and in jumping. But when he lost the wrestling bout to this competitor, and so missed the prize, he understood what the oracle meant, that the god granted him to win five contests in war by his divinations.

{3.11.7} The Lacedaemonians, hearing of the oracle the Pythian priestess had given to Tisamenus, persuaded him to migrate from Elis and to be state-diviner at Sparta. And Tisamenus won them five contests in war. [224] The first was at Plataea against the Persians; the second was at Tegea, when the Lacedaemonians had engaged the Tegeans and Argives; the third was at Dipaea, an Arcadian town in Maenalia, when all the Arcadians except the Mantineians were arrayed against them.

{3.11.8} His fourth contest was against the Helots who had rebelled and left the Isthmus for Ithome. [225] Not all the Helots revolted, only the Messenian element, which separated itself off from the old Helots. These events I shall relate presently. On the occasion I mention the Lacedaemonians allowed the rebels to depart under a truce, in accordance with the advice of Tisamenus and of the oracle at Delphi. The last time Tisamenus divined for them was at Tanagra, an engagement taking place with the Argives and Athenians. [226]

{3.11.9} Such I learned was the history of Tisamenus. On their marketplace the Spartans have images of Apollo Pythaeus, of Artemis and of Leto. The whole of this region is called Choros (Dancing), because at the Gymnopaediae, a festival which the Lacedaemonians take more seriously than any other, the boys perform dances in honor of Apollo. Not far from them is a sanctuary of Earth and of Zeus of the Marketplace, another of Athena of the Marketplace and of Poseidon surnamed Securer, and likewise one of Apollo and of Hērā.

{3.11.10} There is also dedicated a colossal statue of the Spartan People. The Lacedaemonians have also a sanctuary of the Fates, by which is the tomb of Orestes, son of Agamemnon. For when the bones of Orestes were brought from Tegea in accordance with an oracle they were buried here. Beside the tomb of Orestes is a statue of Polydoros, son of Alkamenes, a king who rose to such honor that the magistrates seal with his likeness everything that requires sealing.

{3.11.11} There is also Hermes of the Marketplace carrying Dionysus as a child, besides the old Courts of the Ephors, as they are called, in which are the tombs of Epimenides the Cretan and of Aphareus the son of Perieres. As to Epimenides, I think the Lacedaemonian story is more probable than the Argive. Here, where the Fates are, the Lacedaemonians also have a sanctuary of Hestia. There is also Zeus Hospitable and Athena Hospitable.

{3.12.1} As you go from the marketplace by the road they name the Aphetaid Road, you come to the so-called Booneta. [227] But my narrative must first explain why the road has this name.

{3.12.2} It is said that Icarius proposed a foot-race for the wooers of Penelope; that Odysseus won is plain, but they say that the competitors were let go (aphethenai) for the race along the Aphetaid Road. In my opinion, Icarius was imitating Danaos when he held the running-race. For Danaos contrived the following plan to solve the difficulty about his daughters. Nobody would take a wife from among them because of their pollution so Danaos sent round a notice that he would give away his daughters without bride-gifts, and that each suitor could choose the one whose beauty pleased him most. A few men came, among whom he held a foot-race the first comer was allowed to choose before all the others, after him the second, and so on to the last. The daughters that were left had to wait until other suitors arrived and competed in another foot-race.

{3.12.3} On this road the Lacedaemonians have, as I have already said, what is called the Booneta, which once was the house of their king Polydoros. When he died, they bought it from his widow, paying the price in oxen. For at that time there was as yet neither silver nor gold coinage, but they still bartered in the old way with oxen, slaves, and uncoined silver and gold.

{3.12.4} Those who sail to India say that the natives give other merchandise in exchange for Greek cargoes, knowing nothing about coinage, even though they have plenty of gold and of bronze.

On the opposite side of the office of the Bidiaeans is a sanctuary of Athena. Odysseus is said to have set up the image and to have named it Keleuthea (Lady of the Road), when he had beaten the suitors of Penelope in the foot-race. Of Keleuthea he set up sanctuaries, three in number, at some distance from each other.

{3.12.5} Farther along the Aphetaid Road are hero-shrines, of Iops, who is supposed to have been born in the time of Lelex or. Myles, and of Amphiaraos the son of Oikles. The last they think was made by the sons of Tyndareus, for that Amphiaraos was their cousin. There is a hero-shrine of Lelex himself. Not far from these is a precinct of Poseidon of Taenarum, which is the surname given him, and near by an image of Athena, which is said to have been dedicated by the colonists

{3.12.6} who left for Tarentum in Italy. As to the place they call the HeIlenium, it has been stated that those of the Greeks who were preparing to repel Xerxes when he was crossing into Europe deliberated at this place how they should resist. The other story is that those who made the expedition against Troy to please Menelaos deliberated here how they could sail out to Troy and exact satisfaction from Alexander for carrying off Helen.

{3.12.7} Near the Hellenium they point out the tomb of Talthybios. The Achaeans of Aigion too say that a tomb which they show on their marketplace belongs to Talthybios. It was this Talthybios whose wrath at the murder of the heralds, who were sent to Greece by king Dareios to demand earth and water, left its mark upon the whole state of the Lacedaemonians, but in Athens fell upon individuals, the members of the house of one man, Miltiades the son of Kimon. Miltiades was responsible for the death at the hands of the Athenians of those of the heralds who came to Attica.

{3.12.8} The Lacedaemonians have an altar of Apollo Acritas, and a sanctuary, surnamed Gasepton, of Earth. Above it is set up Maleatian Apollo. At the end of the Aphetaid Road, quite close to the wall, are a sanctuary of Dictynna and the royal tombs of those called the Eurypontidai. Beside the Hellenium is a sanctuary of Arsinoe, daughter of Leukippos and sister of the wives of Polydeukes and Castor (Kastor). At the place called the Forts is a temple of Artemis, and a little further on has been built a tomb for the diviners from Elis, called the Iamidai.

{3.12.9} There is also a sanctuary of Maron and of Alpheios. Of the Lacedaemonians who served at Thermopylae they consider that these men distinguished themselves in the fighting more than any save Leonidas himself. The sanctuary of Zeus Tropaean (He who turns to flight) was made by the Dorians, when they had conquered in war the Amyklaians, as well as the other Achaeans, who at that time occupied Laconia. The sanctuary of the Great Mother has paid to it the most extraordinary honors. After it come the hero-shrines of Hippolytus, son of Theseus, and of the Arcadian Aulon, son of Tlesimenes. Some say that Tlesimenes was a brother, others a son of Parthenopaeus, son of Melanion.

{3.12.10} Leading from the marketplace is another road, on which they have built what is called Scias (Canopy), where even at the present day they hold their meetings of the Assembly. This Canopy was made, they say, by Theodoros of Samos, who discovered the melting of iron and the moulding of images from it. [228] Here the Lacedaemonians hung the harp of Timotheus of Miletus, to express their disapproval of his innovation in harping, the addition of four strings to the seven old ones.

{3.12.11} By the Canopy is a circular building, and in it images of Zeus and Aphrodite surnamed Olympian. This, they say, was set up by Epimenides, but their account of him does not agree with that of the Argives, for the Lacedaemonians deny that they ever fought with the Cnossians.

{3.13.1} Hard by is the tomb of Cynortas son of Amyclas, together with the tomb of Castor (Kastor), and over the tomb there has also been made a sanctuary, for they say that it was not before the fortieth year after the fight with Idas and Lynkeus that divine honors were paid to the sons of Tyndareus. By the Canopy is also shown the tomb of Idas and Lynkeus. Now it fits in best with their history to hold that they were buried not here but in Messenia.

{3.13.2} But the disasters of the Messenians, and the length of their exile from the Peloponnesus, even after their return wrapped in darkness much of their ancient history, and their. ignorance makes it easy for any who wish to dispute a claim with them.

Opposite the Olympian Aphrodite the Lacedaemonians have a temple of the Savior Maiden. Some say that it was made by Orpheus the Thracian, others by Abairis when he had come from the Hyperboreans.

{3.13.3} Carneus, whom they surname “of the House,” had honors in Sparta even before the return of the Herakleidai, his seat being in the house of a seer, Crius (Ram) the son of Theokles. The daughter of this Crius was met as she was filling her pitcher by spies of the Dorians, who entered into conversation with her, visited Crius and learned from him how to capture Sparta.

{3.13.4} The cult of Apollo Carneus has been established among all the Dorians ever since Carnus, an Acarnanian by birth, who was a seer of Apollo. When he was killed by Hippotes the son of Phylas, the wrath of Apollo fell upon the camp of the Dorians Hippotes went into banishment because of the bloodguilt, and from this time the custom was established among the Dorians of propitiating the Acarnanian seer. But this Carnus is not the Lacedaemonian Carneus of the House, who was worshipped in the house of Crius the seer while the Achaeans were still in possession of Sparta.

{3.13.5} The poetess Praxilla represents Carneus as the son of Europa, Apollo and Leto being his nurses. There is also another account of the name; in Trojan Ida there grew in a grove of Apollo cornel trees, which the Greeks cut down to make the Wooden Horse. Learning that the god was angry with them they propitiated him with sacrifices and named Apollo Carneus from the cornel tree (craneia), a custom prevalent in the olden time making them transpose the r and the a.

