BOHN’S CLASSICAL LIBRARY.

Now the country between Elis and Sicyonia which borders on the Corinthian Gulf is called in our day Achaia from its inhabitants, but in ancient times was called Ægialus and its inhabitants Ægialians, according to the tradition of the Sicyonians from Ægialeus, who was king of what is now Sicyonia, others say from the position of the country which is mostly on the sea-shore.[1] After the death of Hellen his sons chased their brother Xuthus out of Thessaly, accusing him of having privately helped himself to their father’s money. And he fled to Athens, and was thought worthy to marry the daughter of Erechtheus, and he had by her two sons Achæus and Ion. After the death of Erechtheus he was chosen to decide which of his sons should be king, and, because he decided in favour of Cecrops the eldest, the other sons of Erechtheus drove him out of the country: and he went to Ægialus and there lived and died. And of his sons Achæus took an army from Ægialus and Athens and returned to Thessaly, and took possession of the throne of his ancestors, and Ion, while gathering together an army against the Ægialians and their king Selinus, received messengers from Selinus offering him his only child Helice in marriage, and adopting him as his son and heir. And Ion was very well contented with this, and after the death of Selinus reigned over the Ægialians, and built Helice which he called after the name of his wife, and [Pg 2] called the inhabitants of Ægialus Ionians after him. This was not a change of name but an addition, for they were called the Ionian Ægialians. And the old name Ægialus long prevailed as the name of the country. And so Homer in his catalogue of the forces of Agamemnon was pleased to call the country by its old name,

And at that period of the reign of Ion when the Eleusinians were at war with the Athenians, and the Athenians invited Ion to be Commander in Chief, death seized him in Attica, and he was buried at Potamos, a village in Attica. And his descendants reigned after him till they and their people were dispossessed by the Achæans, who in their turn were driven out by the Dorians from Lacedæmon and Argos. The mutual feuds between the Ionians and Achæans I shall relate when I have first given the reason why, before the return of the Dorians, the inhabitants of Lacedæmon and Argos only of all the Peloponnese were called Achæans. Archander and Architeles, the sons of Achæus, came to Argos from Phthiotis and became the sons in law of Danaus, Architeles marrying Automate, and Archander Scæa. And that they were sojourners in Argos is shewn very clearly by the name Metanastes (stranger) which Archander gave his son. And it was when the sons of Achæus got powerful in Argos and Lacedæmon that the name Achæan got attached to the whole population. Their general name was Achæans, though the Argives were privately called Danai. And now when they were expelled from Argos and Lacedæmon by the Dorians, they and their king Tisamenus the son of Orestes made the Ionians proposals to become their colonists without war. But the Ionian Court was afraid that, if they and the Achæans were one people, Tisamenus would be chosen as king over both nations for his bravery and the lustre of his race. So the Ionians did not accept the proposals of the Achæans but went to blows over it, and Tisamenus fell in the battle, and the Achæans beat the Ionians, and besieged them in Helice to which they had fled, but afterwards let them go upon conditions. And the Achæans buried the body of Tisamenus at Helice, but some[Pg 3] time afterwards the Lacedæmonians, in accordance with an oracle from Delphi, removed the remains to Sparta, and the tomb of Tisamenus is now where the Lacedæmonians have their banquetings, at the place called Phiditia. And when the Ionians migrated to Attica the Athenians and their king, Melanthus the son of Andropompus, welcomed them as settlers, in gratitude to Ion and his services to the Athenians as Commander in Chief. But there is a tradition that the Athenians suspected the Dorians, and feared that they would not keep their hands off them, and received the Ionians therefore as settlers rather from their formidable strength than from goodwill to them.

And not many years afterwards Medon and Nileus, the eldest sons of Codrus, quarrelled as to who should be king over the Athenians, and Nileus said he would not submit to the rule of Medon, because Medon was lame in one of his feet. But as they decided to submit the matter to the oracle at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess assigned the kingdom to Medon. So Nileus and the other sons of Codrus were sent on a colony, and took with them whatever Athenians wished, and the Ionians formed the largest part of the contingent. This was the third expedition that had started from Greece under different kings and with different peoples. The oldest expedition was that of Iolaus the Theban, the nephew of Hercules, who led the Athenians and people of Thespiæ to Sardinia. And, one generation before the Ionians sailed from Athens, the Lacedæmonians and Minyæ who had been expelled by the Pelasgi from Lemnos were led by Theras the Theban, the son of Autesion, to the island henceforward called Theras after him, but formerly called Calliste. And now thirdly the sons of Codrus were put at the head of the Ionians, though they had no connection with them by race, being as they were Messenians from Pylos as far as Codrus and Melanthus were concerned, and Athenians only on their mother’s side. And the following Greeks took part in this expedition of the Ionians, the Thebans under Philotas, who was a descendant of Peneleus,[Pg 4] and the Minyæ from Orchomenus, who were kinsmen of the sons of Codrus. All the Phocians also took part in it (except the people of Delphi), and the Abantes from Eubœa. And to the Phocians the Athenians Philogenes and Damon, the sons of Euctemon, gave ships to sail in, and themselves led them to the colony. And when they had crossed over to Asia Minor, different detachments went to different maritime towns, but Nileus and his contingent to Miletus. The Milesians give the following account of their early history. They say their country was for two generations called Anactoria, during the reigns of Anax the Autochthon and Asterius his son, and that, when Miletus put in there with an expedition of Cretans, then the town and country changed its name to Miletus from him. And Miletus and the force with him came from Crete fleeing from Minos the son of Europa. And the Carians, who had settled earlier in the neighbourhood of Miletus, admitted the Cretans to a joint share with them. But now when the Ionians conquered the old inhabitants of Miletus, they slew all the males except those that ran away from the captured city, and married their wives and daughters. And the tomb of Nileus is as you approach Didymi, not far from the gates on the left of the road. And the temple and oracle of Apollo at Didymi are of earlier date than the migration of the Ionians: as also is the worship of the Ephesian Artemis. Not that Pindar in my opinion understood all about the goddess, for he says that the Amazons who fought against Theseus and Athens built the temple to her. Those women from Thermodon did indeed sacrifice to the Ephesian Artemis, as having known her temple of old, when they fled from Hercules and earlier still from Dionysus, and sought refuge there: it was not however built by them, but by Coresus, an Autochthon, and by Ephesus (who was they think the son of the river Cayster, and gave his name to the city of Ephesus). And the Leleges (who form part of Caria) and most of the Lydians inhabited the district. And several people lived near the temple for the purpose of supplication, and some women of the Amazonian race. And Androclus the son of Codrus, who was appointed king of the Ionians that sailed to Ephesus, drove the Leleges and Lydians who dwelt in the upper part of the city out of the district; but of those who[Pg 5] lived near the temple no apprehensions were entertained, but they mutually gave and received pledges with the Ionians without any hostilities. Androclus also took Samos from the Samians, and for some time the Ephesians were masters of Samos and the adjacent islands. And after the Samians returned to their own possessions, Androclus assisted the people of Priene against the Carians and, though the Greeks were victorious, fell in the battle. And the Ephesians took up his corpse, and buried it in their own country where the tomb is shewn to this day, on the way from the temple by the Olympiæum to the Magnesian gates. The device on the tomb is a man in full armour.

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

The Colophonians also regard the temple and oracle of Apollo at Claros as most ancient, for, while the Carians were still in possession of the country, they say that the first Greeks who came there were Cretans, a large force powerful both by land and sea under Rhacius, and the Carians remained still in possession of most of the country. But[Pg 6] when the Argives and Thersander the son of Polynices took Thebes, several captives, and among others Manto were taken to Apollo at Delphi, but Tiresias died on the road not far from Haliartus.[3] And when the god sent them to form a colony they crossed over into Asia Minor, and when they got to Claros the Cretans attacked them and took them before Rhacius. And he, understanding from Manto who they were and their errand, married Manto and made her companions fellow-settlers with him. And Mopsus, the son of Rhacius and Manto, drove out all the Carians altogether. And the Ionians on mutual conditions became fellow-citizens upon equal terms with the Colophonian Greeks. And the kingdom over the Ionians was usurped by their leaders Damasichthon and Promethus the sons of Codrus. And Promethus afterwards slew his brother Damasichthon and fled to Naxos, and died there, and his body was taken home and buried by the sons of Damasichthon: his tomb is at a place called Polytichides. And how Colophon came to be dispeopled I have previously described in my account about Lysimachus: its inhabitants were the only colonists at Ephesus that fought against Lysimachus and the Macedonians. And the tombs of those from Colophon and Smyrna that fell in the battle are on the left of the road to Claros.

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

And Teos was colonized by the Minyæ from Orchomenus, who came with Athamas; he is said to have been a descendant of Athamas the son of Æolus. Here too the Carians were mixed up with the Greeks. And the Ionians were conducted to Teos by Apœcus, the great-great-grandson of Melanthus, who did no harm to either the Orchomenians or Teians. And not many years afterwards came men from Attica and Bœotia, the former under Damasus [Pg 7] and Naoclus the sons of Codrus, the latter under the Bœotian Geres, and both these new-comers were hospitably received by Apœcus and the people of Teos.

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

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

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

The temple of Hera in Samos was according to the tradition of some built by the Argonauts, who brought the statue of the goddess from Argos. But the Samians themselves think that the goddess was born in their island on the banks of the river Imbrasus, and under the willow-tree that still grows in the temple of Hera. That this temple could not have been very ancient one naturally infers from the statue, which is by the Æginetan Smilis, the son of Euclides, who was a contemporary of Dædalus, [Pg 9] but has not acquired equal renown. For Dædalus, an Athenian of the royal stock called Metionidæ, was most remarkable of all men for his art and misfortunes. For having killed his sister’s son, and knowing the vengeance that awaited him in his country, he became a voluntary exile and fled to Minos and Crete, and made works of art for Minos and his daughters, as Homer has described in the Iliad. But being condemned for treason against Minos, and thrown into prison with his son, he escaped from Crete and went to Inycus, a city of Sicily, to the court of Cocalus, and caused a war between the Sicilians and Cretans, because Cocalus would not give him up at the request of Minos. And so much beloved was he by the daughters of Cocalus for his art, that these ladies entered into a plot against the life of Minos out of favour to Dædalus. And it is plain that his fame extended over all Sicily, and most of Italy. While Smilis, except among the Samians and at Elea, had no fame whatever out of his own country; but he went to Samos, and there he made the statue of Hera.

About Chios Ion the Tragedian has recorded that Poseidon went to that island when it was unoccupied, and had an intrigue there with a Nymph, and when she was in labour some snow fell, and so Poseidon called the boy Chios.[4] By another Nymph he had Agelus and Melas. And in process of time Œnopion sailed to Chios from Crete with his sons Talus and Euanthes and Melas and Salagus and Athamas. And during the reign of Œnopion some Carians came to the island, and the Abantes from Eubœa. And Œnopion and his sons were succeeded by Amphiclus, who came to Chios from Histiæa in Eubœa in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. And Hector the fourth in descent from Amphiclus, (for he too was king of Chios), fought against the Abantes and Carians that were still in the island, and slew some in various battles, and compelled others to leave the island upon conditions of war. And after the Chians had finished the war, then Hector bethought him that he and the Ionians ought to jointly sacrifice to the welfare of the Pan-Ionic league. And Ion says he [Pg 10] received the present of a tripod from the community of the Ionians for his prowess. But Ion has not told us how it was the Chians got ranked as Ionians.

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

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

The Ionians have a most magnificent country for the fruits of the earth, and temples such as there are nowhere else, the finest that of Ephesian Artemis for size and opulence, and next two to Apollo not quite finished, one at Branchidæ in Milesia, the other at Claros in Colophonia. Two temples in Ionia were burnt down by the Persians, one of Hera in Samos, and one of Athene in Phocæa. They are still wonderful though the fire has passed upon them. And you would be delighted with the temple of Hercules at Erythræ, and with the temple of Athene at Priene, the latter for the statue of the goddess, the former for its great[Pg 11] antiquity. And at Erythræ is a work of art unlike the most ancient of Æginetan or Attic workmanship: its design is perfect Egyptian. It is the wooden raft on which the god sailed from Tyre in Phœnicia, why the people of Erythræ do not say. But to prove that it came into the Ionian sea they say it was moored at the promontory called Mid, which is on the mainland about half-way from the harbour of Erythræ to the island of Chios. And when this raft was at the promontory, the people of Erythræ and the Chians too had no small trouble in trying to get it on shore. At last a native of Erythræ, who got his living from the sea by catching fish, but had lost his eyesight through some disease, Phormio by name, dreamed that the women of Erythræ were to cut off their hair, and that the men making a rope out of this hair were to drag the raft ashore. The women who were citizens wouldn’t hear of it: but all the women who were slaves of Thracian race, or who being free had yet to earn their own living, allowed their hair to be cut off, and so at last the people of Erythræ got the raft to shore. So Thracian women alone are allowed to enter the temple of Hercules, and the rope made of hair is still kept by the people of Erythræ. They also say that the fisherman recovered his sight, and saw for the rest of his life. At Erythræ there is also a temple of Athene Polias, and a huge wooden statue of the goddess seated on a throne, in one hand a distaff in the other a globe. We conjecture it to be by Endœus from several circumstances, especially looking at the workmanship of the statue inside, and the Graces and Seasons in white marble, which used to stand in the open air. The people of Smyrna also had in my time a temple of Æsculapius between the mountain Coryphe and the sea which is unmixed with any other water.

Ionia besides the temples and the salubrity of the air has several other things worthy of record. Near Ephesus is the river Cenchrius, and the fertile Mount Pion, and the well Halitæa. And in Milesia is the well Biblis: of the love passages of Biblis they still sing. And in Colophonia is the grove of Apollo, consisting of ash trees, and not far from the grove the river Ales, the coldest river in Ionia. And the people of Lebedus have baths which are both [Pg 12] wonderful and useful to men. The people of Teos also have baths at the promontory Macria, some natural consisting of sea-water that bursts in at a crevice of the rock, others built at wonderful cost. The people of Clazomenæ also have baths. Agamemnon is honoured there. And there is a grotto called the grotto of Pyrrhus’ mother, and they have a tradition about Pyrrhus as a shepherd. The people of Erythræ have also a place called Chalcis, from which the third of their tribes takes its name, where there is a promontory extending to the sea, and some sea baths, which of all the baths in Ionia are most beneficial to men. And the people of Smyrna have the most beautiful river Meles and a cave near its springs, where they say Homer wrote his Poems. The Chians also have a notable sight in the tomb of Œnopion, about whose deeds they have several legends. The Samians too on the way to the temple of Hera have the tomb of Rhadine and Leontichus, which those are accustomed to visit who are melancholy through love. The wonderful things indeed in Ionia are not far short of those in Greece altogether.

After the departure of the Ionians the Achæans divided their land and lived in their towns, which were 12 in number, and well known throughout Greece. Dyme first near Elis, and then Olenus, and Pharæ, and Tritea, and Rhypes, and Ægium, and Cerynea, and Bura, and Helice, and Ægæ and Ægira, and last Pellene near Sicyonia. In these towns, which had formerly been inhabited by the Ionians, the Achæans and their kings dwelt. And those who had the greatest power among the Achæans were the sons of Tisamenus, Däimenes and Sparton and Tellis and Leontomenes. Cometes, the eldest of Tisamenus’ sons, had previously crossed over into Asia Minor. These ruled over the Achæans as also Damasias (the son of Penthilus, the son of Orestes), the brother of Tisamenus. Equal authority to them had Preugenes and his son Patreus from Lacedæmon;[Pg 13] who were allowed by the Achæans to build a city in their territory, which was called Patræ after Patreus.

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

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

The Achæans were most powerful in the days when the Greeks were not banded together, but each looked after their own personal interests. For none of their towns except Pellene had any experience of tyrants at any time. And misfortunes from wars and the plague did not so much touch the Achæans as all the other Greeks. Accordingly what is called the Achæan League was by common consent the design and act of the Achæans. And this League was formed at Ægium because, next to Helice which had been swept away by a flood, it had been the foremost town in Achaia in former times, and was at this time the most powerful. And of the other Greeks the Sicyonians first joined this Achæan League. And next to the Sicyonians some of the other Peloponnesians joined it, some immediately, some rather later: and outside the Isthmus what brought people in was seeing that the Achæan League was becoming more and more powerful. And the Lacedæmonians were the only Greeks that were unfriendly to the Achæans and openly took up arms against them. For Pellene an Achæan town was taken by Agis, the son of Eudamidas, King of Sparta, though he was soon driven out again by Aratus and the Sicyonians. And Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas[Pg 15] and grandson of Cleonymus, a king of the other family, when Aratus and the Achæans were gathered together at Dyme against him routed them badly in battle, though he afterwards concluded peace with the Achæans and Antigonus. Antigonus was at this time ruler of the Macedonians, being Regent for Philip, the son of Demetrius, who was quite a boy; he was Philip’s uncle and also stepfather. With him and the Achæans Cleomenes made peace, but soon violated his engagements, and reduced to slavery Megalopolis in Arcadia. And the reverse which the Lacedæmonians met with at Sellasia at the hands of the Achæans and Antigonus was in consequence of Cleomenes’ violation of his word. But Cleomenes we shall mention again when we come to Arcadia. And Philip the son of Demetrius, when he came to age, received the rule over the Macedonians from his stepfather Antigonus, who was glad to surrender it, and inspired great fear in all the Greeks by closely imitating Philip the son of Amyntas, (who was no ancestor of his, but a true despot), as in bribing people to betray their country. And at banquets he would offer the cup of fellowship and kindness filled not with wine but deadly poison, a thing which Philip the son of Amyntas in my opinion never thought of, but to Philip the son of Demetrius poisoning appeared a very trifling crime. And three towns he turned into garrison-towns as points d’appui against Greece, and in his insolence and haughty disregard of the Greeks he called these towns the keys of Greece. One was Corinth in the Peloponnese, the citadel of which he strongly fortified, and for Eubœa and Bœotia and Phocis he had Chalcis near the Euripus, and for Thessaly and Ætolia he garrisoned Magnesia under Mount Pelion. And by perpetual raids and plundering incursions he harassed the Athenians and Ætolians especially. I have mentioned before in my account of Attica the Greeks or barbarians who assisted the Athenians against Philip, and how in consequence of the weakness of their allies the Athenians were obliged to rely on an alliance with Rome. The Romans had sent some soldiers not long before nominally to assist the Ætolians against Philip, but really to spy out what the Macedonians were aiming at. But now they sent an army under the command of Otilius, that was his best known[Pg 16] name, for the Romans are not called like the Greeks merely after their father’s name, but have 3 names at least and sometimes more. This Otilius had orders from the Romans to protect the Athenians and Ætolians against Philip. Otilius in all other respects obeyed his orders, but did one thing that the Romans were not pleased at. For he captured and rased to the ground Hestiæa (a town in Eubœa) and Anticyra in Phocis, places which had submitted to Philip simply from necessity. This was I think the reason why the Senate when they heard of it superseded him by Flaminius.

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

[Pg 17]

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

[Pg 18]

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

But now Metellus and his colleagues resolved not to neglect the quarrels of the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, so they convened before their council-board the most prominent Achæans, that they might publicly advise them to treat the Lacedæmonians in a kindlier spirit. And the Achæans returned answer that they would give no hearing to them or anyone else, who should approach them on any subject whatever, except they were armed with a decree from the Roman Senate. And Metellus and his colleagues, thinking they were treated by the Achæans with rather too much hauteur, on their return to Rome told the Senate many things against the Achæans which were not all true. And further charges still were brought against the Achæans by Areus and Alcibiades, who were held in great repute at Sparta, but who did not act well to the Achæans: for when they were exiled by Nabis the Achæans had kindly received them, and after the death of Nabis had restored them to Sparta contrary to the wish of the Lacedæmonian people. But now being admitted before the Roman Senate they inveighed against the Achæans with the greatest zeal. And the Achæans on their return from Rome sentenced them to death in their Council. And the Roman Senate sent Appius and some others to put the differences between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians on a just footing. But this embassy was not likely to please the Achæans, inasmuch as in Appius’ suite were Areus and Alcibiades, whom the Achæans detested at this time. And when they came into the council chamber they endeavoured by their words to[Pg 19] stir up rather the animosity of the Achæans than to win them over by persuasion. Lycortas of Megalopolis, a man in merit behind none of the Arcadians, and who had friendly relations with Philopœmen upon whom he relied, put forward in his speech the just claims of the Achæans, and at the same time covertly blamed the Romans. But Appius and his suite jeered at Lycortas’ speech, and passed a vote that Areus and Alcibiades had committed no crime against the Achæans, and allowed the Lacedæmonians to send envoys to Rome, thus contravening the previous convention between the Romans and Achæans. For it had been publicly agreed that envoys of the Achæans might go to the Roman Senate, but those states which were in the Achæan League were forbidden to send envoys privately. And when the Achæans sent a counter-embassy to that of the Lacedæmonians, and the speeches on both sides were heard in the Senate, then the Romans despatched Appius and all his former suite as plenipotentiaries between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans. And they restored to Sparta those that had been exiled by the Achæans, and they remitted the fines of those who had absconded before judgment, and had been condemned in their absence. And they did not remove the Lacedæmonians from the Achæan League, but they ordered that foreign[6] courts were to try capital cases, but all other cases they could themselves try, or submit them to the Achæan League. And the Spartans again built walls all round their city from the foundation. And those Lacedæmonians who were restored from exile meditated all sorts of contrivances against the Achæans, hoping to injure them most in the following way. The Messenians who were concerned in the death of Philopœmen, and who were banished it was thought on that account by the Achæans, these and other exiles of the Achæans they persuaded to go and take their case to Rome. And they went with them and intrigued for their return from exile. And as Appius greatly favoured the Lacedæmonians, and on all occasions went against the Achæans, whatever the Messenian or Achæan exiles wished was sure to come off without any difficulty, and letters were sent by the Senate[Pg 20] to Athens and Ætolia, ordering them to restore the Messenians and Achæans to their rights. This seemed the unkindest cut of all to the Achæans, who upon various occasions were treated with great injustice by the Romans, and who saw that all their past services went for nothing, for after having fought against Philip and the Ætolians and Antiochus simply to oblige the Romans, they were neglected for exiles whose lives were far from pure. Still they thought they had better submit. Such was the state of affairs up to this point.

But the most impious of all crimes, the betrayal of one’s country and fellow citizens for gain, was destined to bring about the destruction of the Achæans, a crime that has ever troubled Greece. For in the days of Darius (the son of Hystaspes) king of the Persians the Ionian affairs were ruined by all the Samian captains but eleven treacherously surrendering their ships. And after the subjugation of the Ionians the Medes enslaved Eretria; when those held in highest repute in Eretria played the traitor, as Philagras, the son of Cyneus, and Euphorbus, the son of Alcimachus. And when Xerxes went on his expedition to Greece, Thessaly was betrayed by the Aleuadæ, and Thebes was betrayed by Attaginus and Timegenidas, its foremost men. And during the Peloponnesian war Xenias, a native of Elis, endeavoured to betray Elis to the Lacedæmonians and Agis. And those who were called Lysander’s friends never ceased the attempt to betray their countries to Lysander. And in the reign of Philip, the son of Amyntas, one will find that Lacedæmon was not the only one of the Greek cities that were betrayed: the cities of Greece were more ruined through treason than they had been formerly by the plague. But Alexander the son of Philip had very little success indeed by treason. And after the reverse to the Greeks at Lamia Antipater, wishing to cross over with all despatch to the war in Asia Minor, was content to patch up a peace speedily, as it mattered nothing to him[Pg 21] whether he left Athens or indeed all Greece free. But Demades and other traitors at Athens persuaded Antipater not to act friendly to the Greeks, and, by frightening the commonalty of the Athenians, they were the means of the introduction into Athens and most other towns of the Macedonian garrisons. What confirms my account is that the Athenians after the reverse in Bœotia did not become subject to Philip, though 1,000 were killed in the action, and 2,000 taken prisoners after: but at Lamia, although only 200 fell, they became slaves of the Macedonians. Thus at no time were wanting to Greece people afflicted with this itch for treason. And the Achæans at this time were made subject to the Romans entirely through the Achæan Callicrates. But the beginning of their troubles was the overthrow of Perseus and the Macedonian Empire by the Romans.

Perseus the son of Philip was originally at peace with the Romans according to the terms of agreement between them and his father Philip, but he violated these conditions when he led an army against Abrupolis, the king of the Sapæans, (who are mentioned by Archilochus in one of his Iambic verses) and dispossessed them, though they were allies of the Romans. And Perseus and the Macedonians having been beaten in war on account of this outrage upon the Sapæans, ten Roman Senators were sent to settle affairs in Macedonia according to the interests of the Romans. And when they came to Greece Callicrates insinuated himself among them, letting slip no occasion of flattering them either in word or deed. And one of them, who was by no means remarkable for justice, was so won over by Callicrates that he was persuaded by him to enter the Achæan League. And he went to one of their general meetings, and said that when Perseus was at war with the Romans the most influential Achæans had furnished him with money, and assisted him in other respects. He bade the Achæans therefore pass a sentence of death against these men: and he said if they would do so, then he would give them their names. This seemed an altogether unfair way of putting it, and those present at the general meeting said that, if any of the Achæans had acted with Perseus, their names must be mentioned first, for it[Pg 22] was not fair to condemn them before. And when the Roman was thus confuted, he was so confident as to affirm that all the Achæan Generals were implicated in the charge, for all were friendly to Perseus and the Macedonians. This he said at the instigation of Callicrates. And Xeno rose up next, a man of no small renown among the Achæans, and spoke as follows. “As to this charge, I am a General of the Achæans, and have neither acted against the Romans, nor shewn any good will to Perseus. And I am ready to be tried on this charge before either the Achæan League or the Romans.” This he said in the boldness of a good conscience. But the Roman Senator at once seized the opportunity his words suggested, and sent all whom Callicrates accused of being friendly to Perseus to stand their trial at Rome. Nothing of the kind had ever previously happened to the Greeks. For the Macedonians in the zenith of their power, as under Philip, the son of Amyntas, and Alexander, had never forced any Greeks who opposed them to be sent into Macedonia, but had allowed them to be tried by the Amphictyonic Council. But now every Achæan, however innocent, who was accused by Callicrates, had to go to Rome, so it was decreed, and more than 1,000 so went. And the Romans, treating them as if they had been already condemned by the Achæans, imprisoned them in various towns in Etruria, and, although the Achæans sent various embassies and supplications about them, returned no answer. But 17 years afterwards they released some 300 or even fewer, (who were all that remained in Italy of the 1,000 and more Achæans), thinking they had been punished sufficiently. And all those who escaped either on the journey to Rome in the first instance, or afterwards from the towns to which they had been sent by the Romans, were, if captured, capitally punished at once and no excuse received.

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

And he carried out his orders, and meantime the Athenian people from necessity rather than choice plundered Oropus which was a town subject to them, for the Athenians had been reduced to a greater state of poverty than any of the Greeks by the war with the Macedonians. The Oropians appealed to the Senate at Rome, and they, thinking they had not been treated well, ordered the Sicyonians to levy upon the Athenians a fine proportionate to the harm they had done to the Oropians. The Sicyonians, as the Athenians did not come into court at the time of trial, fined them in their absence 500 talents, but the Roman Senate at the request of the Athenians remitted all the fine but 100 talents. And the Athenians did not pay even this, but by promises and gifts prevailed upon the Oropians to agree, that an Athenian garrison should occupy Oropus, and that the Athenians should have hostages from the Oropians, and if the Oropians should bring any further charges against the Athenians, then the Athenians were to withdraw their[Pg 24] garrison, and return their hostages. And no long time elapsed when some of the garrison insulted some of the townsmen of Oropus. They sent therefore envoys to Athens to demand back their hostages, and at the same time to ask the Athenians to take away their garrison according to their agreement. But the Athenians flatly refused, on the plea that the outrage was committed by the garrison and not the Athenian people, they promised however that those in fault should be punished. And the Oropians appealed to the Achæans to help them, but the Achæans refused out of friendship and respect to the Athenians. Then the Oropians promised ten talents to Menalcidas, a Lacedæmonian by birth but serving at this time as General of the Achæans, if he would make the Achæans help them. And he promised half the money to Callicrates, who because of his friendship with the Romans had the greatest influence over the Achæans. And Callicrates responding to the wishes of Menalcidas, it was determined to help the Oropians against the Athenians. And some one announced news of this to the Athenians, and they with all speed went to Oropus, and after plundering whatever they had spared in former raids, withdrew their garrison. And Menalcidas and Callicrates tried to persuade the Achæans who came up too late for help, to make an inroad into Attica: but as they were against it, especially those who had come from Lacedæmon, the army went back again.

And the Oropians, though no help had come from the Achæans, yet had to pay the money promised to Menalcidas. And he, when he had received his bribe, thought it a misfortune that he would have to share any part of it with Callicrates. So at first he practised putting off the payment of the gift and other wiles, but soon afterwards he was so bold as to deprive him of it altogether. My statement is confirmed by the proverb, “One fire burns fiercer than another fire, and one wolf is fiercer than other[Pg 25] wolves, and one hawk flies swifter than another hawk, since the most unscrupulous of all men, Callicrates, is outdone in treachery by Menalcidas.” And Callicrates, who was never superior to any bribe, and had got nothing out of his hatred to Athens, was so vexed with Menalcidas that he deprived him of his office, and prosecuted him on a capital charge before the Achæans, viz. that he had tried to undermine the Achæans on his embassy to Rome, and that he had endeavoured to withdraw Sparta from the Achæan league. Menalcidas in this crisis gave 3 of the talents from Oropus to Diæus of Megalopolis, who had been his successor as General of the Achæans, and now, being zealous in his interest on account of his bribe, was bent on saving Menalcidas in spite of the Achæans. But the Achæans both privately and publicly were vexed with Diæus for the acquittal of Menalcidas. But Diæus turned away their charges against him to the hope of greater gain, by using the following wile as a pretext. The Lacedæmonians had gone to the Senate at Rome about some debateable land, and the Senate had told them to try all but capital cases before the Achæan League. Such was their answer. But Diæus told the Achæans what was not the truth, and deluded them by saying that the Roman Senate allowed them to pass sentence of death upon a Spartan. They therefore thought the Lacedæmonians could also pass sentence of life and death on themselves: but the Lacedæmonians did not believe that Diæus was speaking the truth, and wished to refer the matter to the Senate at Rome. But the Achæans objected to this, that the cities in the Achæan League had no right without common consent to send an embassy privately to Rome. In consequence of these disputes war broke out between the Achæans and the Lacedæmonians, and the Lacedæmonians, knowing they were not able to fight the Achæans, sent embassies to their cities and spoke privately to Diæus. All the cities returned the same answer, that if their general ordered them to take the field they could not disobey. For Diæus was in command, and he said that he intended to fight not against Sparta but against all that troubled her. And when the Spartan Senate asked who he thought were the criminals, he gave them a list of 24 men who were prominent[Pg 26] in Sparta. Thereupon the opinion of Agasisthenes prevailed, a man previously held in good repute, and who for the following advice got still more highly thought of. He persuaded all those men whose names were mentioned to exile themselves from Lacedæmon, and not by remaining there to bring on a war on Sparta, and if they fled to Rome he said they would be soon restored by the Romans. So they departed and were nominally tried in their absence in the Spartan law-courts and condemned to death: but Callicrates and Diæus were sent by the Achæans to Rome to plead against these Spartan exiles before the Senate. And Callicrates died on the road of some illness, nor do I know whether if he had gone on to Rome he would have done the Achæans any good, or been to them the source of greater evils. But Diæus carried on a bitter controversy with Menalcidas before the Senate, not in the most decorous manner. And the Senate returned answer that they would send Ambassadors, who should arbitrate upon the differences between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans. And the journey of these ambassadors from Rome was somehow taken so leisurely, that Diæus had full time to deceive the Achæans, and Menalcidas the Lacedæmonians. The Achæans were persuaded by Diæus that the Lacedæmonians were directed by the Roman Senate to obey them in all things. While Menalcidas deceived the Lacedæmonians altogether, saying that they had been put by the Romans out of the jurisdiction of the Achæan League altogether.

In consequence of these differences with the Lacedæmonians the Achæans made preparations again to go to war with them, and an army was collected against Sparta by Damocritus, who was chosen General of the Achæans at that time. And about the same time an army of Romans under Metellus went into Macedonia, to fight against Andriscus, the son of Perseus and grandson of Philip, who[Pg 27] had revolted from the Romans. And the war in Macedonia was finished by the Romans with the greatest despatch. And Metellus gave his orders to the envoys, who had been sent by the Roman Senate to see after affairs in Asia Minor, to have a conference with the leaders of the Achæans before they passed over into Asia Minor, and to forbid them to war against Sparta, and to tell them they were to wait for the arrival from Rome of the envoys who were despatched to arbitrate between them and the Lacedæmonians. They gave these orders to Damocritus and the Achæans, who were beforehand with them and had already marched to Lacedæmon, but when they saw that the Achæans were not likely to pay any attention to their orders, they crossed over into Asia Minor. And the Lacedæmonians, out of spirit rather than from strength, took up arms and went out to meet the enemy in defence of their country, but were in a short time repulsed with the loss in the battle of about 1,000 who were in their prime both in respect to age and bravery, and the rest of the army fled pell mell into the town. And had Damocritus exhibited energy, the Achæans might have pursued those who fled from the battle up to the walls of Sparta: but he called them back from the pursuit at once, and rather went in for raids and plundering than sat down to a regular siege. He was therefore fined 50 talents by the Achæans as a traitor for not following up his victory, and as he could not pay he fled from the Peloponnese. And Diæus, who was chosen to succeed him as General, agreed when Metellus sent a second message not to carry on the war against the Lacedæmonians, but to wait for the arrival of the arbitrators from Rome. After this he contrived another stratagem against the Lacedæmonians: he won over all the towns round Sparta to friendship with the Achæans, and introduced garrisons into them, so as to make them points d’appui against Sparta. And Menalcidas was chosen by the Lacedæmonians as General against Diæus, and, as they were badly off for all supplies of war and not least for money, and as their soil had lain uncultivated, he persuaded them to violate the truce, and took by storm and sacked the town Iasus, which was on the borders of Laconia, but was at this time subject to the Achæans. And having[Pg 28] thus stirred up strife again between the Lacedæmonians and the Achæans he was accused by the citizens, and, as he saw no hope of safety from the danger that seemed imminent for the Lacedæmonians, he voluntarily committed suicide by poison. Such was the end of Menalcidas, the most imprudent General of the Lacedæmonians at this crisis, and earlier still the most iniquitous person to the Achæans.

At last the envoys, who had been sent from Rome to arbitrate between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, arrived in Greece, among others Orestes, who summoned before him Diæus and the principal people in each city of the Achæans. And when they came to his head-quarters,[7] he disclosed to them all his views, viz. that the Roman Senate thought it just that neither the Lacedæmonians nor Corinth should be forced into the Achæan League, nor Argos, nor Heraclea under Mount Œta, nor the Arcadians of Orchomenus, for they had no connection with the Achæans by ancestry, but had been incorporated subsequently into the Achæan League. As Orestes said this, the principal men of the Achæans would not stay to listen to the end of his speech, but ran outside the building and called the Achæans to the meeting. And they, when they heard the decision of the Romans, immediately turned their fury on all the Spartans who at that time resided at Corinth. And they plundered everyone who they were sure was a Lacedæmonian, or whom they suspected of being so by the way he wore his hair, or by his boots or dress or name, and some who got the start of them, and fled for refuge to Orestes’ head-quarters, they dragged thence by force. And Orestes and his suite tried to check the Achæans from this outrage, and bade them remember that they were acting outrageously against Romans. And not many days afterwards the Achæans threw all the Lacedæmonians whom they had arrested into prison, but dismissed all strangers whom they[Pg 29] had arrested on suspicion. And they sent Thearidas and several other prominent Achæans as ambassadors to Rome, who after their departure on meeting on the road some other envoys to settle the Lacedæmonian and Achæan differences, who had been despatched later than Orestes, turned back again. And after Diæus had served his time as General, Critolaus was chosen as his successor by the Achæans; this Critolaus was possessed with a grim unreasoning passion to fight against the Romans, and, as the envoys from Rome to settle the disputes between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans had just arrived, he went to Tegea in Arcadia ostensibly to confer with them, but really because he did not want the Achæans summoned to a general meeting, and, while in the hearing of the Romans he sent messengers bidding the commissioners call a general meeting of the Achæans, he privately urged the commissioners not to attend the general meeting. And when the commissioners did not come, then he displayed great guile to the Romans, for he told them to wait for another general meeting of the Achæans that would be held six months later, for he himself said that he could discuss no question privately without the common consent of the Achæans. And the Roman envoys, when they discovered they were being deceived, returned to Rome. And Critolaus collected an army of Achæans at Corinth, and persuaded them to war against Sparta, and also to wage war at once against the Romans. When king and nation undertake war and are unsuccessful, it seems rather the malignity of some divine power than the fault of the originators of the war. But audacity and weakness combined should rather be called madness than want of luck. And this was the ruin of Critolaus and the Achæans. The Achæans were also further incited against the Romans by Pytheas, who was at that time Bœotarch at Thebes, and the Thebans undertook to take an eager part in prosecuting the war. For the Thebans had been heavily punished by the decision of Metellus, first they had to pay a fine to the Phocians for invading Phocis, and secondly to the Eubœans for ravaging Eubœa, and thirdly to the people of Amphissa for destroying their corn in harvest time.

And the Romans being informed of all this by the envoys whom they had sent to Greece, and by the letters which Metellus wrote, passed a vote against the Achæans that they were guilty of treason, and, as Mummius had just been chosen consul, they ordered him to lead against them both a naval and land force. And Metellus, directly he heard that Mummius and the army with him had set out against the Achæans, made all haste that he might win his laurels in the campaign first, before Mummius could get up. He sent therefore messengers to the Achæans, bidding the Lacedæmonians and all other cities mentioned by the Romans to leave the Achæan League, and for the future he promised that there should be no anger on the part of the Romans for any earlier disobedience. At the same time that he made this Proclamation he brought his army from Macedonia, marching through Thessaly and by the Lamiac Gulf. And Critolaus and the Achæans, so far from accepting this proclamation which tended to peace, sat down and blockaded Heraclea, because it would not join the Achæan League. But when Critolaus heard from his spies that Metellus and the Romans had crossed the Spercheus, then he fled to Scarphea in Locris, not being bold enough to place the Achæans in position between Heraclea and Thermopylæ, and there await the attack of Metellus: for such a panic had seized him that he could extract no hope from a spot where the Lacedæmonians had so nobly fought for Greece against the Medes, and where at a later date the Athenians displayed equal bravery against the Galati. And Metellus’ army came up with Critolaus and the Achæans as they were in retreat a little before Scarphea, and many they killed and about 1,000 they took alive. But Critolaus was not seen alive after the battle, nor was he found among the dead, but if he tried to swim across the muddy sea near Mount Œta, he would have been very likely drowned without being observed. As to his end therefore one may make various guesses. But the thousand picked men from Arcadia, who had fought on Critolaus’ side in the action, marched as far as[Pg 31] Elatea in Phocis, and were received in that town from old kinsmanship; but when the people of Phocis got news of the reverse of Critolaus and the Achæans, they requested these Arcadians to leave Elatea. And as they marched back to the Peloponnese Metellus and the Romans met them at Chæronea. Then came the Nemesis of the Greek gods upon the Arcadians, who were cut to pieces by the Romans, in the very place where they had formerly left in the lurch the Greeks who fought against Philip and the Macedonians.

And Diæus was again made Commander-in-Chief of the Achæan army, and he imitated the action of Miltiades and the Athenians before Marathon by manumitting the slaves, and made a levy of Achæans and Arcadians in the prime of life from the various towns. And so his army altogether, including the slaves, amounted to 600 cavalry, and 14,000 infantry. Then he displayed the greatest want of strategy, for, though he knew that Critolaus and all the Achæan host had crumbled away before Metellus, yet he selected only 4,000 men, and put Alcamenes at their head. They were despatched to Megara to garrison that town and, should Metellus and the Romans come up, to stop their further progress. And Metellus, after his rout of the Arcadian picked men at Chæronea, had pushed on with his army to Thebes; for the Thebans had joined the Achæans in besieging Heraclea, and had also taken part in the fight near Scarphea. Then the inhabitants, men and women of all ages, abandoned Thebes, and wandered about all over Bœotia, and fled to the tops of the mountains. But Metellus would not allow his men either to set on fire the temples of the gods or to pull down any buildings, or to kill or take alive any of the fugitives except Pytheas, but him, if they should capture him, they were to bring before him. And Pytheas was forthwith found, and brought before Metellus, and executed. And when the Roman army marched on Megara, then Alcamenes and his men were seized with panic, and fled without striking a blow to Corinth, to the camp of the Achæans. And the Megarians delivered up their town to the Romans without a blow struck, and, when Metellus got to the Isthmus, he issued a Proclamation, inviting the Achæans even now to peace and harmony: for he had a[Pg 32] strong desire that both Macedonia and Achaia should be settled by him. But this intention of his was frustrated by the folly of Diæus.

