PAUSANIAS 8. 36 - 54

DESCRIPTION OF GREECE 8. 36 - 54, TRANSLATED BY W. H. S. JONES

METHYDRIUM & MT THAUMASIUS

[8.36.1] XXXVI. From this point nothing remains to be recorded except Methydrium itself, which is distant from Tricoloni one hundred and thirty-seven stades. It received the name Methydrium (Between the Waters) because there is a high knoll between the river Maloetas and the Mylaon, and on it Orchomenus built his city. Methydrium too had citizens victorious at Olympia before it belonged to Megalopolis.

[8.36.2] There is in Methydrium a temple of Horse Poseidon, standing by the Mylaon. But Mount Thaumasius (Wonderful) lies beyond the river Maloetas, and the Methydrians hold that when Rhea was pregnant with Zeus, she came to this mountain and enlisted as her allies, in case Cronus should attack her, Hopladamus and his few giants:

[8.36.3] They allow that she gave birth to her son on some part of Mount Lycaeus, but they claim that here Cronus was deceived, and here took place the substitution of a stone for the child that is spoken of in the Greek legend. On the summit of the mountain is Rhea's Cave, into which no human beings may enter save only the women who are sacred to the goddess.

[8.36.4] About thirty stades from Methydrium is a spring Nymphasia, and it is also thirty stades from Nymphasia to the common boundaries of Megalopolis, Orchomenus and Caphyae.

MARSH GATE ROAD

[8.36.5] Passing through the gate at Megalopolis named the Gate to the Marsh, and proceeding by the side of the river Helisson towards Maenalus, there stands on the left of the road a temple of the Good God. If the gods are givers of good things to men, and if Zeus is supreme among gods, it would be consistent to infer that this surname is that of Zeus. A short distance farther on is a mound of earth which is the grave of Aristodemus, whom in spite of his being a tyrant they could not help calling the Good and there is also a sanctuary of Athena surnamed Contriver, because the goddess is the inventor of plans and devices of all sorts.

[8.36.6] On the right of the road there has been made a precinct to the North Wind, and the Megalopolitans offer sacrifices every year, holding none of the gods in greater honor than the North Wind, because he proved their saviour from the Lacedaemonians under Agis. Next is the tomb of Oicles, the father of Amphiaraus, if indeed he met his end in Arcadia, and not after he had joined Heracles in his campaign against Laomedon. After it comes a temple of Demeter styled in the Marsh and her grove, which is five stades away from the city, and women only may enter it.

MT MAENALUS & LYCOA

[8.36.7] Thirty stades away is a place named Paliscius. Going on from Paliscius and leaving on the left the Elaphus, an intermittent stream, after an advance of some twenty stades you reach ruins of Peraethenses, among which is a sanctuary of Pan. If you cross the torrent and go straight on for fifteen stades you come to a plain, and after crossing it to the mountain called, like the plain, Maenalian. Under the fringe of the mountain are traces of a city Lycoa, a sanctuary of Artemis Lycoan, and a bronze image of her.

[8.36.8] On the southern slope of the mountain once stood Sumetia. On this mountain is what is called the Meeting of the Three Ways, whence the Mantineans fetched the bones of Arcas, the son of Callisto, at the bidding of the Delphic oracle. There are still left ruins of Maenalus itself: traces of a temple of Athena, one race-course for athletes and one for horses. Mount Maenalus is held to be especially sacred to Pan, so that those who dwell around it say that they can actually hear him playing on his pipes.

ACACESIUM

[8.36.9] From the sanctuary of the Mistress to the city of Megalopolis it is forty stades. From Megalopolis to the stream of the Alpheius is half this distance. After crossing the river it is two stades from the Alpheius to the ruins of Macareae, from these to the ruins of Daseae seven stades, and seven again from Daseae to the hill called Acacesian Hill.

[8.36.10] At the foot of this hill used to be a city Acacesium, and even to-day there is on the hill a stone image of Acacesian Hermes, the story of the Arcadians about it being that here the child Hermes was reared, and that Acacus the son of Lycaon became his foster-father. The Theban legend is different, and the people of Tanagra, again, have a legend at variance with the Theban.

LYCOSURA & SANCTUARY OF DESPOENA

[8.37.1] XXXVII. From Acacesium it is four stades to the sanctuary of the Mistress. First in this place is a temple of Artemis Leader, with a bronze image, holding torches, which I conjecture to be about six feet high. From this place there is an entrance into the sacred enclosure of the Mistress. As you go to the temple there is a portico on the right, with reliefs of white marble on the wall. On the first relief are wrought Fates and Zeus surnamed Guide of Fate, and on the second Heracles wresting a tripod from Apollo. What I learned about the story of the two latter I will tell if I get as far as an account of Delphi in my history of Phocis.

[8.37.2] In the portico by the Mistress there is, between the reliefs I have mentioned, a tablet with descriptions⁵⁰ of the mysteries. On the third relief are nymphs and Pans; on the fourth is Polybius, the son of Lycortas. On the latter is also an inscription, declaring that Greece would never have fallen at all, if she had obeyed Polybius in everything, and when she met disaster her only help came from him. In front of the temple is an altar to Demeter and another to the Mistress, after which is one of the Great Mother.

[8.37.3] The actual images of the goddesses, Mistress and Demeter, the throne on which they sit, along with the footstool under their feet, are all made out of one piece of stone. No part of the drapery, and no part of the carvings about the throne, is fastened to another stone by iron or cement, but the whole is from one block. This stone was not brought in by them, but they say that in obedience to a dream they dug up the earth within the enclosure and so found it. The size of both images just about corresponds to the image of the Mother at Athens.

[8.37.4] These too are works of Damophon. Demeter carries a torch in her right hand; her other hand she has laid upon the Mistress. The Mistress has on her knees a staff and what is called the box, which she holds in her right hand. On both sides of the throne are images. By the side of Demeter stands Artemis wrapped in the skin of a deer, and carrying a quiver on her shoulders, while in one hand she holds a torch, in the other two serpents; by her side a bitch, of a breed suitable for hunting, is lying down.

[8.37.5] By the image of the Mistress stands Anytus, represented as a man in armour. Those about the sanctuary say that the Mistress was brought up by Anytus, who was one of the Titans, as they are called. The first to introduce Titans into poetry was Homer,⁵¹ representing them as gods down in what is called Tartarus; the lines are in the passage about Hera's oath. From Homer the name of the Titans was taken by Onomacritus, who in the orgies he composed for Dionysus made the Titans the authors of the god's sufferings.

[8.37.6] This is the story of Anytus told by the Arcadians. That Artemis was the daughter, not of Leto but of Demeter, which is the Egyptian account, the Greeks learned from Aeschylus the son of Euphorion. The story of the Curetes, who are represented under the images, and that of the Corybantes (a different race from the Curetes), carved in relief upon the base, I know, but pass them by.

[8.37.7] The Arcadians bring into the sanctuary the fruit of all cultivated trees except the pomegranate. On the right as you go out of the temple there is a mirror fitted into the wall. If anyone looks into this mirror, he will see himself very dimly indeed or not at all, but the actual images of the gods and the throne can be seen quite clearly.

[8.37.8] When you have gone up a little, beside the temple of the Mistress on the right is what is called the Hall, where the Arcadians celebrate mysteries, and sacrifice to the Mistress many victims in generous fashion. Every man of them sacrifices what he possesses. But he does not cut the throats of the victims, as is done in other sacrifices; each man chops off a limb of the sacrifice, just that which happens to come to hand.

[8.37.9] This Mistress the Arcadians worship more than any other god, declaring that she is a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Mistress is her surname among the many, just as they surname Demeter's daughter by Zeus the Maid. But whereas the real name of the Maid is Persephone, as Homer⁵² and Pamphos before him say in their poems, the real name of the Mistress I am afraid to write to the uninitiated.