{3.13.6} Not far from Carneus is what is called the image of Aphetaeus. Here they say was the starting-place of the race run by the suitors of Penelope. There is a place having its porticoes in the form of a square, where of old stuff used to be sold to the people. By this is an altar of Zeus Counsellor and of Athena Counsellor, also of the Dioskouroi, likewise surnamed Counsellors.

{3.13.7} Opposite is what is called the Knoll, with a temple of Dionysus of the Knoll, by which is a precinct of the hero who they say guided Dionysus on the way to Sparta. To this hero sacrifices are offered before they are offered to the god by the daughters of Dionysus and the daughters of Leukippos. For the other eleven ladies who are named daughters of Dionysus there is held a foot-race; this custom came to Sparta from Delphi.

{3.13.8} Not far from the Dionysus is a sanctuary of Zeus of Fair Wind, on the right of which is a hero-shrine of Pleuron. The sons of Tyndareus were descended on their mother’s side from Pleuron, for Asios in his poem says that Thestios the father of Leda was the son of Agenor the son of Pleuron. Not far from the hero-shrine is a hill, and on the hill a temple of Argive Hērā, set up, they say, by Eurydikē, the daughter of Lacedaemon and the wife of Akrisios the son of Abas. An oracular utterance caused to be built a sanctuary of Hērā Hyperchemia (she whose hand is above) at a time when the Eurotas was flooding a great part of the land.

{3.13.9} An old wooden image they call that of Aphrodite Hērā. A mother is accustomed to sacrifice to the goddess when a daughter is married. On the road to the right of the hill is a statue of Hetoimokles. Both Hetoimokles himself and his father Hipposthenes won Olympic victories for wrestling the two together won eleven, but Hipposthenes succeeded in beating his son by one victory.

{3.14.1} On going westwards from the marketplace is a cenotaph of Brasidas the son of Tellis. [229] Not far from it is the theater, made of white marble and worth seeing. Opposite the theater are two tombs; the first is that of Pausanias, the general at Plataea, the second is that of Leonidas. Every year they deliver speeches over them, and hold a contest in which none may compete except Spartans. The bones of Leonidas were taken by Pausanias from Thermopylae forty years after the battle. There is set up a slab with the names, and their fathers’ names, of those who endured the fight at Thermopylae against the Persians.

{3.14.2} There is a place in Sparta called Theomelida. In this part of the city are the tombs of the Agiad kings, and near is what is called the lounge of the Crotani, who form a part of the Pitanatans. Not far from the lounge is a sanctuary of Asklepios, called “in the place of the Agiadae.” Farther on is the tomb of Taenarus, after whom they say the headland was named that juts out into the sea. Here are sanctuaries of Poseidon Hippocurius (Horse-tending) and of Artemis Aiginaia (Goat-goddess?). On returning to the lounge you see a sanctuary of Artemis Issoria. They surname her also Lady of the Lake, though she is not really Artemis hut Britomartis of Crete. I deal with her in my account of Aegina.

{3.14.3} Very near to the tombs which have been built for the Agiadaiyou will see a slab, on which are written the victories in the foot-race won, at Olympia and elsewhere, by Khionis, a Lacedaemonian. [230] The Olympian victories were seven, four in the single-stadium-length race and three in the double-stadium-length race. [231] The race with the shield, that takes place at the end of the contest, was not at that time one of the events. It is said that Khionis also took part in the expedition of Battos of Thera, helped him to found Cyrene and to reduce the neighboring Libyans.

{3.14.4} The sanctuary of Thetis was set up, they say, for the following reason. The Lacedaemonians were making war against the Messenians, who had revolted, and their king Anaxander, having invaded Messenia, took prisoners certain women, and among them Kleo, priestess of Thetis. This Kleo the wife of Anaxandros asked for from her husband, and discovering that she had the wooden image of Thetis, she set up with her a temple for the goddess. This Leandris did because of a vision in a dream,

{3.14.5} but the wooden image of Thetis is guarded in secret. The cult of Demeter Chthonia (of the Lower World) the Lacedaemonians say was handed on to them by Orpheus, but in my opinion it was because of the sanctuary in Hermione [232] that the Lacedaemonians also began to worship Demeter Chthonia. The Spartans have also a sanctuary of Serapis, the newest sanctuary in the city, and one of Zeus surnamed Olympian.

{3.14.6} The Lacedaemonians give the name Running Course to the place where it is the custom for the young men even down to the present day to practice running. As you go to this Course from the tomb of the Agiadae, you see on the left the tomb of Eumedes—this Eumedes was one of the children of Hippokoön—and also an old image of Hēraklēs, to whom sacrifice is paid by the Sphaereis. These are those who are just passing from youth to manhood. In the Course are two gymnastic schools, one being a votive gift of Eurykles, a Spartan. Outside the Course, over against the image of Hēraklēs, there is a house belonging now to a private individual, but in olden times to Menelaos. Farther away from the Course are sanctuaries of the Dioskouroi, of the Graces, of Eileithuia, of Apollo Carneus, and of Artemis Leader.

{3.14.7} The sanctuary of Agnitas has been made on the right of the Course; Agnitas is a surname of Asklepios, because the god had a wooden image of agnus castus. The agnus is a willow like the thorn. Not far from Asklepios stands a trophy, raised, they say, by Polydeukes to celebrate his victory over Lynkeus. This is one of the pieces of evidence that confirm my statement that the sons of Aphareus were not buried in Sparta. At the beginning of the Course are the Dioskouroi Starters, and a little farther on a hero-shrine of Alcon, who they say was a son of Hippokoön.

Beside the shrine of Alcon is a sanctuary of Poseidon, whom they surname “of the House.”

{3.14.8} And there is a place called Platanistas (Plane tree Grove) from the unbroken ring of tall plane trees growing round it. The place itself, where it is customary for the youths to fight, is surrounded by a moat just like an island in the sea; you enter it by bridges. On each of the two bridges stand images; on one side an image of Hēraklēs, on the other a likeness of Lycurgus (Lykourgos). Among the laws Lycurgus (Lykourgos) laid down for the constitution are those regulating the fighting of the youths.

{3.14.9} There are other acts performed by the youths, which I will now describe. Before the fighting they sacrifice in the Phoebaeum, which is outside the city, not far distant from Therapne. Here each company of youths sacrifices a puppy to Enyalios, holding that the most valiant of tame animals is an acceptable victim to the most valiant of the gods. I know of no other Greeks who are accustomed to sacrifice puppies except the people of Kolophon; these too sacrifice a puppy, a black bitch, to the Wayside Goddess. Both the sacrifice of the Kolophonians and that of the youths at Sparta are appointed to take place at night.

{3.14.10} At the sacrifice the youths set trained boars to fight; the company whose boar happens to win generally gains the victory in Plane tree Grove. Such are the performances in the Phoebaeum. A little before the middle of the next day they enter by the bridges into the place I have mentioned. They cast lots during the night to decide by which entrance each band is to go in. In fighting they use their hands, kick with their feet, bite, and gouge out the eyes of their opponents. Man to man they fight in the way I have described, but in the melee they charge violently and push one another into the water.

{3.15.1} At Plane tree Grove there is also a hero-shrine of Kyniska, daughter of Arkhidamos king of the Spartans. She was the first woman to breed horses, and the first to win a chariot-race at Olympia. Behind the portico built by the side of Plane tree Grove are other hero-shrines, of Alcimus, of Enaraephorus, at a little distance away one of Dorceus, and close to it one of Sebrus.

{3.15.2} These are said to be sons of Hippokoön. The fountain near the hero-shrine of Dorceus they call Dorcean after him; the place Sebrium is named after Sebrus. On the right of Sebrium is the tomb of Alcman, the lyric poet, the charm of whose works was not in the least spoilt by the Laconian dialect, which is the least musical of them all.

{3.15.3} There are sanctuaries of Helen and of Hēraklēs; the former is near the tomb of Alcman, the latter is quite close to the wall and contains an armed image of Hēraklēs. The attitude of the image is due, they say, to the fight with Hippokoön and his sons. The enmity of Hēraklēs towards the lineage of Hippokoön is said to have sprung out of their refusing to purify him when he came to Sparta for purifying after the death of Iphitos.

{3.15.4} The following incident, too, helped to begin the feud. Oeonus, a young cousin of Hēraklēs—he was the son of Licymnius the brother of Alcmene—came to Sparta along with Hēraklēs, and went round to view the city. When he came to the house of Hippokoön, a house-dog attacked him. Oeonus happened to throw a stone which knocked over the dog. So the sons of Hippokoön ran out, and dispatched Oeonus with their clubs.

{3.15.5} This made Hēraklēs most bitterly angry with Hippokoön and his sons, and straightway, angry as he was, he set out to give them battle. On this occasion he was wounded, and made good his retreat by stealth but afterwards he made an expedition against Sparta and succeeded in avenging himself on Hippokoön, and also on the sons of Hippokoön for their murder of Oeonus. The tomb of Oeonus is built by the side of the sanctuary of Hēraklēs.

