Pausanias: Description of Greece Book 8 - Arcadia 17-35

[8.17.1] XVII. After the grave of Aepytus you come to the highest mountain in Arcadia, Cyllene, on the top of which is a dilapidated temple of Cyllenian Hermes. It is clear that Cyllen, the son of Elatus, gave the mountain its name and the god his surname.

[8.17.2] In days of old, men made wooden images, so far as I have been able to discover, from the following trees ebony, cypress, cedar, oak, yew, lotus. But the image of Cyllenian Hermes is made of none of these, but of juniper wood. Its height, I conjecture, is about eight feet.

[8.17.3] Cyllene can show also the following marvel. On it the blackbirds are entirely white. The birds so called by the Boeotians are a somewhat different breed, which does not sing. Eagles called swan-eagles, very like to swans for whiteness, I am acquainted with, as I have seen them on Mount Sipylus round the lake called the Lake of Tantalus. White wild boars and Thracian white bears have been known to be acquired by private individuals.

[8.17.4] White hares are bred in Libya, and white deer I have seen in Rome to my great astonishment, though it never occurred to me to ask from what continent or island they had been brought. I have made these few remarks concerning the blackbirds in Cyllene that nobody may disbelieve what has been said about their color.

[8.17.5] Adjoining Cyllene is another mountain, Chelydorea,28 where Hermes is said to have found a tortoise, taken the shell from the beast, and to have made therefrom a harp. Here is the boundary between Pheneus and Pellene, and the greater part of Mount Chelydorea is inhabited by the Achaeans.

[8.17.6] As you go from Pheneus to the west, the left road leads to the city Cleitor, while on the right is the road to Nonacris and the water of the Styx. Of old Nonacris was a town of the Arcadians that was named after the wife of Lycaon. When I visited it, it was in ruins, and most of these were hidden. Not far from the ruins is a high cliff; I know of none other that rises to so great a height. A water trickles down the cliff, called by the Greeks the water of the Styx.

[8.18.1] XVIII. Hesiod in the Theogony29 – for there are some who assign this hexameter poem to Hesiod – speaks of Styx as the daughter of Ocean and the wife of Pallas. Men say that Linus too gives a like account in his verses, though when I read these they struck me as altogether spurious.

[8.18.2] Epimenides of Crete, also, represented Styx as the daughter of Ocean, not, however, as the wife of Pallas, but as bearing Echidna to Peiras, whoever Peiras may be. But it is Homer who introduces most frequently the name of Styx into his poetry. In the oath of Hera he says:–

  Witness now to this be Earth, and broad Heaven above,
  And the water of Styx down-flowing. Hom. Il. 15.36-37

These verses suggest that the poet had seen the water of the Styx trickling down. Again in the list of those who came with Guneus30 he makes the river Titaresius receive its water from the Styx.

[8.18.3] He also represents the Styx as a river in Hades, and Athena says that Zeus does not remember that because of her he kept Heracles safe throughout the labours imposed by Eurystheus.

  For if I had known this in my shrewd heart
  When he sent him to Hades the gate-keeper,
  To fetch out of Erebus the hound of hateful Hades,
  He would never have escaped the sheer streams of' the river Styx. Homer, unknown location.

[8.18.4] The water trickling down the cliff by the side of Nonacris falls first to a high rock, through which it passes and then descends into the river Crathis. Its water brings death to all, man and beast alike. It is said too that it once brought death even upon goats, which drank of the water first; later on all the wonderful properties of the water were learnt.

[8.18.5] For glass, crystal, murrhine vessels, other articles men make of stone, and pottery, are all broken by the water of the Styx, while things of horn or of bone, with iron, bronze, lead, tin, silver and electrum, are all corroded by this water. Gold too suffers just like all the other metals, and yet gold is immune to rust, as the Lesbian poetess bears witness and is shown by the metal itself.