[8.37.10] Beyond what is called the Hall is a grove, sacred to the Mistress and surrounded by a wall of stones, and within it are trees, including an olive and an evergreen oak growing out of one root, and that not the result of a clever piece of gardening. Beyond the grove are altars of Horse Poseidon, as being the father of the Mistress, and of other gods as well. On the last of them is an inscription saying that it is common to all the gods.

[8.37.11] Thence you will ascend by stairs to a sanctuary of Pan. Within the sanctuary has been made a portico, and a small image; and this Pan too, equally with the most powerful gods, can bring men's prayers to accomplishment and repay the wicked as they deserve. Beside this Pan a fire is kept burning which is never allowed to go out. It is said that in days of old this god also gave oracles, and that the nymph Erato became his prophetess, she who wedded Arcas, the son of Callisto.

[8.37.12] They also remember verses of Erato, which I too myself have read. Here is an altar of Ares, and there are two images of Aphrodite in a temple, one of white marble, and the other, the older, of wood. There are also wooden images of Apollo and of Athena. Of Athena a sanctuary also has been made.

[8.38.1] XXXVIII. A little farther up is the circuit of the wall of Lycosura, in which there are a few inhabitants. Of all the cities that earth has ever shown, whether on mainland or on islands, Lycosura is the oldest, and was the first that the sun beheld; from it the rest of mankind have learned how to make them cities.

MT LYCAEUS & THEISOA

[8.38.2] On the left of the sanctuary of the Mistress is Mount Lycaeus. Some Arcadians call it Olympus, and others Sacred Peak. On it, they say, Zeus was reared. There is a place on Mount Lycaeus called Cretea, on the left of the grove of Apollo surnamed Parrhasian. The Arcadians claim that the Crete, where the Cretan story has it that Zeus was reared, was this place and not the island.

[8.38.3] The nymphs, by whom they say that Zeus was reared, they call Theisoa, Neda and Hagno. After Theisoa was named a city in Parrhasia; Theisoa to-day is a village in the district of Megalopolis. From Neda the river Neda takes its name; from Hagno a spring on Mount Lycaeus, which like the Danube flows with an equal volume of water in winter just as in the season of summer.

[8.38.4] Should a drought persist for a long time, and the seeds in the earth and the trees wither, then the priest of Lycaean Zeus, after praying towards the water and making the usual sacrifices, lowers an oak branch to the surface of the spring, not letting it sink deep. When the water has been stirred up there rises a vapor, like mist; after a time the mist becomes cloud, gathers to itself other clouds, and makes rain fall on the land of the Arcadians.

[8.38.5] There is on Mount Lycaeus a sanctuary of Pan, and a grove of trees around it, with a race-course in front of which is a running-track. Of old they used to hold here the Lycaean games. Here there are also bases of statues, with now no statues on them. On one of the bases an elegiac inscription declares that the statue was a portrait of Astyanax, and that Astyanax was of the race of Arceas.

[8.38.6] Among the marvels of Mount Lycaeus the most wonderful is this. On it is a precinct of Lycaean Zeus, into which people are not allowed to enter. If anyone takes no notice of the rule and enters, he must inevitably live no longer than a year. A legend, moreover, was current that everything alike within the precinct, whether beast or man, cast no shadow. For this reason when a beast takes refuge in the precinct, the hunter will not rush in after it, but remains outside, and though he sees the beast can behold no shadow. In Syene also just on this side of Aethiopia neither tree nor creature casts a shadow so long as the sun is in the constellation of the Crab, but the precinct on Mount Lycaeus affects shadows in the same way always and at every season.

[8.38.7] On the highest point of the mountain is a mound of earth, forming an altar of Zeus Lycaeus, and from it most of the Peloponnesus can be seen. Before the altar on the east stand two pillars, on which there were of old gilded eagles. On this altar they sacrifice in secret to Lycaean Zeus. I was reluctant to pry into the details of the sacrifice; let them be as they are and were from the beginning.

[8.38.8] On the east side of the mountain there is a sanctuary of Apollo surnamed Parrhasian. They also give him the name Pythian. They hold every year a festival in honor of the god and sacrifice in the market-place a boar to Apollo Helper, and after the sacrifice here they at once carry the victim to the sanctuary of Parrhasian Apollo in procession to the music of the flute; cutting out the thigh-bones they burn them, and also consume the meat of the victim on the spot.

[8.38.9] This it is their custom to do. To the north of Mount Lycaeus is the Theisoan territory. The inhabitants of it worship most the nymph Theisoa. There flow through the land of Theisoa the following tributaries of the Alpheius, the Mylaon, Nus, Achelous, Celadus, and Naliphus. There are two other rivers of the same name as the Achelous in Arcadia, and more famous than it.

[8.38.10] One, falling into the sea by the Echinadian islands, flows through Acarnania and Aetolia, and is said by Homer in the Iliad⁵³ to be the prince of all rivers. Another Achelous, flowing from Mount Sipylus, along with the mountain also, he takes occasion to mention in connection with his account of Niobe.⁵⁴ The third river called the Achelous is the one by Mount Lycaeus.

NOMIAN MTS

[8.38.11] On the right of Lycosura are the mountains called Nomian, and on them is a sanctuary of Nomian Pan; the place they name Melpeia, saying that here Pan discovered the music of the pipes. It is a very obvious conjecture that the name of the Nomian Mountains is derived from the pasturings (nomai) of Pan, but the Arcadians themselves derive the name from a nymph.

PHIGALIA

[8.39.1] XXXIX. By Lycosura to the west passes the river Plataniston. No traveller can possibly avoid crossing the Plataniston who is going to Phigalia. Afterwards there is an ascent for some thirty stades or so.

[8.39.2] The story of Phigalus, the son of Lycaon, who was the original founder of the city, how in course of time the city made a change and called itself after Phialus, the son of Bucolion, and again restored its old name, I have already set forth.⁵⁵ Another account, but not worthy of credit, is current, that Phigalus was not a son of Lycaon but an aboriginal. Others have said that Phigalia was one of the nymphs called Dryads.

PHIGALIA (HISTORY)

[8.39.3] When the Lacedaemonians attacked the Arcadians and invaded Phigalia, they overcame the inhabitants in battle and sat down to besiege the city. When the walls were in danger of capture the Phigalians ran away, or perhaps the Lacedaemonians let them come out under a truce. The taking of Phigalia and the flight of the Phigalians from it took place when Miltiades was Archon at Athens, in the second year of the thirtieth Olympiad,⁵⁶ when Chionis the Laconian was victorious for the third time.

[8.39.4] The Phigalians who escaped resolved to go to Delphi and ask the god about their return. The Pythian priestess said that if they made the attempt by themselves she saw no return for them; but if they took with them one hundred picked men from Oresthasium, these would die in the battle, but through them the Phigalians would be restored to their city. When the Oresthasians heard of the oracle delivered to the Phigalians, all vied with one another in their eagerness to be one of the picked hundred and take part in the expedition to Phigalia.

[8.39.5] They advanced against the Lacedaemonian garrison and fulfilled the oracle in all respects. For they fought and met their end gloriously; expelling the Spartans they enabled the Phigalians to recover their native land.

Phigalia lies on high land that is for the most part precipitous, and the walls are built on the cliffs. But on the top the hill is level and flat. Here there is a sanctuary of Artemis Saviour with a standing image of stone. From this sanctuary it is their custom to start their processions.

[8.39.6] The image of Hermes in the gymnasium is like to one dressed in a cloak; but the statue does not end in feet, but in the square shape. A temple also of Dionysus is here, who by the inhabitants is surnamed Acratophorus, but the lower part of the image cannot be seen for laurel-leaves and ivy. As much of it as can be seen is painted . . . with cinnabar to shine. It is said to be found by the Iberians along with the gold.