Meantime Mummius, and with him Orestes, who was first sent from Rome to settle the disputes between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, reached the Roman army one morning, took over the command, and sent Metellus and his forces back to Macedonia, and himself waited at the Isthmus till he had concentrated all his forces. His cavalry amounted to 3,500, his infantry to 22,000. There were also some Cretan bowmen, and Philopœmen had brought some soldiers from Attalus, from Pergamus across the Caicus. Mummius placed some of the Italian troops and allies, so as to be an advanced post for all his army, 12 stades in the van. And the Achæans, as this vanguard was left without defence through the confidence of the Romans, attacked them, and slew some, but drove still more back to the camp, and captured about 500 shields. By this success the Achæans were so elated that they attacked the Roman army without waiting for them to begin the battle. But when Mummius led out his army to battle in turn, then the Achæan cavalry, which was opposite the Roman cavalry, ran immediately, not venturing to make one stand against the attack of the enemy’s cavalry. And the infantry, though dejected at the rout of the cavalry, stood their ground against the wedge-like attack of the Roman infantry, and though outnumbered and fainting under their wounds, yet resisted bravely, till 1,000 picked men of the Romans took them in flank, and so turned the battle into a complete rout of the Achæans. And had Diæus been bold enough to hurry into Corinth after the battle, and receive within its walls the runaways from the fight and shut himself up there, the Achæans might have obtained better terms from Mummius, if the war had been lengthened out by a siege. But as it was, directly the Achæans gave way before the Romans, Diæus fled for Megalopolis, exhibiting to the Achæans none of that spirit which Callistratus, the son of[Pg 33] Empedus, had displayed to the Athenians. For he being in command of the cavalry in Sicily, when the Athenians and their allies were badly defeated at the river Asinarus, boldly cut his way through the enemy at the head of the cavalry, and, after getting safe through with most of them to Catana, turned back again on the road to Syracuse, and finding the enemy still plundering the camp of the Athenians killed five with his own hand and then expired, himself and his horse having received fatal wounds. He won fair fame both for the Athenians and himself, and voluntarily met death, having preserved the cavalry whom he led. But Diæus after ruining the Achæans announced to the people of Megalopolis their impending ruin, and after slaying his wife with his own hand that she might not become a captive took poison and so died, resembling Menalcidas as in his greed for money so also in the cowardice of his death.

And those of the Achæans who got safe to Corinth after the battle fled during the night, as also did most of the Corinthians. But Mummius did not enter Corinth at first, though the gates were open, as he thought some ambush lay in wait for him within the walls, not till the third day did he take Corinth in full force and set it on fire. And most of those that were left in the city were slain by the Romans, and the women and children were sold by Mummius, as also were the slaves who had been manumitted and had fought on the side of the Achæans, and had not been killed in action. And the most wonderful of the votive offerings and other ornaments he carried off to Rome, and those of less value he gave to Philopœmen, the general of Attalus’ troops, and these spoils from Corinth were in my time at Pergamus. And Mummius rased the walls of all the cities which had fought against the Romans, and took away their arms, before any advisers what to do were sent from Rome. And when they arrived, then he put down all democracies, and appointed chief-magistrates according to property qualifications.[8] And taxes were laid upon Greece, and those that had money were forbidden to have land over the borders, and all the general meetings were put down altogether, as[Pg 34] those in Achaia, or Phocis, or Bœotia, or any other part of Greece. But not many years afterwards the Romans took mercy upon Greece, and allowed them their old national meetings and to have land over the borders. They remitted also the fines which Mummius had imposed, for he had ordered the Bœotians to pay the people of Heraclea and Eubœa 100 talents, and the Achæans to pay the Lacedæmonians 200 talents. The Greeks got remission of these fines from the Romans, and a prætor was sent out from Rome, and is still, who is not called by the Romans prætor of all Greece but prætor of Achaia, because they reduced Greece through Achaia, which was then the foremost Greek power. Thus ended the war when Antitheus was Archon at Athens, in the 160th Olympiad, when Diodorus of Sicyon was victor in the course.

At this time Greece was reduced to extreme weakness, being partially ruined, and altogether reduced to great straits, by the deity. For Argos, which had been a town of the greatest importance in the days of the so-called heroes, lost its good fortune with the overthrow of the Dorians. And the Athenians, who had survived the Peloponnesian War and the plague, and had even lift up their heads again, were not many years later destined to be subdued by the Macedonian power at its height. From Macedonia also came down on Thebes in Bœotia the wrath of Alexander. And the Lacedæmonians were first reduced by Epaminondas the Theban, and afterwards by the war with the Achæans. And when Achaia with great difficulty, like a tree that had received some early injury, grew to great eminence in Greece, then the folly of its rulers stopped its growth. And some time after the Empire of Rome came to Nero, and he made Greece entirely free, and gave to the Roman people instead of Greece the most fertile island of Sardinia. When I consider this action of Nero I cannot but think the words of Plato the son of Aristo most true, that crimes remarkable for their greatness and audacity are not committed by everyday kind of people, but emanate from a noble soul corrupted[Pg 35] by a bad bringing up.[9] Not that this gift long benefited Greece. For in the reign of Vespasian, who succeeded Nero, it suffered from intestine discord, and Vespasian made the Greeks a second time subject to taxes and bade them obey the prætor, saying that Greece had unlearnt how to use liberty. Such are the particulars which I ascertained.

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

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

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

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

There is also at Dyme a temple of Athene and a very [Pg 36] ancient statue, there is also a temple built to the Dindymene Mother and Attes. Who Attes was I could not ascertain it being a mystery. But according to the Elegiac lines of Hermesianax he was the son of Calaus the Phrygian, and was born incapable of procreation. And when he grew up he removed to Lydia, and celebrated there the rites of the Dindymene Mother, and was so honoured that Zeus in jealousy sent a boar among the crops of the Lydians. Thereupon several of the Lydians and Attes himself were slain by this boar: and in consequence of this the Galati who inhabit Pessinus will not touch pork. However this is not the universal tradition about Attes, but there is a local tradition that Zeus in his sleep dropt seed into the ground, and that in process of time there sprang up a Hermaphrodite whom they called Agdistis; and the gods bound this Agdistis and cut off his male privities. And an almond-tree sprang from them and bare fruit, and they say the daughter of the river-god Sangarius took of the fruit. And as she put some in her bosom the fruit immediately vanished, and she became pregnant, and bare a boy, Attes, who was exposed and brought up by a goat. And as the lad’s beauty was more than human, Agdistis grew violently in love with him. And when he was grown up his relations sent him to Pessinus to marry the king’s daughter. And the wedding song was being sung when Agdistis appeared, and Attes in his rage cut off his private parts, and his father in law cut off his. Then Agdistis repented of his action towards Attes: and some contrivance was found out by Zeus so that the body of Attes should not decay nor rot. Such is the most notable legend about Attes.

At Dyme is also the tomb of the runner Œbotas. He was the first Achæan who had won the victory at Olympia, and yet had received no especial reward from his own people. So he uttered a solemn imprecation that no Achæan might henceforth win the victory. And, as one of the gods made it his business to see that the imprecation of Œbotas should be valid, the Achæans learnt why they failed to secure victory at Olympia by consulting the oracle at Delphi. Then they not only conferred other honours upon Œbotas, but put up his statue at Olympia, after which Sostratus of Pellene won the race for boys in the course. And even[Pg 37] now the custom prevails amongst the Achæans who intend to compete at Olympia to offer sacrifices to Œbotas, and, if they are victorious, to crown his statue at Olympia.

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

About 80 stades from the river Pirus is the town of Patræ, not far from which the river Glaucus discharges itself into the sea. The antiquarians at Patræ say that Eumelus, an Autochthon, was the first settler, and was king over a few subjects. And when Triptolemus came from Attica Eumelus received from him corn to sow, and under his instructions built a town called Aroe, which he so called from tilling the soil. And when Triptolemus had gone to sleep they say Antheas, the son of Eumelus, yoked the dragons to the chariot of Triptolemus, and tried himself to sow corn: but he died by falling out of the chariot. And Triptolemus and Eumelus built in common the town Anthea, which they called after him. And a third city called Mesatis was built between Anthea and Aroe. And the traditions of the people of Patræ about Dionysus, that he was reared at Mesatis, and was plotted against by the Titans there and was in great danger, and the explanation of the name Mesatis, all this I leave to the people of Patræ to explain, as I don’t contradict them. And when the Achæans drove the Ionians out later, Patreus the son of Preugenes and grandson of Agenor forbade the Achæans to settle at Anthea and Mesatis, but made the circuit of the walls near Aroe wider so as to include all that town,[Pg 38] and called it Patræ after his own name. And Agenor the father of Preugenes was the son of Areus the son of Ampyx, and Ampyx was the son of Pelias, the son of Æginetus, the son of Deritus, the son of Harpalus, the son of Amyclas the son of Lacedæmon. Such was the genealogy of Patreus. And in process of time the people of Patræ were the only Achæans that went into Ætolia from friendship to the Ætolians, to join them in their war against the Galati. But meeting most serious reverses in battle, and most of them suffering also from great poverty, they left Patræ all but a few. And those who remained got scattered about the country and followed the pursuit of agriculture, and inhabited the various towns outside Patræ, as Mesatis and Anthea and Boline and Argyra and Arba. And Augustus, either because he thought Patræ a convenient place on the coast or for some other reason, introduced into it people from various towns. He incorporated also with it the Achæans from Rhypæ, after first rasing Rhypæ to the ground. And to the people of Patræ alone of all the Achæans he granted their freedom, and gave them other privileges as well, such as the Romans are wont to grant their colonists.

And in the citadel of Patræ is the temple of Laphrian Artemis: the goddess has a foreign title, and the statue also is foreign. For when Calydon and the rest of Ætolia was dispeopled by the Emperor Augustus, that he might people with Ætolians his city of Nicopolis near Actium, then the people of Patræ got this statue of Laphrian Artemis. And as he had taken many statues from Ætolia and Acarnania for his city Nicopolis, so he gave to the people of Patræ various spoils from Calydon, and this statue of Laphrian Artemis, which even now is honoured in the citadel of Patræ. And they say the goddess was called Laphrian from a Phocian called Laphrius, the son of Castalius and grandson of Delphus, who they say made the old statue of Artemis. Others say that the wrath of Artemis against Œneus fell lighter upon the people of Calydon when this title was given to the goddess. The figure in the statue is a huntress, and the statue is of ivory and gold, and the workmanship is by Menæchmus and Soidas. It is conjectured that they were not much later than the period of Canachus the Sicyonian or the[Pg 39] Æginetan Callon. And every year the people of Patræ hold the festival called Laphria to Artemis, in which they observe their national mode of sacrifice. Round the altar they put wood yet green in a circle, and pile it up about 16 cubits high. And the driest wood lies within this circle on the altar. And they contrive at the time of the festival a smooth ascent to the altar, piling up earth so as to form a kind of steps. First they have a most splendid procession to Artemis, in which the virgin priestess rides last in a chariot drawn by stags, and on the following day they perform the sacrificial rites, which both publicly and privately are celebrated with much zeal. For they place alive on the altar birds good to eat and all other kinds of victims, as wild boars and stags and does, and moreover the young of wolves and bears, and some wild animals fully grown, and they place also upon the altar the fruit of any trees that they plant. And then they set fire to the wood. And I have seen a bear or some other animal at the first smell of the fire trying to force a way outside, some even actually doing so by sheer strength. But they thrust them back again into the blazing pile. Nor do they record any that were ever injured by the animals on these occasions.

And between the temple of Laphria and the altar is the sepulchre of Eurypylus. Who he was and why he came into this country I shall relate, when I have first described the condition of things when he came into these parts. Those of the Ionians who dwelt at Aroe and Anthea and Mesatis had in common a grove and temple of Artemis Triclaria, and the Ionians kept her festival annually all night long. And the priestess of the goddess was a maiden, who was dismissed when she married. They have a tradition that once the priestess of the goddess was one Comætho, a most beautiful maiden, and that Melanippus was deeply in love with her, who in all other respects and in handsomeness of appearance outdid all of his own age. And as Melanippus won the maiden’s love as well, he asked her in marriage of her father. It is somehow common[Pg 40] to old age to be in most respects the very antipodes to youth, and especially in sympathy with love, so that Melanippus, who loved and was beloved, got no encouragement either from his own parents or from the parents of Comætho. And it is evident from various other cases as well as this that love is wont to confound human laws, and even to upset the honour due to the gods, as in this case, for Melanippus and Comætho satisfied their ardent love in the very temple of Artemis, and afterwards made the temple habitually their bridal-chamber. And forthwith the wrath of Artemis came on the people of the country, their land yielded no fruit, and unusual sicknesses came upon the people, and the mortality was much greater than usual. And when they had recourse to the oracle at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess laid the blame on Melanippus and Comætho, and the oracle ordered them to sacrifice to Artemis annually the most handsome maiden and lad. It was on account of this sacrifice that the river near the temple of Triclaria was called Amilichus (Relentless): it had long had no name. Now all these lads and maidens had done nothing against the goddess but had to die for Melanippus and Comætho, and they and their relations suffered most piteously. I do not put the whole responsibility for this upon Comætho and Melanippus, for to human beings alone is love felt worth life. These human sacrifices are said to have been stopped for the following reason. The oracle at Delphi had foretold that a foreign king would come to their country, and that he would bring with him a foreign god, and that he would stop this sacrifice to Artemis Triclaria. And after the capture of Ilium, when the Greeks shared the spoil, Eurypylus the son of Euæmon got a chest, in which there was a statue of Dionysus, the work some say of Hephæstus, and a gift of Zeus to Dardanus. But there are two other traditions about this chest, one that Æneas left it behind him when he fled from Ilium, the other that it was thrown away by Cassandra as a misfortune to any Greek who found it. However this may be, Eurypylus opened the chest and saw the statue, and was driven out of his mind by the sight. And most of his time he remained mad, though he came to himself a little at times. And being in that condition he did not sail to Thessaly, but to Cirrha and the Cirrhæan[Pg 41] Gulf; and he went to Delphi and consulted the oracle about his disorder. And they say the oracle told him, where he should find people offering a strange sacrifice, to dedicate his chest and there dwell. And the wind drove Eurypylus’ ships to the sea near Aroe, and when he went ashore he saw a lad and maiden being led to the altar of Artemis Triclaria. And he saw at once that the oracle referred to this sacrifice, the people of the place also remembered the oracle, seeing a king whom they had never before seen, and as to the chest they suspected that there was some god in it. And so Eurypylus got cured of his disorder, and this human sacrifice was stopped, and the river was now called Milichus (Mild). Some indeed have written that it was not the Thessalian Eurypylus to whom what I have just recorded happened, but they want people to think that Eurypylus (the son of Dexamenus who was king at Olenus), who accompanied Hercules to Ilium, received the chest from Hercules. The rest of their tradition is the same as mine. But I cannot believe that Hercules was ignorant of the contents of this chest, or that if he knew of them he would have given the chest as a present to a comrade. Nor do the people of Patras record any other Eurypylus than the son of Euæmon, and to him they offer sacrifices every year, when they keep the festival to Dionysus.

The name of the god inside the chest is Æsymnetes. Nine men, who are chosen by the people for their worth, look after his worship, and the same number of women. And one night during the festival the priest takes the chest outside the temple. That night has special rites. All the lads in the district go down to the Milichus with crowns on their heads made of ears of corn: for so used they in old time to dress up those whom they were leading to sacrifice to Artemis. But in our day they lay these crowns of ears of corn near the statue of the goddess, and after bathing in the river, and again putting on crowns this time of ivy, they go to the temple of Æsymnetes. Such are their rites on this night. And inside the grove of Laphrian Artemis is[Pg 42] the temple of Athene called Pan-Achæis, the statue of the goddess is of ivory and gold.

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

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

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

And next to the market-place is the Odeum, and there is a statue of Apollo there well worth seeing, it was made from the spoil that the people of Patræ got, when they alone of the Achæans helped the Ætolians against the Galati. And this Odeum is beautified in other respects more than any in Greece except the one at Athens: that excels this both in size and in all its fittings, it was built by the Athenian Herodes in memory of his dead wife. In my account of Attica I passed that Odeum over, because that part of my work was written before Herodes began building it. And at Patræ, as you go from the market-place where the temple of Apollo is, there is a gate, and the device on the gate consists of golden effigies of Patreus and Preugenes and Atherion, all three companions and contemporaries. And right opposite the market-place at this outlet is the[Pg 43] grove and temple of Artemis Limnatis. While the Dorians were already in possession of Lacedæmon and Argos, they say that Preugenes in obedience to a dream took the statue of Artemis Limnatis from Sparta, and that the trustiest of his slaves shared with him in the enterprize. And that statue from Lacedæmon they keep generally at Mesoa, because originally it was taken by Preugenes there, but when they celebrate the festival of Artemis Limnatis, one of the servants of the goddess takes the old statue from Mesoa to the sacred precincts at Patræ: in which are several temples, not built in the open air, but approached by porticoes. The statue of Æsculapius except the dress is entirely of stone, that of Athene is in ivory and gold. And in front of the temple of Athene is the tomb of Preugenes, to whom they offer funereal rites as to Patreus annually, at the time of the celebration of the feast to Artemis Limnatis. And not far from the theatre are temples of Nemesis and Aphrodite: their statues are large and of white marble.

In this part of the city there is also a temple to Dionysus under the title of Calydonian: because the statue of the god was brought from Calydon. And when Calydon was still inhabited, among other Calydonians who were priests to the god was one Coresus, who of all men suffered most grievously from love. He was enamoured of the maiden Callirhoe, but in proportion to the greatness of his love was the dislike of the maiden to him. And as by all his wooing and promises and gifts the maiden’s mind was not in the least changed, he went as a suppliant to the statue of Dionysus. And the god heard the prayer of his priest, and the Calydonians forthwith became insane as with drink, and died beside themselves. They went therefore in their consternation to consult the oracle at Dodona: for those who dwell on this mainland, as the Ætolians and their neighbours the Acarnanians and Epirotes, believe in the oracular responses they get from doves and the oak there. And they were oracularly informed at Dodona that it was the wrath of[Pg 44] Dionysus that had caused this trouble, which would not end till Coresus either sacrificed to Dionysus Callirhoe or somebody who should volunteer to die instead of her. And as the maiden found no means of escape, she fled to those who had brought her up, but obtaining no aid from them, she had nothing now left but to die. But when all the preliminary sacrificial rites that had been ordered at Dodona had taken place, and she was led to the altar as victim, then Coresus took his place as sacrificial priest, and yielding to love and not to anger slew himself instead of her. And when she saw Coresus lying dead the poor girl repented, and, moved by pity and shame at his fate, cut her own throat at the well in Calydon not far from the harbour, which has ever since been called Callirhoe after her.

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

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

And Pamphus, the most ancient Hymn-writer among the Athenians, says that Poseidon was “the giver of horses[Pg 45] and ships with sails.” So he got the name Hippius probably from riding and for no other reason.

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

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

[Pg 46]

And Pharæ, a town in Achaia, is reckoned with Patræ since the days of Augustus, and the road to Pharæ from Patræ is about 150 stades, and from the sea to the mainland about 70 stades. And the river Pierus flows near Pharæ, the same river I think which flows by the ruins of Olenus, and is called Pirus by the men who live near the sea. Near the river is a grove of plane-trees, most of them hollow from old age, and of such a size that whoever chooses can eat and sleep inside them.[12] The circuit of the market-place is large at Pharæ according to ancient custom, and in the middle of the market-place is a stone statue of bearded Hermes; it is on the ground, no great size, and of square shape. And the inscription on it says that it was an offering of the Messenian Simylus. It is called Hermes of the Market-place, and near it is an oracle. And before the statue is a hearth made of stone, and some brazen lamps are fastened with lead to the hearth. He that wants to consult the oracle of the god comes at eventide and burns some frankincense on the hearth, and when he has filled the lamps with oil and lit them, he lays on the altar on the right of the statue the ordinary piece of money, a brass coin, and whispers his question whatever it is in the ear of the statue of the god. Then he departs from the market-place and stops up his ears. And when he has gone a little distance off he takes his hands from his ears, and whatever he next hears is he thinks the oracular response. The Egyptians have a similar kind of oracle in the temple of Apis. And at Pharæ the water is sacred, Hermes’ well is the name they give to it, and the fish in it they do not catch, because they think them sacred to the god. And very near the statue are 30 square stones, which the people of Pharæ venerate highly, calling each by the name of one of the gods. And in early times all the Greeks paid to unhewn stones, and not statues, the honours due unto the gods. And about 15 stades from Pharæ is a grove of Castor and Pollux. Bay trees chiefly grow in it, and there is neither temple in it nor any statues. The people of the place say the statues were removed[Pg 47] to Rome. And in the grove at Pharæ is an altar of unhewn stones. But I could not learn whether Phares, the son of Phylodamia, the daughter of Danaus, or some one of the same name was the founder of the town.

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

These towns are at some distance from the sea and well inland: but as you sail from Patræ to Ægium you come to the promontory of Rhium, about 50 stades from Patræ, and 15 stades further you come to the harbour of Panormus. And about as many stades from Panormus is what is called the wall of Athene, from which to the harbour of Erineus is 90 stades’ sail along the coast, and 60 to Ægium from Erineus, but by land it is about 40 stades less. And not far from Patræ is the river Milichus, and the temple of Triclaria (with no statue) on the right. And as you go on from Milichus there is another river called Charadrus, and in summer time the herds that drink[Pg 48] of it mostly breed male cattle, for that reason the herdsmen keep all cattle but cows away from it. These they leave by the river, because both for sacrifices and work bulls are more convenient than cows, but in all other kinds of cattle the female is thought most valuable.

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

And at a little distance from Argyra is the river called Bolinæus, and a town once stood there called Bolina. Apollo they say was enamoured of a maiden called Bolina, and she fled from him and threw herself into the sea, and became immortal through his favour. And there is a promontory here jutting out into the sea, about which there is a tradition that it was here that Cronos threw the sickle into the sea, with which he had mutilated his father Uranus, so they call the promontory Drepanum (sickle). And a little above the high road are the ruins of Rhypæ, which is about 30 stades from Ægium. And the district round[Pg 49] Ægium is watered by the river Phœnix and another river Miganitas, both of which flow into the sea. And a portico near the town was built for the athlete Strato, (who conquered at Olympia on the same day in the pancratium and in the wrestling), to practise in. And at Ægium they have an ancient temple of Ilithyia, her statue is veiled from her head to her toes with a finely-woven veil, and is of wood except the face and fingers and toes, which are of Pentelican marble. One of the hands is stretched out straight, and in the other she holds a torch. One may symbolize Ilithyia’s torches thus, that the throes of travail are to women as it were a fire. Or the torches may be supposed to symbolize that Ilithyia brings children to the light. The statue is by the Messenian Damophon.

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

At Ægium there is also a temple to Athene and another to Hera, and Athene has two statues in white stone, but the statue of Hera may be looked upon by none but women, and those only the priestesses. And near the theatre is a temple and statue of beardless Dionysus. There are also in the market-place sacred precincts of Zeus Soter, and two statues on the left as you enter both of brass, the one without a beard seemed to me the older of the two. And in a building[Pg 50] right opposite the road are brazen statues of Poseidon, Hercules, Zeus, and Athene, and they call them the Argive gods, because the Argive tradition says they were made at Argos, but the people of Ægium say it was because the statues were deposited with them by the Argives. And they say further that they were ordered to sacrifice to these statues every day: and they found out a trick by which they could sacrifice as required, but without any expense by feasting on the victims: and eventually these statues were asked back by the Argives, and the people of Ægium asked for the money they had spent on the sacrifices first, so the Argives (as they could not pay this) left the statues with them.

At Ægium there is also near the market-place a temple in common to Apollo and Artemis, and in the market-place is a temple to Artemis alone dressed like a huntress, and the tomb of Talthybius the herald. Talthybius has also a monument erected to him at Sparta, and both cities perform funeral rites in his honour. And near the sea at Ægium Aphrodite has a temple, and next Poseidon, and next Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, and fourthly Zeus Homagyrius (the Gatherer). There are statues too of Zeus and Aphrodite and Athene. And Zeus was surnamed Homagyrius, because Agamemnon gathered together at this place the most famous men in Greece, to deliberate together in common how to attack the realm of Priam. Agamemnon has much renown generally, but especially because with the army that accompanied him first, without any reinforcements, he sacked Ilium and all the surrounding cities. And next to Zeus Homagyrius is the temple of Pan-Achæan Demeter. And the sea-shore at Ægium, where these temples just described are, furnishes abundantly water good to drink from a well. There is also a temple to Safety, the statue of the goddess may be seen by none but the priests, but the rites are as follows. They take from the altar of the goddess cakes[Pg 51] made after the fashion of the country and throw them into the sea, and say that they send them to Arethusa in Syracuse. The people at Ægium have also several brazen statues as Zeus as a boy, and Hercules without a beard, by Ageladas the Argive. Priests are chosen annually for these gods, and each of the statues remains in the house of the priest. And in older times the most beautiful boy was chosen as priest to Zeus, and when their beards grew then the priest’s office passed to some other beautiful boy. And Ægium is the place where the general meeting of the Achæans is still held, just as the Amphictyonic Council is held at Thermopylæ and Delphi.

As you go on you come to the river Selinus, and about 40 stades from Ægium is a place called Helice near the sea. It was once an important city, and the Ionians had there the most holy temple of Poseidon of Helice. The worship of Poseidon of Helice still remained with them, both when they were driven by the Achæans to Athens, and when they afterwards went from Athens to the maritime parts of Asia Minor. And the Milesians as you go to the well Biblis have an altar of Poseidon of Helice before their city, and similarly at Teos the same god has precincts and an altar. Even Homer has written of Helice, and of Poseidon of Helice.[13] And later on the Achæans here, who drove some suppliants from the temple and slew them, met with quick vengeance from Poseidon, for an earthquake coming over the place rapidly overthrew all the buildings, and made the very site of the city difficult for posterity to find. Previously in earthquakes, remarkable for their violence or extent, the god has generally given previous intimation by signs. For either continuous rain or drought are mostly wont to precede their approach: and in winter the air is hotter, and in summer the disk of the sun is misty and has a different colour to its usual colour, being either redder or slightly inclining to black. And the springs are generally deficient in water, and gusts of wind sweeping over the district uproot the trees, and in the sky are meteors with flames of fire, and the appearance of the stars is unusual and excites consternation in the beholders, and moreover[Pg 52] vapours and exhalations rise up out of the ground. And many other indications does the god give in the case of violent earthquakes. And earthquakes are not all similar, but those who have paid attention to such things from the first or been instructed by others have been able to recognize the following phenomena. The mildest of them, if indeed the word mildness is applicable to any of them, is when simultaneously with the first motion of the earth and with the rocking of buildings to their foundation a counter motion restores them to their former position. And in such an earthquake you may see pillars nearly rooted up falling into their places again, and walls that gaped asunder joining again: and beams that slipped out of their fittings slipping back again: so too in the pipes of conduits, if any pipe bursts from the pressure of water, the broken parts weld together again better than any workmen could adjust them. Another kind of earthquake destroys everything within its range, and, on whatever it spends its force, forthwith batters it down, like the military engines employed in sieges. But the most deadly kind of earthquake may be recognized by the following concomitants. The breath of a man in a long-continued fever comes thicker and with much effort, and this is marked in other parts of the body, but especially by feeling the pulse. Similarly this kind of earthquake they say undermines the foundations of buildings, and makes them rock to and fro, like the effect produced by the burrowing of moles in the earth. And this is the only kind of earthquake that leaves no trace in the earth of previous habitation. This was the kind of earthquake that rased Helice to the ground. And they say another misfortune happened to the place in the winter at the same time. The sea encroached over much of the district and quite flooded Helice with water: and the grove of Poseidon was so submerged that the tops of the trees alone were visible. And so the god suddenly sending the earthquake, and the sea encroaching simultaneously, the inundation swept away Helice and its population. A similar catastrophe happened to the town of Sipylus which was swallowed up by a landslip. And when this landslip occurred in the rock water came forth, and became a lake called Saloe, and the ruins of Sipylus were[Pg 53] visible in the lake, till the water pouring down hid them from view. Visible too are the ruins of Helice, but not quite as clearly as formerly, because they have been effaced by the action of the sea.

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

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

This the Greeks remembered when the Peloponnesians came to Athens, in the reign of Codrus the son of Melanthus. All the rest of the Peloponnesian army retired from Attica, when they heard of the death of Codrus and the circumstances attending it. For they did not any longer expect victory, as Codrus had devoted himself in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. But some of the Lacedæmonians got stealthily into the city by night, and at daybreak perceived that their friends had retired, and, as the Athenians began to muster against them, fled for safety to the Areopagus and to the altars of the goddesses called the August.[14] And the Athenians allowed the suppliants to depart scot-free on this occasion, but some years later the authorities destroyed the suppliants of Athene, those of Cylo’s party who had occupied the Acropolis, and both the murderers and their children were considered accursed by the goddess. Upon the Lacedæmonians too who had killed some suppliants in the temple of Poseidon at Tænarum came an earthquake so long-continued and violent, that no house in Lacedæmon could stand against it. And the[Pg 54] destruction of Helice happened when Asteus was Archon at Athens, in the 4th year of the 101st Olympiad, in which Damon of Thuria was victor. And as there were none left remaining at Helice the people of Ægium occupied their territory.

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

And as you return from Cerynea to the high road, and proceed along it no great distance, the second turn to the right from the sea takes you by a winding road to Bura, which lies on a hill. The town got its name they say from Bura the daughter of Ion, the Son of Xuthus by Helice. And when Helice was totally destroyed by the god, Bura also was afflicted by a mighty earthquake, so that none of the old statues were left in the temples. And those that happened to be at that time away on military service or[Pg 55] some other errand were the only people of Bura preserved. There are temples here to Demeter, and Aphrodite, and Dionysus, and Ilithyia. Their statues are of Pentelican marble by the Athenian Euclides. Demeter is robed. There is also a temple to Isis.

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

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

And the seaport at Ægira (both town and seaport have the same name) is 72 stades from the temple of Hercules Buraicus. Near the sea there is nothing notable at Ægira, from the port to the upper part of the town is 12 stades. In Homer[16] the town is called Hyperesia, the present name was given to it by the Ionian settlers for the following reason. A hostile band of Sicyonians was going to invade their land. And they, not thinking themselves a match for the Sicyonians, collected together all the goats in the country, and fastened torches to their horns, and directly night came on lit these torches. And the Sicyonians, who thought that the allies of the Hyperesians were coming up, and that this light was the campfires of the allied force, went home again: and the Hyperesians changed the name of their city because of these goats, and at the place where the goat that was most handsome and the leader of the rest had crouched down there they built a temple to Artemis the Huntress, thinking that this stratagem against the Sicyonians would not have occurred to them but for Artemis. Not that the name Ægira prevailed at once over Hyperesia. Even in my time there are still some who call Oreus in Eubœa by its old name of Hestiæa. At Ægira there is a handsome temple of Zeus, and his statue in a sitting posture in Pentelican marble by the Athenian Euclides. The head and fingers and toes are of ivory, and the rest is wood gilt and richly variegated. There is also a temple of Artemis, and a statue of the goddess which is of modern art. A maiden is priestess, till she grows to a marriageable age. And the old statue that stands there is, according to the tradition of the people at Ægira, Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon: and if they state what is correct, the temple must originally have been built to Iphigenia. There is also a very ancient temple of Apollo, ancient is the temple, ancient are the gables, ancient is the statue of the god, which is naked and of great size. Who made it none of the natives could[Pg 57] tell: but whoever has seen the Hercules at Sicyon, would conjecture that the Apollo at Ægira was by the same hand as that, namely by Laphaes of Phlius. And there are some statues of Æsculapius in the temple in a standing position, and of Serapis and Isis apart in Pentelican marble. And they worship most of all Celestial Aphrodite: but men must not enter her temple. But into the temple of the Syrian goddess they may enter on stated days, but only after the accustomed rites and fasting. I have also seen another building in Ægira, in which there is a statue of Fortune with the horn of Amalthea, and next it a Cupid with wings: to symbolize to men that success in love is due to chance rather than beauty. I am much of the opinion of Pindar in his Ode that Fortune is one of the Fates, and more powerful than her sisters. And in this building at Ægira is a statue of a man rather old and evidently in grief, and 3 women are taking off their bracelets, and there are 3 young men standing by, and one has a breastplate on. The tradition about him is that he died after fighting most bravely of all the people of Ægira against the Achæans, and his brothers brought home the news of his death, and his sisters are stripping off their bracelets out of grief at his loss, and the people of the place call the old man his father Sympathetic, because he is clearly grieving in the statue.

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

And next to Ægira is Pellene: the people of Pellene are[Pg 58] the last of the Achæans near Sicyon and Argolis. Their town was called according to their own tradition from Pallas who they say was one of the Titans, but according to the tradition of the Argives from the Argive Pellen, who was they say the son of Phorbas and grandson of Triopas. And between Ægira and Pellene there is a town subject to Sicyon called Donussa, which was destroyed by the Sicyonians, and which they say is mentioned by Homer in his Catalogue of Agamemnon’s forces in the line,

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

And the town of Pellene is on a hill which is very steep in its topmost peak, (indeed precipitous and therefore uninhabited), and is built upon its more level parts not continuously, but is cut as it were into two parts by the peak which lies between. And as you approach Pellene you see a statue of Hermes on the road called Dolios (wily), he is very ready to accomplish the prayers of people: it is a square statue, the god is bearded and has a hat on his head. On the way to the town there is also a temple of Athene made of the stone of the country, her statue is of ivory and gold by they say Phidias, who earlier still made statues of Athene at Athens and Platæa. And the people of Pellene say that there is a shrine of Athene[Pg 59] deep underground under the base of her statue, and that the air from it is damp and therefore good for the ivory. And above the temple of Athene is a grove with a wall built round it to Artemis called the Saviour, their greatest oath is by her. No one may enter this grove but the priests, who are chiefly chosen out of the best local families. And opposite this grove is the temple of Dionysus called the Lighter, for when they celebrate his festival they carry torches into his temple by night, and place bowls of wine all over the city. At Pellene there is also a temple of Apollo Theoxenius, the statue is of bronze, and they hold games to Apollo called Theoxenia, and give silver as a prize for victory, and the men of the district contend. And near the temple of Apollo is one of Artemis, she is dressed as an archer. And there is a conduit built in the market-place, their baths have to be of rain-water for there are not many wells with water to drink below the city, except at a place called Glyceæ. And there is an old gymnasium chiefly given up to the youths to practise in, nor can any be enrolled as citizens till they have arrived at man’s estate. Here is the statue of Promachus of Pellene, the son of Dryon, who won victories in the pancratium, one at Olympia, three at the Isthmus, and two at Nemea, and the people of Pellene erected two statues to him, one at Olympia, and one in the gymnasium, the latter in stone and not in brass. And it is said that in the war between Corinth and Pellene Promachus slew most of the enemy opposed to him. It is said also that he beat at Olympia Polydamas of Scotussa, who contended a second time at Olympia, after coming home safe from the King of the Persians. But the Thessalians do not admit that Polydamas was beaten, and they bring forward to maintain their view the line about Polydamas,

However the people of Pellene hold Promachus in the highest honour. But Chæron, though he won two victories in wrestling, and 4 at Olympia, they do not even care to mention, I think because he destroyed the constitution of Pellene, receiving a very large bribe from Alexander the son of Philip to become the tyrant of his country. At Pellene[Pg 60] there is also a temple of Ilithyia, built in the smaller half of the town. What is called Poseidon’s chapel was originally a parish room, but is not used in our day, but it still continues to be held sacred to Poseidon, and is under the gymnasium.

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

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

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

[Pg 62]

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

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

And Lycaon the son of Pelasgus devised even wiser things than his father. For he founded the town Lycosura on the Mountain Lycæus, and called Zeus Lycæus, and established a festival to him called the Lycæa. I do not think the Pan-Athenæa was established by the Athenians earlier, for their games were called Athenæa till the time of Theseus, when they were called Pan-Athenæa, because when they were then celebrated all the Athenians were gathered together into one city. As to the Olympian games—which they trace back to a period earlier than man, and in which they represent Cronos and Zeus wrestling, and the Curetes as the first competitors in running—for these reasons they may be passed over in the present account. And I think that Cecrops, king of Athens, and Lycaon were contemporaries, but did not display equal wisdom to the deity. For Cecrops was the first to call Zeus supreme, and did not think it right to sacrifice anything that had life, but offered on the altar the national cakes, which the Athenians still call by a special name, (pelani). But Lycaon brought a baby to the altar of Lycæan Zeus, and sacrificed it upon [Pg 63] it, and sprinkled its blood on the altar. And they say directly after this sacrifice he became a wolf instead of a man. This tale I can easily credit, as it is a very old tradition among the Arcadians, and probable enough in itself. For the men who lived in those days were guests at the tables of the gods in consequence of their righteousness and piety, and those who were good clearly met with honour from the gods, and similarly those who were wicked with wrath, for the gods in those days were sometimes mortals who are still worshipped, as Aristæus, and Britomartis of Crete, and Hercules the son of Alcmena, and Amphiaraus the son of Œcles, and besides them Castor and Pollux. So one might well believe that Lycaon became a wolf, and Niobe the daughter of Tantalus a stone. But in our day, now wickedness has grown and spread all over the earth in all towns and countries, no mortal any longer becomes a god except in the language of excessive flattery,[19] and the wicked receive wrath from the gods very late and only after their departure from this life. And in every age many curious things have happened, and some of them have been made to appear incredible to many, though they really happened, by those who have grafted falsehood on to truth. For they say that after Lycaon a person became a wolf from a man at the Festival of Lycæan Zeus, but not for all his life: for whenever he was a wolf if he abstained from meat ten months he became a man again, but if he tasted meat he remained a beast. Similarly they say that Niobe on Mount Sipylus weeps in summer time. And I have heard of other wonderful things, as people marked like vultures and leopards, and of the Tritons speaking with a human voice, who sing some say through a perforated shell. Now all that listen with pleasure to such fables are themselves by nature apt to exaggerate the wonderful, and so mixing fiction with truth they get discredited.

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

[Pg 65]

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

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

And after the death of Nyctimus Arcas the son of Callisto succeeded him in the kingdom. And he introduced sowing corn being taught by Triptolemus, and showed his people how to make bread, and to weave garments and other things, having learnt spinning from Adristas. And in his reign the country was called Arcadia instead of Pelasgia, and the inhabitants were called Arcadians instead of Pelasgi. And they say he mated with no mortal woman but with a Dryad Nymph. For the Nymphs used to be called Dryades, and Epimeliades, and sometimes Naiades, Homer in his poems mainly mentions them as Naiades.[22] The name of this Nymph was Erato, and they say Arcas had by her Azan and Aphidas and Elatus: he had had a bastard son Autolaus still earlier. And when they grew up Arcas divided the country among his 3 legitimate sons, Azania took its name from Azan, and they are said to be colonists from Azania who dwell near the cave in Phrygia called Steunos and by the river Pencala. And Aphidas got Tegea and the neighbouring country, and so the poets call Tegea the lot of Aphidas. And Elatus had Mount Cyllene, which had no name then, and afterwards he migrated into what is now called Phocis, and aided the[Pg 66] Phocians who were pressed hard in war by the Phlegyes, and built the city Elatea. And Azan had a son Clitor, and Aphidas had a son called Aleus, and Elatus had five sons, Æpytus and Pereus and Cyllen and Ischys and Stymphelus. And when Azan died funeral games were first established, I don’t know whether any other but certainly horseraces. And Clitor the son of Azan lived at Lycosora, and was the most powerful of the kings, and built the city which he called Clitor after his own name. And Aleus inherited his father’s share. And Mount Cyllene got its name from Cyllen, and from Stymphelus the well and city by the well were both called Stymphelus. The circumstances attending the death of Ischys, the son of Elatus, I have already given in my account of Argolis. And Pereus had no male offspring but only a daughter Neæra, who married Autolycus, who dwelt on Mount Parnassus, and was reputed to be the son of Hermes, but was really the son of Dædalion.