[8.18.6] So heaven has assigned to the most lowly things the mastery over things far more esteemed than they. For pearls are dissolved by vinegar, while diamonds, the hardest of stones, are melted by the blood of the he-goat. The only thing that can resist the water of the Styx is a horse's hoof. When poured into it the water is retained, and does not break up the hoof. Whether Alexander, the son of Philip, met his end by this poison I do not know for certain, but I do know that there is a story to this effect.

[8.18.7] Above Nonacris are the Aroanian Mountains, in which is a cave. To this cave, legend says, the daughters of Proetus fled when struck with madness; Melampus by secret sacrifices and purifications brought them down to a place called Lusi. Most of the Aroanian mountain belongs to Pheneus, but Lusi is on the borders of Cleitor.

[8.18.8] They say that Lusi was once a city, and Agesilas was proclaimed as a man of Lusi when victor in the horse-race at the eleventh Pythian festival held by the Amphictyons31; but when I was there not even ruins of Lusi remained. Well, the daughters of Proetus were brought down by Melampus to Lusi, and healed of their madness in a sanctuary of Artemis. Wherefore32 this Artemis is called Hemerasia (She who soothes) by the Cleitorians.

[8.19.1] XIX. There is a clan of the Arcadians, called the Cynaetheans, the same folk who dedicated the image of Zeus at Olympia with a thunderbolt in either hand. These Cynaetheans live more than forty stades from . . . and in their marketplace have been made altars of the gods and a statue of the Emperor Hadrian.

[8.19.2] The most notable things here include a sanctuary of Dionysus, to whom they hold a feast in the winter, at which men smeared with grease take up from a herd of cattle a bull, whichever one the god suggest to them, and carry it to the sanctuary. This is the manner of their sacrifice. Here there is a spring of cold water, about two stades away from the city, and above it grows a plane-tree.

[8.19.3] If a rabid dog turn a man mad, or wound or otherwise endanger him, to drink this water is a cure. For this reason they call the spring Alyssus (Curer of madness). So it would appear that the Arcadians have in the water near Pheneus, called the Styx, a thing made to be a mischief to man, while the spring among the Cynaetheans is a boon to make up for the bane in the other place.

[8.19.4] One of the roads from Pheneus, which go westward, remains, the one on the left. This road leads to Cleitor, and extends by the side of the work of Heracles, which made a course for the river Aroanius. By it the road goes down to a place called Lycuria, which is the boundary between Pheneus and Cleitor.

[8.20.1] XX. Advancing about fifty stades from Lycuria, you will come to the source of the Ladon. I heard that the water making a lake in the territory of Pheneus, descending into the chasms in the mountains, rises here and forms the source of the Ladon, but I cannot say for certain whether this is true or not. The Ladon is the most lovely river in Greece, and is also famous for the legend of Daphne that the poets tell.

[8.20.2] I pass over the story current among the Syrians who live on the river Orontes, and give the account of the Arcadians and Eleans. Oenomaus, prince of Pisa, had a son Leucippus. Leucippus fell in love with Daphne, but despaired of winning her to be his wife by an open courtship, as she avoided all the male sex. The following trick occurred to him by which to get her. Leucippus was growing his hair long for the river Alpheius.

[8.20.3] Braiding his hair as though he were a maiden, and putting on woman's clothes, he came to Daphne and said that he was a daughter of Oenomaus, and would like to share her hunting. As he was thought to be a maiden, surpassed the other maidens in nobility of birth and skill in hunting, and was besides most assiduous in his attentions, he drew Daphne into a deep friendship.

[8.20.4] The poets who sing of Apollo's love for Daphne make an addition to the tale; that Apollo became jealous of Leucippus because of his success in his love. Forthwith Daphne and the other maidens conceived a longing to swim in the Ladon, and stripped Leucippus in spite of his reluctance. Then, seeing that he was no maid, they killed him with their javelins and daggers.