{3.15.6} As you go from the Course towards the east, there is a path on the right, with a sanctuary of Athena called Axiopoinos (Just Requital or Tit for Tat). For when Hēraklēs, in avenging himself on Hippokoön and his sons, had inflicted upon them a just requital for their treatment of his relative, he founded a sanctuary of Athena, and surnamed her Axiopoinos because the ancients used to call vengeance poinai. There is another sanctuary of Athena on another road from the Course. It was dedicated, they say, by Theras son of Autesion son of Tisamenus son of Thersandros, when he was leading a colony to the island now called Thera after him, the name of which in ancient times was Kalliste (Fairest).

{3.15.7} Near is a temple of Hipposthenes, who won so many victories in wrestling. They worship Hipposthenes in accordance with an oracle, paying him honors as to Poseidon. Opposite this temple is an old image of Enyalios in fetters. The idea the Lacedaemonians express by this image is the same as the Athenians express by their Wingless Victory; the former think that Enyalios will never run away from them, being bound in the fetters, while the Athenians think that Victory, having no wings, will always remain where she is.

{3.15.8} In this fashion, and with such a belief have these cities set up the wooden images. In Sparta is a lounge called Painted, and by it hero-shrines of Kadmos the son of Agenor, and of his descendants Oiolykos, son of Theras, and Aigeus, son of Oiolykos. They are said to have been made by Maesis, Laeas and Europas, sons of Hyraeus, son of Aigeus. They made for Amphilokhos too his hero-shrine, because their ancestor Tisamenus had for his mother Demonassa, the sister of Amphilokhos.

{3.15.9} The Lacedaemonians are the only Greeks who surname Hērā Goat-eater, and sacrifice goats to the goddess. They say that Hēraklēs founded the sanctuary and was the first to sacrifice goats, because in his fight against Hippokoön and his children he met with no hindrance from Hērā, although in his other adventures he thought that the goddess opposed him. He sacrificed goats, they say, because he lacked other kinds of victims.

{3.15.10} Not far from the theater is a sanctuary of Poseidon God of Kin, and there are hero-shrines of Kleodaios, son of Hyllos, and of Oibalos. The most famous of their sanctuaries of Asklepios has been built near Boöneta, and on the left is the hero-shrine of Teleklos. I shall mention him again later in my history of Messenia. [233] A little farther on is a small hill, on which is an ancient temple with a wooden image of Aphrodite armed. This is the only temple I know that has an upper storey built upon it.

{3.15.11} It is a sanctuary of Morpho, a surname of Aphrodite, who sits wearing a veil and with fetters on her feet. The story is that the fetters were put on her by Tyndareus, who symbolized by the bonds the faithfulness of wives to their husbands. The other account, that Tyndareus punished the goddess with fetters because he thought that from Aphrodite had come the shame of his daughters, I will not admit for a moment. For it were surely altogether silly to expect to punish the goddess by making a cedar figure and naming it Aphrodite.

{3.16.1} Near is a sanctuary of Hilaeira and of Phoebe. The author of the poem Cypria calls them daughters of Apollo. Their priestesses are young maidens, called, as are also the goddesses, Leukippides (Daughter of Leukippos). [234] One of the images was adorned by a Leucippis who had served the goddesses as a priestess. She gave it a face of modern workmanship instead of the old one; she was forbidden by a dream to adorn the other one as well. Here there his been hung from the roof an egg tied to ribands, and they say that it is the famous egg that legend says Leda brought forth.

{3.16.2} Each year the women weave a tunic for the Apollo at Amyklai, and they call Tunic the chamber in which they do their weaving. Near it is built a house, said to have been occupied originally by the sons of Tyndareus, but afterwards it was acquired by Phormion, a Spartan. To him came the Dioskouroi in the likeness of strangers. They said that they had come from Cyrene, and asked to lodge with him, requesting to have the chamber which had pleased them most when they dwelled among men.

{3.16.3} He replied that they might lodge in any other part of the house they wished, but that they could not have the chamber.

For it so happened that his virgin daughter was living in it. By the next day this maiden and all her girlish apparel had disappeared, and in the room were found images of the Dioskouroi, a table, and silphium upon it.

{3.16.4} Such is the story. As you go from the Tunic in the direction of the gate there is a hero-shrine of Kheilon, who is considered one of the Seven Sages, and also of Athenodoros, one of those who with Dorieus the son of Anaxandrides set out for Sicily. The reason of their setting out was that they held that the Erycine district belonged to the descendants of Hēraklēs and not to the foreigners who held it. The story is that Hēraklēs wrestled with Eryx on these terms: if Hēraklēs won, the land of Eryx was to belong to him but if he were beaten, Eryx was to depart with the cows of Geryon;

{3.16.5} for Hēraklēs at the time was driving these away, and when they swam across to Sicily he too crossed over in search of them near the bent olive tree. The good will [tò eumenes] emanating from the gods [theoi] was more partial to Hēraklēs than it was afterwards to Dorieus the son of Anaxandrides; Hēraklēs killed Eryx, but Dorieus himself and the greater part of his army were destroyed by the Egestaeans.

{3.16.6} The Lacedaemonians have also made a sanctuary for Lycurgus (Lykourgos), who drew up the laws, looking upon him as a god. Behind the temple is the tomb of Eukosmos, the son of Lycurgus (Lykourgos), and by the altar the tomb of Lathria and Anaxandra. Now these were themselves twins, and therefore the sons of Aristodemos, who also were twins likewise, took them to wife; they were daughters of Thersandros son of Agamedidas, king of the people of Kleonai and great-grandson of Ktesippos, son of Hēraklēs. Opposite the temple is the tomb of Theopompos son of Nikandros, and also that of Eurybiades, who commanded the Lacedaemonian warships that fought the Persians at Artemisium and Salamis. Near is what is called the hero-shrine of Astrabacus.

{3.16.7} The place named Limnaeum (Marshy) is sacred to Artemis Orthia (Upright). The wooden image there they say is that which once Orestes and Iphigenia stole out of the Tauric land, and the Lacedaemonians say that it was brought to their land because there also Orestes was king. I think their story more probable than that of the Athenians. For what could have induced Iphigenia to leave the image behind at Brauron? Or why did the Athenians, when they were preparing to abandon their land, fail to include this image in what they put on board their ships?

{3.16.8} And yet, right down to the present day, the fame of the Tauric goddess has remained so high that the Cappadocians dwelling on the Euxine claim that the image is among them, a like claim being made by those Lydians also who have a sanctuary of Artemis Anaeitis. But the Athenians, we are asked to believe, made light of the fact that it was plundered by the Persians. For the image at Brauron was brought to Susa, and afterwards Seleukos gave it to the Syrians of Laodicea, who still possess it.

{3.16.9} I will give other evidence that the Orthia in Lacedaemon is the wooden image from the foreigners. Firstly, Astrabacus and Alopecus, sons of Irbus, son of Amphisthenes, son of Amphikles, son of Agis, when they found the image straightway became insane. Secondly, the Spartan Limnatians, the Cynosurians, and the people of Mesoa and Pitane, while sacrificing to Artemis, fell to quarreling, which led also to bloodshed; many were killed at the altar and the rest died of disease.

{3.16.10} Whereat an oracle was delivered to them, that they should stain the altar with human blood. He used to be sacrificed upon whomsoever the lot fell, but Lycurgus (Lykourgos) changed the custom to a scourging of the boys, and so in this way the altar is stained with human blood. By them stands the priestess, holding the wooden image. Now it is small and light,

{3.16.11} but if ever the scourgers spare the lash because of a boy’s beauty or high rank, then at once the priestess finds the image grow so heavy that she can hardly carry it. She lays the blame on the scourgers, and says that it is their fault that she is being weighed down. So the image ever since the sacrifices in the Tauric land keeps its fondness for human blood. They call it not only Orthia, but also Lygodesma (Willow-bound), because it was found in a thicket of willows, and the encircling willow made the image stand upright.

{3.17.1} Not far from the Orthia is a sanctuary of Eileithuia. They say that they built it, and came to worship Eileithuia as a goddess, because of an oracle from Delphi.

The Lacedaemonians have no citadel rising to a conspicuous height like the Kadmeia at Thebes and the Larisa at Argos. There are, however, hills in the city, and the highest of them they call the citadel.

{3.17.2} Here is built a sanctuary of Athena, who is called both City-protecting and Lady of the Bronze House. The building of the sanctuary was begun, they say, by Tyndareus. On his death his children were desirous of making a second attempt to complete the building, and the resources they intended to use were the spoils of Aphidna. They too left it unfinished, and it was many years afterwards that the Lacedaemonians made of bronze both the temple and the image of Athena. The builder was Gitiadas, a native of Sparta, who also composed Dorian lyrics, including a hymn to the goddess. [235]

{3.17.3} On the bronze are made-in-relief many of the labors of Hēraklēs and many of the voluntary exploits he successfully carried out, besides the abduction of the daughters of Leukippos and other achievements of the sons of Tyndareus. There is also Hephaistos releasing his mother from the fetters. The legend about this I have already related in my history of Attica. [236] There are also represented nymphs bestowing upon Perseus, who is starting on his enterprise against Medusa in Libya, a cap and the shoes by which he was to be carried through the air. Also crafted are the birth of Athena, Amphitrite, and Poseidon, the largest figures, and those which I thought the best worth seeing.