And Clitor the son of Azan had no children, so the kingdom of Arcadia devolved upon Æpytus the son of Elatus. And as he was out hunting he was killed not by any wild animal but by a serpent, little expecting such an end. I have myself seen the particular kind of serpent. It is a very small ash-coloured worm, marked with irregular stripes, its head is broad and its neck narrow, it has a large belly and small tail, and, like the serpent they call the horned serpent, walks sideways like the crab. And Æpytus was succeeded in the kingdom by Aleus, for Agamedes and Gortys, the sons of Stymphelus, were great-grandsons of Arcas, but Aleus was his grandson, being the son of Aphidas. And Aleus built the old temple to Athene Alea at Tegea, which he made the seat of his kingdom. And Gortys, the son of Stymphelus, built the town Gortys by the river called Gortynius. And Aleus had three sons, Lycurgus and Amphidamas and Cepheus, and one daughter Auge. According to Hecatæus Hercules, when he came to Tegea, had an intrigue with this Auge, and at last she was discovered to be with child by him, and Aleus put her and the child in a chest and let it drift to sea. And she got safely to Teuthras, a man of substance in the plain of Caicus, and he fell in love with her and married her. And[Pg 67] her tomb is at Pergamus beyond the Caicus, a mound of earth with a stone wall round it, and on the tomb a device in bronze, a naked woman. And after the death of Aleus Lycurgus his son succeeded to the kingdom by virtue of being the eldest. He did nothing very notable except that he slew by guile and not fairly Areithous a warrior. And of his sons Epochus died of some illness, but Ancæus sailed to Colchi with Jason, and afterwards, hunting with Meleager the wild boar in Calydon, was killed by it. Lycurgus lived to an advanced old age, having survived both his sons.

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

“This is the robe which Laodice gave to her own[Pg 68] Athene, sending it from sacred Cyprus to her spacious fatherland.”

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

And during the reign of Cypselus, his son and successor, the Dorians returned to the Peloponnese in ships, landing near the Promontory of Rhium, not as three generations earlier attempting to return by way of the Isthmus of Corinth, and Cypselus, hearing of their return, gave his daughter in marriage to Cresphontes, the only unmarried son of Aristomachus, and thus won him over to his interests, and he and the Arcadians had now nothing to fear. And the son and successor of Cypselus was Olæas, who, in junction with the Heraclidæ from Lacedæmon and Argos, restored his sister’s son Æpytus to Messene. The next king was Bucolion, the next Phialus, who deprived Phigalus, (the founder of Phigalia, and the son of Lycaon), of the honour of giving his name to that town, by changing its name to Phialia after his own name, though the new name did not universally prevail. And during the reign of Simus, the son of Phialus, the old statue of Black Demeter that belonged to the people of Phigalia was destroyed by fire. This was a portent that not long afterwards Simus himself would end his life. And during the reign of Pompus his successor the Æginetans sailed to Cyllene for purposes of commerce. There they put their goods on beasts of burden and took them into the interior of Arcadia. For this good service Pompus highly honoured the Æginetans, and out of friendship to them gave the name of Æginetes to his son and successor: who was succeeded by his son Polymestor during whose reign[Pg 69] Charillus and the Lacedæmonians first invaded the district round Tegea, and were beaten in battle by the men of Tegea, and also by the women who put on armour, and Charillus and his army were taken prisoners. We shall give a further account of them when we come to Tegea. And as Polymestor had no children Æchmis succeeded, the son of Briacas, and nephew of Polymestor. Briacas was the son of Æginetes but younger than Polymestor. And it was during the reign of Æchmis that the war broke out between the Lacedæmonians and Messenians. The Arcadians had always had a kindly feeling towards the Messenians, and now they openly fought against the Lacedæmonians in conjunction with Aristodemus king of Messenia. And Aristocrates, the son of Æchmis, acted insolently to his fellow-countrymen in various ways, but his great impiety to the gods I cannot pass over. There is a temple of Artemis Hymnia on the borders between Orchomenus and Mantinea. She was worshipped of old by all the Arcadians. And her priestess at this time was a maiden. And Aristocrates, as she resisted all his attempts to seduce her, and fled at last for refuge to the altar near the statue of Artemis, defiled her there. And when his wickedness was reported to the Arcadians they stoned him to death, and their custom was thenceforward changed. For instead of a maiden as priestess of Artemis they had a woman who was tired of the company of men. His son was Hicetas, who had a son Aristocrates, of the same name as his grandfather, and who met with the same fate, for he too was stoned to death by the Arcadians, who detected him receiving bribes from Lacedæmon, and betraying the Messenians at the great reverse they met with at the Great Trench. This crime was the reason why all the descendants of Cypselus were deposed from the sovereignty of Arcadia.

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

The passes into Arcadia from Argolis are by Hysiæ and across the mountain Parthenium into the district of Tegea, and two by Mantinea through what are called Holm-Oak and Ladder. Ladder is the broadest, and has steps cut in it. And when you have crossed that pass you come to Melangea, which supplies the people of Mantinea with water to drink. And as you advance from Melangea, about seven stades further, you come to a well called the well of the Meliastæ. These Meliastæ have orgies to Dionysus, and they have a hall of Dionysus near the well, and a temple to Aphrodite Melænis (Black). There seems no other reason for this title of the goddess, than that men generally devote themselves to love in the darkness of[Pg 71] night, not like the animals in broad daylight. The other pass over Artemisium is far narrower than Ladder-pass. I mentioned before that Artemisium has a temple and statue of Artemis, and that in it are the sources of the river Inachus, which as long as it flows along the mountain road is the boundary between the Argives and Mantineans, but when it leaves this road flows thenceforward through Argolis, and hence Æschylus and others call it the Argive river.

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

There is a mountain on the left of the plain Argum, where there are ruins of the camp of Philip, the son of Amyntas, and of the village Nestane. For it was at this village they say that Philip encamped, and the well there they still call Philip’s well. He went into Arcadia to win over the Arcadians to his side, and at the same time to separate them from the other Greeks. Philip one can well believe displayed the greatest valour of all the Macedonian kings before or after him, but no rightminded person could call him a good man, seeing that he trod under[Pg 72] foot the oaths he had made to the gods, and on all occasions violated truces, and dishonoured good faith among men. And the vengeance of the deity came upon him not late, but early. For Philip had only lived 46 years when the oracle at Delphi was made good by his death, given to him they say when he inquired about the Persian war,

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

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

And next to the ruins of Nestane is a temple sacred to Demeter, to whom the Mantineans hold a festival annually. And under Nestane is much of the plain Argum, and the place called Mæras, which is 10 stades from the plain. And when you have gone on no great distance you will come to another plain, in which near the high road is a fountain called Arne. The following is the tradition of the[Pg 73] Arcadians about it. When Rhea gave birth to Poseidon, the little boy was deposited with the flocks and fed with the lambs, and so the fountain was called Arne, (lamb fountain). And Rhea told Cronos that she had given birth to a foal, and gave him a foal to eat up instead of the little boy, just as afterwards instead of Zeus she gave him a stone wrapt up in swaddling-clothes. As to these fables of the Greeks I considered them childish when I began this work, but when I got as far as this book I formed this view, that those who were reckoned wise among the Greeks spoke of old in riddles and not directly, so I imagine the fables about Cronos to be Greek wisdom. Of the traditions therefore about the gods I shall state such as I meet with.

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

The Mantineans did not fight against the Lacedæmonians at Dipæa with the other Arcadians, but in the Peloponnesian war they joined the people of Elis against the Lacedæmonians, and fought against them, with some reinforcements from the Athenians, and also took part in the expedition to Sicily out of friendship to the Athenians. And some time afterwards a Lacedæmonian force under King Agesipolis, the son of Pausanias, invaded the territory of Mantinea. And Agesipolis was victorious in the battle, and shut the Mantineans up in their fortress, and captured Mantinea[Pg 74] in no long time, not by storm, but by turning the river Ophis into the city through the walls which were built of unbaked brick. As to battering rams brick walls hold out better even than those made of stone, for the stones get broken and come out of position, so that brick walls suffer less, but unbaked brick is melted by water just as wax by the sun. This stratagem which Agesipolis employed against the walls of Mantinea was formerly employed by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, when he was besieging Boges the Mede and the Persians at Eion on the Strymon. So Agesipolis merely imitated what he had heard sung of by the Greeks. And when he took Mantinea, he left part of it habitable, but most of it he rased to the ground, and distributed the inhabitants in the various villages. The Thebans after the battle of Leuctra intended to restore the Mantineans from these villages to Mantinea. But though thus restored they were not at all faithful to the Thebans. For when they were besieged by the Lacedæmonians they made private overtures to them for peace, without acting in concert with the other Arcadians, and from fear of the Thebans openly entered into an offensive and defensive alliance with the Lacedæmonians, and in the battle fought on Mantinean territory between the Thebans under Epaminondas and the Lacedæmonians they ranged themselves with the Lacedæmonians. But after this the Mantineans and Lacedæmonians were at variance, and the former joined the Achæan League. And when Agis, the son of Eudamidas, was king of Sparta they defeated him in self defence by the help of an Achæan force under Aratus. They also joined the Achæans in the action against Cleomenes, and helped them in breaking down the power of the Lacedæmonians. And when Antigonus in Macedonia was Regent for Philip, the father of Perseus, who was still a boy, and was on most friendly terms with the Achæans, the Mantineans did several other things in his honour, and changed the name of their city to Antigonea. And long afterwards, when Augustus was about to fight the sea fight off the promontory of Apollo at Actium, the Mantineans fought on his side, though the rest of the Arcadians took part with Antony, for no other reason I think than that the Lacedæmonians were on the side of[Pg 75] Augustus. And ten generations afterwards when Adrian was Emperor, he took away from the Mantineans the imported name of Antigonea and restored the old name of Mantinea.

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

And the place where the tomb of Arcas is they call the altars of the Sun. And not far from the theatre are some famous tombs, Vesta called Common a round figure, and they say Antinoe the daughter of Cepheus lies here. And there is a pillar above another tomb, and a man on horseback carved on the pillar, Gryllus the son of Xenophon. And behind the theatre are ruins of a temple of Aphrodite[Pg 76] Symmachia and her statue, and the inscription on the basement of it states that Nicippe the daughter of Paseas offered it. And this temple was erected by the Mantineans as a record to posterity of the seafight off Actium fought by them in conjunction with the Romans. And they worship Athene Alea, and have a temple and statue of her. They also regard Antinous as a god, his temple is the latest in Mantinea, he was excessively beloved by the emperor Adrian. I never saw him alive but have seen statues and paintings of him. He has also honours elsewhere, and there is a city near the Nile in Egypt called after him, and the following is the reason why he was honoured at Mantinea. He belonged by birth to the town Bithynium in Bithynia beyond the river Sangarius, and the Bithynians were originally Arcadians from Mantinea. That is why the Emperor assigned him divine honours at Mantinea, and his rites are annual, and games are held to him every fifth year. And the Mantineans have a room in the Gymnasium which has statues of Antinous, and is in other respects well worth a visit for the precious stones with which it is adorned and the paintings, most of which are of Antinous and make him resemble young Dionysus. And moreover there is an imitation here of the painting at Ceramicus of the action of the Athenians at Mantinea. And in the market-place the Mantineans have the brazen image of a woman, who they say is Diomenea the daughter of Arcas, and they have also the hero-chapel of Podares, who they say fell in the battle against Epaminondas and the Thebans. But three generations before my time they changed the inscription on the tomb to suit a descendant and namesake of Podares, who lived at the period when one could become a Roman Citizen. But it was the old Podares that the Mantineans in my time honoured, saying that the bravest (whether of their own men or their allies) in the battle was Gryllus the son of Xenophon, and next Cephisodorus of Marathon, who was at that time the Commander of the Athenian Cavalry, and next Podares.

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

When you have passed the temple of Poseidon you come[Pg 78] to a trophy in stone erected for a victory over the Lacedæmonians and Agis. This was the disposition of the battle. On the right wing were the Mantineans themselves, with an army of all ages under the command of Podares, the great grandson of that Podares who had fought against the Thebans. They had also with them the seer from Elis, Thrasybulus the son of Æneas of the family of the Iamidæ, who prophesied victory for the Mantineans, and himself took part in the action. The rest of the Arcadians were posted on the left wing, each town had its own commander, and Megalopolis had two, Lydiades and Leocydes. And Aratus with the Sicyonians and Achæans occupied the centre. And Agis and the Lacedæmonians extended their line of battle that they might not be outflanked by the enemy, and Agis and his staff occupied the centre. And Aratus according to preconcerted arrangement with the Arcadians fell back (he and his army) when the Lacedæmonians pressed them hard, and as they fell back they formed the shape of a crescent. And Agis and the Lacedæmonians were keen for victory, and en masse pressed fiercely on Aratus and his division. And they were followed by the Lacedæmonians on the wings, who thought it would be a great stepping stone to victory to rout Aratus and his division. But the Arcadians meanwhile stole upon their flanks, and the Lacedæmonians being surrounded lost most of their men, and their king Agis the son of Eudamidas fell. And the Mantineans said that Poseidon appeared helping them, and that is why they erected their trophy as a votive offering to Poseidon. That the gods have been present at war and slaughter has been represented by those who have described the doings and sufferings of the heroes at Ilium, the Athenian poets have sung also that the gods took part in the battles at Marathon and Salamis. And manifestly the army of the Galati perished at Delphi through Apollo and the evident assistance of divine beings. So the victory here of the Mantineans may have been largely due to Poseidon. And they say that Leocydes, who with Lydiades was the general of the division from Megalopolis, was the ninth descendant from Arcesilaus who lived at Lycosura, of whom the Arcadians relate the legend that he saw a stag (which was sacred to the goddess Proserpine) of extreme[Pg 79] old age, on whose neck was a collar with the following inscription,

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

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

And the place called Phœzon is about 20 stades from these tombs, where is a tomb with a stone base, rising up somewhat from the ground. The road is very narrow at this place, and they say it is the tomb of Areithous, who was called Corynetes from the club which he used in battle. As you go about 30 stades along the road from Mantinea to Pallantium, the oak plantation called Pelagos extends along the highroad, and here the cavalry[Pg 80] of the Mantineans and Athenians fought against the Bœotian cavalry. And the Mantineans say that Epaminondas was killed here by Machærion a Mantinean, but the Lacedæmonians say that the Machærion who killed Epaminondas was a Spartan. But the Athenian account, corroborated by the Thebans, is that Epaminondas was mortally wounded by Gryllus: and this corresponds with the painting of the action at Mantinea. The Mantineans also seem to have given Gryllus a public funeral, and erected to him his statue on a pillar where he fell as the bravest man in the allied army: whereas Machærion, though the Lacedæmonians mention him, had no special honours paid to him as a brave man, either at Sparta or at Mantinea. And when Epaminondas was wounded they removed him yet alive out of the line of battle. And for a time he kept his hand on his wound, and gasped for breath, and looked earnestly at the fight, and the place where he kept so looking they called ever after Scope, (Watch), but when the battle was over then he took his hand from the wound and expired, and they buried him on the field of battle. And there is a pillar on his tomb, and a shield above it with a dragon as its device. The dragon is intended to intimate that Epaminondas was one of those who are called the Sparti, the seed of the dragon’s teeth. And there are two pillars on his tomb, one ancient with a Bœotian inscription, and the other erected by the Emperor Adrian with an inscription by him upon it. As to Epaminondas one might praise him as one of the most famous Greek generals for talent in war, indeed second to none. For the Lacedæmonian and Athenian generals were aided by the ancient renown of their states and the spirit of their soldiers: but the Thebans were dejected and used to obey other Greek states when Epaminondas in a short time put them into a foremost position.

Epaminondas had been warned by the oracle at Delphi before this to beware of Pelagos. Taking this word in its usual meaning of the sea he was careful not to set foot on a trireme or transport: but Apollo evidently meant this oak plantation Pelagos and not the sea. Places bearing the same name deceived Hannibal the Carthaginian later on, and the Athenians still earlier. For Hannibal had an oracle[Pg 81] from Ammon that he would die and be buried in Libyssa. Accordingly he hoped that he would destroy the power of Rome, and return home to Libya and die there in old age. But when Flaminius the Roman made all diligence to take him alive, he went to the court of Prusias as a suppliant, and being rejected by him mounted his horse, and in drawing his sword wounded his finger. And he had not gone on many stades when a fever from the wound came on him, and he died the third day after, and the place where he died was called Libyssa by the people of Nicomedia. The oracle at Dodona also told the Athenians to colonize Sicily. Now not far from Athens is a small hill called Sicily. And they, not understanding that it was this Sicily that the oracle referred to, were induced to go on expeditions beyond their borders and to engage in the fatal war against Syracuse. And one might find other similar cases to these.

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

From Mantinea a road leads to the village Methydrium, formerly a town, now included in Megalopolis. When you have gone 30 stades further you come to the plain called Alcimedon, and above it is the mountain Ostracina, where the cave is where Alcimedon, one of the men called Heroes, used to dwell. Hercules according to the tradition of the Phigalians had an intrigue with Phialo, the daughter of this Alcimedon. When Alcimedon found out she was a mother he exposed her and her boy immediately after his birth on the mountain. Æchmagoras was the name given to the boy according to the Arcadians. And the boy crying out when[Pg 82] he was exposed, the bird called the jay heard his wailing and imitated it. And Hercules happening to pass by heard the jay, and thinking it was the cry of his boy and not the bird, turned at the sound, and when he perceived Phialo he loosed her from her bonds and saved the boy’s life. From that time the well has been called Jay from the bird. And about 40 stades from this well is the place called Petrosaca, the boundary between Megalopolis and Mantinea.

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

There still remains the road which leads to Orchomenus, on which is the mountain Anchisia, and the tomb of Anchises at the foot of the mountain. For when Æneas was crossing to Sicily he landed in Laconia, and founded the towns Aphrodisias and Etis, and his father Anchises for some reason or other coming to this place and dying there was also buried at the foot of the mountain called Anchisia after him. And this tradition is confirmed by the fact that the Æolians who now inhabit Ilium nowhere shew in their country the tomb of Anchises. And near the tomb[Pg 83] of Anchises are ruins of a temple of Aphrodite, and Anchisia is the boundary between the districts of Mantinea and Orchomenus.

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

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

And opposite the town is the mountain called Trachys. And rainwater flows through a hollow ravine between Orchomenus and Mount Trachys, and descends into another plain belonging to Orchomenus. This plain is not very large, and most of it is marsh. And as you go on about three stades from Orchomenus, a straight road takes you[Pg 84] to the town of Caphya by the ravine, and after that on the left hand by the marsh. And another road, after you have crossed the water that flows through the ravine, takes you under the mountain Trachys. And on this road the first thing you come to is the tomb of Aristocrates, who violated the priestess of Artemis Hymnia. And next to the tomb of Aristocrates are the wells called Teneæ, and about 7 stades further is a place called Amilus, which they say was formerly a town. At this place the road branches off into two directions, one towards Stymphelus, and the other towards Pheneus. And as you go to Pheneus a mountain will lie before you, which is the joint boundary for Orchomenus and Pheneus and Caphya. And a lofty precipice called the Caphyatic rock projects from the mountain. Next to the boundary I have mentioned is a ravine, and a road leads through it to Pheneus. And in the middle of this ravine some water comes out from a fountain, and at the end of the ravine is the town of Caryæ.

And the plain of Pheneus lies below Caryæ, and they say the old Pheneus was destroyed by a deluge: even in our day there are marks on the hills where the water rose to. And about 5 stades from Caryæ are the mountains Oryxis and Sciathis, at the bottom of each of which mountains is a pit which receives the water from the plain. And these pits the people of Pheneus say are wrought by hand, for they were made by Hercules when he lived at Pheneus with Laonome, the mother of Amphitryon, for Amphitryon was the son of Alcæus by Laonome, the daughter of Gyneus a woman of Pheneus, and not by Lysidice the daughter of Pelops. And if Hercules really dwelt at Pheneus, one may easily suppose that, when he was expelled from Tiryns by Eurystheus, he did not go immediately to Thebes but first to Pheneus. Hercules also dug through the middle of the plain of Pheneus a channel for the river Olbius, which river some of the Arcadians call Aroanius and not Olbius. The length of[Pg 85] this canal is about 50 stades, and the depth where the banks have not fallen in about 30 feet. The river however does not now follow this channel, but has returned to its old channel, having deserted Hercules’ canal.

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

And as you descend about a stade from the citadel you come to the tomb of Iphicles, the brother of Hercules and the father of Iolaus, on an eminence. Iolaus according to the tradition of the Greeks assisted Hercules in most of his Labours. And Iphicles the father of Iolaus, when Hercules fought his first battle against Augeas and the people of Elis, was wounded by the sons of Actor who were called Molinidæ from their mother Moline, and his[Pg 86] relations conveyed him to Pheneus in a very bad condition, and there Buphagus (a native of Pheneus) and his wife Promne took care of him, and buried him as he died of his wound. And to this day they pay him the honours they pay to heroes. And of the gods the people of Pheneus pay most regard to Hermes, and they call their games Hermæa. And they have a temple of Hermes, and a stone statue of the god made by the Athenian Euchir the son of Eubulides. And behind the temple is the tomb of Myrtilus. This Myrtilus was, the Greeks say, the son of Hermes, and charioteer to Œnomaus, and when any one came to court the daughter of Œnomaus, Myrtilus ingeniously spurred the horses of Œnomaus, and, whenever he caught up any suitor in the race, he hurled a dart at him and so killed him. And Myrtilus himself was enamoured of Hippodamia, but did not venture to compete for her hand, but continued Œnomaus’ charioteer. But eventually they say he betrayed Œnomaus, seduced by the oaths that Pelops made to him, that if he won he would let Myrtilus enjoy Hippodamia one night. But when he reminded Pelops of his oath he threw him out of a ship into the sea. And the dead body of Myrtilus was washed ashore, and taken up and buried by the people of Pheneus, so they say, and annually by night they pay him honours. Clearly Pelops cannot have had much sea to sail on, except from the mouth of the Alpheus to the seaport of Elis. The Myrtoan Sea cannot therefore have been named after this Myrtilus, for it begins at Eubœa and joins the Ægean by the desert island of Helene, but those who seem to me to interpret best the antiquities of Eubœa say that the Myrtoan Sea got its name from a woman called Myrto.

At Pheneus they have also a temple of Eleusinian Demeter, and they celebrate the rites of the goddess just the same as at Eleusis, according to their statement. For they say that Naus, who was the great grandson of Eumolpus, came to them in obedience to the oracle at [Pg 87] Delphi, and brought these mysteries. And near the temple of Eleusinian Demeter is what is called Petroma, two large stones fitting into one another. And they celebrate here annually what they call their great rites, they detach these stones, and take from them some writings relative to these rites, and when they have read them in the ears of the initiated they replace them again the same night. And I know that most of the inhabitants of Pheneus regard “By Petroma” their most solemn oath. And there is a round covering on Petroma with a likeness of Cidarian Demeter inside, the priest puts this likeness on his robes at what they call the great rites, when according to the tradition he strikes the earth with rods and summons the gods of the lower world. The people of Pheneus also have a tradition that before Naus Demeter came here in the course of her wanderings, and to all the people of Pheneus that received her hospitably the goddess gave other kinds of pulse but no beans. Why they do not consider beans a pure kind of pulse, is a sacred tradition. Those who according to the tradition of the people of Pheneus received the goddess were Trisaules and Damithales, and they built a temple to Demeter Thesmia under Mount Cyllene, where they established her rites as they are now celebrated. And this temple is about 15 stades from Pheneus.

As you go on about 15 stades from Pheneus in the direction of Pellene and Ægira in Achaia, you come to a temple of Pythian Apollo, of which there are only ruins, and a large altar in white stone. The people of Pheneus still sacrifice here to Apollo and Artemis, and say that Hercules built the temple after the capture of Elis. There are also here the tombs of the heroes who joined Hercules in the expedition against Elis and were killed in the battle. And Telamon is buried very near the river Aroanius, at a little distance from the temple of Apollo, and Chalcodon not far from the well called Œnoe’s well. As one was the father of that Elephenor who led the Eubœans to Ilium, and the other the father of Ajax and Teucer, no one will credit that they fell in this battle. For how could Chalcodon have assisted Hercules in this affair, since Amphitryon is declared to have slain him earlier according to Theban information that we can rely on? And how would Teucer [Pg 88] have founded Salamis in Cyprus, if nobody had banished him from home on his return from Troy? And who but Telamon could have banished him? Manifestly therefore Chalcodon from Eubœa and Telamon from Ægina could not have taken part with Hercules in this expedition against Elis: they must have been obscure men of the same name as those famous men, a casual coincidence such as has happened in all ages.

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

And as you go eastwards from Pheneus you come to the promontory of Geronteum, and by it is a road. And Geronteum is the boundary between the districts of Pheneus and Stymphelus. And as you leave Geronteum on the left and go through the district of Pheneus you come to the mountains called Tricrena, where there are three wells. In these they say the mountain nymphs washed Hermes when he was born, and so they consider these wells sacred to Hermes. And not far from Tricrena is another hill called Sepia, and here they say Æpytus the son of Elatus died of the bite of a serpent, and here they buried him, for they could not carry his dead body further. These serpents are still (the Arcadians say) to be found on the hill but in no great quantity, for every year much of it is covered with snow, and those serpents that the snow catches outside of [Pg 89] their holes are killed by it, and if they first get back to their holes, yet the snow kills part of them even there, as the bitter cold sometimes penetrates to their holes. I was curious to see the tomb of Æpytus, because Homer mentions it in his lines about the Arcadians.[26] It is a pile of earth not very high, surrounded by a coping of stone. It was likely to inspire wonder in Homer as he had seen no more notable tomb. For when he compared the dancing-ground wrought by Hephæstus on Achilles’ shield to the dancing-ground made by Dædalus for Ariadne,[27] it was because he had seen nothing more clever. And though I know many wonderful tombs I will only mention two, one in Halicarnassus and one in the land of the Hebrews. The one in Halicarnassus was built for Mausolus king of Halicarnassus, and is so large and wonderful in all its adornation, that the Romans in their admiration of it call all notable tombs Mausoleums. And the Hebrews have in the city of Jerusalem, which has been rased to the ground by the Roman Emperor, a tomb of Helen a woman of that country, which is so contrived that the door, which is of stone like all the rest of the tomb, cannot be opened except on one particular day and month of the year. And then it opens by the machinery alone, and keeps open for some little time and then shuts again. But at any other time of the year anyone trying to open it could not do so, you would have to smash it before you could open it.

Not far from the tomb of Æpytus is Cyllene the highest of the mountains in Arcadia, and the ruins of a temple of Cyllenian Hermes on the top of the mountain. It is clear that both the mountain and god got their title from Cyllen the son of Elatus. And men of old, as far as we can ascertain, had various kinds of wood out of which they made statues, as ebony, cypress, cedar, oak, yew, lotus. But the statue of Cyllenian Hermes is made of none of these but of the wood of the juniper tree. It is about 8 feet high I [Pg 90] should say. Cyllene has the following phenomenon. Blackbirds all-white lodge in it. Those that are called by the Bœotians by the same name are a different kind of bird, and are not vocal. The white eagles that resemble swans very much and are called swan-eagles I have seen on Sipylus near the marsh of Tantalus, and individuals have got from Thrace before now white boars and white bears. And white hares are bred in Libya, and white deer I have myself seen and admired in Rome, but where they came from, whether from the mainland or islands, it did not occur to me to inquire. Let this much suffice relative to the blackbirds of Mount Cyllene, that no one may discredit what I have said about their colour.

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

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

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

[Pg 91]

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

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

Beyond Nonacris there are some mountains called Aroania and a cave in them, into which they say the daughters of Prœtus fled when they went mad, till Melampus[Pg 92] brought them back to a place called Lusi, and cured them by secret sacrifices and purifications. The people of Pheneus graze their flocks on most of the mountains Aroania, but Lusi is on the borders of Clitor. It was they say formerly a town, and Agesilaus a native of it was proclaimed victor with a race-horse, when the Amphictyones celebrated the eleventh Pythiad, but in our days there are not even any ruins of it in existence. So the daughters of Prœtus were brought back by Melampus to Lusi, and healed of their madness in the temple of Artemis, and ever since the people of Clitor call Artemis Hemerasia.

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

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

From the springs of Ladon it is 60 stades to the town of Clitor, the road is a narrow path by the river Aroanius. And near the town you cross a river called[Pg 94] Clitor, which flows into the Aroanius about 7 stades from the town. There are various kinds of fish in the river Aroanius, especially some variegated ones which have they say a voice like the thrush. I have seen them caught but never heard their voice, though I have waited by the riverside till sunset, when they are said to be most vocal.

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

I return to Stymphelus and to Geronteum, the boundary between the districts of Pheneus and Stymphelus. The people of Stymphelus are no longer ranked as Arcadians, but are in the Argolic League from their own choice. But that they are of Arcadian race is testified by Homer, and Stymphelus, the founder of the town, was great grandson of Arcas, the son of Callisto. He is said originally to have built the town on another site than that it now occupies. In old Stymphelus lived they say Temenus the son of Pelasgus, who brought up Hera, and built three temples to the goddess and called her by three titles, when she was still a maiden the Child-goddess, and after she was married to Zeus he called her the Full-grown, and after she broke with Zeus for some reason or other and returned to Stymphelus he called her the Widow. This is the tradition about the goddess at Stymphelus. But the town in our day has none of these temples, though it has the following remarkable things. There is a spring from which the Emperor [Pg 95] Adrian conveyed water to the town of Corinth. In winter this spring converts a small marsh into the river Stymphelus, but in summer the marsh is dry, and the river is only fed by the spring. This river soaks into the ground, and comes up again in Argolis, where its name is changed to Erasinus. About this river Stymphelus there is a tradition that some man-eating birds lived on its banks, whom Hercules is said to have killed with his arrows. But Pisander of Camirus says that Hercules did not kill them but only frightened them away with the noise of rattles. The desert of Arabia has among other monsters some birds called Stymphelides, who are as savage to men as lions and leopards. They attack those who come to capture them, and wound them with their beaks and kill them. They pierce through coats of mail that men wear, and if they put on thick robes of mat, the beaks of these birds penetrate them too, as the wings of little birds stick in bird-lime. Their size is about that of the crane, and they are like storks, but their beaks are stronger and not crooked like those of storks. Whether these birds now in Arabia, that have the same name as those formerly in Arcadia, are similar in appearance I do not know, but if there have been in all time these Stymphelides like hawks and eagles, then they are probably of Arabian origin, and some of them may formerly have flown from Arabia to Stymphelus in Arcadia. They may also have been originally called some other name than Stymphelides by the Arabians: and the fame of Hercules, and the superiority of the Greeks to the barbarians, may have made the name Stymphelides prevail to our day over their former name in the desert of Arabia. At Stymphelus there is also an ancient temple of Stymphelian Artemis, the statue is wooden but most of it gilt over. And on the roof of the temple is a representation of these birds called Stymphelides. It is difficult to decide whether it is in wood or plaster, but I conjecture more likely in wood than plaster. There are also represented some maidens in white stone with legs like birds, standing behind the temple. And in our days a wonderful thing is said to have happened. They were celebrating at Stymphelus the festival of Stymphelian Artemis rather negligently, and violating most of[Pg 96] the established routine, when a tree fell at the opening of the cavity where the river Stymphelus goes underground, and blocked up the passage, so that the plain became a marsh for 400 stades. And they say that a hunter was pursuing a fleeing deer, and it jumped into the swamp, and the hunter in the heat of the chase jumped in after it: and it swallowed up both deer and man. And they say the water of the river followed them, so that in a day the whole water in the plain was dried up, they having opened a way for it. And since that time they have celebrated the festival of Artemis with greater ardour.

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

I have shewn in my account of Orchomenus that the straight road is by the ravine, and that there is another on the left of the lake. And in the plain of Caphyæ there is a reservoir, by which the water from the territory of Orchomenus is kept in, so as not to harm the fertile district. And within this reservoir some other water, in volume nearly as large as a river, is absorbed in the ground and comes up again at what is called Nasi, near a village called Rheunos, and it forms there the perennial river called Tragus. The town gets its name clearly from Cepheus the son of Aleus, but the name Caphyæ has prevailed through the Arcadian dialect. And the inhabitants trace their origin to Attica, they say they were expelled by Ægeus from Athens and fled to Arcadia, and supplicated Cepheus to allow them to dwell there. The town is at the end of the plain at the foot of some not very high hills, and has temples of Poseidon and of Cnacalesian Artemis, so called from the mountain Cnacalus where the goddess[Pg 97] has annual rites. A little above the town is a well and by it a large and beautiful plane-tree, which they call Menelaus’, for they say that when he was mustering his army against Troy he came here and planted it by the well, and in our day they call the well as well as the plane-tree Menelaus’. And if we may credit the traditions of the Greeks about old trees still alive and flourishing, the oldest is the willow in the temple of Hera at Samos, and next it the oak at Dodona, and the olive in the Acropolis and at Delos, and the Syrians would assign the third place for its antiquity to their laurel, and of all others this plane-tree is the most ancient.

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

The founder of Psophis was they say Psophis the son of Arrho, (the son of Erymanthus, the son of Aristas, the son of Parthaon, the son of Periphetes, the son of Nyctimus): others say Psophis the daughter of Xanthus, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Arcas. This is the Arcadian account. But the truest tradition is that Psophis was the daughter of Eryx, the ruler in Sicania, who would not receive her into his house as she was pregnant, but intrusted her to Lycortas, a friend of his who dwelt at Phegia, which was called Erymanthus before the reign of Phegeus: and Echephron and Promachus (her sons by Hercules) who were brought up there changed the name of Phegia into Psophis after their mother’s name. The citadel at Zacynthus is also named Psophis, for the first settler who sailed over to that island was from Psophis, Zacynthus the son of Dardanus. From Siræ Psophis is about 30 stades, and the river Aroanius, and at a little distance the Erymanthus, flow by the town. The Erymanthus has its sources in the mountain Lampea, which is they say sacred to Pan, and may be a part of Mount Erymanthus. Homer has represented Erymanthus as a hunter on Taygetus and Erymanthus, and a lover of Lampea, and as passing through Arcadia, (leaving the mountain Pholoe on the right and Thelpusa on the left), and becoming a tributary of the Alpheus. And it is said that Hercules at the orders of Eurystheus hunted the boar (which exceeded all others in size and strength), on the banks of the Erymanthus. And the people of Cumæ in the Opic territory say that some boar’s teeth which they have stored up in the temple of Apollo are the teeth of this Erymanthian boar, but their tradition has little probability in it. And the people of Psophis have a temple of Aphrodite surnamed Erycina, which is now only in ruins, and was built (so the story goes) by the sons of Psophis, which is not improbable. For there is in Sicily in the country near Mount Eryx a temple of Aphrodite Erycina, most holy from its hoary antiquity and as wealthy as the temple at Paphos. And there are still traces of hero-chapels[Pg 99] of Promachus and Echephron the sons of Psophis. And at Psophis Alcmæon the son of Amphiaraus is buried, whose tomb is neither very large nor beautified, except by some cypress trees which grow to such a height, that the hill near is shaded by them. These trees are considered sacred to Alcmæon so that the people will not cut them down, and the people of the place call them Maidens. Alcmæon came to Psophis, when he fled from Argos after slaying his mother, and there married Alphesibœa the daughter of Phegeus, (from whom Psophis was still called Phegia), and gave her gifts as was usual and among others the famous necklace. And as while he dwelt in Arcadia his madness became no better, he consulted the oracle at Delphi, and the Pythian Priestess informed him that the Avenger of his mother Eriphyle would follow him to every place except to a spot which was most recent, and made by the action of the sea since he had stained himself with his mother’s blood. And he found a place which the Achelous had made by silting and dwelt there, and married Callirhoe the daughter of Achelous according to the tradition of the Acarnanians, and had by her two sons Acarnan and Amphoterus, from the former of whom the Acarnanians on the mainland got their present name, for they were before called Curetes. And many men and still more women come to grief through foolish desires. Callirhoe desired that the necklace of Eriphyle should be hers, and so she sent Alcmæon against his will into Phegia, where his death was treacherously compassed by Temenus and Axion, the sons of Phegeus, who are said to have offered the necklace to Apollo at Delphi. And it was during their reign in the town then called Phegia that the Greeks went on the expedition against Troy, in which the people of Psophis say they took no part, because the leaders of the Argives had an hostility with their kings, as most of them were relations of Alcmæon and had shared in his expedition against Thebes. And the reason why the islands called the Echinades formed by the Achelous got separated from the mainland, was because when the Ætolians were driven out the land became deserted, and, as Ætolia was uncultivated, the Achelous did not deposit as much mud as usual. What confirms my account is that the[Pg 100] Mæander, that flowed for so many years through the arable parts of Phrygia and Caria, in a short time converted the sea between Priene and Miletus into mainland. The people of Psophis also have a temple and statue on the banks of the Erymanthus to the River-God Erymanthus. Except the Nile in Egypt all River-Gods have statues in white stone, but the Nile, as it flows through Ethiopia to the sea, has its statues generally made of black stone.

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

On the road from Psophis to Thelpusa the first place you come to is on the left of the river Ladon and called Tropæa, and close to it is the oak-coppice called Aphrodisium, and thirdly you come to some ancient writing on a pillar which forms the boundary between the territory of Psophis and Thelpusa. In the district of Thelpusa is a river called Arsen, after crossing which you will come about 25 stades further to the ruins of a village called Caus, and a temple of Causian Æsculapius built by the wayside. Thelpusa is about 40 stades from this temple, and was called they say after the River-Nymph Thelpusa, the daughter of Ladon. The river Ladon has its source, as I have already stated, in the neighbourhood of Clitor, and flows first by Lucasium and Mesoboa and Nasi to Oryx and what is called Halus,[Pg 101] and thence to Thaliades and the temple of Eleusinian Demeter close to Thelpusa, which has statues in it no less than 7 feet high of Demeter, Proserpine, and Dionysus, all in stone. And next to this temple of Eleusinian Demeter the river Ladon flows on leaving Thelpusa on the left, which lies on a lofty ridge, and has now few inhabitants, indeed the market-place which is now at the end of the town was originally they say in the very centre. There is also at Thelpusa a temple of Æsculapius, and a temple of the twelve gods mostly in ruins. And after passing Thelpusa the Ladon flows on to the temple of Demeter at Onceum: and the people of Thelpusa call the goddess Erinys, as Antimachus also in his description of the expedition of the Argives to Thebes, in the line,

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

[Pg 102]

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

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

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

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

The river Ladon next leaves in its course on its left the temple of Erinys as also the temple of Oncean Apollo, and on its right the temple of the Boy Æsculapius, which also contains the tomb of Trygon, who they say was the nurse of Æsculapius. For Æsculapius as a boy was exposed at Thelpusa, and found by Autolaus the bastard son of Arcas and brought up by him, and that is I think the reason why a temple was erected to the Boy Æsculapius, as I have set forth in my account of Epidaurus. And there is a river called Tuthoa, which flows into the Ladon near the boundary between the districts of Thelpusa and Heræa called by the Arcadians Plain. And where the Ladon flows into the Alpheus is what is called the Island of Crows. Some think that Enispe and Stratie and Rhipe mentioned by Homer were islands formed by the Ladon and formerly inhabited, but let them know the idea is a foolish one, for the Ladon could never form islands such as a boat could pass. For though in beauty it is second to no[Pg 103] Greek or barbarian river, it is not wide enough to make islands as the Ister or Eridanus.

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

There is a small town also called Aliphera, which was abandoned by many of its inhabitants at the time the Arcadian colony was formed at Megalopolis. To get to Aliphera from Heræa you cross the Alpheus, and when you have gone along the plain about 10 stades you arrive at a mountain, and about 30 stades further you will get to Aliphera over the mountain. The town got its name from Alipherus the son of Lycaon, and has temples of Æsculapius and Athene. The latter they worship most, and say that she was born and reared among them; they have also[Pg 104] built an altar here to Zeus Lecheates, so called because he gave birth to Athene here. And they call their fountain Tritonis, adopting as their own the tradition about the river Triton. And there is a statue of Athene in bronze, the work of Hypatodorus, notable both for its size and artistic merit. They have also a public festival to one of the gods, who I think must be Athene. In this public festival they sacrifice first of all to Muiagrus (Flycatcher), and offer to him vows and call upon him, and when they have done this they think they will no longer be troubled by flies. And on the road from Heræa to Megalopolis is Melæneæ, which was founded by Melæneus the son of Lycaon, but is deserted in our day, being swamped with water. And 40 stades higher is Buphagium, where the river Buphagus rises, which falls into the Alpheus. And the sources of the Buphagus are the boundary between the districts of Megalopolis and Heræa.