[8.21.1] XXI. Such is the tale. From the source of the Ladon, Cleitor is sixty stades away, and the road from the source of the Ladon is a narrow gorge alongside the river Aroanius. Near the city you will cross the river called the Cleitor. The Cleitor flows into the Aroanius, at a point not more than seven stades from the city.

[8.21.2] Among the fish in the Aroanius is one called the dappled fish. These dappled fish, it is said, utter a cry like that of the thrush. I have seen fish that have been caught, but I never heard their cry, though I waited by the river even until sunset, at which time the fish were said to cry most.

[8.21.3] Cleitor got its name from the son of Azan, and is situated on a level spot surrounded by low hills. The most celebrated sanctuaries of the Cleitorians are those of Demeter, Asclepius and, thirdly, Eileithyia . . . to be, and gave no number for them. The Lycian Olen, an earlier poet, who composed for the Delians, among other hymns, one to Eileithyia, styles her “the clever spinner,” clearly identifying her with fate, and makes her older than Cronus.

[8.21.4] Cleitor has also, at a distance of about four stades from the city, a sanctuary of the Dioscuri, under the name of the Great Gods. There are also images of them in bronze. There is also built upon a mountain-top, thirty stades away from the city, a temple of Athena Coria will, an image of the goddess.

[8.22.1] XXII. My narrative returns to Stymphalus and to Geronteium, as it is called, the boundary between Stymphalus and Pheneus. The Stymphalians are no longer included among the Arcadians, but are numbered with the Argive League, which they joined of their own accord. That they are by race Arcadians is testified by the verses of Homer,33 and Stymphalus their founder was a grandson of Arcas, the son of Callisto. It is said that it was originally founded on another site, and not on that of the modern city.

[8.22.2] The story has it that in the old Stymphalus dwelt Temenus, the son of Pelasgus, and that Hera was reared by this Temenus, who himself established three sanctuaries for the goddess, and gave her three surnames when she was still a maiden, Girl; when married to Zeus he called her Grown-up; when for some cause or other she quarrelled with Zeus and came back to Stymphalus, Temenus named her Widow. This is the account which, to my own knowledge, the Stymphalians give of the goddess.

[8.22.3] The modern city contains none of these sanctuaries, but I found the following notable things. In the Stymphalian territory is a spring, from which the emperor Hadrian brought water to Corinth. In winter the spring makes a small lake in Stymphalus, and the river Stymphalus issues from the lake; in summer there is no lake, but the river comes straight from the spring. This river descends into a chasm in the earth, and reappearing once more in Argolis it changes its name, and is called Erasinus instead of Stymphalus.

[8.22.4] There is a story current about the water of the Stymphalus, that at one time man-eating birds bred on it, which Heracles is said to have shot down. Peisander of Camira, however, says that Heracles did not kill the birds, but drove them away with the noise of rattles. The Arabian desert breeds among other wild creatures birds called Stymphalian, which are quite as savage against men as lions or leopards.

[8.22.5] These fly against those who come to hunt them, wounding and killing them with their beaks. All armour of bronze or iron that men wear is pierced by the birds; but if they weave a garment of thick cork, the beaks of the Stymphalian birds are caught in the cork garment, just as the wings of small birds stick in bird-lime. These birds are of the size of a crane, and are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like that of the ibis.

[8.22.6] Whether the modern Arabian birds with the same name as the old Arcadian birds are also of the same breed, I do not know. But if there have been from all time Stymphalian birds, just as there have been hawks and eagles, I should call these birds of Arabian origin, and a section of them might have flown on some occasion to Arcadia and reached Stymphalus. Originally they would be called by the Arabians, not Stymphalian, but by another name. But the fame of Heracles, and the superiority of the Greek over the foreigner, has resulted in the birds of the Arabian desert being called Stymphalian even in modern times.

[8.22.7] In Stymphalus there is also an old sanctuary of Stymphalian Artemis, the image being of wood, for the most part gilded. Near the roof of the temple have been carved, among other things, the Stymphalian birds. Now it was difficult to discern clearly whether the carving was in wood or in gypsum, but such evidence as I had led me to conclude that it was not of gypsum but of wood. There are here also maidens of white marble, with the legs of birds, and they stand behind the temple.