{3.17.4} There is here another sanctuary of Athena; her surname is the Worker. As you go to the south portico there is a temple of Zeus surnamed Kosmetas (Orderer), and before it is the tomb of Tyndareus. The west portico has two eagles, and upon them are two Victories. Lysander dedicated them to commemorate both his exploits; the one was off Ephesos, when he conquered Antiokhos, the captain of Alcibiades, and the Athenian warships and the second occurred later, when he destroyed the Athenian fleet at Aigospotamoi.

{3.17.5} On the left of the Lady of the Bronze House they have set up a sanctuary of the Muses, because the Lacedaemonians used to go out to fight, not to the sound of the trumpet, but to the music of the flute and the accompaniment of lyre and harp. Behind the Lady of the Bronze House is a temple of Aphrodite Areia (Warlike). The wooden images are as old as any in Greece.

{3.17.6} On the right of the Lady of the Bronze House has been set up an image of Zeus Most High, the oldest image that is made of bronze. It is not created in one piece. Each of the limbs has been hammered separately; these are fitted together, being prevented from coming apart by nails. They say that the artist was Klearkhos of Rhēgion, who is said by some to have been a pupil of Dipoinos [237] and Skyllis, by others of Daidalos himself. By what is called the Scenoma (Tent) there is a statue of a woman, whom the Lacedaemonians say is Euryleonis. She won a victory at Olympia with a two-horse chariot.

{3.17.7} By the side of the altar of the Lady of the Bronze House stand two statues of Pausanias, the general at Plataea. His history, as it is known, I will not relate. The accurate accounts of my predecessors suffice; I shall content myself with adding to them what I heard from a man of Byzantium. Pausanias was detected in his treachery, and was the only suppliant of the Lady of the Bronze House who failed to win security, solely because he had been unable to wipe away a defilement of bloodshed.

{3.17.8} When he was cruising about the Hellespont with the Lacedaemonian and allied fleets, he fell in love with a Byzantine girl. And straightway at the beginning of night Kleonike —that was the girl’s name—was brought by those who had been ordered to do so. But Pausanias was asleep at the time and the noise awoke him. For as she came to him she unintentionally dropped her lighted lamp. And Pausanias, conscious of his treason to Greece, and therefore always nervous and fearful, jumped up then and struck the girl with his sword.

{3.17.9} From this defilement Pausanias could not escape, although he underwent all sorts of purifications and became a suppliant of Zeus Phyxios (God of Flight), and finally went to the wizards at Phigalia in Arcadia but he paid a fitting penalty to Kleonike and to the god. The Lacedaemonians, in fulfillment of a command from Delphi, had the bronze images made and honor the spirit Bountiful, saying that it was this Bountiful that turns aside the wrath that the God of Suppliants shows because of Pausanias.

{3.18.1} Near the statues of Pausanias is an image of Aphrodite Ambologera (Postponer of Old Age), which was set up in accordance with an oracle; there are also images of Sleep and of Death. They think them brothers, in accordance with the verses in the Iliad.

{3.18.2} As you go towards what is called the Alpium is a temple of Athena Ophthalmitis (Goddess of the Eye). They say that Lycurgus (Lykourgos) dedicated it when one of his eyes had been struck out by Alkandros, because the laws he had made happened not to find favor with Alkandros. Having fled to this place he was saved by the Lacedaemonians from losing his remaining eye, and so he made this temple of Athena Ophthalmitis.

{3.18.3} Farther on from here is a sanctuary of Ammon. From the first the Lacedaemonians are known to have used the oracle in Libya more than any other Greeks. It is said also that when Lysander was besieging Aphytis in Pallene Ammon appeared by night and declared that it would be better for him and for Lacedaemon if they ceased from warring against Aphytis. And so Lysander raised the siege, and induced the Lacedaemonians to worship the god still more. The people of Aphytis honor Ammon no less than the Ammonian Libyans.

{3.18.4} The story of Artemis Cnagia is as follows. Cnageus, they say, was a native who joined the Dioskouroi in their expedition against Aphidna. Being taken prisoner in the battle and sold into Crete, he lived as a slave where the Cretans had a sanctuary of Artemis; but in course of time he ran away in the company of the virgin priestess, who took the image with her. It is for this reason that they name Artemis Cnagia.

{3.18.5} But I am of opinion that Cnageus came to Crete in some other way, and not in the manner the Lacedaemonians state; for I do not think there was a battle at Aphidna at all, Theseus being detained among the Thesprotians and the Athenians not being unanimous, their sympathies inclining towards Menestheus. Moreover, even if a fight occurred, nobody would believe that prisoners were taken from the conquerors, especially as the victory was overwhelming, so that Aphidna itself was captured.

{3.18.6} I must now end my criticisms. As you go down to Amyklai from Sparta you come to a river called Tiasa. They hold that Tiasa was a daughter of Eurotas, and by it is a sanctuary of Graces, Phaenna and Cleta, as Alcman calls them in a poem. They believe that Lacedaemon founded the sanctuary for the Graces here, and gave them their names.

{3.18.7} The things worth seeing in Amyklai include a victor in the pentathlon, [238] named Ainetos, on a slab. The story is that he won a victory at Olympia, but died while the garland was being placed on his head. So there is the statue of this man; there are also bronze tripods. The older ones are said to be a tithe of the Messenian war.

{3.18.8} Under the first tripod stood an image of Aphrodite, and under the second an Artemis. The two tripods themselves and the reliefs are the work of Gitiadas. [239] The third was made by Gallon of Aegina, and under it stands an image of the Maiden, daughter of Demeter. Aristandros of Paros and Polycleitus of Argos [240] have statues here; the former a woman with a lyre, supposed to be Sparta, the latter an Aphrodite called “beside the Amyklaian.” These tripods are larger than the others, and were dedicated from the spoils of the victory at Aigospotamoi.

{3.18.9} Bathykles of Magnesia, [241] who made the throne of the Amyklaian, dedicated, on the completion of the throne, Graces and an image of Artemis Leucophryene. Whose pupil this Bathykles was, and who was king of Lacedaemon when he made the throne, I pass over; but I saw the throne and will describe its details.

{3.18.10} It is supported in front, and similarly behind, by two Graces and two Seasons. On the left stand Echidna and Typhos, on the right Tritons. To describe the reliefs one by one in detail would have merely bored my readers; but to be brief and concise (for the greater number of them are not unknown either) Poseidon and Zeus are carrying Taygete, daughter of Atlas, and her sister Alcyone. There are also reliefs of Atlas, the single combat of Hēraklēs and Kyknos, and the battle of the Centaurs at the cave of Pholus.

{3.18.11} I cannot say why Bathykles has represented the so-called Bull of Minos bound, and being led along alive by Theseus. There is also on the throne a band of Phaeacian dancers, and Demodocus singing. Perseus, too, is represented killing Medusa. Passing over the fight of Hēraklēs with the giant Thourios and that of Tyndareus with Eurytos, we have next the abduction of the daughters of Leukippos. Here are Dionysus, too, and Hēraklēs; Hermes is bearing the infant Dionysus to the sky [ouranos], and Athena is taking Hēraklēs to dwell henceforth with the gods.

{3.18.12} There is Peleus handing over Achilles to be reared by Kheiron, who is also said to have been his teacher. There is Cephalus, too, carried off by Day because of his beauty. The gods are bringing gifts to the marriage of Harmonia. There is created also the single combat of Achilles and Memnon, and Hēraklēs avenging himself upon Diomedes the Thracian, and upon Nessus at the river Euenus. Hermes is bringing the goddesses to Alexander to be judged. Adrastos and Tydeus are staying the fight between Amphiaraos and Lycurgus (Lykourgos) the son of Pronax.

{3.18.13} Hērā is gazing at Io, the daughter of Inakhos, who is already a cow, and Athena is running away from Hephaistos, who chases her. Next to these have been created two of the exploits of Hēraklēs—his slaying the hydra, and his bringing up the Hound of Hades. Anaxias and Mnasinous are each seated on horseback, but there is one horse only carrying Megapenthes, the son of Menelaos, and Nikostratos. Bellerophontes is destroying the beast in Lycia, and Hēraklēs is driving off the cows of Geryones.

{3.18.14} At the upper edge of the throne are created, one on each side, the sons of Tyndareus on horses. There are sphinxes under the horses, and beasts running upwards, on the one side a leopard, by Polydeukes a lioness. On the very top of the throne has been created a band of dancers, the Magnesians who helped Bathykles to make the throne.

{3.18.15} Underneath the throne, the inner part away from the Tritons contains the hunting of the Calydonian boar and Hēraklēs killing the children of Aktor. Calais and Zetes are driving the Harpies away from Phineus. Peirithous and Theseus have seized Helen, and Hēraklēs is strangling the lion. Apollo and Artemis are shooting Tityus.