Megalopolis is the most recent city not only in Arcadia but in all Greece, except those which have been filled by settlers from Rome in the changes made by the Roman Empire. And the Arcadians crowded into it to swell its strength, remembering that the Argives in older days had run almost daily risk of being reduced in war by the Lacedæmonians, but when they had made Argos strong by an influx of population then they were able to reduce Tiryns, and Hysiæ, and Orneæ, and Mycenæ, and Midea, and other small towns of no great importance in Argolis, and had not only less fear of the Lacedæmonians but were stronger as regards their neighbours generally. Such was the idea which made the Arcadians crowd into Megalopolis. The founder of the city might justly be called Epaminondas the Theban: for he it was that stirred up the Arcadians to this colonization, and sent 1,000 picked Thebans, with Parmenes as their leader, to defend the Arcadians should the Lacedæmonians attempt to prevent the colonization. And the Arcadians chose as founders of the colony Lycomedes[Pg 105] and Opoleas from Mantinea, and Timon and Proxenus from Tegea, and Cleolaus and Acriphius from Clitor, and Eucampidas and Hieronymus from Mænalus, and Possicrates and Theoxenus from Parrhasium. And the towns which were persuaded by the Arcadians (out of liking for them and hatred to the Lacedæmonians) to leave their own native places were Alea, Pallantium, Eutæa, Sumateum, Iasæa, Peræthes, Helisson, Oresthasium, Dipæa, Lycæa, all these from Mænalus. And of the Entresii Tricoloni, and Zœtium, and Charisia, and Ptolederma, and Cnausus, and Parorea. And of the Ægytæ Scirtonium, and Malæa, and Cromi, and Blenina, and Leuctrum. And of the Parrhasii Lycosura, and Thocnia, and Trapezus, and Proses, and Acacesium, and Acontium, and Macaria, and Dasea. And of the Cynuræans in Arcadia Gortys, and Thisoa near Mount Lycæus, and Lycæatæ, and Aliphera. And of those which were ranked with Orchomenus Thisoa, and Methydrium, and Teuthis, and moreover the town called Tripolis, and Dipœna, and Nonacris. And the rest of Arcadia fell in with the general plan, and zealously gathered into Megalopolis. The people of Lycæatæ and Tricolonus and Lycosura and Trapezus were the only Arcadians that changed their minds, and, as they did not agree to leave their old cities, some of them were forced into Megalopolis against their will, and the people of Trapezus evacuated the Peloponnese altogether, all that is that were not killed by the Arcadians in their fierce anger, and those that got away safe sailed to Pontus, and were received as colonists by those who dwelt at Trapezus on the Euxine, seeing that they came from the mother-city and bare the same name. But the people of Lycosura though they had refused compliance yet, as they had fled for refuge to their temple, were spared from awe of Demeter and Proserpine. And of the other towns which I have mentioned some are altogether without inhabitants in our day, and others are villages under Megalopolis, as Gortys, Dipœna, Thisoa near Orchomenus, Methydrium, Teuthis, Calliæ, and Helisson. And Pallantium was the only town in that day that seemed to find the deity mild. But Aliphera has continued a town from of old up to this day.

[Pg 106]

Megalopolis was colonized a year and a few months after the reverse of the Lacedæmonians at Leuctra, when Phrasiclides was Archon at Athens, in the second year of the 102nd Olympiad, when Damon of Thuria was victor in the course. And the people of Megalopolis, after being enrolled in alliance with Thebes, had nothing to fear from the Lacedæmonians. So they thought. But when the Thebans commenced what is called the Sacred War and the people of Phocis attacked them, who were on the borders of Bœotia, and had plenty of money as they had seized on the temple stores at Delphi, then the Lacedæmonians in their zeal tried to drive out the people of Megalopolis and the other Arcadians, but as they stoutly defended themselves, and were openly assisted by their neighbours, nothing very remarkable happened on either side. But the hostility between the Arcadians and the Lacedæmonians tended to increase greatly the power of the Macedonians and Philip the son of Amyntas, as neither at Chæronea nor again in Thessaly did the Arcadians fight on the side of the Greeks. And no long time after Aristodemus seized the chief power in Megalopolis. He was a Phigalian by race and the son of Artylas, but had been adopted by Tritæus, one of the leading men in Megalopolis. This Aristodemus, in spite of his seizing the chief power, was yet called Good man and True. For when he was in power the Lacedæmonians marched with an army into the district of Megalopolis under Acrotatus, the eldest of the sons of their king Cleomenes—I have already given his genealogy and that of all the kings of Sparta—and in a fierce battle that ensued, in which many were slain on both sides, the men of Megalopolis were victorious, and among the Spartans who fell was Acrotatus, who thus lost his chance of succession. And two generations after the death of Aristodemus Lydiades seized the chief power: he was of no obscure family, and by nature very ambitious, (as he showed himself afterwards), and yet a patriot. For he was very young when he had the chief power, and when he came to years of discretion he voluntarily abdicated his power, though it was quite firmly established. And, when the people of Megalopolis joined the Achæan League, Lydiades was held in such high honour, both by his own city and by all the Achæans, that his fame was equal to that of Aratus. And[Pg 107] again the Lacedæmonians in full force under the king of the other family, Agis the son of Eudamidas, marched against Megalopolis, with a larger and better-equipped army than that which Acrotatus had gathered together, and defeated the people of Megalopolis who came out to meet them, and bringing a mighty battering-ram against the walls gave the tower a strong shake, and the next day hoped to batter it down all together. But the North Wind was it seems destined to be a benefactor to all the Greeks, for it shattered most of the Persian ships at the rocks called Sepiades,[33] and the same Wind prevented the capture of Megalopolis, for it broke in pieces Agis’ battering-ram by a strong continuous and irresistible blast. This Agis, whom the North Wind thus prevented taking Megalopolis, is the same who was driven out of Pellene in Achaia by the Sicyonians under Aratus[34] and who afterwards died at Mantinea. And no long time afterwards Cleomenes the son of Leonidas took Megalopolis in time of peace. And some of the inhabitants bravely defending their city in the night were driven out, and Lydiades fell in the action fighting in a manner worthy of his renown: and Philopœmen the son of Craugis saved about two-thirds of the lads and grown men, and fled with the women to Messenia. And Cleomenes slew all he captured, and rased the city to the ground, and burnt it with fire. How the people of Megalopolis recovered their city, and what they did after their restoration to it, I shall narrate when I come to Philopœmen. And the Lacedæmonian nation had no share in the sufferings of the people of Megalopolis, for Cleomenes had changed the constitution from a kingdom to an autocracy.

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

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

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

Near the district of Thisoa is a village called Teuthis, formerly a town. In the war against Ilium it furnished a leader whose name was Teuthis, or according to others Ornytus. But when the winds were unfavourable to the Greeks at Aulis, and a contrary wind detained them there some time, Teuthis had some quarrel with Agamemnon, and was going to march back with his detachment of Arcadians. Then they say Athene in the semblance of Melas the son of [Pg 109] Ops tried to divert Teuthis from his homeward march. But he in his boiling rage ran his spear into the goddess’ thigh, and marched his army back from Aulis. And when he got back home he thought the goddess shewed him her wounded thigh. And from that time a wasting disease seized on Teuthis, and that was the only part of Arcadia where the land produced no fruit. And some time after several oracular responses were given from Dodona, shewing them how to propitiate the goddess, and they made a statue of Athene with a wound in her thigh. I have seen this statue with the thigh bound with a purple bandage. In Teuthis there are also temples of Aphrodite and Artemis. So much for Teuthis.

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

After crossing the Alpheus you come to the district of Trapezus, and the ruins of the town of Trapezus, and again as you turn to the Alpheus on the left from Trapezus is a place not far from the river called Bathos, where every third year they have rites to the Great Goddesses. And there is a spring there called Olympias, which flows only every other year, and near it fire comes out of the ground. And the Arcadians say that the fabled battle between the giants and the gods took place here, and not at Pallene in Thrace, and they sacrifice here to thunder and lightning and storms. In the Iliad Homer has not mentioned the Giants, but in the Odyssey[35] he has stated that the Læstrygones who attacked the ships of Odysseus were like giants and not men, he has also represented the king of the[Pg 110] Phæacians saying that the Phæacians are near the gods as the Cyclopes and the race of giants.[36] But in the following lines he shews very clearly that the giants are mortal and not a divine race:

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

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

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

The river Helisson divides Megalopolis into two parts, as Cnidos and Mitylene are divided by their channels, and the market-place is built in a northerly direction, on the right of the river’s course. There are precincts and a stone temple to Lycæan Zeus. But there is no approach to it, for the inside is visible, there are altars to the god and two tables and as many eagles. And there is a stone statue of Pan, surnamed Œnois from the Nymph Œnoe, who used to be with the other Nymphs, and was privately Pan’s nurse. And in front of the sacred precincts is a brazen statue of Apollo, very fine, about 12 feet high, it was a contribution from Phigalia towards the beautifying of Megalopolis. And the place where the statue was originally put by the people of Phigalia was called Bassæ. Epicurius, the title of the god, accompanied the statue from Phigalia, the origin of that title I shall explain when I come to Phigalia. And on the right of the statue of Apollo is a small statue of the Mother of the Gods, but no remains of the temple except the pillars. In front of the temple is no statue of the Mother, but the bases on which statues are put are visible. And an elegiac couplet on one of the bases says that the effigy there was Diophanes the son of Diæus, who first ranged all the Peloponnese into what is called the Achæan League. And the portico in the market-place called Philip’s was not erected by Philip the son of Amyntas, but the people of Megalopolis to gratify him named it after him. And a temple was built close to it to Hermes Acacesius, of which nothing now remains but a stone tortoise. And near Philip’s portico is another not so large, which contains six public offices for the magistrates of Megalopolis: in one of them is a statue of Ephesian Artemis, and in another a brazen Pan a cubit high surnamed Scolitas.[Pg 112] Pan got this title from the hill Scolitas, which is inside the walls, and from which water flows into the Helisson from a spring. And behind these public offices is a temple of Fortune, and a stone statue five feet high. And the portico which they call Myropolis is in the market-place, it was built out of the spoils taken from the Lacedæmonians under Acrotatus the son of Cleomenes, who were defeated fighting against Aristodemus, who at that time had the chief power in Megalopolis. And in the market-place behind the precincts sacred to Lycæan Zeus is the statue on a pillar of Polybius the son of Lycortas. Some elegiac verses are inscribed stating that he travelled over every land and sea, and was an ally of the Romans and appeased their wrath against Greece. This was the Polybius that wrote the history of Rome, and the origin and history of the Carthaginian war, and how at last not without a mighty struggle Scipio, whom they called Africanus, put an end to the war and rased Carthage to the ground. And when the Roman General followed the advice that Polybius gave, things went well, when he did not he met they say with misfortune. And all the Greek cities that joined the Achæan League got the Romans to allow Polybius to fix their constitution and frame their laws. And the council chamber is on the left of Polybius’ statue.

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

And the west end of the portico has precincts sacred to the Great Goddesses. They are Demeter and Proserpine, as I have already set forth in my account of Messenia, and Proserpine is called by the Arcadians Preserver.[Pg 113] And on figures in relief at the entrance are Artemis, Æsculapius, and Hygiea. And of the Great Goddesses Demeter is in stone throughout, Proserpine has the parts under her dress of wood, the height of both statues is about 15 feet. The statues in front of 2 moderate-sized maidens, in tunics that come down to their ankles, are they say the daughters of Damophon, each of them has a basket on her head full of flowers. But those who think they are divinities take them to be Athene and Artemis gathering flowers with Proserpine. There is also a Hercules by Demeter about a cubit high, Onomacritus in his verses says that this Hercules was one of the Idæan Dactyli. There is a table in front of him, and on it are carved two Seasons, and Pan with his reed-pipe, and Apollo with his lyre. There is also an inscription stating that they were among the earliest gods. On the table are also carved the following Nymphs, Neda carrying Zeus while still a baby, and Anthracia one of the Arcadian Nymphs with a torch, and Hagno with a water-pot in one hand and in the other a bowl, Archirhoe and Myrtoessa also are carrying water-pots and water is trickling from them. And inside the precincts is the temple of Friendly Zeus, the statue is like Dionysus and is by the Argive Polycletus. The god has buskins on, and a cup in one hand, and in the other a thyrsus, and an eagle perched on the thyrsus. This last is the only thing which does not harmonize with the legendary Dionysus. And behind this temple is a small grove of trees surrounded by a wall, into which men may not enter. And before it are statues of Demeter and Proserpine about 3 feet high. And inside the precincts is a temple of the Great Goddesses and of Aphrodite. Before the entrance are some old wooden statues of Hera and Apollo and the Muses, brought they say from Trapezus. The statues in the temple were made by Damophon, Hermes’ in wood, and Aphrodite’s in wood, except her hands and head and toes, which are of stone. And they surname the Goddess Inventive, most properly in my opinion, for most inventions come from Aphrodite whether in word or deed. There are also in a room some statues of Callignotus and Mentas and Sosigenes and Polus, who are said to have first instituted at Megalopolis the worship of the Great Goddesses, which is an imitation of the Eleusinian Mysteries.[Pg 114] And within the precincts are square figures of several gods, as Hermes surnamed Agetor, and Apollo, and Athene, and Poseidon, and the Sun surnamed Soter, and Hercules. A large temple has been built to them, in which are celebrated the rites of the Great Goddesses.

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

The part of the city on the other side of the river faces south, and has one of the most remarkable theatres in Greece, and in it is a perennial spring. And not far from the theatre are the foundations of a council-chamber, which was built for 10,000 Arcadians, and called from its builder Thersilium. And next is a house which in my time belonged to a private man, but was originally built for Alexander the son of Philip. And there is a statue of Ammon near it, like the square Hermæ, with ram’s horns on its head. And there is a temple built in common for the Muses and Apollo and Hermes, of which a few foundations only remain. There are also statues of one of the Muses, and of Apollo, like the square Hermæ. There are also ruins of a temple of Aphrodite, of which nothing remains but the vestibule and three statues of the goddess, one called the Celestial, the second the Common, the third has no title. And at no great distance is an altar of Ares, who had also it is said a temple there originally. There is also a racecourse beyond the temple[Pg 115] of Aphrodite, in one direction extending towards the theatre, (and there is a spring of water there which they hold sacred to Dionysus,) and in another part of it there was said to be a temple of Dionysus, struck with lightning by the god two generations before my time, and there are still a few vestiges of it. But a joint-temple to Hercules and Hermes is no longer in existence, except the Altar. And in this direction there is a hill towards the east, and on it a temple of the Huntress Artemis, the votive offering of Aristodemus, and on the right are precincts sacred to the Huntress Artemis. Here too are a temple and statues of Æsculapius and Hygiea, and as you descend a little there are gods in a square shape called Workers, as Athene Ergane and Apollo Agyieus. And Hermes, Hercules, and Ilithyia, have special fame from Homer, for Hermes is the messenger of Zeus and conveys the souls of the departed to Hades, and Hercules is famous for the accomplishment of his many Labours, and Ilithyia is represented in the Iliad as presiding over childbirth. There is also another temple under this hill, of Æsculapius as a Boy, the statue of the god is erect and about a cubit in height, and there is also an Apollo seated on a throne about six feet high. There are here also stored up some bones too large to belong to a man, they are said to have belonged to one of the giants, whom Hopladamus called in to aid Rhea, the circumstances I shall narrate later on. And near this temple is a well, which contributes its water to the Helisson.

That Megalopolis, peopled with such zeal on the part of all the Arcadians and with the best wishes from all Greece, has lost all its ancient prestige and felicity and is in our day mostly ruins, I nothing marvel at, knowing that the deity ever likes to introduce changes, and that fortune in like manner changes things strong and weak, present and past, reducing with a high hand everything in subjection to her. Witness Mycenæ, which in the days of the war against Ilium was the leading power in Greece,[Pg 116] and Nineveh the seat of the Assyrian empire, and Thebes in Bœotia, which was once reckoned worthy to be at the head of Greece: the two former are in ruins and without inhabitants, while the name of Thebes has come down to a citadel only and a few inhabitants. And of the cities which were excessively wealthy of old, as Thebes in Egypt, and Orchomenus belonging to the Minyæ, and Delos the emporium of all Greece, the two former are hardly as wealthy as a man moderately well off, while Delos is actually without a population at all, if you do not reckon the Athenians who come to guard the temple. And of Babylon nothing remains but the temple of Bel and the walls, though it was the greatest city once that the sun shone upon, as nothing but its walls remain to Tiryns in Argolis. All these the deity has reduced to nothing. Whereas Alexandria in Egypt and Seleucia on the Orontes, that were built only yesterday, have attained to such a size and felicity, that fortune seems to lavish her favours upon them. Fortune also exhibits her power more mightily and wonderfully than in the good or bad fortune of cities in the following cases. No long sail from Lemnos is the island Chryse, in which they say Philoctetes met with his bite from the watersnake. This island was entirely submerged by the waves, so that it went to the bottom of the sea. And another island called Hiera, which did not then exist, has been formed by the action of the sea. So fleeting and unstable are human affairs!

As you go from Megalopolis to Messene, you will come in about 7 stades to a temple of some goddesses on the left of the high road. They call both goddesses and place Maniæ, which is I fancy a title of the Eumenides, for they say Orestes was driven mad here after the murder of his mother. And not far from the temple is a small mound, with a stone finger upon it, the mound is called Finger’s tomb, because here they say Orestes in his madness gnawed off one of his fingers. And there is another place contiguous called Ace, because there Orestes was healed of[Pg 117] his madness: there too is a temple to the Eumenides. These goddesses, they say, when they wanted to drive Orestes mad, appeared black to him, and when he had gnawed off his finger then they appeared white, and this sight made him sane, and he turned away their wrath by offering to them expiations, and he sacrificed to these white goddesses; they usually sacrifice to them and the Graces together. And near the place Ace is a temple called Shearing-place, because Orestes cut off his hair inside it. And the Antiquarians of the Peloponnese say that this pursuit of Orestes by the Furies of his mother Clytæmnestra happened prior to the trial before the Areopagus, when his accuser was not Tyndareus, for he was no longer alive, but Perilaus the cousin of Clytæmnestra, who asked for vengeance for the murder of his kinswoman. Perilaus was the son of Icarius, who afterwards had daughters born to him.

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

This road leads to Messene, but another leads from Megalopolis to Carnasium in Messenia, where the Alpheus has its rise, at the place where the Malus and the Scyrus mingle their waters with it in one stream. If you keep the Malus on the right for about thirty stades and then cross it, you will mount on higher ground till you come to the place called Phædria, which is about 15[Pg 118] stades from the village called Hermæum, near the temple of Despœna. Hermæum is the boundary between the districts of Messenia and Megalopolis, and there are statues not very large of Despœna and Demeter, Hermes and Hercules: and I think the wooden statue of Hercules made by Dædalus on the borders of Messenia and Arcadia once stood here.

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

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

On the right of Tricoloni is a steep road to a spring called Wells, as you descend about 30 stades you come to[Pg 119] the tomb of Callisto, a high mound of earth, with many trees growing wild, and some planted. And on the top of this mound is a temple of Artemis called The Most Beautiful, and I think when Pamphus in his verses called Artemis The Most Beautiful he first learnt this epithet from the Arcadians. And twenty-five stades further, 100 from Tricolonus in the direction of the Helisson, on the high road to Methydrium, (which is the only town left to Tricoloni), is a place called Anemosa and the mountain Phalanthum, on which are ruins of a town of the same name, founded they say by Phalanthus, the son of Agelaus, and grandson of Stymphelus. Above it is a plain called Polus, and next to it is Schœnus, so called from the Bœotian Schœneus. And if Schœneus was a stranger in Arcadia, Atalanta’s Course near Schœnus may have taken its name from his daughter. And next is a place called I think * * *, and all agree that this is Arcadian soil.

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

About 30 stades from Methydrium is the well Nymphasia,[Pg 120] and about 30 stades from Nymphasia is the joint boundary for the districts of Megalopolis Orchomenus and Caphya.

From Megalopolis, through what are called the gates to the marsh, is a way to Mænalus by the river Helisson. And on the left of the road is a temple of the Good God. And if the gods are the givers of good things to mortals, and Zeus is the chief of the gods, one would follow the tradition and conjecture that this is a title of Zeus. A little further is a mound of earth, the tomb of Aristodemus, who though a tyrant was not robbed of the title of Good, and a temple of Athene called Inventive, because she is a goddess who invents various contrivances. And on the right of the road is an enclosure sacred to the North Wind, to whom the people of Megalopolis sacrifice annually, and they hold no god in higher honour than Boreas, as he was their preserver from Agis and the Lacedæmonians.[38] And next is the tomb of Œcles the father of Amphiaraus, if indeed death seized him in Arcadia, and not when he was associated with Hercules in the expedition against Laomedon. Next to it is a temple and grove of Demeter called Demeter of the Marsh, five stades from the city, into which none but women may enter. And thirty stades further is the place called Paliscius. About 20 stades from Paliscius, leaving on the left the river Elaphus which is only a winter torrent, are the ruins of Peræthes and a temple of Pan. And if you cross the winter-torrent, about 15 stades from the river is a plain called Mænalium, and after having traversed this you come to a mountain of the same name. At the bottom of this mountain are traces of the town of Lycoa, and a temple and brazen statue of Artemis of Lycoa. And in the southern part of the mountain is the town of Sumetia. In this mountain are also the so-called Three Roads, whence the Mantineans, according to the bidding of the oracle at Delphi, removed the remains of Arcas the son of Callisto. There are also ruins of Mænalus, and traces of a temple of Athene, and a course for athletical contests, and another for horseraces. And the mountain Mænalium they consider sacred to Pan, insomuch that those who live near it say that they hear Pan making music with his pipes.[Pg 121] Between the temple of Despœna and Megalopolis it is 40 stades, half of the road by the Alpheus, and when you have crossed it about 2 stades further are the ruins of Macaria, and seven stades further are the ruins of Dasea, and it is as many more from Dasea to the hill of Acacesius. Underneath this hill is the town of Acacesium, and there is a statue of Hermes (made of the stone of the hill) on the hill to this day, and they say Hermes was brought up there as a boy, and there is a tradition among the Arcadians that Acacus the son of Lycaon was his nurse. The Thebans have a different legend, and the people of Tanagra again have a different one to the Theban one.

From Acacesium it is four stades to the temple of Despœna. There was first there a temple of Artemis the Leader, and a brazen statue of the goddess with torches, about 6 feet high I conjecture. From thence there is an entrance to the sacred enclosure of Despœna. As you approach the temple there is a portico on the right, and on the wall figures in white stone, the Fates and Zeus as Master of the Fates, and Hercules robbing Apollo of his tripod. All that I could discover about them I will relate, when in my account of Phocis I come to Delphi. And in the portico near the temple of Despœna, between the figures I have mentioned, is a tablet painted with representations of the mysteries. On a third figure are some Nymphs and Pans, and on a fourth Polybius the son of Lycortas. And the inscription on him is that Greece would not have been ruined at all had it taken his advice in all things, and when it made mistakes he alone could have retrieved them. And in front of the temple is an altar to Demeter and another to Despœna, and next one to the Great Mother. And the statues of the Goddesses Despœna and Demeter, and the throne on which they sit, and the footstool under their feet, are all of one piece of stone: and neither about the dress nor on the throne is any portion of another stone dove-tailed in, but everything is one block of stone.[Pg 122] This stone was not fetched from a distance, they say, but, in consequence of a vision in a dream, found and dug up in the temple precincts. And the size of each of the statues is about the size of the statue at Athens of the Mother. They are by Damophon. Demeter has a torch in her right hand, and has laid her left hand upon Despœna: and Despœna has her sceptre, and on her knees what is called a cist, which she has her right hand upon. And on one side of the throne stands Artemis by Demeter, clad in the skin of a deer and with her quiver on her shoulders, in one hand she holds a lamp, and in the other two dragons. And at her feet lies a dog, such as are used for hunting. And on the other side of the throne near Despœna stands Anytus in armour: they say Despœna was brought up near the temple by him. He was one of the Titans. Homer first introduced the Titans into poetry, as gods in what is called Tartarus, in the lines about the oath of Hera.[39] And Onomacritus borrowed the name of the Titans from Homer when he wrote his poem about the orgies of Dionysus, and represented the Titans as contributing to the sufferings of Dionysus. Such is the Arcadian tradition about Anytus. It was Æschylus the son of Euphorion that taught the Greeks the Egyptian legend, that Artemis was the daughter of Demeter and not of Leto. As to the Curetes, for they too are carved under the statues, and the Corybantes, a different race from the Curetes who are carved on the base, though I know all about them I purposely pass it by. And the Arcadians bring into the temple all wood except that of the pomegranate. On the right hand as you go out of the temple is a mirror fixed to the wall: if any one looks into this mirror, he will see himself very obscurely or not at all, but the statues of the goddesses and the throne he will see quite clearly. And by the temple of Despœna as you ascend a little to the right is the Hall, where the Arcadians perform her Mystic rites, and sacrifice to her victims in abundance. Each sacrifices what animal he has got: nor do they cut the throats of the victims as in other sacrifices, but each cuts off whatever limb of the victim he lights on. The Arcadians worship Despœna more than[Pg 123] any of the gods, and say that she was the daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Her general appellation is Despœna, a name they also give to the Daughter of Zeus and Demeter, but her private name is Persephone, as Homer[40] and still earlier Pamphus have given it, but that name of Despœna I feared to write down for the uninitiated. And beyond the Hall is a grove sacred to Despœna surrounded by a stone wall: in the grove are several kinds of trees, as olives and oak from one root, which is something above the gardener’s art. And beyond the grove are altars of Poseidon Hippius as the father of Despœna, and of several other of the gods. And the inscription on the last altar is that it is common to all the gods.

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

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

And on the left of the temple of Despœna is Mount Lycæus, which some of the Arcadians call Olympus and others the Sacred Hill. They say Zeus was reared on this[Pg 124] mountain: and there is a spot on it called Cretea on the left of the grove of Parrhasian Apollo, and the Arcadians maintain that this was the Crete where Zeus was reared, and not the island of Crete as the Cretans hold. And the names of the Nymphs, by whom they say Zeus was brought up, were (they say) Thisoa and Neda and Hagno. Thisoa gave her name to a town in Parrhasia, and in my time there is a village called Thisoa in the district of Megalopolis, and Neda gave her name to the river Neda, and Hagno gave her name to the spring on Mount Lycæus, which like the river Ister has generally as much water in summer as in winter. But should a drought prevail for any length of time, so as to be injurious to the fruits of the earth and to trees, then the priest of Lycæan Zeus prays to the water and performs the wonted sacrifice, and lowers a branch of oak into the spring just on the surface, and when the water is stirred up a steam rises like a mist, and after a little interval the mist becomes a cloud, and collecting other clouds soon causes rain to fall upon Arcadia. There is also on Mount Lycæus a temple of Pan and round it a grove of trees, and a Hippodrome in front of it, where in old times they celebrated the Lycæan games. There are also here the bases of some statues, though the statues are no longer there: and an elegiac couplet on one of the bases says it is the statue of Astyanax who was an Arcadian.

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

There is on the highest ridge of the mountain a mound of earth, the altar of Lycæan Zeus, from which most of the Peloponnese is visible: and in front of this altar there are[Pg 125] two pillars facing east, and some golden eagles upon them of very ancient date. On this altar they sacrifice to Lycæan Zeus secretly: it would not be agreeable to me to pry too curiously into the rites, let them be as they are and always have been.

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

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

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

Past Lycosura in a westerly direction flows the river Plataniston, which everyone must cross who is going to Phigalia, after which an ascent of 30 stades or a little[Pg 126] more takes you to that town. How Phigalus was the son of Lycaon, and how he was the original founder of the town, and how in process of time the name of the town got changed into Phialia from Phialus the son of Bucolion, and afterwards got back its old name, all this I have entered into already. There are other traditions not worthy of credit, as that Phigalus was an Autochthon and not the son of Lycaon, and some say that Phigalia was one of the Nymphs called Dryads. When the Lacedæmonians attacked Arcadia and invaded Phigalia, they defeated the inhabitants in a battle and laid siege to the town, and as the town was nearly taken by storm the Phigalians evacuated it, or the Lacedæmonians allowed them to leave it upon conditions of war. And the capture of Phigalia and the flight of the Phigalians from it took place when Miltiades was chief magistrate at Athens, in the 2nd year of the 30th Olympiad, in which Chionis the Laconian was victor for the third time. And it seemed good to those Phigalians who had escaped to go to Delphi, and inquire of the god as to their return. And the Pythian Priestess told them that if they tried by themselves to return to Phigalia she foresaw no hope of their return, but if they took a hundred picked men from Oresthasium, and they were slain in battle, the Phigalians would get their return through them. And when the people of Oresthasium heard of the oracular message given to the Phigalians, they vied with one another in zeal who should be one of the 100 picked men, and participate in the expedition to Phigalia. And they engaged with the Lacedæmonian garrison and fulfilled the oracle completely: for they all died fighting bravely, and drove out the Spartans, and put it in the power of the Phigalians to recover their native town. Phigalia lies on a hill which is mostly precipitous, and its walls are built on the rocks, but as you go up to the town there is a gentle and easy ascent. And there is a temple of Artemis the Preserver, and her statue in stone in an erect position. From this temple they usually conduct the processions. And in the gymnasium there is a statue of Hermes with a cloak on, which does not cease at his feet but covers the whole square figure. There is also a temple of Dionysus called Acratophorus by the people of the place, the lower parts of the statue are not visible being covered[Pg 127] by leaves of laurel and ivy. And all the statue that can be seen is coloured with vermilion so as to look very gay. The Iberes find this vermilion with their gold.

The people of Phigalia have also in their market-place the statue of Arrhachion the pancratiast, an antique one in all other respects and not least so in its shape. The feet are not very wide apart, and the hands are by the side near the buttocks. The statue is of stone, and they say there was an inscription on it, which time has obliterated. This Arrhachion had two victories at Olympia in the two Olympiads before the 54th, through the equity of the umpires and his own merit. For when he contended for the prize of wild olive with the only one of his antagonists that remained, his opponent got hold of him first and with his feet hugged him, and at the same time grappled his neck tightly with his arms. And Arrhachion broke the finger of his antagonist, and gave up the ghost being throttled, and his antagonist also, though he had throttled Arrhachion, fainted away from the pain his finger gave him. And the people of Elis crowned the dead body of Arrhachion and proclaimed him victor. I know the Argives did the same in the case of Creugas the boxer of Epidamnus, for though he was dead they gave him the crown at Nemea, because his opponent Damoxenus the Syracusan violated their mutual agreements. For as they were boxing evening came on, and they agreed in the hearing of all the audience that they should strike one another once in turn. Boxers did not at this time wear the cestus loaded with iron, but they wore leather thongs, (which they fastened under the hollow of the hand that the fingers might be left uncovered), made of ox hides and thin and deftly woven together after an old fashion. Then Creugas delivered the first blow on Damoxenus’ head, and Damoxenus bade Creugas hold back his hand, and as he did so struck him under the ribs with his fingers straight out, and such was the hardness of his nails and the violence[Pg 128] of the blow that his hand pierced his side, seized his bowels and dragged and tore them out. Creugas immediately expired. And the Argives drove Damoxenus off the course because he had violated the conditions, and instead of one blow had given several to his antagonist. To Creugas though dead they assigned the victory, and erected to him a statue in Argos, which is now in the temple of Lycian Apollo.

The Phigalians have also in their market-place a mortuary chapel to the 100 picked men from Oresthasium, and annually offer funeral sacrifices to them as to heroes. And the river called Lymax which falls into the Neda flows by Phigalia. It got its name Lymax they say from the purifications of Rhea. For when after giving birth to Zeus the Nymphs purified her after travail, they threw into this river the afterbirth, which the ancients called Lymata. Homer bears me out when he says that the Greeks purifying themselves to get rid of the pestilence threw the purifications into the sea.[43] The Neda rises on the mountain Cerausius, which is a part of Mount Lycæus. And where the Neda is nearest to Phigalia, there the lads of the town shear off their hair to the river. And near the sea it is navigable for small craft. Of all the rivers that we know of the Mæander is most winding having most curves and sinuosities. And next for winding would come the Neda. About 12 stades from Phigalia are hot baths, and the Lymax flows into the Neda not far from that place. And where they join their streams is a temple of Eurynome, holy from remote antiquity, and difficult of access from the roughness of the ground. Round it grow many cypresses close to one another. Eurynome the Phigalian people believe to be a title of Artemis, but their Antiquarians say that Eurynome was the daughter of Oceanus, and is mentioned by Homer in the Iliad as having joined Thetis in receiving Hephæstus.[44] And on the same[Pg 129] day annually they open the temple of Eurynome: for at all other times they keep it shut. And on that day they have both public and private sacrifices to her. I was not in time for the festival, nor did I see the statue of Eurynome. But I heard from the Phigalians that the statue has gold chains round it, and that it is a woman down to the waist and a fish below. To the daughter of Oceanus who dwelt with Thetis in the depths of the sea these fish extremities would be suitable: but I do not see any logical connection between Artemis and a figure of this kind.

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

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

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

“Arcadians, acorn-eating Azanes who inhabit Phigalia,[Pg 131] go to the secret cave of the horse-bearing Demeter, and inquire for alleviation from this bitter famine, you that were twice Nomads living alone, living alone feeding upon roots. Demeter taught you something else besides pasture, she introduced among you the cultivation of corn, though you have deprived her of her ancient honours and prerogatives. But you shall eat one another and dine off your children speedily, if you do not propitiate her wrath by public libations, and pay divine honours to the recess in the cave.”

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

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

And the other inscription is as follows,

I went to Phigalia chiefly to see this Demeter, and I sacrificed to the goddess in the way the people of the country do, no victim but the fruit of the vine and other trees, and honeycombs, and wool in an unworked state with all its grease still on it, and these they lay on the altar built in[Pg 132] front of the cave, and pour oil over all. This sacrifice is held every year at Phigalia both publicly and privately. A priestess conducts the ritual, and with her the youngest of the three citizens who are called Sacrificing Priests. Round the cave is a grove of oak trees, and warm water bubbles up from a spring. The statue made by Onatas was not there in my time, nor did most people at Phigalia know that it had ever existed, but the oldest of those I met with informed me that 3 generations before his time some stones from the roof fell on to it, and that it was crushed by them and altogether smashed up, and we can see plainly even now traces in the roof where the stones fell in.

Pallantium next demands my attention, both to describe what is worthy of record in it, and to show why the elder Antonine made it a town instead of a village, and also free and exempt from taxation. They say that Evander was the best of the Arcadians both in council and war, and that he was the son of Hermes by a Nymph the daughter of Lado, and that he was sent with a force of Arcadians from Pallantium to form a colony, which he founded near the river Tiber. And part of what is now Rome was inhabited by Evander and the Arcadians who accompanied him, and was called Pallantium in remembrance of the town in Arcadia. And in process of time it changed its name into Palatium. It was for these reasons that Pallantium received its privileges from the Roman Emperor. This Antonine, who bestowed such favours on Pallantium, imposed no war on the Romans willingly, but when the Mauri, (the most important tribe of independent Libyans, who were Nomads and much more formidable than the Scythians, as they did not travel in waggons but they and their wives rode on horseback,) commenced a war with Rome, he drove them out of all their territory into the most remote parts, and compelled them to retire from Libya to Mount Atlas and to the neighbourhood of Mount Atlas. He also took away from the Brigantes in Britain[Pg 133] most of their territory, because they had attacked the Genunii who were Roman subjects. And when Cos and Rhodes cities of the Lycians and Carians were destroyed by a violent earthquake, the Emperor Antonine restored them by large expenditure of money and by his zeal in re-peopling them. As to the grants of money which he made to the Greeks and barbarians who stood in need of them, and his magnificent works in Greece and Ionia and Carthage and Syria, all this has been minutely described by others. This Emperor left another token of his liberality. Those subject nations who had the privilege of being Roman citizens, but whose sons were reckoned as Greeks, had the option by law of leaving their money to those who were no relations, or letting it swell the wealth of the Emperor. But Antonine allowed them to leave their property to their sons, preferring to exhibit philanthropy rather than to maintain a law which brought in money to the revenue. This Emperor the Romans called Pius from the honour he paid to the gods. I think he might also justly have borne the title of the elder Cyrus, Father of mankind. He was succeeded by his son Antonine, who fought against the Germans, the most numerous and warlike barbarians in Europe, and subdued the Sauromatæ who had commenced an iniquitous war.

To return to our account of Arcadia, there is a road from Megalopolis to Pallantium and Tegea, leading to what is called the Mound. On this road is a suburb of Megalopolis, called Ladocea from Ladocus the son of Echemus. And next comes Hæmoniæ, which in ancient times was a town founded by Hæmon the son of Lycaon, and is still called Hæmoniæ. And next it on the right are the ruins of Oresthasium, and the pillars of a temple to Artemis surnamed the Priestess. And on the direct road from Hæmoniæ is the place called Aphrodisium, and next to it Athenæum, on the left of which is a temple of Athene and stone statue of the goddess. About 20 stades from Athenæum are the ruins of Asea, and the hill which was formerly[Pg 134] the citadel has still remains of walls. And about 5 stades from Asea is the Alpheus a little away from the road, and near the road is the source of the Eurotas. And near the source of the Alpheus is a temple of the Mother of the Gods without a roof, and two lions in stone. And the Eurotas joins the Alpheus, and for about 20 stades they flow together in a united stream, till they are lost in a cavity and come up again, the Eurotas in Laconia, the Alpheus at Pegæ in Megalopolis. There is also a road from Asea leading up to Mount Boreum, on the top of which are traces of a temple. The tradition is that Odysseus on his return from Ilium built it to Poseidon and Preserver Athene.

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

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

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

The ancient temple at Tegea of Athene Alea was built by Aleus, but in after times the people at Tegea built the goddess a great and magnificent temple. For the former one was entirely consumed by fire which spread all over it, when Diophantus was Archon at Athens, in the second year of the 96th Olympiad, in which Eupolemus of Elis won the prize in the course. The present one far excels all the temples in the Peloponnese for beauty and size. The architecture of the first row of pillars is Doric, that of the second row is Corinthian, and that of the pillars outside the temple is Ionic. The architect I found on inquiry was Scopas the Parian, who made statues in various parts of old Greece, and also in Ionia and Caria. On the gables is represented the hunting of the boar of Calydon, on one side of the boar, nearly in the centre of the piece, stand Atalanta and Meleager and Theseus and Telamon and Peleus[Pg 136] and Pollux and Iolaus, the companion of Hercules in most of his Labours, and the sons of Thestius, Prothous and Cometes, the brothers of Althæa: and on the other side of the boar Ancæus already wounded and Epochus supporting him as he drops his weapon, and near him Castor, and Amphiaraus the son of Œcles, and besides them Hippothous the son of Cercyon, the son of Agamedes, the son of Stymphelus, and lastly Pirithous. On the gables behind is a representation of the single combat between Telephus and Achilles on the plain of Caicus.

And the ancient statue of Athene Alea, and together with it the tusks of the Calydonian boar, were carried away by the Emperor Augustus, after his victory over Antony and his allies, among whom were all the Arcadians but the Mantineans. Augustus does not seem to have commenced the practice of carrying off votive offerings and statues of the gods from conquered nations, but to have merely followed a long-established custom. For after the capture of Ilium, when the Greeks divided the spoil, the statue of Household Zeus was given to Sthenelus the son of Capaneus: and many years afterwards, when the Dorians had migrated to Sicily, Antiphemus, the founder of Gela, sacked Omphace a town of the Sicani, and carried from thence to Gela a statue made by Dædalus. And we know that Xerxes the son of Darius, the king of the Persians, besides what he carried off from Athens, took from Brauron a statue of Brauronian Artemis, and moreover charged the Milesians with cowardice in the sea-fight against the Athenians at Salamis, and took from them the brazen Apollo at Branchidæ, which a long time afterwards Seleucus sent back to the Milesians. And the statues taken from the Argives at Tiryns are now, one in the temple of Hera, the other in the temple of Apollo at Elis. And the people of Cyzicus having forced the people of Proconnesus to settle with them took from them a statue of the Dindymene Mother. The statue generally was of gold, but the head[Pg 137] instead of ivory was made with the teeth of Hippopotamuses. So the Emperor Augustus merely followed a long established custom usual both among Greeks and barbarians. And you may see the statue of Athene Alea in the Forum at Rome built by Augustus. It is throughout of ivory and the workmanship of Endœus. Those who busy themselves about such curiosities say that one of the tusks of the boar was broken off, and the remaining one was suspended as a votive offering in Cæsar’s gardens in the temple of Dionysus. It is about 2½ feet long.

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

And not far from the temple is a mound of earth, constituting[Pg 138] a race-course, where they hold games which they call Aleæa from Athene Alea, and Halotia because they took most of the Lacedæmonians alive in the battle. And there is a spring towards the north of the temple, near which they say Auge was violated by Hercules, though their legend differs from that of Hecatæus about her. And about 3 stades from this spring is the temple of Hermes called Æpytus.