[8.40.1] XL. The Phigalians have on their market-place a statue of the pancratiast Arrhachion; it is archaic, especially in its posture. The feet are close together, and the arms hang down by the side as far as the hips. The statue is made of stone, and it is said that an inscription was written upon it. This has disappeared with time,

ARRHACHION & CREUGAS (HISTORY)

but Arrhachion won two Olympic victories at Festivals before the fifty-fourth, while at this Festival⁵⁷ he won one due partly to the fairness of the Umpires and partly to his own manhood.

[8.40.2] For when he was contending for the wild olive with the last remaining competitor, whoever he was, the latter got a grip first, and held Arrhachion, hugging him with his legs, and at the same time he squeezed his neck with his hands. Arrhachion dislocated his opponent's toe, but expired owing to suffocation; but he who suffocated Arrhachion was forced to give in at the same time because of the pain in his toe. The Eleans crowned and proclaimed victor the corpse of Arrhachion.

[8.40.3] I know that the Argives acted similarly in the case of Creugas, a boxer of Epidamnus. For the Argives too gave to Creugas after his death the crown in the Nemean games, because his opponent Damoxenus of Syracuse broke their mutual agreement. For evening drew near as they were boxing, and they agreed within the hearing of witnesses, that each should in turn allow the other to deal him a blow. At that time boxers did not yet wear a sharp thong on the wrist of each hand, but still boxed with the soft gloves, binding them in the hollow of the hand, so that their fingers might be left bare. These soft gloves were thin thongs of raw ox-hide plaited together after an ancient manner.

[8.40.4] On the occasion to which I refer Creugas aimed his blow at the head of Damoxenus, and the latter bade Creugas lift up his arm. On his doing so, Damoxenus with straight fingers struck his opponent under the ribs; and what with the sharpness of his nails and the force of the blow he drove his hand into the other's inside, caught his bowels, and tore them as he pulled them out.

[8.40.5] Creugas expired on the spot, and the Argives expelled Damoxenus for breaking his agreement by dealing his opponent many blows instead of one. They gave the victory to the dead Creugas, and had a statue of him made in Argos. It still stood in my time in the sanctuary of Lycian Apollo.

[8.41.1] XLI. In the market-place of Phigalia there is also a common tomb of the picked men of Oresthasium, and every year they sacrifice to them as to heroes.

RIVERS NEDA & LYMAX

[8.41.2] A river called the Lymax flowing just beside Phigalia falls into the Neda, and the river, they say, got its name from the cleansing of Rhea. For when she had given birth to Zeus, the nymphs who cleansed her after her travail threw the refuse into this river. Now the ancients called refuse “lymata.” Homer,⁵⁸ for example, says that the Greeks were cleansed, after the pestilence was stayed, and threw the lymata into the sea.

[8.41.3] The source of the Neda is on Mount Cerausius, which is a part of Mount Lycaeus. At the place where the Neda approaches nearest to Phigalia the boys of the Phigalians cut off their hair in honor of the river. Near the sea the Neda is navigable for small ships. Of all known rivers the Maeander descends with the most winding course, which very often turns back and then bends round once more; but the second place for its twistings should be given to the Neda.

[8.41.4] Some twelve stades above Phigalia are hot baths, and not far from these the Lymax falls into the Neda. Where the streams meet is the sanctuary of Eurynome, a holy spot from of old and difficult of approach because of the roughness of the ground. Around it are many cypress trees, growing close together.

[8.41.5] Eurynome is believed by the people of Phigalia to be a surname of Artemis. Those of them, however, to whom have descended ancient traditions, declare that Eurynome was a daughter of Ocean, whom Homer mentions in the Iliad,⁵⁹ saying that along with Thetis she received Hephaestus. On the same day in each year they open the sanctuary of Eurynome, but at any other time it is a transgression for them to open it.

[8.41.6] On this occasion sacrifices also are offered by the state and by individuals. I did not arrive at the season of the festival, and I did not see the image of Eurynome; but the Phigalians told me that golden chains bind the wooden image, which represents a woman as far as the hips, but below this a fish. If she is a daughter of Ocean, and lives with Thetis in the depth of the sea, the fish may be regarded as a kind of emblem of her. But there could be no probable connection between such a shape and Artemis.

MT COTILIUS

[8.41.7] Phigalia is surrounded by mountains, on the left by the mountain called Cotilius, while on the right is another, Mount Elaius, which acts as a shield to the city. The distance from the city to Mount Cotilius is about forty stades. On the mountain is a place called Bassae, and the temple of Apollo the Helper, which, including the roof, is of stone.

[8.41.8] Of the temples in the Peloponnesus, this might be placed first after the one at Tegea for the beauty of its stone and for its symmetry. Apollo received his name from the help he gave in time of plague, just as the Athenians gave him the name of Averter of Evil for turning the plague away from them.

[8.41.9] It was at the time of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians that he also saved the Phigalians, and at no other time; the evidence is that of the two surnames of Apollo, which have practically the same meaning, and also the fact that Ictinus, the architect of the temple at Phigalia, was a contemporary of Pericles, and built for the Athenians what is called the Parthenon. My narrative has already said that the tile image of Apollo is in the market-place of Megalopolis.

[8.41.10] On Mount Cotilius is a spring of water, but the author who related that this spring is the source of the stream of the river Lymax neither saw it himself nor spoke to a man who had done so. But I did both. We saw the river actually flowing, and the water of the spring on Mount Cotilius running no long way, and within a short distance disappearing altogether. It did not, however, occur to me to take pains to discover where in Arcadia the source of the Lymax is. Beyond the sanctuary of Apollo the Helper is a place named Cotilum, and in Cotilum is an Aphrodite. She also has a temple, the roof of which is now gone, and an image of the goddess.

MT ELAIUS

[8.42.1] XLII. The second mountain, Mount Elaius, is some thirty stades away from Phigalia, and has a cave sacred to Demeter surnamed Black. The Phigalians accept the account of the people of Thelpusa about the mating of Poseidon and Demeter, but they assert that Demeter gave birth, not to a horse, but to the Mistress, as the Arcadians call her.

[8.42.2] Afterwards, they say, angry with Poseidon and grieved at the rape of Persephone, she put on black apparel and shut herself up in this cavern for a long time. But when all the fruits of the earth were perishing, and the human race dying yet more through famine, no god, it seemed, knew where Demeter was in hiding,

[8.42.3] until Pan, they say, visited Arcadia. Roaming from mountain to mountain as he hunted, he came at last to Mount Elaius and spied Demeter, the state she was in and the clothes she wore. So Zeus learnt this from Pan, and sent the Fates to Demeter, who listened to the Fates and laid aside her wrath, moderating her grief as well. For these reasons, the Phigalians say, they concluded that this cavern was sacred to Demeter and set up in it a wooden image.

[8.42.4] The image, they say, was made after this fashion. It was seated on a rock, like to a woman in all respects save the head. She had the head and hair of a horse, and there grew out of her head images of serpents and other beasts. Her tunic reached right to her feet; on one of her hands was a dolphin, on the other a dove. Now why they had the image made after this fashion is plain to any intelligent man who is learned in traditions. They say that they named her Black because the goddess had black apparel.

[8.42.5] They cannot relate either who made this wooden image or how it caught fire. But the old image was destroyed, and the Phigalians gave the goddess no fresh image, while they neglected for the most part her festivals and sacrifices, until the barrenness fell on the land. Then they went as suppliants to the Pythian priestess and received this response:–

[8.42.6] Azanian Arcadians, acorn-eaters, who dwell
In Phigaleia, the cave that hid Deo, who bare a horse,
You have come to learn a cure for grievous famine,
Who alone have twice been nomads, alone have twice lived on wild fruits.
It was Deo who made you cease from pasturing, Deo who made you pasture again
After being binders of corn and eaters⁶⁰ of cakes,
Because she was deprived of privileges and ancient honors given by men of former times.
And soon will she make you eat each other and feed on your children,
Unless you appease her anger with libations offered by all your people,
And adorn with divine honors the nook of the cave.