{3.18.16} There is represented the fight between Hēraklēs and Oreios the Centaur, and also that between Theseus and the Bull of Minos. There are also represented the wrestling of Hēraklēs with Akhelōos, the fabled binding of Hērā by Hephaistos, the games Akastos held in honor of his father, and the story of Menelaos and the Egyptian Proteus from the Odyssey. [242] Lastly there is Admetos yoking a boar and a lion to his chariot, and the Trojans are bringing libations to Hector.

{3.19.1} The part of the throne where the god would sit is not continuous; there are several seats, and by the side of each seat is left a wide empty space, the middle, whereon the image stands, being the widest of them.

{3.19.2} I know of nobody who has measured the height of the image, but at a guess one would estimate it to be as much as thirty cubits. It is not the work of Bathykles, being old and uncouth; for though it has face, feet, and hands, the rest resembles a bronze pillar. On its head it has a helmet, in its hands a spear and a bow.

{3.19.3} The pedestal of the statue is fashioned into the shape of an altar and they say that Hyakinthos is buried in it, and at the Hyakinthia, before the sacrifice to Apollo, they devote offerings to Hyakinthos as to a hero into this altar through a bronze door, which is on the left of the altar. On the altar are made-in-relief, here an image of Biris, there Amphitrite and Poseidon. Zeus and Hermes are conversing; near stand Dionysus and Semele, with Ino by her side.

{3.19.4} On the altar are also Demeter, the Maiden, Pluto [Ploutōn], next to them Fates and Seasons, and with them Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis. They are carrying to the sky [ouranos] Hyakinthos and Polyboia, the sister, they say, of Hyakinthos, who died a virgin [parthenos]. Now this statue of Hyakinthos represents him as bearded, but Nikias, [243] son of Nikomedes, has painted him in the very prime of youthful beauty, hinting at the love of Apollo for Hyakinthos of which legend tells.

{3.19.5} Crafted on the altar is also Hēraklēs; he too is being led to the sky [ouranos] by Athena and the other gods. On the altar are also the daughters of Thestios, Muses and Seasons. As for the West Wind, how Apollo unintentionally killed Hyakinthos, and the story of the flower, we must be content with the legends, although perhaps they are not true history.

{3.19.6} Amyklai was laid waste by the Dorians, and since that time has remained a village; I found there a sanctuary and image of Alexandra worth seeing. Alexandra is said by the Amyklaians to be Cassandra, the daughter of Priam. Here is also a statue of Clytaemnestra, together with what is supposed to be the tomb of Agamemnon. The natives worship the Amyklaian god and Dionysus, surnaming the latter, quite correctly I think, Psilax. For psila is Doric for wings, and wine uplifts men and lightens their spirit no less than wings do birds.

Such I found were the things worth mentioning about Amyklai. Another road from the city leads to Therapne,

{3.19.7} and on this road is a wooden image of Athena Alea. Before the Eurotas is crossed, a little above the bank is shown a sanctuary of Zeus Wealthy. Across the river is a temple of Asklepios Cotyleus (of the Hip-joint); it was made by Hēraklēs, who named Asklepios Cotyleus, because he was cured of the wound in the hip-joint that he received in the former fight with Hippokoön and his sons. Of all the objects along this road the oldest is a sanctuary of Ares. This is on the left of the road, and the image is said to have been brought from Kolkhis by the Dioskouroi.

{3.19.8} They surname him Theritas after Thero, who is said to have been the nurse of Ares. Perhaps it was from the people of Kolkhis that they heard the name Theritas, since the Greeks know of no Thero, nurse of Ares. My own belief is that the surname Theritas [244] was not given to Ares because of his nurse, but because when a man meets an enemy in battle he must cast aside all gentleness, as Homer says of Achilles:

“And he is fierce as a lion.”

Iliad 24.41

{3.19.9} The name of Therapne is derived from the daughter of Lelex, and in it is a temple of Menelaos; they say that Menelaos and Helen were buried here. The account of the Rhodians is different. They say that when Menelaos was dead, and Orestes still a wanderer, Helen was driven out by Nikostratos and Megapenthes and came to Rhodes, where she had a friend in Polyxo,

{3.19.10} the wife of Tlepolemos. For Polyxo, they say, was an Argive by descent, and when she was already married to Tlepolemos shared his flight to Rhodes. At the time she was queen of the island, having been left with an orphan boy. They say that this Polyxo desired to avenge the death of Tlepolemos on Helen, now that she had her in her power. So she sent against her when she was bathing handmaidens dressed up as Furies, who seized Helen and hanged her on a tree, and for this reason the Rhodians have a sanctuary of Helen of the Tree.

{3.19.11} A story too I will tell which I know the people of Kroton tell about Helen. The people of Himera too agree with this account. In the Euxine at the mouths of the Ister is an island sacred to Achilles. It is called White Island, and its circumference is twenty stadium-lengths. It is wooded throughout and abounds in animals, wild and tame, while on it is a temple of Achilles with an image of him.

{3.19.12} The first to sail thither legend says was Leonymus of Kroton. For when war had arisen between the people of Kroton and the people of Lokris [= Lokroi] in Italy, the people of Lokris, in virtue of the relationship between them and the Opuntians, called upon Ajax son of Oileus to help them in battle. So Leonymus the general of the people of Kroton attacked his enemy at that point where he heard that Ajax was posted in the front line. Now he was wounded in the breast, and weak with his hurt came to Delphi. When he arrived the Pythian priestess sent Leonynios to White Island, telling him that there Ajax would appear to him and cure his wound.

{3.19.13} In time he was healed and returned from White Island, where, he used to declare, he saw Achilles, as well as Ajax the son of Oileus and Ajax the son of Telamon. With them, he said, were Patroklos and Antilokhos; Helen was wedded to Achilles, and had bidden him sail to Stesichorus at Himera, and announce that the loss of his sight was caused by her wrath.

{3.20.1} Therefore Stesichorus composed his recantation. In Therapne I remember seeing the fountain Messeis. Some of the Lacedaemonians, however, have declared that of old the name Messeis was given, not to the fountain at Therapne, but to the one we call Polydeucea. The fountain Polydeucea and a sanctuary of Polydeukes are on the right of the road to Therapne.

{3.20.2} Not far from Therapne is what is called Phoebaeum, in which is a temple of the Dioskouroi. Here the youths sacrifice to Enyalios. At no great distance from it stands a sanctuary of Poseidon surnamed Earth-embracer. Going on from here in the direction of Taygetos you come to a place called Alesiai(Place of Grinding) they say that Myles (Mill-man) the son of Lelex was the first human being to invent a mill, and that he ground wheat in this Alesiae. Here they have a hero-shrine of Lacedaemon, the son of Taygete.

{3.20.3} Crossing from here a river Phellia, and going past Amyklai along a road leading straight towards the sea, you come to the site of Pharis, which was once a city of Laconia. Turning away from the Phellia to the right is the road that leads to Mount Taygetos. On the plain is a precinct of Zeus Messapeus, who is surnamed, they say, after a man who served the god as his priest. Leaving Taygetos from here you come to the site of the city Bryseae. There still remains here a temple of Dionysus with an image in the open. But the image in the temple women only may see, for women by themselves perform in secret the sacrificial rites.

{3.20.4} Above Bryseairises Taletum, a peak of Taygetos. They call it sacred to Hēlios (the Sun), and among the sacrifices they offer here to Hēlios are horses. I am aware that the Persians also are accustomed to offer the same sacrifice. Not far from Taletum is a place called Euoras, the haunt of wild animals, especially wild goats. In fact all Taygetos is a hunting-ground for these goats and for boars, and it is well stocked with both deer and bears.

{3.20.5} Between Taletum and Euoras is a place they name Therai, where they say Leto from the Peaks of Taygetos … is a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed Eleusinian. Here according to the Lacedaemonian story Hēraklēs was hidden by Asklepios while he was being healed of a wound. In the sanctuary is a wooden image of Orpheus, a work, they say, of Pelasgians.

{3.20.6} I know also of the following rite which is performed here. By the sea was a city Helos, which Homer too has mentioned in his list of the Lacedaemonians:

“These had their home in Amyklai, and in Helos the town by the seaside.”

Iliad 2.584

It was founded by Helios [Hĕlios not Hēlios], the youngest of the sons of Perseus, and the Dorians afterwards reduced it by siege. Its inhabitants became the first slaves of the Lacedaemonian state, and were the first to be called Helots [heilōtes], as in fact heilōtesthey were. The slaves afterwards acquired, although they were Dorians of Messenia, also came to be called Helots, just as the entire lineage of people who were called Hellenes [‘Greeks’] were named after the region in Thessaly once called Hellas.

{3.20.7} From this Helos, on stated days, they bring up to the sanctuary of the Eleusinian a wooden image of the Maiden, daughter of Demeter. Fifteen stadium-lengths distant from the sanctuary is Lapithaion, named after Lapithos, a native of the district. So this Lapithaion is on Taygetos, and not far off is Dereium, where is in the open an image of Artemis Dereatis, and beside it is a spring which they name Anonus. About twenty stadium-lengths past Dereum is Harpleia, which extends as far as the plain.