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

In the market-place, which is in shape very like a brick, is a temple of Aphrodite called the Brick Aphrodite, and a stone statue of the goddess. And there are two pillars, on one of which are effigies of Antiphanes and Crisus and Tyronidas and Pyrrhias, who are held in honour to this day as legislators for Tegea, and on the other pillar Iasius, with his left hand on a horse and in his right hand a branch of palm. He won they say the horserace at Olympia, when Hercules the Theban established the Olympian games. Why a crown of wild olive was given to the victor at Olympia I have shown in my account of Elis, and why of laurel at Delphi I shall show hereafter. And at the Isthmian games pine, at the Nemean games parsley,[Pg 139] were wont to be the prize, as we know from the cases of Palæmon and Archemorus. But most games have a crown of palm as the prize, and everywhere the palm is put into the right hand of the victor. The beginning of this custom was as follows. When Theseus was returning from Crete he instituted games they say to Apollo at Delos, and himself crowned the victors with palm. This was they say the origin of the custom, and Homer has mentioned the palm in Delos in that part of the Odyssey where Odysseus makes his supplication to the daughter of Alcinous.[45]

There is also a statue of Ares called Gynæcothœnas in the market-place at Tegea, graven on a pillar. For in the Laconian war, at the first invasion of Charillus the king of the Lacedæmonians, the women took up arms, and lay in ambush under the hill called in our day Phylactris. And when the armies engaged, and the men on both sides exhibited splendid bravery, then they say the women appeared on the scene, and caused the rout of the Lacedæmonians, and Marpessa, called the Widow, excelled all the other women in daring, and among other Spartans Charillus was taken prisoner, and was released without ransom, upon swearing to the people of Tegea that he would never again lead a Lacedæmonian army to Tegea, which oath he afterwards violated. And the women privately sacrificed to Ares independently of the men for the victory, and gave no share of the flesh of the victim to the men. That is why Ares was called Gynæcothœnas (i.e. Women’s Feast). There is also an altar and square statue of Adult Zeus. Square statues the Arcadians seem greatly to delight in. There are also here the tombs of Tegeates the son of Lycaon, and Mæra the wife of Tegeates, who they say was the daughter of Atlas, and is mentioned by Homer[46] in Odysseus’ account to Alcinous of his journey to Hades and the souls he saw there. And in the market-place at Tegea there is a temple of Ilithyia, and a statue called Auge on her knees, and the tradition is that Aleus ordered Nauplius to take his daughter Auge and drown her in the sea, and as she was being led there she fell on her knees, and gave birth to a son on the spot where[Pg 140] is now the temple of Ilithyia. This tradition differs from another one, which states that Auge gave birth to Telephus unbeknown to her father, and that he was exposed on Mount Parthenium and suckled by a doe, though this last part of the tradition is also recorded by the people of Tegea. And near the temple of Ilithyia is an altar to Earth, and close to the altar is a pillar in white stone, on which is a statue of Polybius the son of Lycortas, and on another pillar is Elatus one of the sons of Arcas.

And not far from the market-place is a theatre, and near it are the bases of some brazen statues, the statues themselves are no longer there. And an elegiac couplet on one of the bases says that that was the statue of Philopœmen. This Philopœmen the Greeks hold in the highest honour, both for his sagacity and exploits. As to the lustre of his race his father Craugis was second to none of the Arcadians of Megalopolis, but he dying when Philopœmen was quite a boy his guardian was Cleander an exile from Mantinea, who had come to live at Megalopolis after the troubles in his native place, and had been on a footing of old friendship with the family of Craugis. And Philopœmen had they say among other tutors Megalophanes and Ecdelus: the sons of Arcesilaus were pupils they say of Pitanæus. In size and strength he was inferior to none of the Peloponnesians, but he was far from good-looking. He didn’t care about contending in the games, but he cultivated his own piece of ground, and was fond of hunting wild beasts. He read also they say frequently the works of the most famous Greek sophists, and books on the art of war, especially such as touched on strategy. He wished in all things to make Epaminondas his model in his frame of mind and exploits, but was not able in all points to come up to this. For Epaminondas was especially mild and had his temper completely under control, whereas Philopœmen was hot-tempered. But when Cleomenes captured Megalopolis, Philopœmen was not dismayed at this[Pg 141] unexpected misfortune, but conveyed off safely two-thirds of the adults and all the women and children to Messene, as the Messenians were at that time their allies and well-disposed to them. And when Cleomenes sent a message to these exiles that he was sorry for what he had done, and that the people of Megalopolis might return if they signed a treaty, Philopœmen persuaded all the citizens to return only with arms in their hands, and not upon any conditions or treaty. And in the battle which took place at Sellasia against Cleomenes and the Lacedæmonians, in which the Achæans and Arcadians from all the cities took part, and also Antigonus with an army from Macedonia, Philopœmen took his place with the cavalry at first, but when he saw that the issue of the battle turned on the behaviour of the infantry he willingly became a footsoldier, and, as he was displaying valour worthy of record, one of the enemy pierced through both his thighs, and being so impeded he dropt on his knees and was constrained to fall forwards, so that by the motion of his feet the spear snapped off. And when Cleomenes and the Lacedæmonians were defeated, and Philopœmen returned to the camp, then the doctors cut out of his thighs the spearpoint and the spear itself. And Antigonus, hearing and seeing his courage, was anxious to invite him over to Macedonia. But he paid little heed to Antigonus, and crossed over by ship to Crete, where a civil war was raging, and became a captain of mercenaries. And on his return to Megalopolis he was at once chosen by the Achæans commander of their cavalry, and he made them the best cavalry in Greece. And when the Achæans and all their allies fought at the river Larisus against the men of Elis and the Ætolian force that aided the people of Elis from kinsmanship, Philopœmen first slew with his own hands Demophantus the commander of the enemy’s cavalry, and then put to flight all the cavalry of the Ætolians and men of Elis.

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

all the Greeks gazed earnestly on Philopœmen, and signified by clapping that they referred to him the words of the Ode. A similar tribute of respect was I understand paid to Themistocles at Olympia, where the whole theatre rose up on his entrance. Philip indeed, the son of Demetrius, the king of the Macedonians, who also poisoned Aratus of Sicyon, sent men to Megalopolis with orders to kill Philopœmen, and though unsuccessful in this he was execrated by all Greece. And the Thebans who had beaten the Megarians in battle, and had already got inside the walls[Pg 143] at Megara, through treachery on the part of the Megarians, were so alarmed at the arrival of Philopœmen to the rescue, that they went home again without effecting their object. And again there rose up at Lacedæmon a tyrant called Nabis, who attacked the Messenians first of the Peloponnesians, and as he made his attack by night, when they had no expectation of it, he took all Messene but the citadel, but upon Philopœmen’s coming up the next day with an army he departed from it on conditions of war.

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

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

But vengeance was about to fall on Philopœmen for his haughtiness. For when he was appointed general of the Achæans for the 8th time, he twitted a man not without[Pg 145] some renown for having allowed the enemy to capture him alive: and not long after, as there was a dispute between the Messenians and Achæans, he sent Lycortas with an army to ravage Messenia: and himself the third day afterwards, though he was suffering from a fever and was more than 70, hurried on to share in the action of Lycortas, at the head of about 60 cavalry and targeteers. And Lycortas and his army returned home without having done or received any great harm. But Philopœmen, who had been wounded in the head in the action and had fallen off his horse, was taken alive to Messene. And in a meeting which the Messenians immediately held there were many different opinions as to what they should do with him. Dinocrates and the wealthy Messenians were urgent to put him to death: but the popular party were most anxious to save him alive, calling him even the father of all Greece. But Dinocrates in spite of the popular party took Philopœmen off by poison. And Lycortas not long after collected a force from Arcadia and from Achaia and marched against Messene, and the popular party in Messene at once fraternized with them, and all except Dinocrates who were privy to the murder of Philopœmen were put to death. And he committed suicide. And the Arcadians brought the remains of Philopœmen to Megalopolis.

And now Greece ceased to produce a stock of distinguished men. Miltiades the son of Cimon, who defeated the barbarians that landed at Marathon, and checked the Persian host, was the first public benefactor of Greece, and Philopœmen the son of Craugis the last. For those who before Miltiades had displayed conspicuous valour, (as Codrus the son of Melanthus, and the Spartan Polydorus, and the Messenian Aristomenes), had all clearly fought for their own nation and not for all Greece. And after Miltiades Leonidas (the son of Anaxandrides) and Themistocles (the son of Neocles) expelled Xerxes from Greece, the latter by his two sea-fights, the former by the[Pg 146] action at Thermopylæ. And Aristides the son of Lysimachus, and Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus, who commanded at Platæa, were prevented from being called benefactors of Greece, the latter by his subsequent crimes, the former by his laying tribute on the Greek islanders, for before Aristides all the Greek dominions were exempt from taxation. And Xanthippus the son of Ariphron, in conjunction with Leotychides king of Sparta, destroyed the Persian fleet off Mycale, and Cimon did many deeds to excite the emulation of the Greeks. As for those who won the greatest renown in the Peloponnesian war, one might say that they with their own hands almost ruined Greece. And when Greece was already in pitiful plight, Conon the son of Timotheus and Epaminondas the son of Polymnis recovered it somewhat, the former in the islands and maritime parts, the latter by ejecting the Lacedæmonian garrisons and governors inland, and by putting down the decemvirates. Epaminondas also made Greece more considerable by the addition of the well-known towns of Messene and the Arcadian Megalopolis. I consider also Leosthenes and Aratus the benefactors of all Greece, for Leosthenes against the wishes of Alexander brought back safe to Greece in ships 50,000 Greeks who had served under the pay of Persia: as for Aratus I have already touched upon him in my account of Sicyon.

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

That is the inscription at Tegea. And the statues erected to Apollo Aguieus by the people of Tegea were dedicated they say for the following reason. Apollo and Artemis punished they say in every place all persons who, when Leto was pregnant and wandering about Arcadia, neglected and took no account of her. And when Apollo and Artemis came into the district of Tegea, then they say Scephrus, the son of Tegeates, went up to Apollo and had a private conversation with him. And Limon his brother, thinking Scephrus was making some charge against him, ran at his brother and slew him. But swift vengeance came upon Limon, for Artemis at once transfixed him with an arrow. And Tegeates and Mera forthwith sacrificed to Apollo and Artemis, and afterwards when a mighty famine came upon the land the oracle at Delphi told them to mourn for Scephrus. Accordingly they pay honours to him at the festival of Apollo Aguieus, and the priestess of Artemis pursues some one, pretending that she is Artemis pursuing Limon. And the remaining sons of Tegeates, Cydon and Archedius and Gortys, migrated they say of their own accord to Crete, and gave their names to the towns Cydonia and Gortys and Catreus. But the Cretans do not accept the tradition of the people of Tegea, they say that Cydon was the son of Acacallis the daughter of Minos and Hermes, and that Catreus was the son of Minos, and Gortys the son of Rhadamanthus. About Rhadamanthus Homer says, in the conversation between Proteus and Menelaus, that Menelaus went to the Elysian fields, and before him Rhadamanthus: and Cinæthon in his verses represents Rhadamanthus as the son of Hephæstus, and Hephæstus as the son of Talos, and Talos as the son of Cres. The traditions of the Greeks are mostly different and especially in genealogies. And the people of Tegea have 4 statues of Apollo Aguieus, one erected by each tribe. And the names of the tribes are Clareotis, Hippothœtis, Apolloniatis, and Atheneatis, the two former so called from the lots which Arcas made his[Pg 148] sons cast for the land, and from Hippothous the son of Cercyon.

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

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

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

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

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

The road from Tegea to Argos is very well adapted for carriages and is in fact quite a high road. The first thing you come to on it is a temple and statue of Æsculapius, and after turning to the left for about a stade you come to a temple of Pythian Apollo quite fallen to decay and in ruins. And on the high road are many oaks and a temple of Demeter, called Demeter of Corythes, in a grove of oaks, and near it is a temple to Mystic Dionysus. And next comes Mount Parthenium, on which is shown an enclosure sacred to Telephus, where they say he was exposed as a boy and brought up by a doe. And at a little distance[Pg 150] is the temple of Pan, where both the Athenians and people of Tegea say that Pan appeared to Philippides and had an interview with him. Mount Parthenium also has tortoises admirably adapted for making lyres of, which the men who live on the mountain fear to take and will not allow strangers to take, for they consider them sacred to Pan. When you have crossed over the mountain top you come in what is now arable land to the boundary between the districts of Tegea and Argos, viz. Hysiæ in Argolis.

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

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

The Platæans did nothing memorable before the battle which the Athenians fought at Marathon, but they took part in that struggle after the landing of Xerxes, and ventured to embark on ships with the Athenians, and repelled on their own soil Mardonius, the son of Gobryas, the General of Xerxes. And it twice happened to them to be driven from their country and again restored to it. For in the Peloponnesian war the Lacedæmonians besieged and took Platæa: and when, after the peace which Antalcidas the Spartan negotiated between the Greeks and the king of the Persians, it was reinhabited by the Platæans who returned from Athens, a second misfortune was it seems destined to come upon them. For war was not openly declared against the Thebans, but the Platæans said that they were still at peace with them, because when the Lacedæmonians[Pg 152] occupied Cadmea, they had no share either in suggesting it or in bringing it about. The Thebans on the other hand said that it was the Lacedæmonians who had brought about the peace, and who afterwards when they had violated it thought that all had broken truce. The Platæans therefore, thinking the conduct of the Thebans rather suspicious, occupied their town with a strong garrison, and the farmers did not even go into the fields which were at some distance from the town at every period of the day, but watched for the times when the Thebans held their general meetings, and at such times tilled their farms in quiet. But Neocles, who was at that time Bœotarch at Thebes, and had noticed this cunning on the part of the Platæans, told all the Thebans to go armed to the assembly, and led them from Thebes not straight across the plain but in the direction of Hysiæ and Eleutheræ and Attica, where no outposts had been placed by the Platæans, and got to the walls about mid-day. For the Platæans, thinking the Thebans were at their meeting, had shut the gates and gone out to the fields. And the Thebans made conditions with those who were in the town that they should leave the place before sunset, the men with one dress and the women with two. At this time the fortune of the Platæans was rather different from the former occasion when the town was taken by the Lacedæmonians and Archidamus. For then the Lacedæmonians blockaded them and shut them in by a double wall so that they could not get out, whereas now the Thebans prevented their getting into the town at all. This second capture of Platæa was the third year after Leuctra, when Asteus was Archon at Athens. And the town was rased to the ground by the Thebans entirely except the temples, but there was no sack, and the Athenians took in the Platæans a second time. But when Philip was victorious at Chæronea, he introduced a garrison into Thebes, and among other things to destroy the Theban power, restored the Platæans.

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

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

Near the entrance to Platæa is the tomb of those who fell fighting against the Medes. The other Greeks have one common tomb. But the Lacedæmonians and Athenians who fell have separate burial-grounds, and some elegiac lines of Simonides as their epitaph. And not far from the[Pg 154] common tomb of the Greeks is the altar of Zeus Eleutherius. The tombs are of brass, but the altar and statue of Zeus are of white stone. And they celebrate still every fifth year the festival called Eleutheria, in which the chief prizes are for running: they run in heavy armour in front of the altar. And the Greeks set up a trophy about 15 stades from the town for the battle at Platæa.

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

They say Hera for some reason or other was displeased with Zeus and went to Eubœa, and Zeus when he could not appease her went to Cithæron (who ruled at Platæa), who was inferior to no one in ingenuity. He recommended Zeus to make a wooden statue and dress it up and draw it in a waggon with a yoke of oxen, and give out that he intended to marry Platæa the daughter of Asopus. And he did as Cithæron instructed him. And directly Hera heard of it she returned at once, and approached the waggon and tore the clothes of the statue, and was delighted with the trick when she found a wooden image instead of a young bride, and was reconciled to Zeus. In memory of this reconciliation they have a festival called Dædala, because statues were of old called dædala. And they called them so I think before the times of Dædalus the Athenian, the son of Palamaon, for he was called Dædalus I take it from his statues, and not from his[Pg 155] birth up. This festival is celebrated by the Platæans every seventh year, according to what my Antiquarian guide informed me, but really at less interval: the exact time however between one festival and the next though I wished I could not ascertain. The festival is celebrated as follows. There is an oak-coppice not far from Alalcomenæ. Of all the oaks in Bœotia the roots of these are the finest. When the Platæans come to this oak-coppice, they place there portions of boiled meat. And they do not much trouble themselves about other birds, but they watch crows very carefully, for they frequent the place, and if one of them seizes a piece of meat they watch what tree it sits upon. And on whatever tree it perches, they carve their wooden image, called dædalum, from the wood of this tree. This is the way the Platæans privately celebrate their little festival Dædala: but the great festival of Dædala is a festival for all Bœotia and celebrated every sixth year; for that was the interval during which the festival was discontinued when the Platæans were in exile. And 14 wooden statues are provided by them every year for the little festival Dædala, which the following draw lots for, the Platæans, the Coronæans, the Thespians, the Tanagræans, the Chæroneans, the Orchomenians, the Lebadeans, and the Thebans: for they thought fit to be reconciled with the Platæans, and to join their gathering, and to send their sacrifice to the festival, when Cassander the son of Antipater restored Thebes. And all the small towns which are of lesser note contribute to the festival. They deck the statue and take it to the Asopus on a waggon, and place a bride on it, and draw lots for the order of the procession, and drive their waggons from the river to the top of Cithæron, where an altar is prepared for them constructed in the following manner. They get square pieces of wood about the same size, and pile them up one upon one another as if they were making a stone building, and raise it to a good height by adding firewood. The chief magistrates of each town sacrifice a cow to Hera and a bull to Zeus, and they burn on the altar all together the victims (full of wine and incense) and the wooden images, and private people offer their sacrifices as well as the rich, only they sacrifice smaller animals as sheep, and all the sacrifices[Pg 156] are burnt together. And the fire consumes the altar as well as the sacrifices, the flame is prodigious and visible for an immense distance. And about 15 stades lower than the top of the mountain where they build this altar is a cave of the Nymphs of Mount Cithæron, called Sphragidion, where tradition says those Nymphs prophesied in ancient times.

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

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

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

The district of Thebes was they say first inhabited by the Ectenes, whose king was the Autochthon Ogygus, hence many of the poets have called Thebes Ogygiæ. And the Ectenes they say died off with some pestilence, and Thebes was repeopled by the Hyantes and Aones, Bœotian races I imagine and not foreigners. And when Cadmus and his Phœnician army invaded the land the Hyantes were defeated in battle and fled the following night, but the Aones were submissive and were allowed by Cadmus to remain in the land and mix with the Phœnicians. They continued to live in their villages, but Cadmus built the town called to this day Cadmea. And afterwards when the town grew, Cadmea was the citadel for lower Thebes. Cadmus made a splendid marriage if, according to the Greek tradition, he married the daughter of Aphrodite and Ares, and his daughters were famous, Semele as the mother of a son by Zeus, and Ino as one of the sea goddesses. Amongst the greatest contemporaries of Cadmus were the Sparti, Chthonius and Hyperenor and Pelorus and Udæus: and Echion was chosen by Cadmus as his son-in-law for his conspicuous valour. About these men I could obtain no further knowledge, so I follow the general tradition about the origin of the name Sparti.[48] And when Cadmus migrated to the Illyrians and to those of them who were called Enchelians, he was succeeded by his son Polydorus. And Pentheus the son of Echion had great power both from the lustre of his race and the friendship of the king, though he was haughty and impious and justly punished by Dionysus. The son of Polydorus was Labdacus. He on his death left a son quite a boy, whom as well as the kingdom he entrusted to Nycteus. The sequel I have already set forth in my account about Sicyonia, as the circumstances attending the death of Nycteus, and how the guardianship of the boy and care of the realm devolved upon Lycus the brother of Nycteus: and the boy dying also[Pg 158] not long after Lycus became guardian for Laius the son of Labdacus.

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

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

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

When Laius was king and wedded to Jocasta, the oracle at Delphi told him that he would die at the hands of his son, if Jocasta bare him one. And that was why he exposed Œdipus, who was fated after all when he grew up to kill his father. He also married his mother. But I do not think he had any children by her. My authority for this[Pg 159] view is Homer, who in his Odyssey has the following lines.[50]

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

But how could they soon make it publicly known,[51] if Œdipus had 4 children by Jocasta? So they were the children of Euryganea the daughter of Hyperphas, as is shown by the poet who wrote the poems called the Œdipodia. Onatas also painted for the people of Platæa Euryganea dejected at the quarrels of her sons. And it was in the lifetime and during the reign of Œdipus that Polynices departed from Thebes, fearing that the curses of his father would be fulfilled: and he went to Argos and married the daughter of Adrastus, and returned to Thebes after the death of Œdipus, being sent for by Eteocles. And on his return he quarrelled with Eteocles, and went into exile a second time. And having begged of Adrastus a force to restore him, he lost his army and challenged Eteocles to single combat. And he and his brother killed each other, and as the kingdom devolved upon Laodamas the son of Eteocles, Creon the son of Menœceus ruled as guardian for the boy. And when Laodamas grew up and took the reins of power, then a second time the Argives led an army against Thebes. And the Thebans encamping against them at Glisas, Laodamas slew in the action Ægialeus the son of Adrastus, but the Argives gaining the victory Laodamas with those Thebans that were willing to follow him withdrew the night following to the Illyrians. And the Argives captured Thebes, and delivered it over to Thersander the son of Polynices. And when some of those who were going with Agamemnon to the siege of Troy sailed out of their course, and met with a reverse at Mysia, then it was that Thersander, who was the bravest of the Greeks in the battle, was slain by Telephus, and his tomb is in stone as you drive over the plain of Caicus in the[Pg 160] town of Elæa, in the part of the market-place which is in the open air, and the people of the country say that funeral rites are paid to him. And after the death of Thersander, when a second fleet was got together against Paris and Ilium, they chose Peneleos as their leader because Tisamenus the son of Thersander was not yet old enough. But when Peneleos was killed by Eurypylus the son of Telephus, they chose Tisamenus as their king, the son of Thersander by Demonassa the daughter of Amphiaraus. And Tisamenus suffered not from the wrath of the Furies of Laius and Œdipus, but Autesion his son did, so that he migrated to the Dorians at the bidding of the oracle. And on his departure they chose as king Damasichthon, the son of Opheltes the son of Peneleos. His son was Ptolemæus, and his Xanthus, who was slain by Andropompus in single combat by treachery and not fairly. And thenceforward the Thebans resolved to entrust their government to several magistrates, and not to let everything depend on one man.

Of their successes and reverses in war I found the following to be the most notable. They were beaten by the Athenians in battle, when the Athenians fought on the side of the Platæans in the war about borders. They were beaten a second time by the Athenians in the neighbourhood of Platæa, when they seem to have preferred the interests of king Xerxes to those of Greece. The popular party was not to blame for that, for at that time Thebes was ruled by an oligarchy, and not by their national form of government. And no doubt if the barbarian had come to Greece in the days when Pisistratus and his sons ruled at Athens the Athenians also would have been open to the charge of Medizing. Afterwards however the Thebans were victorious over the Athenians at Delium in the district of Tanagra, when Hippocrates, the son of Ariphron, the Athenian General perished with most of his army. And the Thebans were friendly with the Lacedæmonians directly after the departure of the Medes till the war between the[Pg 161] Peloponnesians and the Athenians: but after the conclusion of that war, and the destruction of the Athenian navy, the Thebans soon joined the Corinthians against the Lacedæmonians. And after being beaten in battle at Corinth and Coronea, they were victorious at the famous battle of Leuctra, the most famous of all the battles between Greeks that we know of, and they put down the decemvirates that the Lacedæmonians had established in their towns, and ejected the Lacedæmonian Harmosts. And afterwards they fought continuously for 10 years in the Phocian War, called by the Greeks the Sacred War. I have already in my account of Attica spoken about the reverse that befell all the Greeks at Chæronea, but it fell most heavily on the Thebans, for a Macedonian garrison was put into Thebes; but after the death of Philip and accession of Alexander the Thebans took it into their head to eject this garrison: and when they did so the god warned them of their coming ruin, and in the temple of Demeter Thesmophorus the omens were just the reverse of what they were before Leuctra: for then the spiders spun white webs near the doors of the temple, but now at the approach of Alexander and the Macedonians they spun black webs. There is also a tradition that it rained ashes at Athens the year before Sulla began the war which was to cause the Athenians so many woes.

And now the Thebans were expelled from Thebes by Alexander, and escaped to Athens, and were restored by Cassander the son of Antipater. And the Athenians were very friendly in this restoration to Thebes, and the Messenians and Arcadians of Megalopolis also gave their help. And I think Cassander restored Thebes chiefly out of hatred to Alexander: for he endeavoured to destroy all the house of Alexander, for he ordered the Macedonians (who were exceedingly angry with her) to stone to death Olympias Alexander’s mother, and he poisoned the sons of Alexander, Hercules his son by Barsine, and Alexander his[Pg 162] son by Roxana. Nor did he himself terminate his life happily, for he was swollen with the dropsy, and eaten up by worms. And of his sons, Philip the eldest not long after his accession was taken off by consumption, and Antipater the next killed his mother Thessalonice, the daughter of Philip (the son of Amyntas) and Nicasipolis. His motive for putting her to death was that she was too partial to Alexander her youngest son. And Alexander invited in Demetrius the son of Antigonus, and succeeded by his help in deposing his brother Antipater, and punishing him for his matricide, but seemed in Demetrius to find rather a murderer than ally. Thus was Cassander punished by the gods. In his lifetime the Thebans rebuilt all their old walls, but were destined it seemed to taste great misfortunes still. For they joined Mithridates in his war against Rome, I think only out of friendship to the Athenian people. But when Sulla invaded Bœotia panic seized the Thebans, and they repented, and tried to get again the friendship of the Romans. But Sulla was wroth with them, and found out other means of injuring them, and took half their territory on the following pretext. When he began the war with Mithridates he was short of money, he collected therefore the votive offerings from Olympia, and Epidaurus, and from Delphi all that the Phocians had left. These he distributed among his troops, and gave the gods in return half Thebais instead of money. The land thus taken away the Thebans afterwards got back by the favour of the Romans, but in other respects became thenceforwards weaker and weaker, and in my time the lower part of the city was quite deserted except the temples, and the citadel which they still inhabit is called Thebes and not Cadmea.

And when you have crossed the Asopus, and gone about 10 stades from Thebes, you come to the ruins of Potniæ, among which is a grove to Demeter and Proserpine. And the statues by the river they call the Potnian[Pg 163] goddesses. And at a stated season they perform other customary rites, and admit sucking pigs into what are called the Halls: and take them at the same season the year following to Dodona, believe it who likes. Here too is a temple of Dionysus Ægobolus (Goat-killer). For in sacrificing to the god on one occasion the people of Potniæ were so outrageous through drunkenness that they even killed the priest of Dionysus: and straightway a pestilence came on them, and the oracle at Delphi told them the only cure was to sacrifice to Dionysus a grown boy, and not many years afterwards they say the god accepted a goat as victim instead. They also shew a well at Potniæ, in which they say if the horses of the district drink they go mad.

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

At Thebes within the circuit of the old walls were seven gates which remain to this day, and all have their own names. The gate Electris is called from Electra the sister of Cadmus, and Prœtisis from Prœtus, a native of Thebes whose date and genealogy it would be difficult to ascertain. And the gate Neiste got its name from the following circumstance; one of the chords in the lyre is called nete, and Amphion discovered this chord at this very gate. Another account is that Zethus the brother of Amphion had a son called Neis, and that this gate got its name from him. And there is the gate Crenæa, so called from a fountain. And there is the gate called Highest, so called from the temple of Highest Zeus. And the sixth gate is called Ogygia. And the seventh gate is called Homolois, this is the most recently named gate I think, (as Ogygia is the oldest-named,) and got its name from the following circumstance. When the Thebans were beaten in battle by the Argives at Glisas, most of them fled with Laodamas the son of Eteocles, but part of them shrank from a journey to the Illyrii, and turned aside into Thessaly and occupied Homole, the most fertile and well-watered of all the Thessalian mountains. And when Thersander the son of Polynices restored them to Thebes, they called the gate by which they entered Homolois[Pg 164] in memory of Homole. As you go from Platæa to Thebes you enter by the gate Electris, and it was here they say that Capaneus the son of Hipponous, making a most violent attack on the walls, was struck with lightning.[52]

I think this war which the Argives fought is the most memorable of all the wars which were fought between Greeks in the days of the heroes. For the war between the Eleusinians and the Athenians, as likewise that between the Thebans and the Minyæ, was terminated by one engagement, and they were soon friends again. But the Argive host came from the middle of the Peloponnese to the middle of Bœotia, and Adrastus got together allies from Arcadia and Messenia. And likewise some mercenaries came to help the Thebans from Phocis, as also the Phlegyæ from the district of the Minyæ. And in the battle that took place at Ismenius the Thebans were beaten at the first onset, and when they were routed fled to the city, and as the Peloponnesians did not know how to fight against fortifications, but attacked them with more zeal than judgment, the Thebans slew many of them from the walls, and afterwards made a sally and attacked them as they were drawn up in order of battle and killed the rest, so that the whole army was cut to pieces except Adrastus. But the battle was not without heavy loss to the Thebans, and ever since they call a victory with heavy loss to the victors a Cadmean victory.[53] And not many years afterwards those whom the Greeks call Epigoni marched against Thebes with Thersander. Their army was clearly swelled not only from Argolis, but also from Messenia and Arcadia, and from Corinth and Megara. And the Thebans were aided by their neighbours, and a sharp fight took place at Glisas, well contested on both sides. But the Thebans were beaten, and some of them fled with Laodamas, and the rest were reduced after a blockade. The epic poem called the Thebais[Pg 165] has reference to this war. Callinus who mentions that poem says that it was written by Homer, and his view is held by several respectable authorities. But I think it is of a later date than the Iliad and Odyssey. But let this account suffice for the war between the Argives and the Thebans about the sons of Œdipus.

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

And there is a hill sacred to Apollo on the right of the gates, the hill and the god and the river that flows by are all called Ismenius. At the approach to the temple are statues of Athene and Hermes in stone, called gods of the Vestibule, Hermes by Phidias and Athene by Scopas, and next comes the temple itself. And the statue of Apollo in it is in size and appearance very like the one at Branchidæ. Whoever has seen one of these statues and learnt the statuary’s name will not need much sagacity, if he sees the other, to know that it is by Canachus. But they differ in one respect, the one at Branchidæ being in bronze, the Ismenian in cedarwood. There is here also the stone on which they say Manto the daughter of Tiresias sate. It is near the entrance, and its name even to this day is Manto’s seat. And on the right of the temple are two stone statues, one they say of Henioche the other of Pyrrha, both daughters of Creon, who ruled as guardian of Laodamas the son of Eteocles. And still at Thebes I know they choose annually a lad of good family, good looking and strong, as priest to Ismenian Apollo: his title is laurel-bearer, because these lads wear crowns of laurel-leaves. I do not know whether all who wear these laurel crowns must dedicate to the god a brazen tripod, and I don’t think that can be the usage, for I did not[Pg 166] see many tripods so offered. But the wealthiest lads certainly do offer these tripods. Especially notable for age and the celebrity of the person who gave it is that given by Amphitryon, Hercules wearing the laurel crown.

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

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

This is the inscription which the Thebans say is written here: and they also show the monument of the sons of Hercules by Megara, giving a very similar account about their death to that which Stesichorus of Himera and Panyasis have written in their poems. But the Thebans add that Hercules in his madness wished also to kill Amphitryon, but sleep came upon him in consequence of a blow from a stone, and they say Athene threw the stone,[Pg 167] which they call Composer. There too are some statues of women on a figure, rather indistinct from age, the Thebans call them Sorceresses, and say that they were sent by Hera to prevent Alcmena from childbirth. Accordingly they tried to do so, but Historis the daughter of Tiresias played a trick on them, she cried out in their hearing, and they thought Alcmena had just given birth to a child, so they went away deceived, and then they say Alcmena bare a boy.

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

Near the temple of Hercules are a gymnasium and racecourse both called after the god. And beyond the stone Composer is an altar of Apollo Spodius, made of the ashes of the victims. There is divination there by omens, which kind of divination I know the people[Pg 168] of Smyrna use more than all the other Greeks, for they have outside their walls beyond the city a Temple of Omens.

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

There is also the statue of Pronomus, a man most attractive as a flute-player. For a long time flute-players had [Pg 169] only three kinds of flutes, for some played in the Dorian measure, and other flutes were adapted to the Phrygian and Lydian measures. And Pronomus was the first who saw that flutes were fit for every kind of measure, and was the first to play different measures on the same flute. It is said also that by the appearance of his features and the motion of all his body he gave wonderful pleasure in the theatre, and a processional song of his is extant for the dwellers at Chalcis near the Euripus who came to Delos. To him and to Epaminondas the son of Polymnis the Thebans erected statues here.

Epaminondas was of illustrious descent, but his father was very poor even for an average Theban, and he learnt very carefully the national education, and when he was quite a stripling went to school to Lysis the Tarentine, who had been a pupil of Pythagoras of Samos. And, when the Lacedæmonians were at war with the Mantineans, Epaminondas is said to have been sent amongst others from Thebes to aid the Lacedæmonians. And when Pelopidas was wounded in the battle, he ran great risks to bring him out of it safe. And afterwards when Epaminondas went on an embassy to Sparta, when the Lacedæmonians agreed to ratify with the Greeks the peace known as the peace of Antalcidas, and Agesilaus asked him if the Thebans would allow the various towns in Bœotia to subscribe to the peace separately, “Not,” he answered, “O Spartans, until we see your neighbouring towns setting us the example.” And when war at last broke out between the Lacedæmonians and the Thebans, and the Lacedæmonians attacked the Thebans with their own forces and those of their allies, Epaminondas with part of his army stationed himself near the marsh Cephisis, as the Peloponnesians were going to make their attack in that quarter, but Cleombrotus the king of the Lacedæmonians turned aside to Ambrosus in Phocis, and after slaying Chæreas, who had been ordered to guard the by-roads, and the men who were with him, passed by[Pg 170] and got to Leuctra in Bœotia. There Cleombrotus and the Lacedæmonians generally had portents from the gods. The Spartan kings when they went out to war used to be accompanied by flocks of sheep, to sacrifice to the gods and to give them good omens before battles. These flocks were led by a particular kind of goat that the shepherds called catoiades. And on this occasion some wolves attacked the flocks but did no harm to the sheep, only slew the goats. Vengeance is said to have come upon the Lacedæmonians in consequence of the daughters of Scedasus. Scedasus lived at Leuctra and had two daughters Molpia and Hippo. They were very beautiful and two Lacedæmonians, Phrurarchidas and Parthenius, iniquitously violated them, and they forthwith hung themselves, for this outrage was more than they could bear: and Scedasus, when he could get no reparation at Lacedæmon for this outrage, returned to Leuctra and committed suicide. Then Epaminondas offered funeral rites to Scedasus and his daughters, and vowed that a battle should take place there, as much for their vengeance as for the safety of Thebes. But the Bœotarchs were not all of the same view, but differed in their opinions. Epaminondas and Malgis and Xenocrates were for engaging the Lacedæmonians without delay, whereas Damoclidas and Damophilus and Simangelus were against an engagement, and recommended the withdrawal of the women and children into Attica, and that they should themselves prepare for a siege. Thus the votes of the six were equally divided, but the vote of the 7th Bœotarch on his return to the camp, (he had been on the look-out at Cithæron, and his name was Bacchylides), being given on the side of Epaminondas, it was agreed to stake everything on a battle. Now Epaminondas had suspicions about the fidelity of several of the Bœotians especially the Thespians, fearing therefore that they would desert in the battle, he gave leave to whoever would to go home, and the Thespians went off in full force, and any other Bœotians who had ill-will to the Thebans. And when the engagement came on, the allies of the Lacedæmonians, who had previously not been overwell pleased with them, openly showed their hostility by not standing their ground, but giving way wherever the enemy attacked. But the battle between the Lacedæmonians and the Thebans was[Pg 171] well contested, the former relying on their long military experience and ashamed to impair the old prestige of Sparta, while the latter saw that the fate of their country their wives and children was staked on the result of this fight. But after many Lacedæmonians of high rank had fallen as also their king Cleombrotus, then the Spartans though hard pressed felt obliged to continue the combat, for amongst the Lacedæmonians it was considered most disgraceful to allow the dead body of one of their kings to remain in the hands of the enemy.

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

Directly after the battle Epaminondas allowed all the other Peloponnesians to depart to their homes, but the Lacedæmonians he kept shut up at Leuctra. But when he heard that the Spartans were coming in full force to their relief, then he allowed them to depart on conditions of war, for he said that it was better to fight on Lacedæmonian than Bœotian ground. And the Thespians, looking with regret at their past ill-will to the Thebans and with anxiety at their present fortunes, thought it best to abandon their own city and flee to Ceressus, a fortified place belonging to them, into which they had formerly thrown themselves when the Thessalians invaded their[Pg 172] country. But the Thessalians on that occasion, as they seemed hardly likely to capture Ceressus consulted the oracle at Delphi, and this was the response they received. “Shady Leuctra and the Alesian soil are dear to me, dear to me too are the unfortunate daughters of Scedasus. In the future looms a lamentable battle there: but no one shall capture it till the Dorians lose the flower of their young men, when its day of fate shall have come. Then shall Ceressus be captured, but not before.”

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

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

On the statue of Epaminondas are four elegiac lines about him, that tell how he restored Messene, and how[Pg 174] the Greeks got their freedom through him. These are the lines.

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

Such were the glorious deeds of Epaminondas.

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

The Thebans have also some wooden statues of Aphrodite, so ancient that they are said to be votive offerings of Harmonia, made out of the wood of the gunwales of the ships of Cadmus. One they call the Celestial Aphrodite, the other the Pandemian, and the third the Heart-Turner. Harmonia meant by these titles of Aphrodite the following. The Celestial is a pure love and has no connection with bodily appetite, the Pandemian is the common vulgar sensual love, and thirdly the goddess is called Heart-Turner because she turns the heart of men away by lawless passion and unholy deeds. For Harmonia knew that many bold deeds had been done in lawless passion both among the Greeks and barbarians, such as were afterwards sung by poets, as the legends about the mother of Adonis, and[Pg 175] Phædra the daughter of Minos, and the Thracian Tereus. And the temple of Law-giving Demeter was they say formerly the house of Cadmus and his descendants. And the statue of Demeter is only visible down to the chest. And there are some brazen shields hung up here, which they say belonged to some of the Lacedæmonian notables that fell at Leuctra.

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

And next is the temple of Artemis Euclea, the statue of the goddess is by Scopas. They say the daughters of Antipœnus, Androclea and Alcis, are buried in this temple. For when Hercules and the Thebans were going to engage in battle with the Orchomenians, an oracle informed them that, if any one of their most notable citizens in respect to birth was willing to commit suicide, they would obtain victory in the war. To Antipœnus, who was of most illustrious descent, it did not appear agreeable to die for the people, but his daughters had no objection, so they committed suicide and were honoured accordingly. In front of the temple of Artemis Euclea is a lion in stone, which was it is said a votive offering of Hercules, when he had vanquished in battle the Orchomenians and their king Erginus the son of Clymenus. And near it is a statue of[Pg 176] Apollo Boedromius, and one of Hermes Agoræus, this last the votive offering of Pindar. The funeral pile of the children of Amphion is about half a stade from their tombs, the ashes still remain. And near the statue of Amphitryon are they say two stone statues of Athene Zosteria (the Girder), and they say Amphitryon armed himself here, when he was on the point of engaging the Eubœans and Chalcodon. The ancients called putting on one’s armour girding oneself: and they say that when Homer represents Agamemnon as having a belt like Ares, he refers to his armour.[54]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Pg 178]

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

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

On the left of Teumessus about 7 stades further you come to the ruins of Glisas, and before them on the right of the road is a small mound shaded by a wild wood, and some trees have been planted there. It is the tomb of those that went with Ægialeus the son of Adrastus on the expedition against Thebes, and of several noble Argives, and among them Promachus the son of Parthenopæus. The tomb of Ægialeus is at Pagæ, as I have previously shown in my account about Megara. As you go on the high road from Thebes to Glisas is a place, surrounded by unhewn stones, which the Thebans call the head of the serpent. They say this serpent lifted its head out of its hole, and Tiresias passing by chopped its head off with his sword. That is how the place got its name. And above Glisas is a mountain called Highest, and on it is the temple and altar of Highest Zeus. And the torrent here they call Thermodon. And as you turn towards Teumessus on the road to Chalcis is the tomb of Chalcodon, who[Pg 179] was slain by Amphitryon in the battle fought by the Eubœans against the Thebans. And next come the ruins of the towns of Harma and Mycalessus, the former was so called according to the tradition of the people of Tanagra because the chariot of Amphiaraus disappeared here, and not where the Thebans say it did. And Mycalessus was so called they state because the cow that led Cadmus and his army to Thebes lowed here.

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

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

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

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

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

And in the temple of Dionysus the statue of the god by Calamis in Parian stone is well worth looking at, but more wonderful still is a statue of Triton. And a legend about Triton of hoar antiquity says that the women of Tanagra before the orgies of Dionysus bathed in the sea to purify themselves, and as they were swimming about Triton assailed them, and they prayed Dionysus to come to their aid, and the god hearkened to them and conquered Triton after a fight with him. Another legend lacks the antiquity of this, but is more plausible. It relates that, when the herds were driven to the sea, Triton lay in ambush and[Pg 181] carried some of them off. He also plundered small vessels, till the people of Tanagra filled a bowl full of wine for him. And he came to it attracted they say by its aroma, and drank of it and fell asleep and tumbled down the rocks, and a man of Tanagra smote his head off with an axe. And for this reason his statue has no head. And because he was captured when drunk they think he was killed by Dionysus.