[8.42.7] When the Phigalians heard the oracle that was brought back, they held Demeter in greater honor than before, and particularly they persuaded Onatas of Aegina, son of Micon, to make them an image of Demeter at a price. The Pergamenes have a bronze Apollo made by this Onatas, a most wonderful marvel both for its size and workmanship. This man then, about two generations after the Persian invasion of Greece, made the Phigalians an image of bronze, guided partly by a picture or copy of the ancient wooden image which he discovered, but mostly (so goes the story) by a vision that he saw in dreams. As to the date, I have the following evidence to produce.

[8.42.8] At the time when Xerxes crossed over into Europe, Gelon the son of Deinomenes was despot of Syracuse and of the rest of Sicily besides. When Gelon died, the kingdom devolved on his brother Hieron. Hieron died before he could dedicate to Olympian Zeus the offerings he had vowed for his victories in the chariot-race, and so Deinomenes his son paid the debt for his father.

[8.42.9] These too are works of Onatas, and there are two inscriptions at Olympia. The one over the offering is this:–

Having won victories in thy grand games, Olympian Zeus,
Once with the four-horse chariot, twice with the race-horse,
Hieron bestowed on thee these gifts: his son dedicated them,
Deinomenes, as a memorial to his Syracusan father.

[10] The other inscription is:–

Onatas, son of Micon, fashioned me,
Who had his home in the island of Aegina.

Onatas was contemporary with Hegias of Athens and Ageladas of Argos.

[8.42.11] It was mainly to see this Demeter that I came to Phigalia. I offered no burnt sacrifice to the goddess, that being a custom of the natives. But the rule for sacrifice by private persons, and at the annual sacrifice by the community of Phigalia, is to offer grapes and other cultivated fruits, with honeycombs and raw wool still full of its grease. These they place on the altar built before the cave, afterwards pouring oil over them.

[8.42.12] They have a priestess who performs the rites, and with her is the youngest of their “sacrificers,” as they are called, who are citizens, three in number. There is a grove of oaks around the cave, and a cold spring rises from the earth. The image made by Onatas no longer existed in my time, and most of the Phigalians were ignorant that it had ever existed at all.

[8.42.13] The oldest, however, of the inhabitants I met said that three generations before his time some stones had fallen on the image out of the roof; these crushed the image, destroying it utterly. Indeed, in the roof I could still discern plainly where the stones had broken away.

PALLANTIUM (MYTHICAL HISTORY)

[8.43.1] XLIII. My story next requires me to describe whatever is notable at Pallantium, and the reason why the emperor Antoninus the first turned it from a village to a city, giving its inhabitants liberty and freedom from taxation.

[8.43.2] Well, the story is that the wisest man and the best soldier among the Arcadians was one Evander, whose mother was a nymph, a daughter of the Ladon, while his father was Hermes. Sent out to establish a colony at the head of a company of Arcadians from Pallantium, he founded a city on the banks of the river Tiber. That part of modern Rome, which once was the home of Evander and the Arcadians who accompanied him, got the name of Pallantium in memory of the city in Arcadia. Afterwards the name was changed by omitting the letters L and N.⁶¹ These are the reasons why the emperor bestowed boons upon Pallantium.

ANTONINUS OF ROME (HISTORY)

[8.43.3] Antoninus, the benefactor of PalIantium, never willingly involved the Romans in war; but when the Moors (who form the greatest part of the independent Libyans, being nomads, and more formidable enemies than even the Scythians in that they wandered, not on wagons, but on horseback with their womenfolk), when these, I say, began an unprovoked war, he drove them from all their country, forcing them to flee to the extreme parts of Libya, right up to Mount Atlas and to the people living on it.

[8.43.4] He also took away from the Brigantes in Britain the greater part of their territory, because they too had begun an unprovoked war on the province of Genunia, a Roman dependency. The cities of Lycia and of Caria, along with Cos and Rhodes, were overthrown by a violent earthquake that smote them. These cities also were restored by the emperor Antoninus, who was keenly anxious to rebuild them, and devoted vast sums to this task. As to his gifts of money to Greeks, and to such non-Greeks as needed it, and his buildings in Greece, Ionia, Carthage and Syria, others have written of them most exactly.

[8.43.5] But there is also another memorial of himself left by this emperor. There was a certain law whereby provincials who were themselves of Roman citizenship, while their children were considered of Greek nationality, were forced either to leave their property to strangers or let it increase the wealth of the emperor. Antoninus permitted all such to give to the children their heritage, choosing rather to show himself benevolent than to retain a law that swelled his riches. This emperor the Romans called Pius, because he showed himself to be a most religious man.

[8.43.6] In my opinion he might also be justly called by the same title as the elder Cyrus, who was styled Father of Men. He left to succeed him a son of the same name. This Antoninus the second brought retribution both on the Germans, the most numerous and warlike barbarians in Europe, and also on the Sarmatian nation, both of whom had been guilty of beginning a war of aggression.

HAEMONIAE & ORESTHASIUM

[8.44.1] XLIV. To complete my account of Arcadia I have only to describe the road from Megalopolis to Pallantium and Tegea, which also takes us as far as what is called the Dyke. On this road is a suburb named Ladoceia after Ladocus, the son of Echemus, and after it is the site of what was in old times the city of Haemoniae. Its founder was Haemon the son of Lycaon, and the name of the place has remained Haemoniae to this day.

[8.44.2] After Haemoniae on the right of the road are some noteworthy remains of the city of Oresthasium, especially the pillars of a sanctuary of Artemis, which still are there. The surname of Artemis is Priestess. On the straight road from Haemoniae is a place called Aphrodisium, and after it another, called Athenaeum. On the left of it is a temple of Athena with a stone image in it.

RIVER EUROTAS & MT BOREIUS

[8.44.3] About twenty stades away from Athenaeum are ruins of Asea, and the hill that once was the citadel has traces of fortifications to this day. Some five stades from Asea are the sources of the Alpheius and of the Eurotas, the former a little distance from the road, the latter just by the road itself. Near the source of the Alpheius is a temple of the Mother of the Gods without a roof, and two lions made of stone.

[8.44.4] The waters of the Eurotas mingle with the Alpheius, and the united streams flow on for some twenty stades. Then they fall into a chasm, and the Eurotas comes again to the surface in the Lacedaemonian territory, the Alpheius at Pegae (Sources) in the land of Megalopolis. From Asea is an ascent up Mount Boreius, and on the top of the mountain are traces of a sanctuary. It is said that the sanctuary was built in honor of Athena Saviour and Poseidon by Odysseus after his return from Troy.

PALLANTIUM

[8.44.5] What is called the Dyke is the boundary between Megalopolis on the one hand and Tegea and Pallantium on the other. The plain of Pallantium you reach by turning aside to the left from the Dyke. In Pallantium is a temple with two stone images, one of Pallas, the other of Evander. There is also a sanctuary of the Maid, the daughter of Demeter, and not far away is a statue of Polybius. The hill above the city was of old used as a citadel. On the crest of the hill there still remains a sanctuary of certain gods.

[8.44.6] Their surname is the Pure, and here it is customary to take the most solemn oaths. The names of the gods either they do not know, or knowing will not divulge; but it might be inferred that they were called Pure because Pallas did not sacrifice to them after the same fashion as his father sacrificed to Lycaean Zeus.

MT CRESIUS

[8.44.7] On the right of the so-called Dyke lies the Manthuric plain. The plain is on the borders of Tegea, stretching just about fifty stades to that city. On the right of the road is a small mountain called Mount Cresius, on which stands the sanctuary of Aphneius. For Ares, the Tegeans say, mated with Aerope, daughter of Cepheus, the son of Aleus.