{3.20.8} On the road from Sparta to Arcadia there stands in the open an image of Athena surnamed Pareia, and after it is a sanctuary of Achilles. This it is not customary to open, but all the youths who are going to take part in the contest in Plane tree Grove are accustomed to sacrifice to Achilles before the fight. The Spartans say that the sanctuary was made for them by Prax, a grandson of Pergamos the son of Neoptolemos.

{3.20.9} Further on is what is called the Tomb of Horse. For Tyndareus, having sacrificed a horse here, administered an oath to the suitors of Helen, making them stand upon the pieces of the horse. The oath was to defend Helen and him who might be chosen to marry her if ever they should be wronged. When he had sworn the suitors he buried the horse here. Seven pillars, which are not far from this tomb … in the ancient manner, I believe, which they say are images of the planets. On the road is a precinct of Cranius surnamed Stemmatias, and a sanctuary of Mysian Artemis.

{3.20.10} The image of Modesty, some thirty stadium-lengths distant from the city, they say was dedicated by Icarius, the following being the reason for making it. When Icarius gave Penelope in marriage to Odysseus, he tried to make Odysseus himself settle in Lacedaemon, but failing in the attempt, he next besought his daughter to remain behind, and when she was setting forth to Ithaca he followed the chariot, begging her to stay.

{3.20.11} Odysseus endured it for a time, but at last he ordered Penelope either to accompany him willingly, or else, if she preferred her father, to go back to Lacedaemon. They say that she made no reply, but covered her face with a veil in reply to the question, so that Icarios, realizing that she wished to depart with Odysseus, let her go, and dedicated an image of Modesty; for Penelope, they say, had reached this point of the road when she veiled herself.

{3.21.1} Twenty stadium-lengths from here the stream of the Eurotas comes very near to the road, and here is the tomb of Ladas, the fastest runner of his day. He was garlanded at Olympia for a victory in the long race, and falling ill, I take it, immediately after the victory he was on his way home; his death took place here, and his tomb is above the highway. His namesake, who also won at Olympia a victory, not in the long race but in the short race, is stated in the Eleian records of Olympic victors to have been a native of Aigion in Achaea.

{3.21.2} Farther On in the direction of Pellana is what is called Kharkoma (Trench); and after it Pellana, which in the olden time was a city. They say that Tyndareus dwelled here when he fled from Sparta before Hippokoön and his sons. Remarkable sights I remember seeing here were a sanctuary of Asklepios and the spring Pellanis. Into it they say a girl fell when she was drawing water, and when she had disappeared the veil on her head reappeared in another spring, Lancia.

{3.21.3} A hundred stadium-lengths away from Pellana is The place called Belemina. It is naturally The best watered region of Laconia, seeing that The river Eurotas passes through it, while it has abundant springs of its own.

{3.21.4} As you go down to the sea towards Gythium you come to a village called Croceae and a quarry. It is not a continuous stretch of rock, but the stones they dig out are shaped like river pebbles; they are hard to work, but when worked sanctuaries of the gods might be adorned with them, while they are especially adapted for beautifying swimming-baths and fountains. Here before the village stands an image of Zeus of Croceae in marble, and the Dioskouroi in bronze are at the quarry.

{3.21.5} After Croceae, turning away to the right from the straight road to Gythium, you will reach a city Aegiae. They say that this is the city which Homer [245] in his poem calls Augeae. Here is a lake called Poseidon’s, and by the lake is a temple with an image of the god. They are afraid to take out the fish, saying that a fisherman in these waters turns into the fish called the fisher.

{3.21.6} Gythium is thirty stadium-lengths distant from Aigiai, built by the sea in the territory of the Free Laconians, whom the emperor Augustus freed from the bondage in which they had been to the Lacedaemonians in Sparta. All the Peloponnesus, except the Isthmus of Corinth, is surrounded by sea, but the best shell-fish for the manufacture of purple dye after those of the Phoenician sea are to be found on the coast of Laconia.

{3.21.7} The Free Laconians have eighteen cities; the first as you go down from Aigiai to the sea is Gythium; after it come Teuthrone and Las and Pyrrhikos; on Taenarum are Caenepolis, Oetylus, Leuktra and Thalamae, and in addition Alagoma and Gerenia. On the other side of Clythium by the sea are Asopos, Acriae, Boeae, Larax, Epidaurus Limera, Brasiae, Geronthraiand Marius. These are all that are left to the Free Laconians out of twenty-four cities which once were theirs. All the other cities with which my narrative will deal belong, it must be remembered, to Sparta, and are not independent like those I have already mentioned.

{3.21.8} The people of Cythium say that their city had no human founder, but that Hēraklēs and Apollo, when they were reconciled after their strife for the possession of the tripod, united to found the city. In the marketplace they have images of Apollo and of Hēraklēs, and a Dionysus stands near them. In another part of the city are Carnean Apollo, a sanctuary of Ammon and a bronze image of Asklepios, whose temple is roofless, a spring belonging to the god, a holy sanctuary of Demeter and an image of Poseidon Earth-embracer.

{3.21.9} Him whom the people of Cythium name Old Man, saying that he lives in the sea, I found to be Nereus. They got this name originally from Homer, who says in a part of the Iliad, where Thetis is speaking:

Into the broad expanse, and into the bosom of ocean
Plunge, to behold the old man of the sea and the home of your father.

Iliad 18.140-141

Here is also a gate called the Gate of Castor (Kastor), and on the citadel have been built a temple and image of Athena.

{3.22.1} Just about three stadium-lengths from Gythium is an unfinished stone. Legend has it that when Orestes sat down upon it his madness left him. For this reason the stone was named in the Dorian tongue Zeus Cappotas. Before Gythium lies the island Cranae, and Homer [246] says that when Alexander had carried off Helen he had intercourse with her there for the first time. On the mainland opposite the island is a sanctuary of Aphrodite Migonitis (Union), and the whole place is called Migonium.

{3.22.2} This sanctuary, they say, was made by Alexander. But when Menelaos had taken Ilion and had returned safe home eight years after the sack of Troy, he set up near the sanctuary of Migonitis an image of Thetis and the goddesses Praxidikai (Exacters of Justice). Above Migonium is a mountain called Larysiumi sacred to Dionysus, and at the beginning of spring they hold a festival in honor of Dionysus, and among the things they say about the ritual is that they find here a ripe bunch of grapes.

{3.22.3} Some thirty stadium-lengths beyond Gythium on the left there are on the mainland walls of a place called Trinasus (Three Islands), which was in my opinion a fort and not a city. Its name I think is derived from the islets which lie off the coast here, three in number. About eighty stadium-lengths beyond Trinasus I came to the ruins o Af Helos,

{3.22.4} and some thirty stadium-lengths farther is Acriae, a city on the coast. Well worth seeing here are a temple and marble image of the Mother of the Gods. The people of Acriae say that this is the oldest sanctuary of this goddess in the Peloponnesus, although the Magnesians, who live to the north of Mount Sipylos, have on the rock Koddinos the most ancient of all the images of the Mother of the gods. The Magnesians say that it was made by Broteas the son of Tantalos.

{3.22.5} The people of Acriae once produced an Olympian victor, Nikokles, who at two Olympian festivals carried off five prizes for running. There has been raised to him a monument between the gymnasium and the wall by the harbor.

{3.22.6} A hundred and twenty stadium-lengths inland from Acriae is Geronthrae. It was inhabited before the Herakleidai came to Peloponnesus, but the Dorians of Lacedaemon expelled the Achaean inhabitants and afterwards sent to it settlers of their own; but in my time it belonged to the Free Laconians. On the road from Acriae to Geronthraiis a village called Palaia (Old), and in Geronthraiitself are a temple and grove of Ares.

{3.22.7} Every year they hold a festival in honor of the God, at which women are forbidden to enter the grove. Around the marketplace are their springs of drinking-water. On the citadel is a temple of Apollo with the head of an ivory image. The rest of the image was destroyed by fire along with the former temple.

{3.22.8} Marius is another town of the Free Laconians, distant from Geronthraione hundred stadium-lengths. Here is an ancient sanctuary common to all the gods, and around it is a grove containing springs. In a sanctuary of Artemis also there are springs. In fact Marius has an unsurpassed supply of water. Above the town, and like it in the interior, is a village, Glyppia. From Geronthraito another village, Selinous, is a journey of twenty stadium-lengths.

{3.22.9} These places are inland from Acriae. By the sea is a city Asopos, sixty stadium-lengths distant from Acriae. In it is a temple of the Roman emperors, and about twelve stadium-lengths inland from the city is a sanctuary of Asklepios. They call the god Philolaos, and the bones in the gymnasium, which they worship, are human, although of superhuman size. On the citadel is also a sanctuary of Athena, surnamed Cyparissia (Cypress Goddess). At the foot of the citadel are the ruins of a city called the City of the Paracyparissian [247] Achaeans.