I have also seen another Triton among the Curiosities at Rome, but not so big as this one at Tanagra. This is the appearance of Tritons: the hair on their head is like frog-wort in the marshes, and one hair is not to be distinguished from another, the rest of their body is rough with thin scales like the shark. Under their ears they have the gills of a fish, and the nose of a man but a somewhat larger mouth and the teeth of an animal. Their eyes are I think a greyish blue, and their hands and fingers and nails are like the claws of shell-fish. And under the breast and belly they have fins like dolphins instead of feet. I have also seen the Ethiopian bulls, which they call rhinoceroses because a horn projects from their nose and a little horn besides under it, but they have no horns on their head. I have seen also the Pæonian bulls, which are rough all over their bodies but especially in the breast and chin. I have seen also the Indian camels which are like leopards in colour. There is also a wild animal called the elk, which is something between a stag and a camel, and is found among the Celts. It is the only animal we know of that men cannot hunt or see at a distance, but when they are engaged in hunting other animals sometimes the deity drives the elk into their hands. But it scents men they say at a great distance, and hides among the rocks and in the recesses of caves. Hunters therefore, when they have drawn a large net completely round a large district or even a mountain, so that nothing in that area can escape, among other animals that they catch when they draw the net tight capture occasionally the elk. But if it should not[Pg 182] happen to be in this area, there is no other device by which one could capture the elk. As to the wild animal which Ctesias speaks of in his account of the Indians, called by them martiora, but by the Greeks manslayer, I am convinced this is the tiger. As to the Indian tradition, that it has three rows of teeth in each of its jaws and stings at the end of its tail, with which it defends itself and hurls them at a distance like an archer his arrows, this report I cannot believe, and I think the Indians only accept it from their excessive terror of this animal. They are also deceived about its colour, for when it appears in the rays of the Sun the tiger often looks red and all one colour, either from its speed or if not running from its incessant motion, especially if it is not seen near. I think indeed that if anyone were to travel into the remote parts of Libya or India or Arabia, wishing to find the wild animals that are to be found in Greece, he would not find them at all, but he would find others different. For it is not only man that changes his appearance in different climates and lands, but also everything else is subject to the same conditions, for the Libyan asps have the same colour as the Egyptian ones, while in Ethiopia the earth produces them as black as the men. We ought therefore neither to receive any account too hastily, nor to discredit the uncommon, for example I myself have not seen winged serpents yet I believe there are such, for a Phrygian brought into Ionia a scorpion that had wings like locusts.

At Tanagra besides the temple of Dionysus there is one of Themis, and another of Aphrodite, and a third of Apollo, near which are both Artemis and Leto. With respect to the two temples of Hermes the Ram-carrier and Hermes the Champion, they say Hermes got the first title because he allayed a pestilence by carrying a ram round the walls, and that is why Calamis made a statue of Hermes carrying a ram on his shoulders. And whoever is selected as the most handsome youth, carries a ram on his shoulders round the walls during the festival of Hermes. And[Pg 183] Hermes they say was called Champion because, when the Eretrians came with a fleet from Eubœa to Tanagra, he led the young men out to battle, and himself (with a scraper like a young man) mainly brought about the rout of the Eubœans. There is also some purslane preserved in the temple of Hermes the Champion: for they fancy it was under this tree that Hermes was reared. And at no great distance is a theatre, and near it a portico. The people of Tanagra seem to honour their gods most of all the Greeks, for they keep their houses and temples apart, and their temples are in a pure place, and apart from men. And Corinna, the only Poetess of Tanagra, has a tomb in the town in a conspicuous place, and her painting is in the gymnasium, her head is adorned with a fillet because of her victory over Pindar at Thebes. And I think she conquered him because of her dialect, for she did not compose in Doric like Pindar, but in Æolic which the Æolians would understand, and she was also one of the handsomest of women as we can see from her painting. They have also two kinds of cocks, game cocks and those they call black cocks. The latter are in size like the Lydian birds and in colour like a crow, and their gills and crest are like the anemone, and they have small white marks on the end of their bill and tail. Such is their appearance.

And in Bœotia on the left of the Euripus is the mountain Messapium, and at the foot of it is the Bœotian city Anthedon on the sea, called according to some after the Nymph Anthedon, but according to others from Anthas who they say ruled here, the son of Poseidon by Alcyone the daughter of Atlas. At Anthedon in about the middle of the city is a temple and grove round it of the Cabiri, and near it is a temple of Demeter and Proserpine and their statues in white stone. There is also a temple of Dionysus and a statue of the god in front of the city in the land direction. Here too are the tombs of Otus and Ephialtes the sons of Iphimedea and Aloeus, who were slain by Apollo as both Homer[60] and Pindar have represented. Fate carried them off in Naxos beyond Paros, but their tombs are in Anthedon. And by the sea is a place called the leap of Glaucus. He[Pg 184] was a fisherman but after eating a certain grass became a marine god and predicts the future, as is believed by many and especially by seafaring men, who every year speak of Glaucus’ powers of prophesy. Pindar and Æschylus have celebrated Glaucus from these traditions of the people of Anthedon, Pindar not so much, but Æschylus has made him the subject of one of his plays.

The Thebans in front of the gate Prœtis have what is called the gymnasium of Iolaus, and a mound of earth constituting a race-course like that at Olympia and Epidaurus. There is also shown there the hero-chapel of Iolaus, who died in Sardinia, (as the Thebans admit), with the Athenians and Thespians who crossed over with him. As you leave the race-course on the right is the Hippodrome, and in it is the tomb of Pindar. When he was quite a young man, going one day to Thespiæ in the middle of a very hot day, he was tired and sleep came upon him. And he lay down a little above the road, and some bees settled on him as he slept and made their honey on his lips. This circumstance made him first write poems. And when he was famous throughout all Greece, the Pythian Priestess raised his fame still higher by proclaiming at Delphi, that Pindar was to have an equal share with Apollo of the firstfruits. It is said that he also had an appearance in a dream when he was advanced in years. Proserpine stood by him as he slept, and told him that she was the only one of the gods that was not celebrated by him, but he would also celebrate her in an Ode when he came to her. And he died before the close of the 10th day after this dream. And there was at Thebes an old woman related to Pindar, who had been accustomed to sing many of his Odes, to her Pindar appeared in a dream and recited his Hymn to Proserpine. And she directly she awoke wrote it down just as she had heard him reciting in her dream. In this Hymn Pluto has several titles, among [Pg 185] others the Golden-reined, dearly an allusion to the Rape of Proserpine.

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

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

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

As you go from Acræphnium straight for the lake Cephisis, which is called by some Copais, is the plain called Athamantium, where they say Athamas lived. The river Cephisus has its outlet into this lake, which river has its rise at Lilæa in Phocis, and when you have sailed through[Pg 186] the lake you come to Copæ a small town on its banks, which Homer has mentioned in his Catalogue of the ships.[62] Demeter and Dionysus and Serapis have temples there. The Bœotians say that formerly there were several small towns, as Athenæ and Eleusis, inhabited near this lake, which were swept away one winter by a flood. The fish generally in Lake Cephisis are very like other lake fish, but the eels are especially fine and good eating.

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

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

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

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

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

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

About 25 stades further you come to the grove of[Pg 188] Cabirian Demeter and Proserpine, which none may enter but the initiated. About seven stades from this grove is the temple of the Cabiri. Who they were and what are their rites or those of Demeter I must be pardoned by the curious for passing over in silence. But nothing prevents my publishing to everybody the origin of these rites according to the Theban traditions. They say there was formerly a town here, the inhabitants of which were called Cabiri, and that Demeter getting acquainted with Prometheus (one of the Cabiri), and Prometheus’ son Ætnæus, put something into their hands. What this deposit was, and the circumstances relating to it, it is not lawful for me to disclose. But the mysteries of Demeter were a gift to the Cabiri. But when the Epigoni led an army against Thebes and captured it, the Cabiri were driven out by the Argives, and for some time the mysteries were not celebrated. Afterwards however they are said to have been reestablished by Pelarge, the daughter of Potneus, and her husband Isthmiades, who taught them to the person whose name was Alexiarous. And because Pelarge celebrated the mysteries beyond the ancient boundaries, Telondes and all of the Cabiri who had left Cabiræa returned. Pelarge in consequence of an oracle from Dodona was treated with various honours, and a victim big with young was ordered for her sacrifice. The wrath of the Cabiri is implacable as has frequently been manifested. For example when some private persons at Naupactus imitated the mysteries at Thebes, vengeance soon came upon them. And those of Xerxes’ army who were with Mardonius and left in Bœotia, when they entered the temple of the Cabiri (partly from the hope of finding great wealth there, but more I think to insult the divinity), went mad and perished by throwing themselves into the sea from the rocks. And when Alexander after his victory put Thebes and all Thebais on fire, the Macedonians who went into the temple of the Cabiri with hostile intent were killed by lightning and thunderbolts. So holy was this temple from the first.

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

About 15 stades from this mountain are the ruins of Onchestus, where they say Onchestus the son of Poseidon dwelt, and in my time there was a statue of Onchestian Poseidon, and the grove which Homer has mentioned.[63] And as you turn to the left from the temple of the Cabiri in about 50 stades you will come to Thespia built under Mount Helicon. The town got its name they say from Thespia the daughter of Asopus. Others say that Thespius the son of Erechtheus came from Athens, and gave his name to it. At Thespia is a brazen statue of Zeus[Pg 190] Soter: they say that, when a dragon once infested the town, Zeus ordered one of the lads chosen by lot every year to be given to the monster. The names of his other victims they do not record, but for Cleostratus the last victim they say his lover Menestratus invented the following contrivance. He made for him a brazen breastplate with a hook on each of its plates bent in, and Cleostratus armed with this cheerfully gave himself up to the dragon, for he knew that though he would perish himself he would also kill the monster. From this circumstance Zeus was called the Saviour. They have also statues of Dionysus and Fortune, and Hygiea, and Athene the Worker, and near her Plutus.

Of the gods the Thespians have always honoured Eros most, of whom they have a very old statue in rude stone. But who instituted the worship of Eros at Thespia I do not know. This god is worshipped not a whit less by the Pariani who live near the Hellespont, who were originally from Ionia and migrated from Erythræ, and are now included amongst the Romans. Most men think Eros the latest of the gods, and the son of Aphrodite. But the Lycian Olen, who wrote the most ancient Hymns of the Greeks, says in his Hymn to Ilithyia that she was the mother of Eros. And after Olen Pamphus and Orpheus wrote verses to Eros for the Lycomidæ to sing at the mysteries, and I have read them thanks to a torch-bearer at the mysteries. But of these I shall make no further mention. And Hesiod, (or whoever wrote the Theogony and foisted it on Hesiod), wrote I know that Chaos came first, and then Earth, and Tartarus, and Eros. And the Lesbian Sappho has sung many things about Eros which do not harmonize with one another. Lysippus afterwards made a brazen statue of Eros for the Thespians, and still earlier Praxiteles made one in Pentelican marble. I have told elsewhere all about Phryne’s ingenious trick on Praxiteles. This statue of Eros was removed first by the Roman[Pg 191] Emperor Gaius, and, though it was restored by Claudius to Thespia, Nero removed it to Rome once more. And there it was burnt by fire. But of those who acted thus impiously to the god Gaius, always giving the same obscene word to a soldier, made him so angry that at last he killed him for it,[64] and Nero, besides his dealings to his mother and wedded wives, showed himself an abominable fellow and one that had no true affinity with Eros. The statue of Eros in Thespia in our day is by the Athenian Menodorus, who made an imitation of the statue of Praxiteles. There are also statues in stone by Praxiteles of Aphrodite and Phryne. And in another part of the town is a temple of Black Aphrodite, and a theatre and market-place well worth seeing: there is also a brazen statue of Hesiod. And not far from the market-place is a brazen Victory, and a small temple of the Muses, and some small stone statues in it.

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

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

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

This poem of Hegesinous I have not read, for it was not extant in my time, but Callippus the Corinthian in his account of Orchomenus cites some of the lines to corroborate his account, and similarly I myself have cited some of them from Callippus. There is a tower at Ascra in my time, but nothing else remains. And the sons of Aloeus thought the Muses were three in number, and called them Melete and Mneme and Aoide. But afterwards they say the Macedonian Pierus, who gave his name to the mountain in Macedonia, came to Thespia and made 9 Muses, and changed their names to the ones they now have. And this Pierus did either because it seemed wiser, or in obedience to an oracle, or so taught by some Thracian, for the Thracians seem in old times to have been in other respects more clever than the Macedonians, and not so neglectful of religion. There are some who say that Pierus had 9 daughters, and that they had the same names as the Muses, and that those who were called by the Greeks the sons of the Muses were called the grandchildren of Pierus. But Mimnermus, in the Elegiac verses which he composed about the battle of the people of Smyrna against Gyges and the Lydians, says in his prelude that the older Muses were the daughters of Uranus, and the younger ones the daughters of Zeus. And at Helicon, on the left as you go to the grove of the Muses, is the fountain Aganippe. Aganippe was they say the daughter of Termesus, the river which flows round Helicon, and, if you go straight for the grove, you will come to an image of Eupheme carved in stone. She is said to have been the nurse of the Muses. And next to her is a statue[Pg 194] of Linus, on a small rock carved like a cavern, to whom every year they perform funeral rites before they sacrifice to the Muses. It is said that Linus was the son of Urania by Amphiaraus the son of Poseidon, and that he had greater fame for musical skill than either his contemporaries or predecessors, and that Apollo slew him because he boasted himself as equal to the god. And on the death of Linus sorrow for him spread even to foreign lands, so that even the Egyptians have a Lament called Linus, but in their own dialect Maneros.[65] And the Greek poets have represented the sorrows of Linus as a Greek legend, as Homer who in his account of the shield of Achilles says that Hephæstus among other things represented a harper boy singing the song of Linus.

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

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

Here too they have erected statues of poets and others notable for music, as blind Thamyris handling a broken lyre, and Arion of Methymna on the dolphin’s back. But he who made the statue of Sacadas the Argive, not understanding Pindar’s prelude about him, has made the piper no bigger in his body than his pipes. There too is Hesiod sitting with a harp on his knees, not his usual appearance, for it is plain from his poems that he used to sing with a laurel wand. As to the period of Hesiod and Homer, though I made most diligent research, it is not agreeable to me to venture an opinion, as I know the disputatiousness of people, and not least of those who in my day have discussed poetical subjects. There is also a statue of Thracian Orpheus with Telete beside him, and there are round him representations in stone and brass of the animals listening to his singing. The Greeks believe many things which are not true, and among others that Orpheus was the son of the Muse Calliope and not of the daughter of Pierus, and that animals were led by his melody, and that he went down alive to Hades to get back his wife Eurydice from the gods of the lower world. But Orpheus, as it seems to me, really did excel all his predecessors in the arrangement of his poems, and attained to great influence as being thought to[Pg 196] have invented the mysteries of the gods, and purifications from unholy deeds, and cures for diseases, and means of turning away the wrath of the gods. And they say the Thracian women laid plots against his life, because he persuaded their husbands to accompany him in his wanderings, but from fear of their husbands did not carry them out at first: but afterwards when they had primed themselves with wine carried out the atrocious deed, and since that time it has been customary for the men to go drunk into battle. But some say that Orpheus died from being struck with lightning by the god because he taught men in the mysteries things they had not before heard of. Others have recorded that, his wife Eurydice having died before him, he went to Aornus in Thesprotia, to consult an oracle of the dead about her, and he thought that her soul would follow him, but losing her because he turned back to look at her he slew himself from grief. And the Thracians say that the nightingales that build their nests on the tomb of Orpheus sing pleasanter and louder than other nightingales. But the Macedonians who inhabit the district of Pieria, under the mountain and the city Dium, say that Orpheus was slain there by the women. And as you go from Dium to the mountain and about 20 stades further is a pillar on the right hand and on the pillar a stone urn: this urn has the remains of Orpheus as the people of the district say. The river Helicon flows through this district, after a course of 75 stades it loses itself in the ground, and 22 stades further it reappears, when it is called Baphyra instead of Helicon, becomes a navigable stream, and finally discharges itself into the sea. The people of Dium say that the river flowed above ground originally throughout its course, but when the women who slew Orpheus desired to wash off his blood in it, it went underground that it might not give them cleansing from their blood-guiltiness. I have also heard another account at Larissa, that a city on Olympus was once inhabited called Libethra, where the mountain looks to Macedonia, and that the tomb of Orpheus is not far from this city, and that there came an oracle to the people of Libethra from Dionysus in Thrace, that when the Sun should see the bones of Orpheus their city would be destroyed by Sus. But they[Pg 197] paid no great attention to the oracle, thinking no wild animal would be large or strong enough to destroy their city, while as to the boar (Sus) it had more boldness than power. However when the god thought fit, then the following happened. A shepherd about mid-day laid himself down by the tomb of Orpheus and fell asleep, and in his sleep sang some verses of Orpheus aloud in a sweet voice. Then the shepherds and husbandmen who were near left their respective work, and crowded together to hear this shepherd sing in his sleep, and pushing one another about in striving to get near the shepherd overturned the pillar, and the urn fell off it and was broken, and the Sun did see the remains of Orpheus. And on the following night it rained very heavily, and the river Sus, which is one of the mountain streams on Olympus, swept away the walls of Libethra, and the temples of the gods and the houses of the inhabitants, and drowned all the human beings in the place and all the animals. As the Libethrians therefore all perished, the Macedonians in Dium, according to the account I received from my host at Larissa, removed the remains of Orpheus to their city. Whoever has investigated the subject knows that the Hymns of Orpheus are very short, and do not altogether amount to a great number. The Lycomidæ are acquainted with them and chant them at the Mysteries. In composition they are second only to the Hymns of Homer, and are more valued for their religious spirit.

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

[Pg 198]

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

On the top of Mount Helicon is a small river called the Lamus. And in the district of Thespia is a place called Donacon, (Reed-bed), where is the fountain of Narcissus, who they say looked into this water, and not observing that it was his own shadow which he saw was secretly enamoured of himself, and died of love near the fountain. This is altogether silly that any grown person should be so possessed by love as not to know the difference between a[Pg 199] human being and a shadow. There is another tradition about him, not so well known as the other, viz. that he had a twin-sister, and that the two were almost facsimiles in appearance and hair and dress, and used to go out hunting together, and that Narcissus was in love with this sister, and when she died he used to frequent this fountain and knew that it was his own shadow which he saw, yet though he knew this it gratified his love to think that it was not his own shadow but the image of his sister that he was looking at. But the earth produced I think the flower narcissus earlier than this, if one may credit the verses of Pamphus: for though he was much earlier than the Thespian Narcissus, he says that Proserpine the daughter of Demeter was playing and gathering flowers when she was carried off, and that she was deceived not by violets but by narcissuses.[70]

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

And as you sail from Creusis, not well out to sea but coasting along Bœotia, you will see on the right the city Thisbe. First there is a mountain near the sea, and when you have passed that there is a plain and then another mountain, and at the bottom of this mountain is Thisbe. And there is a temple of Hercules and stone statue there in a standing posture, and they keep a festival to him. And nothing would prevent the plain between the mountains being a lake, (so much water is there), but that they have a strong embankment in the middle of the plain, and annually divert the water beyond the embankment and cultivate the dry parts of the plain. And Thisbe,[Pg 200] from whom the city got its name, was they say a local Nymph.

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

As you go inland from Thespia towards the mainland you will arrive at Haliartus. But I must not separate the founder of Haliartus and Coronea from my account of Orchomenus. On the invasion of the Medes, as the people of Haliartus espoused the side of the Greeks, part of the army of Xerxes set out to burn the town and district. At Haliartus is the tomb of Lysander the Lacedæmonian, for when he attacked the city, the forces from Thebes and Athens inside the city sallied forth, and in the battle that ensued he fell. In some respects one may praise Lysander very much, in others one must bitterly censure him. He exhibited great sagacity when he was in command of the Peloponnesian fleet. Watching when Alcibiades was absent from the fleet, he enticed his pilot Antiochus to think he could cope with the Lacedæmonian fleet, and when he sailed out against them boldly and confidently, defeated him not far from the city of the Colophonians. And when Lysander joined the fleet from Sparta the second time, he so conciliated Cyrus, that whatever money he asked for the fleet Cyrus gave him freely at once. And when 100 Athenian ships were anchored at Ægos-potamoi he captured them, watching when the crews had gone on shore for fresh water and provisions. He also exhibited his justice in the following circumstance. Autolycus the pancratiast (whose effigy I have seen in the Pyrtaneum at Athens) had a dispute with Eteonicus a Spartan about some property. And when Eteonicus was convicted of pleading unfairly, (it was when the Thirty Tyrants were in power at Athens, and Lysander was present), he was moved to strike Autolycus, and when he struck back he brought him to Lysander, expecting that [Pg 201] he would decide the affair in his favour. But Lysander condemned Eteonicus of injustice, and sent him away with reproaches. This was creditable to Lysander, but the following were discreditable. He put to death Philocles, the Athenian Admiral at Ægos-potamoi, and 4000 Athenian captives, and would not allow them burial, though the Athenians granted burial to the Medes at Marathon, and King Xerxes to the Lacedæmonians that fell at Thermopylæ. And Lysander brought still greater disgrace upon the Lacedæmonians by establishing Decemvirates in the cities besides the Laconian Harmosts. And when the Lacedæmonians did not think of making money because of the oracle, which said that love of money alone would ruin Sparta, he inspired in them a strong desire for money. I therefore, following the opinion of the Persians and judging according to their law, think that Lysander did more harm than good to the Lacedæmonians.

At Haliartus is Lysander’s tomb, and a hero-chapel to Cecrops the son of Pandion. And the mountain Tilphusium and the fountain Tilphusa are about 50 stades from Haliartus. It is a tradition of the Greeks that the Argives, who in conjunction with the sons of Polynices captured Thebes, were taking Tiresias and the spoil to Apollo at Delphi, when Tiresias who was thirsty drank of the fountain Tilphusa and gave up the ghost, and was buried on the spot. They say also that Manto the daughter of Tiresias was offered to Apollo by the Argives, but that, in consequence of the orders of the god, she sailed to what is now Ionia, and to that part of it called Colophonia. And there she married the Cretan Rhacius. All the other legends about Tiresias, as the number of years which he is recorded to have lived, and how he was changed from a woman into a man, and how Homer in his Odyssey has represented him as the only person of understanding in Hades,[71] all this everyone has heard and knows. Near[Pg 202] Haliartus too there is in the open air a temple of the goddesses that they call Praxidicæ. In this temple they swear no hasty oaths. This temple is near the mountain Tilphusium. There are also temples at Haliartus, with no statues in them for there is no roof: to whom they were erected I could not ascertain.

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

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

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

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

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

[Pg 204]

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

The Bœotians say that Eteocles was the first who sacrificed to the Graces. And they are sure that he established the worship of three Graces, though they do not remember the names he gave them. For the Lacedæmonians[Pg 205] say that only two Graces were appointed by Lacedæmon the son of Taygete, and that their names were Cleta and Phaenna. These names suit the Graces, and they have suitable names also among the Athenians, for the Athenians honour of old the Graces Auxo and Hegemone. As to Carpo it is not the name of a Grace but a Season. And another Season the Athenians honour equally with Pandrosus, the Goddess they call Thallo. But having learnt so to do from Eteocles of Orchomenus we are accustomed now to pray to three Graces: and Angelion and Tectæus who made a statue of Apollo at Delos have placed three Graces in his hand; and at Athens at the entrance to the Acropolis there are also three Graces, and near them they celebrate the mysteries which are kept secret from the multitude. Pamphus is the first we know of that sang the praises of the Graces, but he has neither mentioned their number nor their names. And Homer, who has also mentioned the Graces, says that one of them whom he calls Charis was the wife of Hephæstus.[72] And he says that Sleep was the lover of the Grace Pasithea. For in his account of Sleep he has written the lines,

Hence has arisen the idea that Homer knew of other older Graces. And Hesiod in the Theogony (if indeed Hesiod wrote the Theogony) says that these Graces are the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, and that their names are Euphrosyne and Aglaia and Thalia. Onomacritus gives the same account of them in his verses. But Antimachus neither gives the number of the Graces nor their names, but says they were the daughters of Ægle and the Sun. And Hermesianax in his Elegies has written something rather different from the opinion of those before him, viz. that Peitho was one of the Graces. But whoever first represented the Graces naked (whether in a statue or painting) I could not ascertain, for in more ancient times the statuaries and painters represented them dressed, as at Smyrna in the temple of the Nemeses, where above the other statues are some golden Graces by Bupalus. In the Odeum also is a figure of a Grace painted by Apelles. The people of Pergamus have[Pg 206] also, in the bed-chamber of Attalus, the Graces by Bupalus. And in what is called the Pythium there are Graces painted by the Parian Pythagoras. And Socrates the son of Sophroniscus at the entrance to the Acropolis made statues of the Graces for the Athenians. And all these are draped: but artists afterwards, I know not why, changed this presentation of them: and in my day both sculptured them and painted them as naked.

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

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

[Pg 207]

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

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

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

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

So he married a young wife according to the oracle, and became father of Trophonius and Agamedes. Trophonius is said indeed to have been the son of Apollo and not of Erginus, as I myself believe, and so will everyone who consults the oracle of Trophonius. When they grew up they say these sons of Erginus became skilful in building temples for the gods and palaces for men: for they built the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and the treasury for Hyrieus. In this last they contrived one stone so that they could remove it as they liked from outside, and they were ever filching from the treasures: and Hyrieus was astonished when he saw keys and seals untampered with, and yet his[Pg 209] wealth ever diminishing. So he laid traps near the coffers in which his silver and gold were, so that whoever entered and touched the money would be caught. And as Agamedes entered he was trapped, and Trophonius cut off his brother’s head, that when daylight came he might not if detected inform against him too as privy to the robbery. Thereupon the earth gaped and swallowed up Trophonius in the grove of Lebadea, where is a cavity called after Agamedes, and a pillar erected near it. And the rulers over the Orchomenians were Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, who were reputed to be the sons of Ares by Astyoche, (the daughter of Azeus the son of Clymenus), and who led the Minyæ to Troy.[75] The Orchomenians also went on the expedition to Ionia with the sons of Codrus, and after being driven from their country by the Thebans were restored to Orchomenus by Philip the son of Amyntas. But the deity seemed ever to reduce their power more and more.

At Orchomenus there is a temple of Dionysus, and a very ancient one of the Graces. They worship especially some meteoric stones which they say fell from heaven upon Eteocles, and some handsome stone statues were offered in my time. They have also a well well worth seeing, which they go down to to draw water. And the treasury of Minyas, a marvel inferior to nothing in Greece or elsewhere, is constructed as follows. It is a circular building made of stone with a top not very pointed: the highest stone they say holds together the whole building. There are also there the tombs of Minyas and Hesiod: they say Hesiod’s bones were got in the following way. When a pestilence once destroyed men and cattle they sent messengers to Delphi, and the Pythian Priestess bade them bring the bones of Hesiod from Naupactus to Orchomenus, and that would be a remedy. They then inquired again in what part of Naupactus they would find those bones, and the Pythian Priestess told them that a[Pg 210] crow would show them. As they proceeded on their journey they saw a stone not far from the road and a crow sitting on it, and they found the bones of Hesiod in the hollow of the stone, and these elegiac verses were inscribed upon it,

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

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

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

plainly therefore at that period much wealth came to Orchomenus.

They say Aspledon lost its inhabitants from deficiency[Pg 211] of water, and that it got its name from Aspledon, the son of Poseidon by the Nymph Midea. This account is confirmed by the verses which Chersias the Orchomenian wrote,

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

In the mountainous parts the Phocians are nearest to the Orchomenians, but in the plain Lebadea is nearest. Lebadea was originally built on high ground, and called Midea from the mother of Aspledon, but when Lebadus came from Athens and settled here the inhabitants descended to the plain, and the town was called Lebadea after him. Who the father of Lebadus was, and why he came there, they do not know, they only know that his wife’s name was Laonice. The town is adorned in every respect like the most famous Greek towns. The grove of Trophonius is at some distance from it. They say that Hercyna was playing there with Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, and unwittingly let a goose drop out of her hands, which flew into a hollow cave and hid under a stone, till Proserpine entered the cave and took it from under the stone: and water they say burst forth where Proserpine took up the stone, and the river was called for that reason Hercyna. And on the banks of the river is a temple of Hercyna, and in it the effigy of a maiden with a goose in her hands: and in the cave are the sources of the river, and some statues in a standing posture, and there are some dragons twined round their sceptres. One might conjecture that the statues are Æsculapius and Hygiea, or they may be Trophonius and Hercyna, for dragons are quite as sacred to Trophonius as to Æsculapius. And near the river is the tomb of Arcesilaus: they say Leitus brought his remains[Pg 212] home from Troy. And the most notable things in the grove are a temple of Trophonius, and statue like Æsculapius. It is by Praxiteles. There is also a temple of Demeter called Europa, and in the open air a statue of Zeus Hyetius. And as you ascend to the oracle, and pass on in front of the mountain, is Proserpine’s Chase, and a temple of Zeus the King. This temple either owing to its size or continual wars is left unfinished; and in another temple are statues of Cronos and Hera and Zeus. There is also a temple of Apollo. As to the oracle the following is the process. When any one desires to descend to the cave of Trophonius, he must first take up his residence for certain days in the temple of the Good Deity and Good Fortune. While he stays here he purifies himself in all other respects, and abstains from warm baths, and bathes in the river Hercyna, and has plenty of animal food from the various victims: for he must sacrifice to Trophonius and the sons of Trophonius, and also to Apollo and Cronos, and to Zeus the King, and to Hera the Chariot-driver, and to Demeter whom they call Europa, and who they say was the nurse of Trophonius. And at each of the sacrifices the seer comes forward and inspects the victim’s entrails, and having done so declares whether or not Trophonius will receive with favour the person who consults his oracle. The entrails of the other victims however do not show the mind of Trophonius so much as those of the ram, which each person who descends into his cave sacrifices on the night he descends in a ditch, invoking Agamedes. And though the former sacrifices have seemed propitious they take no account of them, unless the entrails of this ram are favourable too, but if these are so, then each person descends with good hope. This is the process. The first thing they do is to bring the person who wishes to consult the oracle by night to the river Hercyna, and to anoint him with oil, and two citizen lads of the age of 13 whom they call Hermæ wash him, and minister to him in all other respects. The priests do not after that lead him immediately to the oracle, but to the sources of the river which are very near each other. And here he must drink of the water called Lethe, that he may forget all his former thoughts, and afterwards he must drink of the water of[Pg 213] Memory, and then he remembers what he will see on his descent. And when he has beheld the statue which they say was made by Dædalus, and which is never shown by the priests to any but those who are going to descend to Trophonius, after worship and prayer he goes to the oracle, clad in a linen tunic bound with fillets, and having on his feet the shoes of the country. And the oracle is above the grove on the mountain. And there is round it a circular wall of stone, the circumference of which is very small, and height rather less than two cubits. And there are some brazen pillars and girders that connect them, and through them are doors. And inside is a cavity in the earth, not natural, but artificial, and built with great skill. And the shape of this cavity resembles that of an oven: the breadth of which (measured diametrically) may be considered to be about 4 cubits, and the depth not more than 8 cubits. There are no steps to the bottom: but when any one descends to Trophonius, they furnish him with a narrow and light ladder. On the descent between top and bottom is an opening two spans broad and one high. He that descends lies flat at the bottom of the cavity, and, having in his hands cakes kneaded with honey, introduces into the opening first his feet and then his knees: and then all his body is sucked in, like a rapid and large river swallows up anyone who is sucked into its vortex. And when within the sanctuary the future is not communicated always in the same way, but some obtain knowledge of the future by their eyes, others by their ears. And they return by the place where they entered feet foremost. And they say none who descended ever died, except one of Demetrius’ body-guard, who would perform none of the accustomed routine, and who descended not to consult the oracle, but in the hope of abstracting some of the gold and silver from the sanctuary. They also say that his corpse was not ejected by the usual outlet. There are indeed several other traditions about him: I mention only the most remarkable. And on emerging from the cavity of Trophonius, the priests take and seat the person who has consulted the oracle on the Seat of Memory, not far from the sanctuary, and when he is seated there they ask him what he has seen or heard, and, when they have been informed, they hand him over[Pg 214] to the fit persons, who bring him back to the temple of Good Fortune and the Good Deity, still in a state of terror and hardly knowing where he is. Afterwards however he will think no more of it, and even laugh. I write no mere hearsay, but from what I have seen happen to others, and having myself consulted the oracle of Trophonius. And all on their return from the oracle of Trophonius must write down on a tablet what they have seen or heard. There is also still there the shield of Aristomenes: the particulars about which I have already narrated.

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

Of the works of Dædalus there are these two in Bœotia, the Hercules at Thebes, and the Trophonius at Lebadea, and there are two wooden statues in Crete, the Britomartis at Olus, and the Athene at Gnossus: and with the Cretans also is the dancing-ground of Ariadne, mentioned by Homer in the Iliad,[78] represented in white stone. And at Delos there is also a wooden statue of Aphrodite not very large, injured in the right hand from lapse of time, and instead of feet ending in a square shape. I believe Ariadne received this from Dædalus, and when she accompanied Theseus took the statue off with her. And the Delians say that Theseus,[Pg 215] when he was deprived of Ariadne by Dionysus, gave Apollo at Delos this statue of the goddess, that he might not by taking it home be constantly reminded of his lost love, Ariadne, and so ever find the old wound bleed anew. Except these I know of none of the works of Dædalus still extant: for time has effaced those works of his which were offered by the Argives in the temple of Hera, as also those that were brought to Gela in Sicily from Omphace.

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

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

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

There are two trophies erected at Chæronea by Sulla and the Romans, for the victories over Taxilus and the army of Mithridates. Philip the son of Amyntas erected no trophy either here or elsewhere for victories whether over Greeks or barbarians, for it was not the custom of the Macedonians to erect trophies. They have a tradition that the Macedonian King Caranus defeated in battle Cisseus who was a neighbouring king, and erected a trophy for his victory in imitation of the Argives, and they say a lion came from Olympus and overturned the trophy. Then Caranus was conscious that he had not acted wisely in erecting a trophy, which had only a tendency to bring about an irreconcilable enmity with his neighbours, and that neither he nor any of his successors in the kingdom of Macedonia ought to erect trophies after victories, if they wished to earn the goodwill of their[Pg 216] neighbours. I am confirmed in what I say by the fact that Alexander erected no trophies either over Darius or for his Indian victories.

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

Of all the works indeed of Hephæstus, that poets sing of and that have been famous among men, there is none but this sceptre of Agamemnon certainly his. The Lycians indeed show at Patara in the temple of Apollo a brazen bowl (which they say was by Hephæstus), the votive offering of Telephus, but they are probably ignorant that the Samians Theodorus and Rhœcus were the first brass-founders.[Pg 217] And the Achæans of Patræ say that the chest which Eurypylus brought from Troy was made by Hephæstus, but they do not allow it to be seen. In Cyprus is the city Amathus, where is an ancient temple of Adonis and Aphrodite, and here they say is the necklace which was originally given to Harmonia, but is called the necklace of Eriphyle, because she received it as a gift from her husband, and the sons of Phegeus dedicated it at Delphi. How they got it I have already related in my account of Arcadia. But it was carried off by the Phocian tyrants. I do not however think that the necklace in the temple of Adonis at Amathus is Eriphyle’s, for that is emeralds set in gold, but the necklace given to Eriphyle is said by Homer in the Odyssey to have been entirely gold, as in the line,

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

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

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

Above Chæronea is a crag called Petrachos. They say that it was here that Cronos was deceived by Rhea with a stone instead of Zeus, and there is a small statue of Zeus on the summit of the mountain. At Chæronea they make unguents by boiling down together lilies and roses narcissuses[Pg 218] and irises. These unguents relieve pain. Indeed if you anoint wooden statues with unguent made from roses, it preserves them from rottenness. The iris grows in marshy, places, and is in size about as big as the lily, but is not white, and not so strong-scented as the lily.

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

The most eminent public transactions of the Phocians were as follows. They took part in the war against Ilium, and fought against the Thessalians, (before the Persians invaded Greece), when they displayed the following prowess. At Hyampolis, at the place where they expected the Thessalians to make their attack, they buried in the earth some earthenware pots, just covering them over with soil, and awaited the attack of the Thessalian cavalry: and they not knowing of the artifice of the Phocians spurred their horses on to these pots. And some of the horses were lamed by these pots, and some of the riders were killed others unhorsed. And when the Thessalians more angry than before with the Phocians gathered together a force from all their cities and invaded Phocis, then the Phocians (in no small alarm at the various preparations made by the Thessalians for war, and not least at the quantity and quality of their cavalry), sent to Delphi to inquire how they were to escape from the coming danger: and the answer of the oracle was, “I put together in[Pg 220] combat a mortal and immortal, and I shall give victory to both, but the greater victory to the mortal.” When the Phocians heard this they sent 300 picked men under Gelon against the enemy at nightfall, bidding them watch as stealthily as they could the movements of the Thessalians, and return to the camp by the most out-of-the-way road, and not to fight if they could help it. These picked men were all cut to pieces by the Thessalians together with their leader Gelon, being ridden down by the horses, and butchered by their riders. And their fate brought such consternation into the camp of the Phocians, that they gathered together their women and children and all their goods, their apparel and gold and silver and the statues of the gods, and made a very large funeral pile, and left thirty men in charge with strict orders if the Phocians should be defeated in the battle, to cut the throats of the women and children, and offer them as victims with all the property on the funeral pile, and set light to it, and either kill one another there, or rush on the Thessalian cavalry. Desperate resolves such as this have ever since been called by the Greeks Phocian Resolution. And forthwith the Phocians marched forth against the Thessalians, under the command of Rhœus of Ambrosus and Daiphantes of Hyampolis, the latter in command of the cavalry, and the former in command of the infantry. But the commander in chief was Tellias, the seer of Elis, on whom all the hopes of the Phocians for safety were placed. And when the engagement came on, then the Phocians bethought them of their resolves as to their women and children, and saw that their own safety was by no means certain, they were consequently full of desperation, and the omens of the god being auspicious, won one of the most famous victories of their time. Then the oracle which was given to the Phocians by Apollo became clear to all the Greeks, for the word given by the Thessalian commanders was Itonian Athene, and the word given by the Phocian commanders Phocus. In consequence of this victory the Phocians sent to Apollo to Delphi statues of the seer Tellias and of the other commanders in the battle, and also of the local heroes. These statues were by Aristomedon the Argive.

The Phocians also found out another contrivance as successful[Pg 221] as their former one.[84] For when the enemy’s camp was pitched at the entrance to Phocis, five hundred picked Phocians waited till the moon was at its full, and made a night attack on the Thessalians, having smeared themselves and likewise their armour with plaster so as to look white. A tremendous slaughter of the Thessalians is said to have ensued, who looked upon what they saw as a divine appearance, and not as a ruse of the enemy.

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

When the army of the Persians passed into Europe, it is said that the Phocians were obliged to join Xerxes, but they deserted the Medes and fought on the Greek side at Platæa. Some time afterwards a fine was imposed upon them by the Amphictyonic Council. I cannot ascertain why, whether it was imposed upon them because they had acted unjustly in some way, or whether it was their old enemies the Thessalians who got this fine imposed. And as they were in a state of great despondency about the largeness of the fine, Philomelus the son of Philotimus, second in merit to none of the Phocians, whose native place was Ledon one of the Phocian cities, addressed them and showed them how impossible it was to pay the money, and urged upon them to seize the temple at Delphi, alleging among other persuasive arguments that the condition of Athens and Lacedæmon was favourable to this plan, and that if the Thebans or any other nation warred against them, they would come off victorious through their courage and expenditure of money. The majority of the Phocians were pleased with the arguments of Philomelus, whether the deity perverted their judgment,[85] or that they put gain before piety. So the Phocians seized the temple at Delphi, when Heraclides was President at Delphi, and Agathocles Archon at Athens, in the fourth year of the 105th Olympiad, when Prorus of Cyrene was victorious in the course. And[Pg 222] after seizing the temple they got together the strongest army of mercenaries in Greece, and the Thebans, who had previously been at variance with them, openly declared war against them. The war lasted 10 continuous years, and during that long time frequently the Phocians and their mercenaries prevailed, frequently the Thebans had the best of it. But in an engagement near the town Neon the Phocians were routed, and Philomelus in his flight threw himself down a steep and precipitous crag, and so perished: and the Amphictyonic Council imposed the same end on all those who had plundered the temple at Delphi. And after the death of Philomelus the Phocians gave the command to Onomarchus, and Philip the son of Amyntas joined the Thebans: and Philip was victorious in the battle, and Onomarchus fled in the direction of the sea, and was there shot by the arrows of his own soldiers, for they thought their defeat had come about through his cowardice and inexperience in military matters. Thus Onomarchus ended his life by the will of the deity, and the Phocians chose his brother Phayllus as commander in chief with unlimited power. And he had hardly been invested with this power when he saw the following apparition in a dream. Among the votive offerings of Apollo was an imitation in brass of an old man, with his flesh already wasted away and his bones only left. It was said by the Delphians to have been a votive offering given by Hippocrates the doctor. Phayllus dreamt that he was like this old man, and forthwith a wasting disease came upon him, and fulfilled the dream. And after the death of Phayllus the chief power at Phocis devolved upon his son Phalæcus, but he was deposed because he helped himself privately to the sacred money. And he sailed over to Crete with those Phocians who joined his party, and with a portion of the mercenaries, and besieged Cydonia, because the inhabitants would not give him the money he demanded, and in the siege lost most of his army and his own life.