[8.44.8] She died in giving birth to a child, who clung to his mother even when she was dead, and sucked great abundance of milk from her breasts. Now this took place by the will of Ares, and because of it they name the god Aphneius (Abundant); but the name given to the hill was, it is said, Aeropus. There is on the way to Tegea a fountain called Leuconian. They say that Apheidas was the father of Leucone, and not far from Tegea is her tomb.

TEGEA

[8.45.1] XLV. The Tegeans say that in the time of Tegeates, son of Lycaon, only the district got its name from him, and that the inhabitants dwelt in parishes, Gareatae, Phylacenses, Caryatae, Corythenses, Potachidae, Oeatae, Manthyrenses, Echeuethenses. But in the reign of Apheidas a ninth parish was added to them, namely Apheidantes. Of the modern city Aleus was founder.

[8.45.2] Besides the exploits shared by the Tegeans with the Arcadians, which include the Trojan war, the Persian wars and the battle at Dipaea with the Lacedaemonians, the Tegeans have, besides the deeds already mentioned, the following claims of their own to fame. Ancaeus, the son of Lycurgus, though wounded, stood up to the Calydonian boar, which Atalanta shot at, being the first to hit the beast. For this feat she received, as a prize for valor, the head and hide of the boar.

[8.45.3] When the Heracleidae returned to the Peloponnesus, Echemus, son of Aeropus, a Tegean, fought a duel with Hyllus, and overcame him in the fight. The Tegeans again were the first Arcadians to overcome Lacedaemonians; when invaded they defeated their enemies and took most of them prisoners.

[8.45.4] The ancient sanctuary of Athena Alea was made for the Tegeans by Aleus. Later on the Tegeans set up for the goddess a large temple, worth seeing. The sanctuary was utterly destroyed by a fire which suddenly broke out when Diophantus was archon at Athens, in the second year of the ninety-sixth Olympiad, at which Eupolemus of Elis won the foot-race.

[8.45.5] The modern temple is far superior to all other temples in the Peloponnesus on many grounds, especially for its size. Its first row of pillars is Doric, and the next to it Corinthian; also, outside the temple, stand pillars of the Ionic order. I discovered that its architect was Scopas the Parian, who made images in many places of ancient Greece, and some besides in Ionia and Caria.

[8.45.6] On the front gable is the hunting of the Calydonian boar. The boar stands right in the center. On one side are Atalanta, Meleager, Theseus, Telamon, Peleus, Polydeuces, Iolaus, the partner in most of the labours of Heracles, and also the sons of Thestius, the brothers of Althaea, Prothous and Cometes.

[8.45.7] On the other side of the boar is Epochus supporting Ancaeus who is now wounded and has dropped his axe; by his side is Castor, with Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, next to whom is Hippothous, the son of Cercyon, son of Agamedes, son of Stymphalus. The last figure is Peirithous. On the gable at the back is a representation of Telephus fighting Achilles on the plain of the Caicus.

[8.46.1] XLVI. The ancient image of Athena Alea, and with it the tusks of the Calydonian boar, were carried away by the Roman emperor Augustus after his defeat of Antonius and his allies, among whom were all the Arcadians except the Mantineans.

[8.46.2] It is clear that Augustus was not the first to carry away from the vanquished votive offerings and images of gods, but was only following an old precedent. For when Troy was taken and the Greeks were dividing up the spoils, Sthenelus the son of Capaneus was given the wooden image of Zeus Herceius (Of the Courtyard); and many years later, when Dorians were migrating to Sicily, Antiphemus the founder of Gela, after the sack of Omphace, a town of the Sicanians, removed to Gela an image made by Daedalus.

[8.46.3] Xerxes, too, the son of Dareius, the king of Persia, apart from the spoil he carried away from the city of Athens, took besides, as we know, from Brauron the image of Brauronian Artemis, and furthermore, accusing the Milesians of cowardice in a naval engagement against the Athenians in Greek waters, carried away from them the bronze Apollo at Branchidae. This it was to be the lot of Seleucus afterwards to restore to the Milesians, but the Argives down to the present still retain the images they took from Tiryns; one, a wooden image, is by the Hera, the other is kept in the sanctuary of Lycian Apollo.

[8.46.4] Again, the people of Cyzicus, compelling the people of Proconnesus by war to live at Cyzicus, took away from Proconnesus an image of Mother Dindymene. The image is of gold, and its face is made of hippopotamus teeth instead of ivory. So the emperor Augustus only followed a custom in vogue among the Greeks and barbarians from of old. The image of Athena Alea at Rome is as you enter the Forum made by Augustus.

[8.46.5] Here then it has been set up, made throughout of ivory, the work of Endoeus. Those in charge of the curiosities say that one of the boar's tusks has broken off; the remaining one is kept in the gardens of the emperor, in a sanctuary of Dionysus, and is about half a fathom long.

[8.47.1] XLVII. The present image at Tegea was brought from the parish of Manthurenses, and among them it had the surname of Hippia (Horse Goddess). According to their account, when the battle of the gods and giants took place the goddess drove the chariot and horses against Enceladus. Yet this goddess too has come to receive the name of Alea among the Greeks generally and the Peloponnesians themselves. On one side of the image of Athena stands Asclepius, on the other Health, works of Scopas of Paros in Pentelic marble.

[8.47.2] Of the votive offerings in the temple these are the most notable. There is the hide of the Calydonian boar, rotted by age and by now altogether without bristles. Hanging up are the fetters, except such as have been destroyed by rust, worn by the Lacedaemonian prisoners when they dug the plain of Tegea. There have been dedicated a sacred couch of Athena, a portrait painting of Auge, and the shield of Marpessa, surnamed Choera, a woman of Tegea;

[8.47.3] of Marpessa I shall make mention later.⁶² The priest of Athena is a boy; I do not know how long his priesthood lasts, but it must be before, and not after, puberty. The altar for the goddess was made, they say, by Melampus, the son of Amythaon. Represented on the altar are Rhea and the nymph Oenoe holding the baby Zeus. On either side are four figures: on one, Glauce, Neda, Theisoa and Anthracia; on the other Ide, Hagno, Alcinoe and Phrixa. There are also images of the Muses and of Memory.

[8.47.4] Not far from the temple is a stadium formed by a mound of earth, where they celebrate games, one festival called Aleaea after Athena, the other Halotia (Capture Festival) because they captured the greater part of the Lacedaemonians alive in the battle. To the north of the temple is a fountain, and at this fountain they say that Auge was outraged by Heracles, therein differing from the account of Auge in Hecataeus. Some three stades away from the fountain is a temple of Hermes Aepytus.

[8.47.5] There is at Tegea another sanctuary of Athena, namely of Athena Poliatis (Keeper of the City) into which a priest enters once in each year. This sanctuary they name Eryma (Defence) saying that Cepheus, the son of Aleus, received from Athena a boon, that Tegea should never be captured while time shall endure, adding that the goddess cut off some of the hair of Medusa and gave it to him as a guard to the city.

[8.47.6] Their story about Artemis, the same as is called Leader, is as follows. Aristomelidas, despot of Orchomenus in Arcadia, fell in love with a Tegean maiden, and, getting her somehow or other into his power, entrusted her to the keeping of Chronius. The girl, before she was delivered up to the despot, killed herself for fear and shame, and Artemis in a vision stirred up Chronius against Aristomelidas. He slew the despot, fled to Tegea, and made a sanctuary for Artemis.

[8.48.1] XLVIII. The market-place is in shape very like a brick, and in it is a temple of Aphrodite called “in brick,” with a stone image. There are two slabs; on one are represented in relief Antiphanes, Crisus, Tyronidas and Pyrrhias, who made laws for the Tegeans, and down to this day receive honors for it from them. On the other slab is represented Iasius, holding a horse, and carrying in his right hand a branch of palm. It is said that Iasius won a horse-race at Olympia, at the time when Heracles the Theban celebrated the Olympian festival.