{3.22.10} There is also in this district a sanctuary of Asklepios, about fifty stadium-lengths from Asopos the place where the sanctuary is they name Hyperteleatum. Two hundred stadium-lengths from Asopos there juts out into the sea a headland, which they call Onugnathus (Jaw of an Ass). Here is a sanctuary of Athena, having neither image nor roof. Agamemnon is said to have made it. There is also the tomb of Cinadus, one of the pilots of the ship of Menelaos.

{3.22.11} After the peak there runs into the land the Gulf of Boeae, and the city of Boeae is at the head of the gulf. This was founded by Boeus, one of the Herakleidai, and he is said to have collected inhabitants for it from three cities, Etis, Aphrodisias and Side. Of the ancient cities two are said to have been founded by Aeneas when he was fleeing to Italy and had been driven into this gulf by storms. Etias, they allege, was a daughter of Aeneas. The third city they say was named after Side, daughter of Danaos.

{3.22.12} When the inhabitants of these cities were expelled, they were anxious to know where they ought to settle, and an oracle was given them that Artemis would show them where they were to dwell. When therefore they had gone on shore, and a hare appeared to them, they looked upon the hare as their guide on the way. When it dived into a myrtle tree, they built a city on the site of the myrtle, and down to this day they worship that myrtle tree, and name Artemis Savior.

{3.22.13} In the marketplace of Boeae is a temple of Apollo, and in another part of the town are temples of Asklepios, of Serapis, and of Isis. The ruins of Etis are not more than seven stadium-lengths distant from Boeae. On the way to them there stands on the left a stone image of Hermes. Among the ruins is a not insignificant sanctuary of Asklepios and Hygieia.

{3.23.1} Cythera lies opposite Boeae; to the promontory of Platanistos, the point where the island lies nearest to the mainland, it is a voyage of forty stadium-lengths from a promontory on the mainland called Onugnathus. In Cythera is a port Scandeia on the coast, but the town Cythera is about ten stadium-lengths inland from Scandeia. The sanctuary of Aphrodite the celestial one [Ourania] is most holy, and it is the most ancient of all the sanctuaries of Aphrodite among the Greeks. The goddess herself is represented by an armed image of wood.

{3.23.2} On the voyage from Boeae towards the point of Malea is a harbor called Nymphaeum, with a statue of Poseidon standing, and a cave close to the sea; in it is a spring of sweet water. There is a large population in the district. After doubling the point of Malea and proceeding a hundred stadium-lengths, you reach a place on the coast within the frontier of the Boeatae, which is sacred to Apollo and called Epidelium.

{3.23.3} For the wooden image which is now here, once stood in Delos. Delos was then a Greek market, and seemed to offer security to traders on account of the god; but as the place was unfortified and the inhabitants unarmed, Menophanes, an officer of Mithridates, attacked it with a fleet, to show his contempt for the god, or acting on the orders of Mithridates; for to a man whose object is gain what is sacred is of less account than what is profitable.

{3.23.4} This Menophanes put to death the foreigners residing there and the Delians themselves, and after plundering much property belonging to the traders and all the offerings, and also carrying women and children away as slaves, he razed Delos itself to the ground. As it was being sacked and pillaged, one of the barbarians wantonly flung this image into the sea; but the wave took it and brought it to land here in the country of the Boeatae. For this reason they call the place Epidelium.

{3.23.5} But neither Menophanes nor Mithridates himself escaped the wrath of the god. Menophanes, as he was putting to sea after the sack of Delos was sunk at once by those of the merchants who had escaped; for they lay in wait for him in ships. The god caused Mithridates at a later date to lay hands upon himself, when his empire had been destroyed and he himself was being hunted on all sides by the Romans. There are some who say that he obtained a violent death as a favor at the hands of one of his mercenaries. This was the reward of their impiety.

{3.23.6} The country of the Boeatae is adjoined by Epidaurus Limera, distant some two hundred stadium-lengths from Epidelium. The people say that they are not descended from the Lacedaemonians but from the Epidaurians of the Argolid, and that they touched at this point in Laconia when sailing on public business to Asklepios in Kos. Warned by dreams that appeared to them, they remained and settled here.

{3.23.7} They also say that a snake, which they were bringing from their home in Epidaurus, escaped from the ship, and disappeared into the ground not far from the sea. As a result of the portent of the snake together with the vision in their dreams they resolved to remain and settle here. There are altars to Asklepios where the snake disappeared, with olive trees growing round them.

{3.23.8} About two stadium-lengths to the right is the water of Ino, as it is called, in extent like a small lake, but going deeper into the earth. Into this water they throw cakes of barley meal at the festival of Ino. If good luck is portended to the thrower, the water keeps them under. But if it brings them to the surface, it is judged a bad sign.

{3.23.9} The craters in Aetna have the same feature; for they lower into them objects of gold and silver and also all kinds of victims. If the fire receives and consumes them, they rejoice at the appearance of a good sign, but if it casts up what has been thrown in, they think misfortune will befall the man to whom this happens.

{3.23.10} By the road leading from Boeae to Epidaurus Limera is a sanctuary of Artemis Limnatis (Of the Lake) in the country of the Epidaurians. The city lies on high ground, not far from the sea. Here the sanctuary of Artemis is worth seeing, also that of Asklepios with a standing statue of stone, a temple of Athena on the acropolis, and of Zeus with the title Savior in front of the harbor.

{3.23.11} A promontory called Minoa projects into the sea near [248] the town. The bay has nothing to distinguish it from all the other inlets of the sea in Laconia, but the beach here contains pebbles of prettier form and of all colors.

{3.24.1} A hundred stadium-lengths from Epidaurus is Zarax; though possessing a good harbor, it is the most ruinous of the towns of the Free Laconians, since it was the only town of theirs to be depopulated by Kleonymos the son of Kleomenes, son of Agesipolis. I have told the story of Kleomenes elsewhere. [249] There is nothing in Zarax except a temple of Apollo, with a statue holding a lyre, at the head of the harbor. [250]

{3.24.2} The road from Zarax follows the coast for about a hundred stadium-lengths, and there strikes inland. After an ascent of ten stadium-lengths inland are the ruins of the so-called Cyphanta, among which is a cave sacred to Asklepios; the image is of stone. There is a fountain of cold water springing from the rock, where they say that Atalanta, distressed by thirst when hunting, struck the rock with her spear, so that the water gushed forth.

{3.24.3} Brasiaiis the last town on the coast belonging to the Free Laconians in this direction. It is distant two hundred stadium-lengths by sea from Cyphanta. The inhabitants have a story, found nowhere else in Greece, that Semele, after giving birth to her son by Zeus, was discovered by Kadmos and put with Dionysus into a chest, which was washed up by the waves in their country. Semele, who was no longer alive when found, received a splendid funeral, but they brought up Dionysus.

{3.24.4} For this reason the name of their city, hitherto called Oreiatae, was changed to Brasiaiafter the washing up of the chest to land; so too in our time the common word used of the waves casting things ashore is ekbrazein. The people of Brasiaiadd that Ino in the course of her wanderings came to the country, and agreed to become the nurse of Dionysus. They show the cave where Ino nursed him, and call the plain the garden of Dionysus.

{3.24.5} The temples here are those of Asklepios and of Achilles, in whose honor they hold an annual festival. There is a small promontory at Brasiae, which projects gently into the sea; on it stand bronze figures, not more than a foot high, with caps on their heads. I am not sure whether they consider them to be Dioskouroi or Corybants. They are three in number; a statue of Athena makes a fourth.

{3.24.6} To the right of Gythium is Las, ten stadium-lengths from the sea and forty from Gythium. The site of the present town extends over the ground between the mountains called Ilios, Asia and Cnacadium; formerly it lay on the summit of Mount Asia. Even now there are ruins of the old town, with a statue of Hēraklēs outside the walls, and a trophy for a victory over the Macedonians. These formed a detachment of Philip’s army, when he invaded Laconia, but were separated from the main body and were plundering the coastal districts.

{3.24.7} Among the ruins is a temple of Athena named Asia, made, it is said, by Polydeukes and Castor (Kastor) on their return home from Kolkhis; for the people of Kolkhis had a shrine of Athena Asia. I know that the sons of Tyndareus took part in Jason’s expedition. As to the people of Kolkhis honoring Athena Asia, I give what I heard from the Lacedaemonians. Near the present town is a spring called Galaco (Milky) from the color of the water, and beside the spring a gymnasium, which contains an ancient statue of Hermes.

{3.24.8} On Mount Ilios is a temple of Dionysus, and of Asklepios at the very summit. On Cnacadium is an Apollo called Karneios.

Some thirty stadium-lengths from the Apollo is a place Hypsoi, within the Spartan frontier. Here is a sanctuary of Asklepios and of Artemis called Daphnaea (of the laurel).

{3.24.9} By the sea is a temple of Artemis Dictynna on a promontory, in whose honor they hold an annual festival. A river Smenus reaches the sea to the left of the promontory; its water is extremely sweet to drink; its sources are in Mount Taygetos, and it passes within five stadium-lengths of the town.