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

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

There is in the street of Panopeus a building of unbaked brick of no great size, and in it a statue in Pentelican marble, which some say is Æsculapius and others Prometheus. The last adduce the following to confirm their opinion. Some stones lie near the ravine each large enough to fill a cart, in colour like the clay found in ravines and sandy torrents, and they smell very like the human body. They say that these are remains of the clay out of[Pg 225] which the human race was fashioned by Prometheus. Near the ravine is also the sepulchre of Tityus, the circumference of the mound is about the third of a stade. Of Tityus it is said in the Odyssey,[89]

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

About seven stades distant from Panopeus is Daulis.[90] The people here are not numerous, but for size and strength they are still the most famous of the Phocians. The town they say got its name from the nymph Daulis, who was the daughter of Cephisus. Others say that the site of the town was once full of trees, and that the ancients gave the name daula to anything dense. Hence Æschylus calls the beard of Glaucus (the son of Anthedonius) daulus. It was here at Daulis according to tradition that the women served up his son to Tereus, and this was the first recorded instance of cannibalism among mankind. And the hoopoe, into which tradition says Tereus was changed, is in size little bigger than a quail, and has on its head feathers which resemble a crest. And it is a remarkable circumstance that in this neighbourhood swallows neither breed nor lay eggs, nor build nests in the roofs of houses: and the Phocians say that when Philomela became a bird she was in dread both of Tereus and his country. And at Daulis there is a temple and ancient statue of Athene, and a still older[Pg 226] wooden statue which they say Procne brought from Athens. There is also in the district of Daulis a place called Tronis, where a hero-chapel was built to their hero-founder, who some say was Xanthippus, who won great fame in war, others Phocus (the son of Ornytion and grandson of Sisyphus). They honour this hero whoever he is every day, and when the Phocians bring the victims they pour the blood through a hole on to his tomb, and consume the flesh there also.

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

As you go on from thence you will come to the Cross-roads, where they say Œdipus murdered his father.[91] There are records indeed of the woes of Œdipus in all parts of Greece. So it seems it was fated. For directly he was born they pierced his ankles, and exposed him on Mount Cithæron in Platæa. He was brought up at Corinth and the country near the Isthmus. And Phocis and the Cross-roads here were polluted by his father’s blood. Thebes has attained even more celebrity from the marriage of Œdipus and the injustice of Eteocles. To Œdipus the Cross-roads here and his bloody deed there caused all his subsequent woes, and the tombs of Laius and his attendant are in the very middle of the place where the 3 roads meet,[Pg 227] and there are unhewn stones heaped up on them. They say that Damasistratus, who was king of Platæa, came across their corpses and buried them.

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

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

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

Tradition however makes women the first utterers of the oracles.

The most ancient temple of Apollo was they say built[Pg 228] of laurel, from branches brought from a tree at Tempe. So that temple would resemble a hut. And the people of Delphi say the next temple was built of the wax and wings of bees, and was sent by Apollo to the Hyperboreans. There is also another tradition that this temple was built by a Delphian whose name was Pteras, that it got its name from its builder, from whom also a Cretan city by the addition of one letter got called Apteræi. For as to the tradition about the fern (Pteris) that grows on mountains, that they made the temple of this while it was still green, this I cannot accept. As to the third temple that it was of brass is no marvel since Acrisius made a brazen chamber for his daughter, and the Lacedæmonians have still a temple of Athene Chalciœcus,[92] and the Romans have a forum remarkable for its size and magnificence with a brazen roof. So that the temple of Apollo should be brazen is not improbable. In other respects however I do not accept the legend about the temple being by Hephæstus, or about the golden songsters that Pindar sang of in reference to that temple,

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

They say the most ancient town here was built by Parnassus, who was they say the son of the Nymph Cleodora, and his fathers, (for those called heroes had always two fathers, one a god, one a man), were they say Poseidon[Pg 229] among the gods and Cleopompus among men. They say Mount Parnassus and the dell Parnassus got their names from him, and that omens from the flight of birds were discovered by him. The town built by him was they say destroyed in Deucalion’s flood, and all the human beings that escaped the flood followed wolves and other wild beasts to the top of Mount Parnassus, and from this circumstance called the town which they built Lycorea (Wolf-town). There is also a different tradition to this, which makes Lycorus the son of Apollo by the Nymph Corycia, and that Lycorea was called after him, and the Corycian cavern from the Nymph. Another tradition is that Celæno was the daughter of Hyamus the son of Lycorus, and that Delphus from whom Delphi got its name was the son of Celæno (the daughter of Hyamus) by Apollo. Others say that Castalius an Autochthon had a daughter Thyia, who was the first priestess of Dionysus and introduced his orgies, and that it was from her that females inspired by Dionysus got generally called Thyiades, and they think Delphus was the son of Apollo and this Thyia. But some say his mother was Melæne the daughter of Cephisus. And in course of time the inhabitants called the town Pytho as well as Delphi, as Homer has shown in his Catalogue of the Phocians. Those who wish to make genealogies about everything think that Pythes was the son of Delphus, and that the town got called Pytho after him when he was king. But the prevalent tradition is that the dragon slain by Apollo’s arrows rotted here, and that was why the town was called Pytho from the old Greek word to rot, which Homer has employed in his account of the island of the Sirens being full of bones, because those that listened to their song rotted away.[94] The dragon that was slain by Apollo was the poets say posted there by Earth to guard her oracle. It is also said that Crius, the king of Eubœa, had a son of an insolent disposition, who plundered the temple of the god, and the houses of the wealthy men. And when he was going to do this a second time, then the Delphians begged Apollo to shield them from the coming danger, and Phemonoe (who was then priestess) gave them the following oracle in hexameters, “Soon will Phœbus[Pg 230] send his heavy arrow against the man who devours Parnassus, and the Cretans shall purify Phœbus from the blood, and his fame shall never die.”

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

The most ancient contest, and one for which they gave a prize first, was they say singing a Hymn in honour of Apollo. And the first victor was Chrysothemis the Cretan, whose father Carmanor is said to have purified Apollo. And after Chrysothemis they say Philammon was next victor, and next to him his son Thamyris. Neither Orpheus they say from his solemn position in respect to the mysteries and his general elevation of soul, nor Musæus from his imitation of Orpheus in all things, cared to contend in this musical contest. They say also that Eleuther carried off the Pythian prize for his loud and sweet voice. It is said also that Hesiod was not permitted to be a competitor, because he had not learned to accompany his voice with the harp. Homer too went to Delphi to enquire what was necessary for him, and even had he learnt how to play on the harp, the knowledge would have been useless to him, because of his being blind. And in the third year of the 48th Olympiad, in which Glaucias of Croton was victor, the Amphictyones established prizes for harping as at the first, and added contests for pipes, and for singing to the pipes. And the victors proclaimed were Cephallen who was distinguished in singing to the harp, and the Arcadian Echembrotus for his singing to the pipes, and the Argive Sacadas for his playing on the pipes. Sacadas also had[Pg 231] two other Pythian victories after this. Then too they first ordained prizes for athletes as at Olympia, with the exception of the fourhorse races, and they established by law the long course and double course for boys. And in the second Pythiad they invited them no longer to contend for prizes, but made the contest one for a crown only, and stopped singing to the pipes, as not thinking it pleasing to the ear. For singing to the pipes was most gloomy kind of music, and elegies and dirges were so sung. The votive offering of Echembrotus confirms me in what I say, for the brazen tripod offered by him to Hercules at Thebes has the following inscription, “Echembrotus the Arcadian offered this tripod to Hercules, after having been victorious in the contests of the Amphictyones, and in singing to the Greeks songs and elegies.” So the contest of singing to the pipes was stopped. Afterwards they added a chariot race, and Clisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon was proclaimed victor. And in the eighth Pythiad they added harping without the accompaniment of the voice, and Agelaus from Tegea got the crown. And in the 23rd Pythiad they had a race in armour, and Timænetus from Phlius got the laurel, five Olympiads after Damaretus of Heræa was victor. And in the 48th Pythiad they established the race for a pair-horse chariot, and the pair of Execestides the Phocian was victorious. And in the fifth Pythiad after this they yoked colts to chariots, and the four-colt car of Orphondas the Theban came in first. But the pancratium for boys, and the pair of colts, and the racing colt they instituted many years after the people of Elis, the pancratium in the 61st Pythiad (when Iolaidas the Theban was victor), and one Pythiad after the racing colt (when Lycormas of Larissa was proclaimed victor), and in the 69th Pythiad the pair of colts (when the Macedonian Ptolemy was victor). For the Ptolemies delighted to be called Macedonians, as indeed they were. And the crown of laurel was given to the victors in the Pythian games, for no other reason I think than that (according to the prevalent report) Apollo was enamoured of Daphne[95] the daughter of Ladon.

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

[Pg 233]

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

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

Delphi is everywhere hilly, the sacred precincts of Apollo and other parts of the town alike. The sacred precincts are very large and in the upper part of the town, and have several entrances. I will enumerate all the votive offerings that are best worthy of mention. The athletes however, and musical competitors, of no great merit I do not think worthy of attention, and notable athletes I have already described in my account of Elis. At Delphi then there is a statue of Phayllus of Croton, who had no victory at Olympia, but was twice victor in the pentathlum and once in the course in the Pythian games, and fought a naval engagement against the Medes, having furnished a ship himself, and manned it with some people of Croton who were sojourners in Greece. So much for Phayllus of Croton. On the entrance to the sacred enclosure is a bull in brass by Theopropus the Æginetan, the votive offering of the Corcyræans. The tradition is that a bull in Corcyra left the herd and pasture, and used to resort to the sea bellowing as he went; and as this happened every day the herdsman went down to the sea, and beheld a large shoal of tunny fish. And he informed the people of Corcyra, and they, as they had great difficulty in catching these tunnies much as they wished, sent messengers to Delphi. And then in obedience to the oracle they sacrificed the bull to Poseidon, and after this sacrifice caught the fish, and offered both at Olympia and Delphi the tenth of their catch. And next are the votive offerings of the people of Tegea from the spoils of the Lacedæmonians, an Apollo and Victory, and some local heroes; as Callisto the daughter of Lycaon, and Arcas who gave his name to Arcadia, and the sons of Arcas, Elatus and Aphidas and Azan; and besides them Triphylus, (whose mother was not Erato but Laodamia, the daughter of Amyclas king at Lacedæmon), and also Erasus the son of Triphylus. As to the artificers of these statues, Pausanias of Apollonia made the Apollo and Callisto, and the Victory and effigy of Arcas were by Dædalus of Sicyon, Triphylus and Azan were by the Arcadian[Pg 235] Samolas, and Elatus and Aphidas and Erasus were by the Argive Antiphanes. All these the people of Tegea sent to Delphi after the capture of the Lacedæmonians who invaded them. And opposite them are the votive offerings of the Lacedæmonians when they vanquished the Athenians, statues of Castor and Pollux and Zeus and Apollo and Artemis, and besides them Poseidon crowning Lysander the son of Aristocritus, and Abas who was Lysander’s prophet, and Hermon the pilot of Lysander’s flag-ship. This statue of Hermon was designed by Theocosmus the Megarian, as the Megarians ranked Hermon among their citizens. And Castor and Pollux are by the Argive Antiphanes, and Abas is by Pison from Calauria near Trœzen, and Artemis and Poseidon and Lysander are by Dameas, and Apollo and Zeus by Athenodorus. Both Dameas and Athenodorus were Arcadians from Clitor. And behind the statues we have just mentioned are those of the Spartans or their allies who fought for Lysander at the battle of Ægos-potamoi, as Aracus the Lacedæmonian, and Erianthes the Bœotian beyond Mimas, and then Astycrates, and the Chians Cephisocles and Hermophantus and Hicesius, and the Rhodians Timarchus and Diagoras, and the Cnidian Theodamus, and the Ephesian Cimmerius, and the Milesian Æantides. All these were by Tisander. The following were by Alypus of Sicyon, Theopompus from Myndus, and Cleomedes of Samos, and from Eubœa Aristocles of Carystus and Autonomus of Eretria, and Aristophantus of Corinth, and Apollodorus of Trœzen, and from Epidaurus in Argolis Dion. And next to these are the Achæan Axionicus from Pellene, and Theares from Hermion, and Pyrrhias from Phocis, and Comon from Megara, and Agasimenes from Sicyon, and Telycrates from Leucas, and Pythodotus from Corinth, and Euantidas from Ambracia, and lastly the Lacedæmonians Epicyridas and Eteonicus. All these are they say by Patrocles and Canachus. The reverse that the Athenians sustained at Ægos-potamoi they maintain befell them through foul play, for their Admirals Tydeus and Adimantus were they say bribed by Lysander. And in proof of this they bring forward the following Sibylline oracle. “Then shall Zeus the lofty-thunderer, whose strength is almighty, lay grievous woes on the Athenians,[Pg 236] fierce battle for their ships of war, that shall perish through the treachery and villainy of their commanders.” They also cite these other lines from the oracles of Musæus, “Verily a fierce storm is coming on the Athenians through the villainy of their commanders, but there shall be some comfort, they shall level low the state that inflicted this disaster, and exact vengeance.” So much for this affair. And as for the engagement between the Lacedæmonians and Argives beyond Thyrea, the Sibyl foretold that it would be a drawn battle, but the Argives thinking they had got the best of it in the action sent to Delphi as a votive offering a brazen horse by Antiphanes of Argos, doubtless an imitation of the Trojan Horse.

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

And near this horse are other votive offerings of the Argives, statues of those associated with Polynices in the expedition against Thebes, as Adrastus the son of Talaus, and Tydeus the son of Œneus, and the descendants of Prœtus, (Capaneus the son of Hipponous, and Eteoclus the son of Iphis), and Polynices, and Hippomedon (Adrastus’ sister’s son), and near them the chariot of Amphiaraus and[Pg 237] in it Baton, the charioteer and also kinsman of Amphiaraus, and lastly Alitherses. These are by Hypatodorus and Aristogiton, and were made, so the Argives themselves say, out of the spoils of the victory which they and their Athenian allies obtained at Œnoe in Argolis. It was after the same action, I think, that the Argives erected the statues of the Epigoni. They are here at any rate, as Sthenelus and Alcmæon, who was, I take it, honoured above Amphilochus in consequence of his age, and Promachus, and Thersander, and Ægialeus, and Diomede, and between the two last Euryalus. And opposite these are some other statues, dedicated by the Argives who assisted Epaminondas and the Thebans in restoring the Messenians. There are also effigies of heroes, as Danaus the most powerful king at Argos, and Hypermnestra the only one of her sisters with hands unstained by murder, and near her Lynceus, and all those that trace their descent from Hercules, or go back even further to Perseus.

There are also the horses of the Tarentines in brass, and captive women of the Messapians (barbarians near Tarentum), by Ageladas the Argive. The Lacedæmonians colonized Tarentum under the Spartan Phalanthus, who, when he started on this colony, was told by an oracle from Delphi that he was to acquire land and found a city where he saw rain from a clear sky. At first he paid no great heed to this oracle, and sailed to Italy without consulting any interpreters, but when, after victories over the barbarians, he was unable to capture any of their cities, or get possession of any of their land, he recollected the oracle, and thought the god had prophesied impossibilities: for it could not rain he thought from a clear and bright sky. And his wife, who had accompanied him from home, endeavoured to comfort him in various ways, as he was in rather a despondent condition, and laid his head on her knees, and began to pick out the lice, and in her goodwill it so fell out that she wept when she thought how her husband’s affairs made no good progress. And she shed tears freely on Phalanthus’ head, and then he understood the oracle, for his wife’s name was Æthra (clear sky), and so on the following night he took from the barbarians Tarentum, the greatest and most prosperous of their maritime[Pg 238] cities. They say the hero Taras was the son of Poseidon and a local Nymph, and both the city and river got their name from him.

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

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

The Theban treasuries were the result of the victory at Leuctra, and the Athenian treasuries from the victory at Marathon and the spoil of Datis on that occasion: but whether the Cnidians built theirs to commemorate some[Pg 239] victory or to display their wealth I do not know. But the people of Cleonæ suffered greatly like the Athenians from a plague, till in obedience to the oracle at Delphi they sacrificed a goat to the rising sun, and, as they thus obtained deliverance from their plague, they sent a brazen goat to Apollo. And the treasury of the Syracusans was the result of the great reverses of Athens, and the Potidæan treasury was erected out of piety to the god.

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

There is a projecting stone above, on which the Delphians say the first Herophile, also called the Sibyl, chanted her oracles.[97] I found her to be most ancient, and the Greeks say she was the daughter of Zeus by Lamia the daughter of Poseidon, and that she was the first woman who chanted oracles, and that she was called Sibyl by the Libyans. The second Herophile was younger than her, but was herself clearly earlier than the Trojan War, for she foretold in her oracles that Helen would be reared in Sparta to the ruin of Asia Minor and Europe, and that Ilium would be taken by the Greeks owing to her. The Delians make mention of her Hymn to Apollo. And she calls herself in her verses not only Herophile but also Artemis, and says she was Apollo’s wedded wife and sister and daughter. This she must have written when possessed by the god. And elsewhere in her oracles she says her father[Pg 240] was a mortal but her mother one of the Nymphs of Mount Ida. Here are her lines,

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

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

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

Hyperochus, a native of Cumæ, has recorded that a woman called Demo, of Cumæ in the Opican district, delivered oracles after Herophile and in a similar manner.[Pg 241] The people of Cumæ do not produce any oracle of Demo’s, but they shew a small stone urn in the temple of Apollo, wherein they say are her remains. After Demo the Hebrews beyond Palestine had a prophetess called Sabbe, whose father they say was Berosus and mother Erymanthe, but some say she was a Babylonian Sibyl, others an Egyptian.

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

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

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

The brazen head of the Pæonian bison was sent to Delphi by Dropion, the son of Deon, king of the Pæonians. These bisons are most difficult of all beasts to capture alive, for no nets are strong enough to hold them. They are hunted in the following manner. When the hunters have found a slope terminating in a hollow, they first of all fence it all round with a palisade, they then cover the slope and level ground near the bottom with[Pg 242] newly stripped hides, and if they chance to be short of hides, then they make old dry skins slippery with oil. The most skilful horsemen then drive these bisons to this place that I have described, and slipping on the first hides they roll down the slope till they get to the level ground at the bottom. There they leave them at first, but on the 4th or 5th day, when hunger and weakness has subdued their spirit somewhat, those who are skilled in taming them offer them, while they are still lying there, pinenuts after first removing the husks, for they will at first touch no other kind of food, and at last they bind them and lead them off. This is how they capture them.

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

Hercules and Apollo are also to be seen close to a tripod for the possession of which they are about to fight, but[Pg 243] Leto and Artemis are trying to appease the anger of Apollo, and Athene that of Hercules. This was the votive offering of the Phocians when Tellias of Elis led them against the Thessalians. The other figures in the group were made jointly by Diyllus and Amyclæus, but Athene and Artemis were made by Chionis, all 3 Corinthian statuaries. It is also recorded by the Delphians that, when Hercules the son of Amphitryon came to consult the oracle, the priestess Xenoclea would not give him any response because of his murder of Iphitus: so he took the tripod and carried it out of the temple, and the prophetess said,

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

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

The axes which were the votive offering of Periclytus, the son of Euthymachus of Tenedos, have an old legend connected with them. Cycnus was they say the son of[Pg 244] Poseidon, and king at Colonæ, a town in the Troad near the island Leucophrys. This Cycnus had a daughter Hemithea and a son Tennes by Proclea, daughter of Clytius, and sister of that Caletor of whom Homer says in the Iliad[101] that he was slain by Ajax when he tried to set on fire the ship of Protesilaus,—and, Proclea dying, Cycnus married for his second wife Phylonome, the daughter of Cragasus, who failing to win the love of Tennes told her husband that Tennes wanted to have illicit dealings with her against her will, and Cycnus believed this lie, and put Tennes and his sister into a chest, and sent them to sea in it. And they got safe to the island Leucophrys, since called Tenedos from Tennes. And Cycnus, who was not destined to be ignorant of his wife’s deception all his life, when he learned the truth sailed after his son to implore his forgiveness, and to admit his unwitting error. And as he was anchoring at the island, and was fastening his vessel by ropes to some tree or piece of rock, Tennes in his rage cut the ropes with his axe. Hence it is passed into a proverb, when people obstinately decline a conference, that they resemble him who cut the matter short with his Tenedian axe. Tennes was afterwards slain the Greeks say by Achilles as he was defending Tenedos, and in process of time the people of Tenedos, as they were weak, joined themselves to the people of Alexandria on the mainland of the Troad.

The Greeks who fought against the King of the Persians erected at Olympia a brazen Zeus, and an Apollo at Delphi, after the actions of Artemisium and Salamis. It is said also that Themistocles, when he went to Delphi, brought of the spoils of the Medes as a present to Apollo, and when he asked if he should offer them inside the temple, the Pythian Priestess bade him at once take them away altogether. And these were the words of her oracular response: “Put not in my temple the beautiful spoils of the Persians, send them home as quickly as possible.” It is wonderful that the god declined to accept the spoils of the Medes only from Themistocles. Some think the god would have rejected all the Persian spoil equally, if those who offered it had first asked (like Themistocles) if the god[Pg 245] would accept it. Others say that, as the god knew that Themistocles would be a suppliant of the Persians, he refused on that account to accept the spoil from him, that he might not win for him by acceptance the undying hate of the Medes. This invasion of Greece by the barbarian you may find foretold in the oracles of Bacis, and earlier still in the verses of Euclus.

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

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

[Pg 246]

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

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

The statues of cavalry leaders seated on horseback were offered to Apollo by the Pheræans, when they had routed the Athenian cavalry. And the bronze palm and gilt statue of Athene on the palm were dedicated by the Athenians for the victory at the Eurymedon on the same day both on land and river. I noticed that some of the gold on this statue was plucked off. I put this down to the cupidity of sacrilegious thieves. But Clitodemus, the oldest writer on Athenian Antiquities, says in his account of Attica that, when the Athenians were making preparations for the expedition to Sicily, an immense number of crows came to Delphi, and with their beaks knocked off and tore away the gold off the statue. He also says that they broke off the spear, the owls, and all the fruit on the palm in imitation of real fruit. Clitodemus relates also other prodigies to deter the Athenians from the fatal expedition to Sicily. The people of Cyrene also placed at Delphi a figure of Battus in his chariot, who took them by ship from Thera to Libya. Cyrene is the charioteer, and Battus is in the chariot and Libya is crowning him, the design is by the Cretan Amphion the son of Acestor. And when Battus built Cyrene, he is said to have found the following remedy for an impediment in his speech. As he was travelling in the remote parts of Cyrene which were still unoccupied he chanced to see a lion, and his terror at the sight made him cry out loud and clearly.[104] And not far from Battus[Pg 247] the Amphictyones erected another statue of Apollo, out of the proceeds of the fine imposed on the Phocians for their impiety to the god.

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

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

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

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

[Pg 248]

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

Of the western barbarians the Sardinians offered a brazen statue of Sardus, from whom their island took its name. For its size and prosperity Sardinia is equal to the most celebrated islands. What its ancient name was among its original inhabitants I do not know, but the Greeks who sailed there for commerce called it Ichnusa, because its shape was like that of a man’s foot-print. Its length is about 1,120 stades and its breadth 470. The first that crossed over into the island were they say Libyans, their leader was Sardus, the son of that Maceris who was called Hercules by the Egyptians and Libyans. The most notable thing Maceris ever did was to journey to Delphi: but Sardus led the Libyans to Ichnusa, and gave his name to the island. They did not however eject the original inhabitants of the island, but the new comers were received as fellow colonists rather from necessity than choice. Neither did the Libyans nor the aborigines of the island know how to build cities, but lived dispersed in huts and caves as each chanced. But some years after the Libyans some Greeks came to the island under Aristæus, (who was they say the son of Apollo by Cyrene): and who migrated they say to Sardinia in excessive grief at the death of Actæon, which[Pg 249] made him ill at ease in Bœotia and indeed all Greece. There are some who think that Dædalus fled at the same time from Camicus, owing to the hostility of the Cretans, and took part in this colony of Aristæus: but it is altogether beyond probability that Dædalus, who was a contemporary of Œdipus when he reigned at Thebes, could have shared either in a colony or in anything else with Aristæus, the husband of Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus. Nor do I think that even these Greeks built a town, inasmuch as in numbers and strength they were inadequate to such a task. And after Aristæus the Iberes crossed into Sardinia under Norax, and built the town of Nora, which is the first mentioned in the island: Norax was they say the son of Hermes by Erythea the daughter of Geryon. And a fourth band of colonists of Thespians and Athenians under Iolaus came to Sardinia and built the town of Olbia, and the Athenians separately built the town which they called Ogryle, either preserving the name of one of their townships in this way, or because Ogrylus was one of the expedition. There are still places in Sardinia called after Iolaus, who is still honoured by the inhabitants. And after the capture of Ilium several of the Trojans escaped, as well as those who got off safe with Æneas; part of them were carried by the winds to Sardinia, and mixed with the Greeks who had gone there earlier. And what hindered the barbarians from fighting against the Greeks and Trojans was that in their equipment for war they stood on an equality, and both armies feared to cross the river Thorsus which parted them. Many years afterwards however the Libyans passed over into the island a second time with a larger host, and fought against the Greeks, and entirely destroyed all but a remnant, and the Trojans fled to the hilly parts of the island, and occupying the mountains, which were difficult of access from the rocks and crags, are called to this day Ilians, but they resemble the Libyans in their appearance and armour and mode of living. And there is an island not far from Sardinia, called by the Greeks Cyrnus, but by its Libyan inhabitants Corsica. A large contingent in this island, who had suffered grievously from faction, crossed over to Sardinia and dwelt in part of the mountainous district, and were called by the Sardinians Corsi from the[Pg 250] name of their fatherland. And when the Carthaginians became a great naval power, they subdued all the Sardinians but the Ilians and the Corsi, (who were prevented from being reduced to slavery by the security which the mountains gave them,) and themselves built in the island the towns Caralis and Sulci. And the Libyans or Iberes, who were allies of the Carthaginians, disputed over the spoil, and got so angry that they parted from them, and they also went and dwelt in the mountainous parts of the island. And they were called Balari, according to the dialect of the people of Cyrnus, who give that name to exiles. Such are the races that inhabit Sardinia, and such are the towns they have built. And in the island towards the North and the mainland of Italy is a mountain range difficult of access, whose summits are contiguous, and this part of the island affords no harbours to mariners, but violent gusts and squalls of wind sweep from the mountain-tops over the sea. In the middle of the island are other mountains less lofty, but the air there is generally turbid and pestilential, in consequence of the salt that crystallizes there, and the violence of the South Wind; for the North Winds, on account of the height of the mountains towards Italy, are prevented from blowing in summer time so as to cool the air and soil. Some say that Cyrnus is not further by sea from Sardinia than eight stades, and as it is mountainous and lofty throughout, they think it prevents either the West or North West Winds reaching Sardinia. There are no serpents in the island either venomous or harmless, nor wolves. The rams are of no greater size than elsewhere, but their appearance is just such as a statuary in Ægina might suppose a wild ram to be, thicker however in the breast than the Æginetan works of art, and the horns do not stand out direct from the head, but twist round the ears, and in speed they surpass all animals. The island is free from all deadly grasses and herbs with one exception, a grass like parsley which is deadly, and those who eat of it die laughing. This is the origin of Homer[106] and subsequent writers speaking of the Sardonic laughter when things are in evil plight. This grass grows chiefly near[Pg 251] springs, but does not communicate to them its venom. We have introduced this account of Sardinia into our history of Phocis, because the Greeks have such very scanty knowledge about the island.

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

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

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

And next to this statue of Athene the Rhodians of Lindus erected a statue of Apollo. And the Ambraciotes offered a brazen ass, after their victory by night over the Molossi. The Molossi had made ready for a night attack on them, when an ass, who chanced to be driven from the field, pursuing a she-ass with lust and braying, and the[Pg 252] driver also crying out in a loud and disorderly manner, the Molossi were so dismayed where they were in ambush that they left the place, and the Ambraciotes detected their plan, and attacked and defeated them that very night.

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

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

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

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

Next to the statue of Gorgias is a votive offering of the Amphictyones, a statue of Scyllis of Scione, who had wonderful fame as a diver, and taught his daughter Hydna diving. When a violent storm came on Xerxes’ fleet off Mount Pelion they greatly added to the wrecks, by[Pg 253] diving down and cutting the cables that kept the ships at anchor. It was for this good service that the Amphictyones made statues of Scyllis and his daughter. And among the statues that Nero took away from Delphi was this of Hydna. [Virgins that are virgins indeed still dive in the sea with impunity.][108]

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

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

Of the irruption of the Galati into Greece I gave some account in connection with the council-chamber at Athens: but I prefer to give the fullest account in connection with Delphi, because the greatest struggle between them and the Greeks took place here. The first expedition of the Celts beyond their borders was under Cambaules: but when they got as far as Thrace on that occasion they did not dare to go any further, recognising that they were too few in number to cope with the Greeks. But on the second expedition, egged on by those who had formed part of the army of Cambaules, who had tasted the sweets of plunder and were enamoured of the gains of looting, a large army of both infantry and cavalry mustered together. This army[Pg 254] the commanders divided into three parts, and each marched into a different district. Cerethrius was to march against the Thracians and the Triballi: Brennus and Acichorius were to lead their division into Pæonia: and Bolgius was to march against the Macedonians and Illyrians. This last fought a battle against Ptolemy king of the Macedonians, who had treacherously slain Seleucus the son of Antiochus, (though he had been a suppliant at his court), and was nicknamed Lightning on account of his audacity.[109] In this battle Ptolemy fell, and with him no small part of the Macedonians: but the Celts durst not adventure any further into Greece, and so this second expedition returned home again. Thereupon Brennus urgently pressed upon the general assemblies, and upon each individual chieftain of the Galati, the advantages of invading Greece, pointing out her weak state at that period, and the immense wealth of her community, her votive offerings in the temples, her quantity of silver and gold. He succeeded in persuading the Galati to invade Greece once more, and among other chieftains he chose Acichorius once more as his colleague. The army mustered 152,000 foot and 20,400 horse. Such at least was the fighting force of the cavalry, for its real number was 61,200: as each horse-soldier had two servants, who themselves were excellent cavalry also and mounted. For the custom of the Galati in an engagement was that these servants should remain in the rear close at hand, and if a horse was killed they supplied a fresh one, and if the rider was killed one of them took his place, and if he too was killed then the third took his place. And if one of the masters was only wounded, then one of his servants removed him to the camp, and the other took his place in the battle. In this custom I think the Galati imitated the 10,000 Persians, called The Immortals. But the difference was that The Immortals were a reserve force only used at the end of an action, whereas the Galati used these reserves as wanted all through the action. This mode of fighting they called Trimarcisia in their dialect: for the Celts called a horse marca. Such was the force, such the intentions, with which Brennus marched into Greece.

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

It will not be without instruction to compare the numbers of those who fought against Xerxes at Thermopylæ with those who fought now against the Galati. The Greeks that marched against the Mede were as follows: 300 Lacedæmonians only under Leonidas, 500 from Tegea, 500 from Mantinea, 120 Arcadians from Orchomenus, 1000 from the other towns of Arcadia, 80 from Mycenæ, 200 from Phlius, 400 from Corinth, 700 Bœotians from Thespia and 400 from Thebes. And 1,000 Phocians guarded the pass at Mount Œta, who must be added to the Greek contingent. As to the Locrians under Mount Cnemis Herodotus has not mentioned their precise number, he only says they came from all the towns. But we may conjecture their number pretty accurately: for the Athenians at Marathon, including slaves and non-combatants, were not more than 9,000: so that the fighting force of Locrians at Thermopylæ could not be more than 6,000. Thus the whole force employed against the Persians would be 11,200. Nor did all of these stay all the time under arms at Thermopylæ, for except the men from Lacedæmon and Thespia and Mycenæ they waited not to see the issue of the fight. And now against these barbarians who had crossed the ocean the following Greeks banded themselves at Thermopylæ: 10,000 heavy[Pg 256] armed infantry and 500 horse from Bœotia, under the Bœotarchs Cephisodotus and Thearidas and Diogenes and Lysander: 500 cavalry and 3,000 foot from Phocis, under Critobulus and Antiochus: 700 Locrians, all infantry, from the island Atalanta, under the command of Midias: 400 heavy armed infantry of the Megarians, their cavalry under the command of Megareus: of the Ætolians, who formed the largest and most formidable contingent, the number of their horse is not recorded, but their light-armed troops were 90,[111] and their heavy armed 7000: and the Ætolians were under the command of Polyarchus and Polyphron and Lacrates. And the Athenians were under Callippus the son of Mœrocles, as I have before stated, and consisted of all the triremes that were sea-worthy, and 500 horse, and 1,000 foot, and because of their ancient renown they were in command of the whole allied army. And some mercenary troops were sent by various kings, as 500 from Macedonia, and 500 from Asia, those that were sent by Antigonus were led by Aristodemus the Macedonian, and those that were sent by Antiochus were led by Telesarchus, as also some Syrians from Asia situated by the river Orontes.

When these Greeks, thus banded together at Thermopylæ, heard that the army of the Galati was already in the neighbourhood of Magnesia and Phthiotis, they determined to send about 1,000 picked light-armed soldiers and a troop of horse to the river Sperchius, to prevent the barbarians’ crossing the river without a struggle. And they went and destroyed the bridges, and encamped by the river. Now Brennus was by no means devoid of intelligence, and for a barbarian no mean strategist. Accordingly on the following night without any delay he sent 10,000 of his troops, who could swim and were remarkably tall,—and all the Celts are remarkably tall men—down the river to cross it not at the ordinary fords, but at a part of the river where it was less rapid, and marshy, and diffused itself more over the plain, so that the Greeks should not be able to notice their crossing over. They crossed over accordingly, swimming over the marshy part of the river, and using the shields of their country as a sort of raft, while[Pg 257] the tallest of them could ford the river. When the Greeks at the Sperchius noticed that part of the barbarians had crossed over, they returned at once to the main army.

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

He advanced therefore from Heraclea, and learning from deserters that a strong force from all the Greek cities was concentrated at Thermopylæ, he despised his enemy, and the following day at daybreak opened battle, having no Greek seer with him, or any priests of his own country, if indeed the Celts practise divination. Thereupon the Greeks advanced silently and in good order: and when the two armies engaged, the infantry were careful not to break their line, and the light-armed troops keeping their ground discharged their darts arrows and slings at the barbarians. The cavalry on both sides was useless, not only from the narrowness of the pass, but also from the smooth and slippery and rocky nature of the ground, intersected also throughout by various mountain streams. The armour of the Galati was inferior, for their only defensive armour was the shield used in their country, and moreover they were less experienced in the art of war. But they fought like wild beasts with rage and fury and headlong inconsiderate valour: and, whether hacked about by swords[Pg 258] and battle-axes, or pierced with darts and javelins, desisted not from their furious attacks till bereft of life. Some even plucked out of their wounds the weapons with which they had been wounded, and hurled them back, or used them in hand to hand fight. Meantime the Athenians on their triremes, not without great difficulty and danger, sailed along the mud which is very plentiful in that arm of the sea, and got their vessels as near the barbarians as they could, and shot at their flanks with all kinds of darts and arrows. And the Celts by now getting far the worst of it, and in the press suffering far more loss than they could inflict, had the signal to retire to their camp given them by their commanders. Accordingly retreating in no order and in great confusion, many got trodden underfoot by one another, and many falling into the marsh disappeared in it, so that the loss in the retreat was as great as in the heat of action.

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

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

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

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

The other commanders of the barbarians were astounded at the Greek successes, and doubted whereunto these things would grow, seeing that at present their own fortunes were desperate, but Brennus thought that, if he could force the Ætolians back into Ætolia, the war against the other Greeks would be easier. He selected therefore out of his whole army 40,000 foot and about 800 horse, all picked men, and put them under the command of Orestorius and Combutis. And they recrossed the Sperchius by the bridges, and marched through Thessaly into Ætolia. And their actions at Callion were the most atrocious of any that we have ever heard of, and quite unlike human beings. They butchered all the males, and likewise old men, and babes at their mother’s breasts: they even drank the blood, and feasted on the flesh, of babies that were fat. And high-spirited women and maidens in their flower committed suicide when the town was taken: and those that survived the barbarians submitted to every kind of outrage, being by nature incapable of pity and natural affection. And some of the women rushed upon the swords of the Galati and voluntarily courted death: to others death soon came from absence of food and sleep, as these merciless barbarians outraged them in turn, and wreaked their lusts on them whether dying or dead. And the Ætolians having learnt from messengers of the disasters that had fallen upon them, removed their forces with all speed from Thermopylæ, and pressed into Ætolia, furious at the sufferings[Pg 260] of the people of Callion, and even still more anxious to save the towns that had not yet been captured. And the young men flocked out from all their towns to swell their army, old men also mixed with them inspirited by the crisis, and even their women volunteered their services, being more furious against the Galati than even the men. And the barbarians, having plundered the houses and temples and set fire to Callion, marched back to the main army at Thermopylæ: and on the road the people of Patræ were the only Achæans that helped the Ætolians and fell on the barbarians, being as they were capital heavy-armed soldiers, but hard-pressed from the quantity of the Galati and their desperate valour. But the Ætolian men and women lined the roads and threw missiles at the barbarians with great effect, as they had no defensive armour but their national shields, and when the Galati pursued them they easily ran away, and when they desisted from the vain pursuit harassed them again continually. And though Callion had suffered so grievously, that what Homer relates of the contest between the Læstrygones and the Cyclops seems less improbable,[112] yet the vengeance which the Ætolians took was not inadequate: for of the 40,800 barbarians not more than half got back safe to the camp at Thermopylæ.

In the meantime the fortunes of the Greeks at Thermopylæ were as follows. One pass over Mount Œta is above Trachis, most steep and precipitous, the other through the district of the Ænianes is easier for an army, and is the way by which Hydarnes the Mede formerly turned the flank of Leonidas’ forces. By this way the Ænianes and people of Heraclea promised to conduct Brennus, out of no ill-will to the Greeks, but thinking it a great point if they could get the Celts to leave their district and not remain there to their utter ruin. So true are the words of Pindar, when he says that everybody is oppressed by his own troubles, but is indifferent to the misfortunes of other people.[113] And this promise of the Ænianes and people of Heraclea encouraged Brennus: and he left Acichorius with the main army, instructing him to attack the Greek force, when he[Pg 261] (Brennus) should have got to their rear: and himself marched through the pass with 40,000 picked men. And it so happened that that day there was a great mist on the mountain which obscured the sun, so that the barbarians were not noticed by the Phocians who guarded the pass till they got to close quarters and attacked them. The Phocians defended themselves bravely, but were at last overpowered and retired from the pass: but were in time to get to the main force, and report what had happened, before the Greeks got completely surrounded oh all sides. Thereupon the Athenians took the Greeks on board their triremes at Thermopylæ: and they dispersed each to their own nationality.