[8.48.2] The reason why at Olympia the victor receives a crown of wild-olive I have already explained in my account of Elis⁶³; why at Delphi the crown is of bay I shall make plain later.⁶⁴ At the Isthmus the pine, and at Nemea celery became the prize to commemorate the sufferings of Palaemon and Archemorus. At most games, however, is given a crown of palm, and at all a palm is placed in the right hand of the victor.

[8.48.3] The origin of the custom is said to be that Theseus, on his return from Crete, held games in Delos in honor of Apollo, and crowned the victors with palm. Such, it is said, was the origin of the custom. The palm in Delos is mentioned by Homer in the passage⁶⁵ where Odysseus supplicates the daughter of Alcinous.

[8.48.4] There is also an image of Ares in the marketplace of Tegea. Carved in relief on a slab it is called Gynaecothoenas (He who entertains women). At the time of the Laconian war, when Charillus king of Lacedaemon made the first invasion, the women armed themselves and lay in ambush under the hill they call today Phylactris (Sentry Hill). When the armies met and the men on either side were performing many remarkable exploits,

[8.48.5] the women, they say, came on the scene and put the Lacedaemonians to flight. Marpessa, surnamed Choera, surpassed, they say, the other women in daring, while Charillus himself was one of the Spartan prisoners. The story goes on to say that he was set free without ransom, swore to the Tegeans that the Lacedaemonians would never again attack Tegea, and then broke his oath; that the women offered to Ares a sacrifice of victory on their own account without the men, and gave to the men no share in the meat of the victim. For this reason Ares got his surname.

[8.48.6] There is also an altar of Zeus Teleius (Full-grown), with a square image, a shape of which the Arcadians seem to me to be exceedingly fond. There are also here tombs of Tegeates, the son of Lycaon, and of Maera, the wife of Tegeates. They say that Maera was a daughter of Atlas, and Homer makes mention of her in the passage⁶⁶ where Odysseus tells to Alcinous his journey to Hades, and of those whose ghosts he beheld there.

[8.48.7] The Tegeans surname Eileithyia, a temple of whom, with art image, they have in their market-place, Auge on her knees, saying that Aleus handed over his daughter to Nauplius with the order to take and drown her in the sea. As she was being carried along, they say, she fell on her knees and so gave birth to her son, at the place where is the sanctuary of Eileithyia. This story is different from another, that Auge was brought to bed without her father's knowing it, and that Telephus was exposed on Mount Parthenius, the abandoned child being suckled by a deer. This account is equally current among the people of Tegea.

[8.48.8] Close to the sanctuary of Eileithyia is an altar of Earth, next to which is a slab of white marble. On this is carved Polybius, the son of Lycortas, while on another slab is Elatus, one of the sons of Arcas.

[8.49.1] XLIX. Not far from the market-place is a theater, and near it are pedestals of bronze statues, but the statues themselves no longer exist. On one pedestal is an elegiac inscription that the statue is that of Philopoemen.

PHILOPOEMEN OF TEGEA (HISTORY)

The memory of this Philopoemen is most carefully cherished by the Greeks, both for the wisdom he showed and for his many brave achievements.

[8.49.2] His father Craugis was as nobly born as any Arcadian of Megalopolis, but he died while Philopoemen was still a baby, and Cleander of Mantineia became his guardian. This man was an exile from Mantineia, resident in Megalopolis because of his misfortunes at home, and his house and that of Craugis had ties of guest-friendship. Among the teachers of Philopoemen, they say, were Megalophanes and Ecdelus, pupils, it is said, of Arcesilaus of Pitane.

[8.49.3] In size and strength of body no Peloponnesian was his superior, but he was ugly of countenance. He scorned training for the prizes of the games, but he worked the land he owned and did not neglect to clear it of wild beasts. They say that he read books of scholars of repute among the Greeks, stories of wars, and all that taught him anything of strategy. He wished to model his whole life on Epaminondas, his wisdom and his achievements, but could not rise to his height in every respect. For the temper of Epaminondas was calm and, in particular, free from anger, but the Arcadian was somewhat passionate.

[8.49.4] When Megalopolis was captured by Cleomenes, Philopoemen was not dismayed by the unexpected disaster, but led safely to Messene about two-thirds of the men of military age, along with the women and children, the Messenians being at that time friendly allies. To some of those who made good their escape Cleomenes offered terms, saying that he was beginning to repent his crime, and would treat with the Megalopolitans if they returned home; but Philopoemen induced the citizens at a meeting to win a return home by force of arms, and to refuse to negotiate or make a truce.

[8.49.5] When the battle had joined with the Lacedaemonians under Cleomenes at Sellasia,⁶⁷ in which Achaeans and Arcadians from all the cities took part, along with Antigonus at the head of a Macedonian army, Philopoemen served with the cavalry. But when he saw that the infantry would be the decisive factor in the engagement, he voluntarily fought on foot, showed conspicuous daring, and was pierced through both thighs by one of the enemy.

[8.49.6] Although so seriously impeded, he bent in his knees and forced himself forward, so that he actually broke the spear by the movement of his legs. After the defeat of the Lacedaemonians under Cleomenes, Philopoemen returned to the camp, where the surgeons pulled out from one thigh the spike, from the other the blade. When Antigonus learned of his valor and saw it, he was anxious to take Philepoemen to Macedonia.

[8.49.7] But Philopoemen was not likely to care much about Antigonus. Sailing across to Crete, where a civil war was raging, he put himself at the head of a band of mercenaries. Going back to Megalopolis, he was at once chosen by the Achaeans to command the cavalry, and he turned them into the finest cavalry in Greece. In the battle at the river Larisus between the Achaeans with their allies and the Eleans with the Aetolians,⁶⁸ who were helping the Eleans on grounds of kinship, Philopoemen first killed with his own hand Demophantus, the leader of the opposing cavalry, and then turned to flight all the mounted troops of Aetolia and Elis.

[8.50.1] L. As the Achaeans now turned their gaze on Philopoemen and placed in him all their hopes, he succeeded in changing the equipment of those serving in their infantry. They had been carrying short javelins and oblong shields after the fashion of the Celtic “door” or the Persian “wicker” ⁶⁹ Philopoemen, however, persuaded them to put on breast-plates and greaves, and also to use Argolic shields⁷⁰ and long spears.

[8.50.2] When Machanidas the upstart became despot of Lacedaemon, and war began once again between that city under Machanidas and the Achaeans, Philopoemen commanded the Achaean forces. A battle took place at Mantineia. The light troops of the Lacedaemonians overcame the light-armed of the Achaeans, and Machanidas pressed hard on the fugitives. Philopoemen, however, with the phalanx of infantry put to flight the Lacedaemonian men-at-arms, met Machanidas returning from the pursuit and killed him. The Lacedaemonians were unfortunate in the battle, but their good fortune more than compensated for their defeat, for they were delivered from their despot.

[8.50.3] Not long afterwards the Argives celebrated the Nemean games, and Philopoemen chanced to be present at the competition of the harpists. Pylades, a man of Megalopolis, the most famous harpist of his time, who had won a Pythian victory, was then singing the Persians, an ode of Timotheus the Milesian. When he had begun the song:

Who to Greece gives the great and glorious jewel of freedom, Timotheus, unknown location.

The audience of Greeks looked at Philopoemen and by their clapping signified that the song applied to him. I am told that a similar thing happened to Themistocles at Olympia, for the audience there rose to do him honor.

[8.50.4] But Philip, the son of Demetrius, king of Macedonia, who poisoned Aratus of Sicyon, sent men to Megalopolis with orders to murder Philopoemen. The attempt failed, and Philip incurred the hatred of all Greece. The Thebans had defeated the Megarians in battle, and were already climbing the wall of Megara, when the Megarians deceived them into thinking that Philopoemen had come to Megara. This made the Thebans so cautious that they went away home, and abandoned their military operation.