{3.24.10} At a spot called Arainos is the tomb of Las with a statue upon it. The natives say that Las was their founder and was killed by Achilles, and that Achilles put in to their country to ask the hand of Helen of Tyndareus. In point of fact it was Patroklos who killed Las, for it was he who was Helen’s suitor. We need not regard it as a proof that Achilles did not ask for Helen because he is not mentioned in the Catalogue of Women as one of her suitors.

{3.24.11} But at the beginning of his poem Homer says that Achilles came to Troy as a favor to the sons of Atreus, [251] and not because he was bound by the oaths which Tyndareus exacted; and in the Games he makes Antilokhos say that Odysseus was a generation older than he, [252] whereas Odysseus, telling Alkinoos of his descent to Hades and other adventures, said that he wished to see Theseus and Peirithous, men of an earlier age. [253] We know that Theseus carried off Helen, so that it is quite impossible that Achilles could have been her suitor.

{3.25.1} Beyond the tomb a river named Scyras enters the sea. Formerly it was without a name, but was so called, because Pyrrhos the son of Achilles put in here when he sailed from Scyros to wed Hermione. Across the river is an ancient shrine … further from an altar of Zeus. Inland, forty stadium-lengths from the river, lies Pyrrhikos, the name of which is said to be derived from Pyrrhos the son of Achilles;

{3.25.2} but according to another account Pyrrhikos was one of the gods called Kouretes. Others say that Silenus came from Malea and settled here. That Silenus was brought up in Malea is clear from these words in an ode of Pindar:

“The mighty one, the dancer, whom the mount of Malea nurtured, husband of Nais, Silenus.”

Pindar Frag. 156 (Schröder)

Not that Pindar said his name was Pyrrhikos; that is a statement of the men of Malea.

{3.25.3} At Pyrrhikos there is a well in the marketplace, considered to be the gift of Silenus. If this were to fail, they would be short of water. The sanctuaries of the gods, that they have in the country, are of Artemis, called Astrateia, because the Amazons stayed their advance (strateia) here, and an Apollo Amazonios. Both gods are represented by wooden images, said to have been dedicated by the women from Thermodon.

{3.25.4} From Pyrrhikos the road comes down to the sea at Teuthrone. The inhabitants declare that their founder was Teuthras, an Athenian. They honor Artemis Issoria most of the Gods, and have a spring Naia. The promontory of Taenarum projects into the sea 150 stadium-lengths from Teuthrone, with the harbors Achilleios and Psamathus. On the promontory is a temple like a cave, with a statue of Poseidon in front of it.

{3.25.5} Some of the Greek poets state that Hēraklēs brought up the hound of Hades here, though there is no road that leads underground through the cave, and it is not easy to believe that the gods possess any underground dwelling where the souls collect. But Hecataeus of Miletus gave a plausible explanation, stating that a terrible serpent lived on Taenarum, and was called the hound of Hades, because any one bitten was bound to die of the poison at once, and it was this snake, he said, that was brought by Hēraklēs to Eurystheus.

{3.25.6} But Homer, who was the first to call the creature brought by Hēraklēs the hound of Hades, [254] did not give it a name or describe it as of manifold form, as he did in the case of the Chimaera. [255] Later poets gave the name Cerberus, and though in other respects they made him resemble a dog, they say that he had three heads. Homer, however, does not imply that he was a dog, the friend of man, any more than if he had called a real serpent the hound of Hades.

{3.25.7} Among other offerings on Taenarum is a bronze statue of Arion the harper on a dolphin. Herodotus has told the story of Arion and the dolphin, as he heard it, in his history of Lydia. [256] I have seen the dolphin at Poroselene that rewards the boy for saving his life. It had been damaged by fishermen and he cured it.I saw this dolphin obeying his call and carrying him whenever he wanted to ride on it.

{3.25.8} There is a spring also on Taenarum but now it possesses nothing marvelous. Formerly, as they say, it showed harbors and ships to those who looked into the water. These sights in the water were brought to an end for good and all by a woman washing dirty clothes in it.

{3.25.9} From the point of Taenarum Caenepolis is distant forty stadium-lengths by sea. Its name also was formerly Taenarum. In it is a hall of Demeter, and a temple of Aphrodite on the shore, with a standing statue of stone. Thirty stadium-lengths distant is Thyrides, a headland of Taenarum, with the ruins of a city Hippola; among them is a sanctuary of Athena Hippolaitis. A little further are the town and harbor of Messa.

{3.25.10} From this harbor it is 150 stadium-lengths to Oetylus. The hero, from whom the city received its name, was an Argive by descent, son of Amphianax, the son of Antimakhos. In Oetylus the sanctuary of Sarapis, and in the marketplace a wooden image of Apollo Karneios are worth seeing.

{3.26.1} From Oetylus to Thalamaithe road is about eighty stadium-lengths long. On it is a sanctuary of Ino and an oracle. They consult the oracle in sleep, and the goddess reveals whatever they wish to learn, in dreams. Bronze statues of Pasiphae and of Hēlios stand in the unroofed part of the sanctuary. It was not possible to see the one within the temple clearly, owing to the garlands, but they say this too is of bronze. Water, sweet to drink, flows from a sacred spring. Pasiphae is a title of the Moon, and is not a local goddess of the people of Thalamae.

{3.26.2} Twenty stadium-lengths from Thalamaiis a place called Pephnus on the coast. In front of it lies a small island no larger than a big rock, also called Pephnus. The people of Thalamaisay that the Dioskouroi were born here. I know that Alcman too says this in a song: but they do not say that they remained to be brought up in Pephnus, but that it was Hermes who took them to Pellana.

{3.26.3} In this little island there are bronze statues of the Dioskouroi, a foot high, in the open air. The sea will not move them, though in winter-time it washes over the rock, which is wonderful. Also the ants here have a whiter color than is usual. The Messenians say that this district was originally theirs, and so they think that the Dioskouroi belong to them rather than to the Lacedaemonians.

{3.26.4} Twenty stadium-lengths from Pephnus is Leuktra. I do not know why the city has this name. If indeed it is derived from Leukippos the son of Perieres, as the Messenians say, it is for this reason, I think, that the inhabitants honor Asklepios most of the gods, supposing him to be the son of Arsinoe the daughter of Leukippos. There is a stone statue of Asklepios, and of Ino in another place.

{3.26.5} Also a temple and statue have been erected to Cassandra the daughter of Priam, called Alexandra by the natives. There are wooden images of Apollo Karneios according to the same custom that prevails among the Lacedaemonians of Sparta. On the acropolis is a sanctuary and image of Athena, and there is a temple and grove of Eros in Leuktra. Water flows through the grove in winter-time, but the leaves which are shaken from the trees by the wind would not be carried away by the water even in flood.

{3.26.6} I record an event which I know to have taken place in my time on the coast of Leuktra. A fire carried by the wind into a wood destroyed most of the trees, and when the place showed bare, a statue of Zeus of Ithome was found to have been dedicated there. The Messenians say that this is evidence that Leuktra was formerly a part of Messenia. But it is possible, if the Lacedaemonians originally lived in Leuktra, that Zeus of Ithome might be worshipped among them.

{3.26.7} Cardamyle, which is mentioned by Homer in the Gifts promised by Agamemnon, [257] is subject to the Lacedaemonians of Sparta, having been separated from Messenia by the emperor Augustus. It is eight stadium-lengths from the sea and sixty from Leuktra. Here not far from the beach is a precinct sacred to the daughters of Nereus. They say that they came up from the sea to this spot to see Pyrrhos the son of Achilles, when he was going to Sparta to wed Hermione. In the town is a sanctuary of Athena, and an Apollo Karneios according to the local Dorian custom.

{3.26.8} A city, called in Homer’s poems Enope, [258] with Messenian inhabitants but belonging to the league of the Free Laconians, is called in our time Gerenia. One account states that Nestor was brought up in this city, another that he took refuge here, when Pylos was captured by Hēraklēs.

{3.26.9} Here in Gerenia is a tomb of Makhaon, son of Asklepios, and a holy sanctuary. In his temple men may find cures for diseases. They call the holy spot Rhodos; there is a standing bronze statue of Makhaon, with a garland on his head which the Messenians in the local speech call kiphos. The author of the epic The Little Iliad says that Machaon was killed by Eurypylus, son of Telephus.

{3.26.10} I myself know that to be the reason of the practice at the temple of Asklepios at Pergamon, where they begin their hymns with Telephus but make no reference to Eurypylus, or care to mention his name in the temple at all, as they know that he was the slayer of Makhaon. It is said that the bones of Makhaon were brought home by Nestor, but that Podaleirios, as they were returning after the sack of Troy, was carried out of his course and reached Syrnus on the Carian mainland in safety and settled there.

{3.26.11} In the territory of Gerenia is a mountain, Calathium; on it is a sanctuary of Claea with a cave close beside it; it has a narrow entrance, but contains objects which are worth seeing. Thirty stadium-lengths inland from Gerenia is Alagonia, a town which I have already mentioned in the list of the Free Laconians. Worth seeing here are temples of Dionysus and of Artemis.