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

So Brennus and the Greeks gathered together at Delphi drew up against one another in battle-array. And the god showed in the plainest possible way his enmity to the barbarians. For the whole ground occupied by the army of the Galati violently rocked most of the day, and there was continuous thunder and lightning, which astounded the Celts and prevented their hearing the orders of their officers, and the lightning hit not only some particular individual[Pg 262] here and there, but set on fire all round him and their arms. And appearances of heroes, as Hyperochus and Laodocus and Pyrrhus, and Phylacus—a local hero at Delphi—were seen on the battle field. And many Phocians fell in the action and among others Aleximachus, who slew more barbarians with his own hand than any other of the Greeks, and who was remarkable for his manly vigour, strength of frame and daring, and his statue was afterwards placed by the Phocians in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Such was the condition and terror of the barbarians all the day, and during the night things were still worse with them, for it was bitterly cold and snowed hard, and great stones came tumbling down from Parnassus, and whole crags broke off and seemed to make the barbarians their mark, and not one or two but thirty and even more, as they stood on guard or rested, were killed at once by the fall of one of these crags. And the next day at daybreak the Greeks poured out of Delphi and attacked them, some straight in front, but the Phocians, who had the best acquaintance with the ground, came down the steep sides of Parnassus through the snow, and fell on the Celtic rear unexpectedly, and hurled javelins at them, and shot at them with perfect security. At the beginning of the battle the Galati, especially Brennus’ body-guard who were the finest and boldest men in their army, fought with conspicuous bravery, though they were shot at on all sides, and suffered frightfully from the cold, especially such as were wounded: but when Brennus was wounded, and taken off the field in a fainting condition, then the barbarians sorely against their will beat a retreat, (as the Greeks by now pressed them hard on all sides), and killed those of their comrades who could not retreat with them owing to their wounds or weakness.

These fugitive Galati bivouacked where they had got to when night came on them, and during the night were seized with panic fear, that is a fear arising without any solid cause. This panic came upon them late in the night, and was at first confined to a few, who thought they heard the noise of horses galloping up and that the enemy was approaching, but soon it ran through the host. They therefore seized their arms, and getting separated in the darkness mutually slew one another, neither recognizing their[Pg 263] native dialect, nor discerning one another’s forms or weapons, but both sides in their panic thinking their opponents Greeks both in language and weapons, so that this panic sent by the god produced terrific mutual slaughter. And those Phocians, who were left in the fields guarding the flocks and herds, were the first to notice and report to the Greeks what had happened to the barbarians in the night: and this nerved them to attack the Celts more vigorously than ever, and they placed a stronger guard over their cattle, and would not let the Galati get any articles of food from them without a fierce fight for it, so that throughout the barbarian host there was a deficiency of corn and all other provisions. And the number of those that perished in Phocis was nearly 6,000 slain in battle, and more than 10,000 in the savage wintry night and in the panic, and as many more from starvation.

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

This expedition of the Celts to Greece and their utter ruin happened when Anaxicrates was Archon at Athens, in the second year of the 125th Olympiad, when Ladas of Ægæ was victor in the course. And the following year, [Pg 264] when Democles was Archon at Athens, all the Celts[115] crossed back again to Asia Minor. I have delivered a true account.

In the vestibule of the temple at Delphi are written up several wise sayings for the conduct of life by those whom the Greeks call The Seven Wise Men. These were Thales of Miletus and Bias of Priene (both from Ionia), and (of the Æolians in Lesbos) Pittacus of Mitylene, and (of the Dorians in Asia Minor) Cleobulus of Lindus, and Solon of Athens, and Chilo of Sparta, and the seventh Plato (the son of Aristo) makes[116] Myson of Chenæ, a village on Mount Œta, instead of Periander the son of Cypselus. These Seven Wise Men came to Delphi, and offered to Apollo those famous sayings, Know thyself and Not too much of anything. And they inscribed those sayings in the vestibule of the temple.

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

The inhabitants of Ios still shew the tomb of Homer, and in another part of the island the tomb of Clymene, who they say was Homer’s mother. But the people of Cyprus, for they too claim Homer as their own, and say that Themisto (one of the women of their country) was his[Pg 265] mother, cite the following prophetical verses of Euclus touching Homer’s birth;

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the right as you enter the building is a painting of the capture of Ilium and the return of the Greeks. And they are making preparations for Menelaus’ hoisting sail, and his ship is painted with boys and sailors all mixed up together on board: and in the middle of the ship is Phrontis the pilot with two punting poles. Homer[119] has represented Nestor among other things telling Telemachus about Phrontis, how he was the son of Onetor, and pilot of Menelaus, and most able in his art, and how he died as he sailed past Sunium in Attica. And Menelaus, who was up to this time sailing with Nestor, was now left behind, that he might discharge all due funeral rites for Phrontis. Beneath Phrontis in the painting of Polygnotus is Ithæmenes carrying some garment, and Echœax descending the gangway-ladder with a brazen water-pot. And Polites and Strophius and Alphius are represented taking down the tent of Menelaus, which is not far from the ship. And Amphialus is taking down another tent, a boy is sitting at his feet, but there is no inscription on him, and Phrontis is the only person with a beard. His was the only name in the group that Polygnotus got out of the Odyssey: the others I imagine he invented. There too stands Briseis, and Diomede near her, and Iphis in front of them both, they all appear to be gazing at Helen’s beauty. And Helen is [Pg 267] seated, and near her is Eurybates, who has no beard, and was I suppose the herald of Odysseus. And Helen’s handmaids are by, Panthalis standing at her side, and Electra fastening her sandals: these names are different however from those Homer gives in the Iliad, when he describes Helen and her maids going on to the walls.[120] And above Helen sits a man clothed in purple, looking very dejected: before reading the inscription one would conjecture that it is Helenus the son of Priam. And near Helenus is Meges, who is wounded in the shoulder, as he is described by Lescheos of Pyrrha, the son of Æschylinus, in his Capture of Ilium, he was wounded he says by Admetus the son of Augeas in the night-attack of the Trojans. And next to Meges is Lycomedes the son of Creon, who is wounded on the wrist, as Lescheos says he was by Agenor. It is manifest that Polygnotus must have read Lescheos’ poem, or he would not have painted their wounds so accurately. He has also depicted Lycomedes with a third wound in the ankle, and a fourth on the head. Euryalus also the son of Mecisteus is represented as wounded in the head and wrist. All these are above Helen in the painting: and next Helen is Æthra the mother of Theseus with her head shaven, and Theseus’ son Demophon apparently wondering whether he could save her. And the Argives say that Melanippus was the son of Theseus by the daughter of Sinis, and that he won the prize in the race, when the Epigoni restored the Nemean games which were originally introduced by Adrastus. Lescheos has stated that Æthra escaped when Ilium was taken, and got to the Greek camp, and was recognized by the sons of Theseus, and Demophon asked her of Agamemnon. And he said he would willingly gratify Demophon, but could not do so before he obtained the consent of Helen, so a messenger was sent to Helen and she gave her consent. I think therefore the picture represents Eurybates coming to Helen on this errand, and delivering the message of Agamemnon. And the Trojan women in the painting look in sad dejection as if they were captives already. There is Andromache, with a babyboy at her breast. Lescheos says that this babyboy was hurled from a tower, not in consequence of any decree [Pg 268] of the Greeks, but simply from the private hatred of Neoptolemus. There too is Medesicaste, one of the illegitimate daughters of Priam, of whom Homer says that she dwelt in the town of Pedæum, and married Imbrius the son of Mentor.[121] Andromache and Medesicaste are represented veiled: but Polyxena has her hair plaited after the manner of maidens. The Poets represent her to have been slain at the tomb of Achilles, and I have seen paintings both at Athens and Pergamus beyond the river Caicus of her death. Polygnotus has also introduced Nestor into the same painting, with a hat on his head and a spear in his hand: and a horse near seems to be rolling in the dust. Near the horse is the sea-shore, and you can see the pebbles, but the rest of the scene does not resemble a sea view.

Above the women between Æthra and Nestor are the captives, Clymene, and Creusa, and Aristomache, and Xenodice. Clymene is enumerated among the captives by Stesichorus in his Fall of Ilium: Aristomache likewise is represented in the poem called The Return from Ilium as the daughter of Priam, and wife of Critolaus the son of Hicetaon: but I do not remember either poet or prose-writer making mention of Xenodice: and as to Creusa, they say that the Mother of the Gods and Aphrodite rescued her from slavery to the Greeks, and that she was the wife of Æneas, though Lescheos and the author of the Cyprian Poems represent Eurydice as the wife of Æneas. Above these are painted Deinome Metioche Pisis and Cleodice reclining on a couch: Deinome is the only one of these mentioned in the poem called The Little Iliad, so I think Polygnotus must have invented the other names. Here too is Epeus naked knocking down the walls of Troy, and above the walls is the head only of the Wooden Horse. Here too is Polypœtes, the son of Pirithous, with his head bound by a fillet, and near him Acamas, the son of Theseus,[Pg 269] with a helmet on his head, and a crest on the helmet. Here too is Odysseus with a coat of mail on. And Ajax the son of Oileus is standing near the altar with a shield in his hand, taking his oath in connection with the violation of Cassandra: Cassandra is seated on the ground and holding fast the wooden statue of Athene, for she tore it from its base, when Ajax dragged her away from the altar. And the sons of Atreus are painted with their helmets on: and on Menelaus’ shield is a representation of the dragon that appeared to him as an omen during the sacrifice at Aulis. They are administering the oath to Ajax. And near the painting of the horse by Nestor’s side[122] is Neoptolemus killing Elasus, whoever he was;[123] his dying agony is well depicted: and Astynous, who is mentioned by Lescheos, has fallen on to his knee, and Neoptolemus is in the act of smiting him with the sword. And Polygnotus has represented Neoptolemus alone of all the Greeks continuing to butcher the Trojans, that the painting should correspond with the scenes depicted on the tomb of Neoptolemus. Homer indeed calls Achilles’ son everywhere by the name of Neoptolemus, but the Cyprian Poems say he was called Pyrrhus by Lycomedes, and that the name Neoptolemus was given him by Phœnix, because he[124] was very young when he first went to the wars. Here too is the painting of an altar, and a little boy clinging to it in dire fear: a brazen coat of mail lies on the altar, such as was worn in old times, for in our days we seldom see such. It consisted of two pieces called Gyala, one a protection for the breast and belly, the other for the back, both joined together by clasps. And such coats of mail would afford sufficient protection without a shield: and so Homer represented Phorcys the Phrygian without a shield, because he was armed with this kind of coat of mail.[125] In Polygnotus’ painting I recognize a coat of mail of this kind: and in the temple of Ephesian Artemis Calliphon of Samos has painted some women fitting this kind of coat of mail on Patroclus. And Polygnotus has represented[Pg 270] Laodice standing on the other side of the altar. I do not find her name mentioned by any poet among the captive Trojan women: and it seems probable enough that the Greeks let her go. For Homer has represented in the Iliad that Menelaus and Odysseus were entertained by Antenor, and that Laodice was the wife of Antenor’s son Helicaon.[126] And Lescheos states that Helicaon was wounded in the night-engagement, and recognized by Odysseus, and rescued out of the battle alive. It follows therefore, from the affection of Menelaus and Odysseus for the family of Antenor, that Agamemnon and Menelaus would have offered no violence to Helicaon’s wife. What Euphorion of Chalcis therefore has written about Laodice is very improbable. And next Laodice is a stone prop, and a bronze laver on it. And Medusa sits on the ground holding this prop with both her hands. Whoever has read the Ode of Himeræus will include her among the daughters of Priam. And near Medusa is an old woman closely shaven, (or possibly a eunuch), with a naked child in his or her arms: the child’s hand is before its eyes for fear.

Of the dead in the painting are Pelis naked,[127] lying on his back, and underneath him Eioneus and Admetus both in their coats of mail. According to Lescheos Eioneus was slain by Neoptolemus, and Admetus by Philoctetes. And above these are others, near the laver Leocritus, the son of Polydamas, who was killed by Odysseus, and near Eioneus and Admetus Corœbus the son of Mygdon. This Mygdon has a famous tomb on the borders of the Stectorenian Phrygians, and poets have given those Phrygians the name of Mygdones after him. Corœbus came to wed Cassandra, and was killed by Neoptolemus according to the prevalent tradition, but by Diomede according to Lescheos. And above Corœbus are Priam and Axion and Agenor. Lescheos[Pg 271] says that Priam was not slain at the altar of Household Zeus, but was torn away from the altar and killed by Neoptolemus with no great difficulty at the doors of the palace. As to Hecuba, Stesichorus in his Fall of Ilium has stated that she was taken to Lycia by Apollo. And Lescheos says that Axion was the son of Priam, and killed by Eurypylus the son of Euæmon. The same poet states that Agenor was killed by Neoptolemus. And Echeclus, Agenor’s son, seems to have been slain by Achilles. And Sinon, the companion of Odysseus, and Anchialus are carrying out the corpse of Laomedon for burial. There is another dead person in the painting, Eresus by name; no poet, so far as my knowledge goes, has sung either of Eresus or Laomedon. There is a painting also of the house of Antenor, and a leopard’s skin hung up over the porch, as a sign to the Greeks not to meddle with the family of Antenor. And Theano, Antenor’s wife, is painted with her sons, Glaucus seated on his armour, and Eurymachus seated on a stone. Near him stands Antenor with his daughter Crino, who is carrying her baby boy. All these are depicted with sorrowful countenances. The servants are placing a chest and other articles on the back of an ass, on which a little boy also sits. And under this painting is the following Elegiac couplet by Simonides.

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

[Pg 272]

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

Polygnotus has accordingly represented Charon as old. The persons on board are not very easy to trace. But there is Tellis, looking like a youth, and Cleobœa still a virgin, with a cist on her knees such as they use in the worship of Demeter. Of Tellis I know nothing more than that Archilochus was his greatgrandson. And Cleobœa they say first introduced the mysteries of Demeter from Paros to Thasos. And on the bank of the Acheron near Charon’s boat a son, who had not treated his father well, is being strangled by his father. For the ancients reverenced fathers exceedingly,[128] as one may infer among other things from the conduct of those called Pious at Catana, who, when Catana was consumed by fire from Mount Ætna, took no account of silver or gold, but the one took up his mother, the other his father, and fled for their lives. And as they advanced with great difficulty for the flame gathered on them, (but they would not for all that set their parents down), the flames they say divided so as to let them pass without hurt. These young men are still honoured at Catana. And in Polygnotus’ painting near the man who ill-treated his father, and has consequently a bad time of it in Hades, is a sacrilegious wretch suffering punishment. The woman[129] who is punishing him seems well acquainted with poison, and other things that can do man harm. Men were also in those days remarkable for piety to the gods, as the Athenians shewed when they captured the temple of Olympian Zeus at Syracuse, for they removed none of the votive offerings, and left the former priest still in charge. Datis the Mede also showed the same piety both in word and in deed, in word to the Delians, and in deed when, finding a statue of Apollo on a Phœnician ship, he gave it back to the people of Tanagra to take to Delium. In those days all men honoured the deity, and so Polygnotus introduced into his painting the sacrilegious wretch suffering punishment. Above those I have described is Eurynomus, who according to the Antiquarians at Delphi is a demon[Pg 273] in Hades, and eats the flesh of the dead clean to the bones. No such person however is mentioned in the Odyssey, or in the Minyad, or in The Return from Ilium, though these poems contain accounts of Hades and its horrors. I shall therefore describe Eurynomus’ appearance in this painting. His colour is a blueish-black, like that of the flies that infest meat,[130] and he shows his fangs, and sits on a vulture’s skin. And next him are Auge and Iphimedea from Arcadia. Auge came to Teuthras in Mysia, and, of all the women who consorted with Hercules, bare a son most like him. And Iphimedea is treated with very great honour by the Carians who dwell at Mylasa.

Above those I have already mentioned are Perimedes and Eurylochus,[131] the comrades of Odysseus, with the victims which are black rams. And next them is a man seated, whom the inscription states to be Ocnus. He is representing rope-making, and a she-ass near him eats the rope as fast as he makes it. This Ocnus they say was an industrious man, who had an extravagant wife: and whatever he got together by industry was very soon spent by her. This picture therefore of Polygnotus is supposed to be a skit on Ocnus’ wife. And I know that the Ionians, when they see anyone labouring hard to no profit, say that he is weaving Ocnus’ rope.[132] However those who divine by the flight of birds give the name of Ocnus to a very rare kind of heron, both large and handsome. Tityus too is in the picture, no longer being tortured, but worn out by his continuous punishment to a mere shadow. And if you look at the next part of the picture, you will see Ariadne very near the man who is ropemaking: she is sitting on a rock, and looking at her sister Phædra, who is suspended to a rock by a rope which she holds in both hands. She is so represented to make her end appear[Pg 274] more decorous. And Dionysus took Ariadne from Theseus either by some chance, or purposely preparing an ambush for him, sailing against him with a larger armament. This was the same Dionysus, I take it, who was the first to invade India, and the first to throw a bridge over the river Euphrates; the place where he built this bridge was called Zeugma, and a rope is preserved to this day, wreathed with tendrils of the vine and ivy, which was used in the construction of the bridge. Both Greeks and Egyptians have many legends about Dionysus. And below Phædra Chloris is reclining on the knees of Thyia: no one will err who states that there was a great friendship between these two women in their lifetime: and both came from the same neighbourhood, Orchomenus in Bœotia.[133] There are other traditions about them, as that Poseidon had an intrigue with Thyia, and that Chloris was married to Poseidon’s son Neleus. And next Thyia is Procris the daughter of Erechtheus, and next her, with her back towards her, is Clymene, who is represented in The Return from Ilium to have been the daughter of Minyas, and the wife of Cephalus the son of Deion, and mother by him of Iphiclus. All the poets agree that Procris was Cephalus’ wife before Clymene was, and that she was murdered by her husband. And beyond Clymene in the interior of the painting is the Theban Megara, who was Hercules’ wife, but eventually repudiated by him, because he lost all his children by her, and so did not think his marriage with her a lucky one. Above the head of those women I have mentioned is the daughter of Salmoneus sitting on a stone, and beside her Eriphyle is standing, lifting her fingers through her dress to her neck. You may conjecture that she is holding the famous necklace in the hand which is concealed by the folds of her dress. And above Eriphyle is Elpenor, and Odysseus kneeling, holding his sword over a ditch: and Tiresias the prophet is approaching the ditch, and near Tiresias is Anticlea, the mother of Odysseus, sitting on a stone. And Elpenor is wearing the coarse plaited coat usual among sea-faring men. And below Odysseus Theseus and Pirithous are seated on the enchanted rock, Theseus has both[Pg 275] his own sword and that of Pirithous, and Pirithous is looking at his like one indignant that swords are useless for their present venture. Panyasis has represented Theseus and Pirithous as not fastened to their seat, but that the rock grew to them instead of fetters. The friendship between Theseus and Pirithous has been alluded to by Homer both in the Iliad and Odyssey. In the latter Odysseus says to the Phæacians,

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

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

Polygnotus has painted next the daughters of Pandareus, as to whom Homer says, in a speech of Penelope, that their parents died through the wrath of the gods when they were still maidens, and that as they were orphans they were brought up by Aphrodite, and received gifts from other goddesses, as from Hera prudence and beauty, from Artemis tallness of stature, from Athene an education fit for women. But when Aphrodite went up to heaven to obtain a good match for the girls from Zeus, they were carried off in her absence by the Harpies and given by them to the Furies. Such at least is Homer’s account about them.[136] And Polygnotus has painted them crowned with flowers, and playing with dice. Their names were Camiro and Clytie. Pandareus was you must know a Milesian from Cretan Miletus, and an associate of Tantalus both in his theft and perjury. And next the daughters of Pandareus[Pg 276] is Antilochus with one of his feet on a stone, and his head on both his hands. And next him is Agamemnon, leaning on his sceptre under his left arm, and with a staff in his hands. And Protesilaus and Achilles are seated, and looking at one another. And above Achilles is Patroclus standing. None of these have beards except Agamemnon. And above them is painted the stripling Phocus, and Iaseus with a beard, who is trying to take a ring from Phocus’ left hand. The circumstances are as follows. When Phocus, the son of Æacus, crossed over from Ægina to the country now called Phocis, and obtained the sovereignty over the men in that part of the mainland, and meant to dwell there, Iaseus was most friendly with him, and offered him various presents, as was very natural, and among others a stone signet-ring set in gold: and when Phocus not long after sailed back to Ægina, Peleus contrived his death: and so in the painting, as a memorial of their friendship, Iaseus is represented as wishing to look at the signet-ring, and Phocus letting him take it. Above them is Mæra sitting on a stone: in The Return from Ilium she is said to have died a virgin, and to have been the daughter of Prœtus, the son of Thersander and grandson of Sisyphus. And next Mæra is Actæon, (the son of Aristæus), and his mother, both seated on a deerskin and holding a fawn in their hands. And a hound for hunting is near: these are emblems of the life and death of Actæon. And in the lower part of the painting next to Patroclus is Orpheus sitting on a hill, with a harp in his left hand, and with his right hand he is touching the branches of a willow-tree, and he leans against the tree: the scene looks like the grove of Proserpine, where Homer tells us poplars and willows grew.[137] And Orpheus’ dress is Greek, no part of his attire is Thracian, not even his hat. And Promedon is leaning against the other side of the willow-tree. Some think Polygnotus introduced Promedon’s name into legend. Others say he was a Greek who was passionately fond of music, and especially of that of Orpheus. In the same part of the painting is Schedius, who led the Phocians to Troy, with a dagger in his hand, and a garland of grass on his head. And next him sits Pelias, with beard and head[Pg 277] all hoary, gazing at Orpheus. And Thamyris sitting near Pelias is blind and dejected in mien, with thick hair and beard, his lyre is broken and the strings torn asunder. Above him is Marsyas, seated on a stone, and near him Olympus, a handsome boy, learning to play on the pipe. The Phrygians at Celænæ represent that the river flowing through their town was formerly this piper Marsyas, and that the piping in honour of Cybele was his invention: they say also that they repulsed the army of the Galati through his aid, as he assisted them both with the water of the river and his melody.

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

“He escaped not dread fate, but was consumed by the[Pg 278] swift flame, as soon as the ill-contrived firebrand was set on fire by his stern mother.”

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

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

Above Sarpedon and Memnon is Paris, as yet a beardless youth. He is clapping his hands like a rustic, apparently to attract the notice of Penthesilea, who looks at him, but by the toss of her head seems to despise him, and jeer at him as a boy. She is represented as a maiden with a Scythian bow, and a leopard’s skin round her shoulders. Above her are two women carrying water in broken pitchers, one still in her prime, the other rather advanced in life. There is no inscription on either of them, except a notification that they are both among the uninitiated. Above this pair are Callisto the daughter of Lycaon, and Nomia, and Pero the daughter of Neleus, from every suitor of whom her father asked the kine of Iphiclus.[139] Callisto has a bear-skin for her coverlet, and her feet are on the[Pg 279] knees of Nomia. I have before stated that the Arcadians consider Nomia one of their local Nymphs. The poets say the Nymphs are long-lived but not immortal. Next to Callisto and the other women with her is a hill, up which Sisyphus the son of Æolus is laboriously rolling a stone. There is also a winejar in the painting, and an old man, and a boy, and two women, a young woman under a rock, and an old woman near the old man. Some men are bringing water, and the old woman’s water-pot appears to be broken, and she is pouring all the water in the pitcher into the winejar. One is inclined to conjecture that they are people making a mock of the Eleusinian mysteries. But the older Greeks considered the Eleusinian mysteries as much above all other religious services, as the gods are superior to heroes. And under the winejar is Tantalus, undergoing all those punishments mentioned by Homer,[140] and also terrified lest a stone overhanging his head should fall on him. It is plain that Polygnotus followed the account of Archilochus: but I do not know whether Archilochus invented the addition to the legend about the stone, or merely related what he had heard from others.

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

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

About 60 stades from Delphi on the road to Mount Parnassus is a brazen statue, and from thence it is an easy ascent for an active man, or for mules and horses to the Corycian cavern. It got its name, as I pointed out a little back,[141] from the Nymph Corycia, and of all the caverns I[Pg 280] have seen is best worth a visit. The various caverns on sea-coasts are so numerous that one could not easily enumerate them: but the most remarkable whether in Greece or in foreign lands are the following. The Phrygians near the river Pencala, who originally came from Arcadia and the Azanes, show a round and lofty cavern called Steunos, which is sacred to the Mother of the Gods, and contains her statue. The Phrygians also, who dwell at Themisonium above Laodicea, say that when the army of the Galati harried Ionia and the neighbouring districts, Hercules and Apollo and Hermes came to their aid: and showed their chief men a cavern in a dream, and bade them hide there their women and children. And so in front of this cavern they have statuettes of Hercules and Hermes and Apollo, whom they call The Cavern-Gods. This cavern is about 30 stades from Themisonium, and has springs of water in it, there is no direct road to it, nor does the light of the sun penetrate into it, and the roof in most of the cavern is very near the ground. The Magnesians also at a place called Hylæ near the river Lethæus have a cavern sacred to Apollo, not very wonderful for size, but containing a very ancient statue of Apollo, which supplies strength for any action. Men made holy by the god leap down rocks and precipices unhurt, and tear up huge trees by the roots, and carry them with ease through mountain passes. But the Corycian cavern excels both of these, and through most of it you can walk without needing torches: and the roof is a good height from the ground, and water bubbles up from springs, but still more oozes from the roof, so that there are droppings from the roof all over the floor of the cavern. And those that dwell on Mount Parnassus consider it sacred to Pan and the Corycian Nymphs. It is a feat even for an active man to scale the heights of Parnassus from it, for they are higher than the clouds, and on them the Thyiades carry on their mad revels in honour of Dionysus and Apollo.

Tithorea is about 80 stades from Delphi viâ Mount Parnassus, but the carriage road by a way less mountainous is many stades longer. Bacis in his oracles and Herodotus in his account of the invasion of Greece by the Medes differ as to the name of the town. For Bacis calls the town Tithorea, but Herodotus calls it Neon, and gives the name Tithorea[Pg 281] to the summit of Parnassus, where he describes the people of the town fleeing on the approach of the Medes. It seems probable therefore that Tithorea was originally the name for the entire district, but as time went on the people, flocking into the town from the villages, called it Tithorea and no longer Neon. And the people of the place say it got its name from the Nymph Tithorea, one of those Nymphs who according to the legendary lore of poets were born of trees and especially oak-trees.[142] A generation before me the deity changed the fortunes of Tithorea for the worse. There is the outline of a theatre, and the precincts of an ancient market-place, still remaining. But the most remarkable things in the town are the grove and shrine and statue of Athene, and the tomb of Antiope and Phocus. In my account of the Thebans I have shewn how Antiope went mad through the anger of Dionysus, and why she drew on her the anger of the god, and how she married Phocus the son of Ornytion, of whom she was passionately fond, and how they were buried together. I also gave the oracle of Bacis both about this tomb and that of Zethus and Amphion at Thebes. I have mentioned all the circumstances worth mention about the town. A river called Cachales flows by the town, and furnishes water to its inhabitants, who descend to its banks to draw water.

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

About 40 stades from the temple of Æsculapius are the precincts and shrine of Isis, and of all the Greek shrines to the Egyptian goddess this is the holiest: for neither do the people of Tithorea live near it, nor may any approach the shrine whom Isis herself has not previously honoured by inviting them in dreams. The gods of the lower world have the same practice in the towns near the Mæander,[Pg 282] they send visions in dreams to whoever they allow to approach their shrines. And twice every year, in Spring and Autumn, the people of Tithorea celebrate the Festival of Isis. The third day before each Festival those who have right of access purify the shrine in some secret manner: and remove to a place about 2 stades from the shrine whatever remains they find of the victims offered in sacrifice at the previous Festival, and bury them there. On the following day the traders make tents of reed or any other material at hand. On the next day they celebrate the Festival, and sell slaves, and cattle of every kind, and apparel, and silver and gold. And at noon they commence the sacrifice. The wealthier sacrifice oxen and deer, the poorer sacrifice geese and guineafowls, but they do not sacrifice swine or sheep or goats. Those whose duty it is to burn the victims in the shrine, first roll them up in bandages of linen or flax, after the process in use in Egypt. There is a solemn procession with all the victims, and some convey them into the shrine, while others burn the tents before it and depart with speed. And on one occasion they say a profane fellow, who had no right to approach the shrine, entered it with audacious curiosity at the time the sacrificial fire was lit, and the place seemed to him full of phantoms, and he returned to Tithorea, related what he had seen, and gave up the ghost. I heard a similar account from a Phœnician, of what happened on one occasion when the Egyptians were celebrating the Festival of Isis, at the time when they say she bewails Osiris: which is the season when the Nile begins to rise, and the Egyptians have a tradition that it is the tears of Isis that make the river rise and irrigate the fields. He told me that the Roman Governor of Egypt bribed a man to enter the shrine at Coptos during the Festival, and he came back, related what he had seen, and also died directly after. So Homer’s word seems true, that the gods are not seen by mortals with impunity.[143]

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

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

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

[Pg 284]

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

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

From Lilæa is 60 stades’ journey to Amphiclea. The name of this place has been changed by the natives, for Herodotus following the oldest tradition called it Amphicæa, but the Amphictyones called it Amphiclea in their decree for the destruction of the towns in Phocis. The natives relate the following tradition about one of its names. They say that one of their rulers, suspecting a plot of some of his enemies against his baby boy, put him in a cot, and hid him in what he thought the most secure place, and a wolf tried to get at the little fellow, but a snake twined itself round the cot as a sure protection. And the child’s father coming up, and fearing that the snake had harmed his little boy, hurled his javelin at it and slew both child and snake: but learning from some herdsmen that the snake he had killed had been the preserver[Pg 285] and guard of his child, he had a funeral pyre for snake and child together. And they say the place to this day presents the appearance of a funeral pyre blazing, and they think the town was called Ophitea (Snake-town) from this snake. Noteworthy are the orgies which they perform here to Dionysus, but there is no public entrance to the shrine, nor is there any statue of the god. But the people of Amphiclea say that the god prophecies to them and cures sicknesses by dreams, and his priest is a prophet, and when possessed by the god utters oracles.

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

Next to Delphi Elatea is the greatest town in Phocis. It lies opposite Amphiclea, and is 180 stades from that place by a road mostly through the plain, but rather uphill near Elatea. The Cephisus flows through the plain, and bustards are very frequent on its banks. The Elateans repulsed Cassander and the army of the Macedonians. They also contrived to hold out against Taxilus the general of Mithridates, for which good service the Romans gave them freedom and immunity from taxation. They lay claim to foreign ancestry, and say that they were originally Arcadians: for Elatus (they say) the son of Areas defended the god, when the men of Phlegyas attacked the temple at Delphi,[Pg 286] and afterwards remained in Phocis with his army, and founded Elatea: which was one of the towns in Phocis that the Mede set on fire. It shared in the general disasters of the Phocians, and the deity also brought upon it special troubles of its own at the hands of the Macedonians. And when Cassander blockaded Elatea, it was Olympiodorus who mainly rendered the blockade inoperative. But Philip, the son of Demetrius, inspired the greatest terror in the minds of the populace at Elatea, and at the same time won over by bribes the most influential townsfolk. And Titus Flaminius the Roman General, who had been sent from Rome to free all Greece, promised to grant them their ancient polity, and invited them to revolt from the Macedonians: but whether from want of judgment, or because the populace had their way, they continued faithful to Philip, and were reduced by the blockade of the Romans. And some time after they held out against Taxilus, the general of Mithridates, and the barbarians from Pontus, and it was for that good service that the Romans granted them their freedom. When too the Costoboci, a piratical tribe, overran all Greece in my day, and came to Elatea, Mnesibulus got together an army of picked men, and, though he himself fell in the battle, slew many of the barbarians. This Mnesibulus won several victories in the course, and in the 235th Olympiad was victor both in the stadium and in the double course though he carried his shield. And there is a brazen statue of him near the race-course. They have also a handsome market-place at Elatea, and a figure of Elatus on a pillar, I do not know whether in honour of him as their founder, or to mark his tomb. There is a temple also of Æsculapius, and a statue of the god with a beard by Timocles and Timarchides, who were both of Athenian extraction. At the extreme right of Elatea is a theatre, and ancient statue of Athene in bronze: the goddess they say fought for them against the barbarians under Taxilus.

About 20 stades from Elatea is a temple of Athene Cranæa, the road to it is uphill but by so gentle a slope that it is very easy and scarcely appreciable. But the crest of the hill at the end of this road is mostly precipitous on a limited area: and here is the temple, with porticoes and chambers, where various people that minister to the goddess[Pg 287] reside, and especially the priest, whom they select out of the youths, and take great care that he ceases to be priest when he has passed the flower of his age. And he is priest for 5 continuous years, during which he resides with the goddess, and takes his baths after the ancient manner in bathing tubs.[148] The statue of the goddess was executed by the sons of Polycles. She is armed for battle, and her shield is an imitation of that of Athene in the Parthenon at Athens.

For Abæ and Hyampolis you take the mountainous road on the right of Elatea: the high road from Orchomenus to Opus also leads to those places: but to go to Abæ you turn a little off that high road to the left. The people of Abæ say they came to Phocis from Argos, and that their town took its name from its founder Abas, the son of Lynceus by Hypermnestra the daughter of Danaus. The people of Abæ consider that their town was in ancient times sacred to Apollo, and there was an oracle of Apollo there. But the Romans and Persians did not equally honour the god, for the Romans in their piety to Apollo granted autonomy to the people of Abæ, but Xerxes’ army burnt the temple there. And though the Greeks resisted the barbarians, they did not think good to rebuild the temples that were burnt down, but to leave them for all time as records of national hatred:[149] and so the temples at Haliartia, and the temple of Hera at Athens on the way to Phalerum, and the temple of Demeter at Phalerum remain to this day half-burnt. Such also I imagine was the condition of the temple at Abæ, till in the Phocian War, when some Phocian fugitives who were beaten in battle fleeing for refuge to it, the Thebans, emulating the conduct of the Medes, set them and the temple on fire. It is therefore in the most ruinous condition of[Pg 288] all the buildings injured by fire, for after first suffering from the Persian fire, it was next consumed altogether by the Bœotian. Near this great temple is a smaller one, erected to Apollo by the Emperor Adrian, but the statues are ancient and were the votive offering of the people of Abæ, Apollo and Leto and Artemis in bronze. There is also a theatre at Abæ and a market-place, both ancient.

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

From Chæronea to Phocis you can go either by the direct road to Delphi through Panopeus and by Daulis and the cross-roads, or by the rugged mountainous road from Chæronea to Stiris, which is 120 stades. The people of Stiris say they were originally Athenians, and came from Attica with Peteus the son of Orneus, who was expelled from Athens by Ægeus: and as most of the followers of Peteus came from the township Stiria they called the town Stiris. It is on high and rocky ground, so in summer they are very short of water, for their wells are few, nor is the water they afford good. They serve however for baths, and for drink for beasts of burden. But the inhabitants of Stiris have to descend about 4 stades to get drinkable water from a spring, hewn out of the rock: and they go down to it to draw up the water. There is at Stiris a temple of Demeter Stiritis built of unbaked brick: the statue of the[Pg 289] goddess is of Pentelican marble, she has torches in her hands. Near it is another ancient statue in honour of Demeter adorned with fillets.

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

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

As you turn to Anticyra the road is at first rather steep, but after about two stades it becomes level, and there is on the right a temple of Dictynnæan Artemis, who is held in the highest honour by the people of Ambrosus; her statue is of Æginetan workmanship in black stone. From this temple to Anticyra is all the way downhill. They say the town was called Cyparissus in ancient times, and Homer in his Catalogue of the Phocians[150] preferred to give it its old[Pg 290] name, for it was then beginning to be called Anticyra, from Anticyreus who was a contemporary of Hercules. The town lies below the ruins of Medeon, one of the towns as I have before mentioned which impiously plundered the temple at Delphi. The people of Anticyra were expelled first by Philip the son of Amyntas, and secondly by the Roman Otilius, because they had been faithful to Philip, the son of Demetrius, the king of the Macedonians, for Otilius had been sent from Rome to protect the Athenians against Philip. And the hills above Anticyra are very rocky, and the chief thing that grows on them is hellebore. The black hellebore is a purgative, while the white acts as an emetic, the root also of the hellebore is a purgative. There are brazen statues in the market-place at Anticyra, and near the harbour is a small temple of Poseidon, made of unhewn stone, and plastered inside. The statue of the god is in bronze: he is in a standing posture, and one of his feet is on a dolphin: one hand is on his thigh, in the other is a trident. There are also two gymnasiums, one contains baths, the other opposite to it is an ancient one, in which is a bronze statue of Xenodamus, a native of Anticyra, who, as the inscription states, was victor at Olympia among men in the pancratium. And if the inscription is correct, Xenodamus will have won the wild-olive crown in the 211th Olympiad, the only Olympiad of all passed over by the people of Elis in their records. And above the market-place is a conduit: the water is protected from the sun by a roof supported on pillars. And not much above this conduit is a tomb built of common stone: they say it is the tomb of the sons of Iphitus, of whom one returned safe from Ilium and died in his native place, the other Schedius died in the Troad, but his remains were brought home and deposited here.

On the right of the town at the distance of about 2 stades is a lofty rock, which forms part of a mountain, and on it is a temple of Artemis, and a statue of the goddess by Praxiteles, with a torch in her right hand and her quiver[Pg 291] over her shoulders, she is taller than the tallest woman, and on her left hand is a dog.

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

To Cirrha, the seaport of Delphi, it is about 60 stades from Delphi, and as you descend to the plain is a Hippodrome, where they celebrate the Pythian horse-races. As to Taraxippus in Olympia I have described it in my account of Elis. In this Hippodrome of Apollo there are accidents occasionally, inasmuch as the deity in all human affairs awards both good and bad, but there is nothing specially contrived to frighten horses, either from the malignity of some hero, or any other cause. And the plain of Cirrha is almost entirely bare of trees, for they do not care to plant trees, either in consequence of some curse, or because they do not think the soil favourable to the growth of trees. It is said that Cirrha got its present name from the Nymph Cirrha, but Homer in the Iliad calls it by its ancient name Crisa,[151] as also in the Hymn to Apollo. And subsequently the people of Cirrha committed various acts of impiety against Apollo, and ravaged the territory sacred to the god. The Amphictyones[Pg 292] resolved therefore to war against the people of Cirrha, and chose for their leader Clisthenes the king of Sicyon, and invited Solon the Athenian to assist them by his counsel. They also consulted the oracle, and this was the response of the Pythian Priestess, “You will not capture the tower and demolish the town, till the wave of blue-eyed Amphitrite, dashing over the dark sea, shall break into my grove.”

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

Next comes the land of the Ozolian Locrians: why they were called Ozolian is differently stated, I shall relate all that I heard. When Orestheus the son of Deucalion was king of the country, a bitch gave birth to a piece of wood instead of a puppy: and Orestheus having buried this piece of wood in the ground, they say the next spring a vine sprang from it, and these Ozolians got their name from its branches.[152] Another tradition is that Nessus, the[Pg 293] ferryman at the river Evenus, did not immediately die when wounded by Hercules, but fled to this land, and dying here rotted, as he was unburied, and tainted the air. A third tradition attributes the name to the unpleasant smell of a certain river, and a fourth to the smell of the asphodel which abounds in that part. Another tradition is that the first dwellers here were Aborigines, and not knowing how to make garments wore untanned hides as a protection against the cold, putting the hairy portion of the hides outside for ornament. Thus their smell would be as unpleasant as that of a tan-yard.

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

[Pg 294]

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

Myonia is above Amphissa: and near the sea is Œanthea, and at no great distance Naupactus. All these towns except Amphissa are under the Achæans of Patræ, as a grant from the Emperor Augustus. At Œanthea there is a temple of Aphrodite, and a little above the town a grove of cypress and pine, and in it a temple and statue of Artemis: and some paintings on the walls rather obscured by time, so that one cannot now see them clearly. I think the town must have got its name from some woman or Nymph. As to Naupactus I know the tradition is that the Dorians and the sons of Aristomachus built a fleet there, with which they crossed over to the Peloponnese, hence the origin of the name. As to the history of Naupactus, how the Athenians took it from the Locrians and gave it to the Messenians who removed to Ithome at the time of the earthquake at Lacedæmon, and how after the reverse of the Athenians at Ægos-potamoi the Lacedæmonians ejected the Messenians, all this has been related by me in my account of Messenia: and when the Messenians were obliged to evacuate it then the Locrians returned to Naupactus. As to the Poems called by the Greeks Naupactian, most attribute them to a Milesian: but Charon the son of Pytheus says they were composed by Carcinus a native of Naupactus. I follow the account of the native of Lampsacus: for how is it reasonable to suppose that poems written on women by a Milesian should be called Naupactian? There is at Naupactus a temple of Poseidon near the sea, and a brazen statue of the god in a standing posture; there is also a temple and statue of Artemis in white stone. The goddess is called Ætolian Artemis, and is in the attitude of a person hurling a javelin. Aphrodite also has honours paid to her in a cavern: they pray to her for various favours, widows[Pg 295] especially for a second husband. There are also ruins of a temple of Æsculapius, which was originally built by one Phalysius, a private individual, who had an ailment in his eyes and was nearly blind, and the god of Epidaurus sent to him the poetess Anyte with a sealed letter. She dreamed one night and directly she woke found the sealed letter in her hands, and sailed to Naupactus and bade Phalysius remove the seal and read what was written. And though he was clearly unable to read from his blindness, yet, having faith in the god, he broke open the seal, and became cured by looking at the letter, and gave Anyte 2,000 gold staters, which was the sum mentioned in the letter.

[Pg 297]

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