[8.50.5] In Lacedaemon another despot arose, Nabis, and the first of the Peloponnesians to be attacked by him were the Messenians. Coming upon them by night, when they by no means were expecting an assault, he took the city except the citadel; but when on the morrow Philopoemen arrived with an army, he evacuated Messene under a truce.

[8.50.6] When Philopoemen's term of office as general expired, and others were chosen to be generals of the Achaeans, he again crossed to Crete and sided with the Gortynians, who were hard pressed in war. The Arcadians were wroth with him for his absence; so he returned from Crete and found that the Romans had begun a war against Nabis.

[8.50.7] The Romans had equipped a fleet against Nabis, and Philopoemen was too enthusiastic to keep out of the quarrel. But being entirely ignorant of nautical affairs he unwittingly embarked on a leaky trireme, so that the Romans and their allies were reminded of the verses of Homer, where in the Catalogue⁷¹ he remarks on the ignorance of the Arcadians of nautical matters.

[8.50.8] A few days after the sea-fight, Philopoemen and his band, waiting for a moonless night, burnt down the camp of the Lacedaemonians at Gythium. Thereupon Nabis caught Philopoemen himself and the Arcadians with him in a disadvantageous position. The Arcadians, though few in number, were good soldiers,

[8.50.9] and Philopoemen, by changing the order of his line of retreat, caused the strongest positions to be to his advantage and not to that of his enemy. He overcame Nabis in the battle and massacred during the night many of the Lacedaemonians, so raising yet higher his reputation among the Greeks.

[8.50.10] After this Nabis secured from the Romans a truce for a fixed period, but died before this period came to an end, being assassinated by a man of Calydon, who pretended that he had come about an alliance,⁷² but was in reality an enemy who had been sent for this very purpose of assassination by the Aetolians.

[8.51.1] LI. At this time Philopoemen flung himself into Sparta and forced her to join the Achaean League. Shortly afterwards Titus, the Roman commander in Greece, and Diophanes, the son of Diaeus, a Megalopolitan who had been elected general of the Achaeans, attacked Lacedaemon, accusing the Lacedaemonians of rebellion against the Romans. But Philopoemen, though at the time holding no office, shut the gates against them.

[8.51.2] For this reason, and because of his courage shown against both the despots, the Lacedaemonians offered him the house⁷³ of Nabis, worth more than a hundred talents. But he scorned the wealth, and bade the Lacedaemonians court with gifts, not himself, but those who could persuade the many in the meeting of the Achaeans -- a suggestion, it is said, directed against Timolaus. He was again appointed general of the Achaeans.

[8.51.3] At this time the Lacedaemonians were involved in civil war, and Philopoemen expelled from the Peloponnesus three hundred who were chiefly responsible for the civil war, sold some three thousand Helots, razed the walls of Sparta, and forbade the youths to train in the manner laid down by the laws of Lycurgus, ordering them to follow the training of the Achaean youths. The Romans, in course of time,⁷⁴ were to restore to the Lacedaemonians the discipline of their native land.

[8.51.4] When the Romans under Manius defeated at Thermopylae Antiochus the descendant of Seleucus, named Nicator, and the Syrian army with him, Aristaenus of Megalopolis advised the Achaeans to approve the wishes of the Romans in all respects, and to oppose them in nothing. Philopoemen looked angrily at Aristaenus, and said that he was hastening on the doom of Greece. Manius wished the Lacedaemonian exiles to return, but Philopoemen opposed his plan, and only when Manius had gone away did he allow the exiles to be restored.

[8.51.5] But, nevertheless, Philopoemen too was to be punished for his pride. After being appointed commander of the Achaeans for the eighth time, he reproached a man of no little distinction for having been captured alive by the enemy. Now at this time the Achaeans had a grievance against the Messenians, and Philopoemen, despatching Lycortas with the army to lay waste the land of the Messenians, was very anxious two or three days later, in spite of his seventy years and a severe attack of fever, to take his share in the expedition of Lycortas. He led about sixty horsemen and targeteers.

[8.51.6] Lycortas, however, and his army were already on their way back to their country, having neither suffered great harm nor inflicted it on the Messenians. Philopoemen, wounded in the head during the battle, fell from his horse and was taken alive to Messene. A meeting of the assembly was immediately held, at which the most widely divergent opinions were expressed.

[8.51.7] Deinocrates, and all the Messenians whose wealth made them influential, urged that Philopoemen should be put to death; but the popular party were keen on saving his life, calling him Father, and more than Father,⁷⁵ of all the Greek people. But Deinocrates, after all, and in spite of Messenian opposition, was to bring about the death of Philopoemen, for he sent poison in to him.⁷⁶

[8.51.8] Shortly afterwards Lycortas gathered a force from Arcadia and Achaia and marched against Messene. The Messenian populace at once went over to the side of the Arcadians, and those responsible for the death of Philopoemen were caught and punished, all except Deinocrates, who perished by his own hand. The Arcadians also brought back to Megalopolis the bones of Philopoemen.

[8.52.1] LII. After this Greece ceased to bear good men. For Miltiades, the son of Cimon, overcame in battle the foreign invaders who had landed at Marathon, stayed the advance of the Persian army,⁷⁷ and so became the first benefactor of all Greece, just as Philopoemen, the son of Craugis, was the last. Those who before Miltiades accomplished brilliant deeds, Codrus, the son of Melanthus, Polydorus the Spartan, Aristomenes the Messenian, and all the rest, will be seen to have helped each his own country and not Greece as a whole.

[8.52.2] Later than Miltiades, Leonidas, the son of Anaxandrides, and Themistocles, the son of Neocles, repulsed Xerxes from Greece,⁷⁸ Themistocles by the two sea-fights, Leonidas by the action at Thermopylae. But Aristeides the son of Lysimachus, and Pausanias, the son of Cleombrotus,⁷⁹ commanders at Plataea, were debarred from being called benefactors of Greece, Pausanias by his subsequent sins, Aristeides by his imposition of tribute on the island Greeks; for before Aristeides all the Greeks were immune from tribute.

[8.52.3] Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron, with Leotychidaes the king of Sparta destroyed the Persian fleet at Mycale,⁸⁰ and with Cimon accomplished many enviable achievements on behalf of the Greeks. But those who took part in the Peloponnesian war against Athens, especially the most distinguished of them, might be said to be murderers, almost wreckers, of Greece.

[8.52.4] When the Greek nation was reduced to a miserable condition, it recovered under the efforts of Conon,⁸¹ the son of Timotheus, and of Epaminondas, the son of Polymnis, who drove out the Lacedaemonian garrisons and governors, and put down the boards of ten,⁸² Conon from the islands and coasts, Epaminondas from the cities of the interior. By founding cities too, of no small fame, Messene and Arcadian Megalopolis, Epaminondas made Greece more famous.

[8.52.5] I reckon Leosthenes also and Aratus benefactors of all the Greeks. Leosthenes, in spite of Alexander's opposition, brought back safe by sea to Greece the force of Greek mercenaries in Persia, about fifty thousand in number, who had descended to the coast. As for Aratus, I have related his exploits in my history of Sicyon.⁸³

[8.52.6] The inscription on the statue of Philopoemen at Tegea runs thus:--

The valor and glory of this man are famed throughout Greece, who worked
Many achievements by might and many by his counsels,
Philopoemen, the Arcadian spearman, whom great renown attended,
When he commanded the lances in war.
Witness are two trophies, won from the despots
Of Sparta; the swelling flood of slavery he stayed.
Wherefore did Tegea set up in stone the great-hearted son of Craugis,
Author of blameless freedom.

[8.53.1] LIII. Such is the inscription at Tegea on Philopoemen. The images of Apollo, Lord of Streets, the Tegeans say they set up for the following reason. Apollo and Artemis, they say, throughout every land visited with punishment all the men of that time who, when Leto was with child and in the course of her wanderings, took no heed of her when she came to their land.

[8.53.2] So when the divinities came to the land of Tegea, Scephrus, they say, the son of Tegeates, came to Apollo and had a private conversation with him. And Leimon, who also was a son of Tegeates, suspecting that the conversation of Scephrus contained a charge against him, rushed on his brother and killed him.

[8.53.3] Immediate punishment for the murder overtook Leimon, for he was shot by Artemis. At the time Tegeates and Maera sacrificed to Apollo and Artemis, but afterwards a severe famine fell on the land, and an oracle of Delphi ordered a mourning for Scephrus. At the feast of the Lord of Streets rites are performed in honor of Scephrus, and in particular the priestess of Artemis pursues a man, pretending she is Artemis herself pursuing Leimon.

[8.53.4] It is also said that all the surviving sons of Tegeates, namely, Cydon, Archedius and Gortys, migrated of their own free will to Crete, and that after them were named the cities Cydonia, Gortyna and Catreus. The Cretans dissent from the account of the Tegeans, saying that Cydon was a son of Hermes and of Acacallis, daughter of Minos, that Catreus was a son of Minos, and Gortys a son of Rhadamanthys.

[8.53.5] As to Rhadamanthys himself, Homer says, in the talk of Proteus with Menelaus,⁸⁴ that Menelaus would go to the Elysian plain, but that Rhadamanthys was already arrived there. Cinaethon too in his poem represents Rhadamanthys as the son of Hephaestus, Hephaestus as a son of Talos, and Talos as a son of Cres. The legends of Greece generally have different forms, and this is particularly true of genealogy.

[8.53.6] At Tegea the images of the Lord of Streets are four in number, one set up by each of the tribes. The names given to the tribes are Clareotis, Hippothoetis, Apolloniatis, and Athaneatis; they are called after the lots cast by Arcas to divide the land among his sons, and after Hippothous, the son of Cercyon.

[8.53.7] There is also at Tegea a temple of Demeter and the Maid, whom they surname the Fruit-bringers, and hard by is one of Aphrodite called Paphian. The latter was built by Laodice, who was descended, as I have already said,⁸⁵ from Agapenor, who led the Arcadians to Troy, and it was in Paphos that she dwelt. Not far from it are two sanctuaries of Dionysus, an altar of the Maid, and a temple of Apollo with a gilded image.

[8.53.8] The artist was Cheirisophus; he was a Cretan by race, but his date and teacher we do not know. The residence of Daedalus with Minos at Cnossus secured for the Cretans a reputation for the making of wooden images also, which lasted for a long period. By the Apollo stands Cheirisophus in stone.

[8.53.9] The Tegeans also have what they call a Common Hearth of the Arcadians. Here there is an image of Heracles, and on his thigh is represented a wound received in the first fight with the sons of Hippocoon. The lofty place, on which are most of the altars of the Tegeans, is called the place of Zeus Clarius (Of Lots), and it is plain that the god got his surname from the lots cast for the sons of Arcas. Here the Tegeans celebrate a feast every year.

[8.53.10] It is said that once at the time of the feast they were invaded by the Lacedaemonians. As it was snowing, these were chilled, and thus distressed by their armour, but the Tegeans, without their enemies knowing it, lighted a fire. So untroubled by the cold they donned, they say, their armour, went out against the Lacedaemonians, and had the better of the engagement. I also saw in Tegea:– the house of Aleus, the tomb of Echemus, and the fight between Echemus and Hyllus carved in relief upon a slab.

ROAD TO LACONIA

[8.53.11] On the left of the road as you go from Tegea to Laconia there is an altar of Pan, and likewise one of Lycaean Zeus. The foundations, too, of sanctuaries are still there. These altars are two stades from the wall; and about seven stades farther on is a sanctuary of Artemis, surnamed Lady of the Lake, with an image of ebony. The fashion of the workmanship is what the Greeks call Aeginetan. Some ten stades farther on are the ruins of a temple of Artemis Cnaceatis.

RIVER ALPHEIUS

[8.54.1] LIV. The boundary between the territories of Lacedaemon and Tegea is the river Alpheius. Its water begins in Phylace, and not far from its source there flows down into it another water from springs that are not large, but many in number, whence the place has received the name Symbola (Meetings).

[8.54.2] It is known that the Alpheius differs from other rivers in exhibiting this natural peculiarity; it often disappears beneath the earth to reappear again. So flowing on from Phylace and the place called Symbola it sinks into the Tegean plain; rising at Asea, and mingling its stream with the Eurotas, it sinks again into the earth.

[8.54.3] Coming up at the place called by the Arcadians Pegae (Springs), and flowing past the land of Pisa and past Olympia, it falls into the sea above Cyllene, the port of Elis. Not even the Adriatic could check its flowing onwards, but passing through it, so large and stormy a sea, it shows in Ortygia, before Syracuse, that it is the Alpheius, and unites its water with Arethusa.

RIVER GARATES

[8.54.4] The straight road from Tegea to Thyrea and to the villages its territory contains can show a notable sight in the tomb of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon; from here, say the Tegeans, a Spartan stole his bones. In our time the grave is no longer within the gates. By the road flows also the river Garates. Crossing the Garates and advancing ten stades you come to a sanctuary of Pan, by which is an oak, like the sanctuary sacred to Pan.

ROAD TO ARGOS

[8.54.5] The road from Tegea to Argos is very well suited for carriages, in fact a first-rate highway. On the road come first a temple and image of Asclepius. Next, turning aside to the left for about a stade, you see a dilapidated sanctuary of Apollo surnamed Pythian which is utterly in ruins. Along the straight road there are many oaks, and in the grove of oaks is a temple of Demeter called “in Corythenses.” Hard by is another sanctuary, that of Mystic Dionysus.

MT PARTHENIUS

[8.54.6] At this point begins Mount Parthenius. On it is shown a sacred enclosure of Telephus, where it is said that he was exposed when a child and was suckled by a deer. A little farther on is a sanctuary of Pan, where Athenians and Tegeans agree that he appeared to Philippides and conversed with him.

[8.54.7] Mount Parthenius rears also tortoises most suitable for the making of harps; but the men on the mountain are always afraid to capture them, and will not allow strangers to do so either, thinking them to be sacred to Pan. Crossing the peak of the mountain you are within the cultivated area, and reach the boundary between Tegea and Argos; it is near Hysiae in Argolis.

These are the divisions of the Peloponnesus, the cities in the divisions, and the most noteworthy things in each city.

50. Either in writing or in pictures -- probably the former. See Frazer's note.
51. See Hom. Il. 14.279.
52. See Hom. Od. 10.491, and Hom. Il. 9.457, Hom. Il. 9.569.
53. See Hom. Il. 21.194.
54. Hom. Il. 24.615.
55. Paus. 8.3.1
56. 659 B.C
57. 564 B.C
58. Hom. Il. 1.314
59. Hom. Il. 18.398
60. With the reading anastophagous “made you pasture again, and to be non-eaters of cakes, after being binders of corn.”

61. That is, Pallantium became Palatium.
62. See Paus. 8.48.5.
63. See Paus. 5.7.7.
64. See Paus. 10.7.8.
65. Hom. Od. 6.163
66. Hom. Od. 11.326
67. 222 B.C
68. 220-217 B.C
69. The thureos was so named from being shaped like a door, and the gerron was an oblong wicker shield covered with hide.
70. The aspis was round in shape.

71. Hom. Il. 2.614
72. 192 B.C
73. The word oikosincludes more than the buildings -- slaves, implements, etc.
74. 188 B.C
75. With the reading of Madvig, “pitying him, and calling him Father of all the Greek people.”
76. 183 B.C
77. 490 B.C
78. 480 B.C
79. 479 B.C
80. 479 B.C

81. 394 B.C
82. 370-369 B.C
83. See Paus. 2.8.1.
84. Hom. Od. 4.564
85. See Paus. 8.5.3.