[8.22.8] Even in our own day the following miracle is said to have occurred. The festival of Stymphalian Artemis at Stymphalus was carelessly celebrated, and its established ritual in great part transgressed. Now a log fell into the mouth of the chasm into which the river descends, and so prevented the water from draining away, and (so it is said) the plain became a lake for a distance of four hundred stades.

[8.22.9] They also say that a hunter chased a deer, which fled and plunged into the marsh, followed by the hunter, who, in the excitement of the hunt, swam after the deer. So the chasm swallowed up both the deer and her pursuer. They are said to have been followed by the water of the river, so that by the next day the whole of the water was dried up that flooded the Stymphalian plain. Hereafter they put greater zeal into the festival in honor of Artemis.

[8.23.1] XXIII. After Stymphalus comes Alea, which too belongs to the Argive federation, and its citizens point to Aleus, the son of Apheidas, as their founder. The sanctuaries of the gods here are those of Ephesian Artemis and Athena Alea, and there is a temple of Dionysus with an image. In honor of Dionysus they celebrate every other year a festival called Sciereia, and at this festival, in obedience to a response from Delphi, women are flogged, just as the Spartan lads are flogged at the image of the Orthian goddess.

[8.23.2] In my account of Orchomenus, I explained how the straight road runs at first beside the gully, and afterwards to the left of the flood water. On the plain of Caphyae has been made a dyke of earth, which prevents the water from the Orchomenian territory from doing harm to the tilled land of Caphyae. Inside the dyke flows along another stream, in size big enough to be called a river, and descending into a chasm of the earth it rises again at Nasi, as it is called. The place where it reappears is called Rheunus; the stream having risen here, hereafter the water forms an ever-flowing river, the Tagus.

[8.23.3] The name of the city is clearly derived from Cepheus, the son of Aleus, but its form in the Arcadian dialect, Caphyae, is the one that has survived. The inhabitants say that originally they were from Attica, but on being expelled from Athens by Aegeus they fled to Arcadia, threw themselves on the mercy of Cepheus, and found a home in the country. The town is on the border of the plain at the foot of some inconsiderable mountains. The Caphyatans have a sanctuary of the god Poseidon, and one of the goddess Artemis, surnamed Cnacalesia.

[8.23.4] They have also a mountain called Cnacalus, where every year they celebrate mysteries in honor of their Artemis. A little beyond the city is a spring, and by the spring grows a large and beautiful plane tree. They call it Menelais, saying that the plane was planted by the spring by Menelaus, who came to the spot when he was collecting his army against Troy. To-day they give the name Menelais to the spring as well as to the plane.

[8.23.5] If I am to base my calculations on the accounts of the Greeks in fixing the relative ages of such trees as are still preserved and flourish, the oldest of them is the withy growing in the Samian sanctuary of Hera, after which come the oak in Dodona, the olive on the Acropolis and the olive in Delos. The third place in respect of age the Syrians would assign to the bay-tree they have in their country. Of the others this plane-tree is the oldest.

[8.23.6] About a stade distant from Caphyae is a place called Condylea, where there are a grove and a temple of Artemis called of old Condyleatis. They say that the name of the goddess was changed for the following reason. Some children, the number of whom is not recorded, while playing about the sanctuary found a rope, and tying it round the neck of the image said that Artemis was being strangled.

[8.23.7] The Caphyans, detecting what the children had done, stoned them to death. When they had done this, a malady befell their women, whose babies were stillborn, until the Pythian priestess bade them bury the children, and sacrifice to them every year as sacrifice is made to heroes, because they had been wrongly put to death. The Caphyans still obey this oracle, and call the goddess at Condyleae, as they say the oracle also bade them, the Strangled Lady from that day to this.

[8.23.8] Going up about seven stades from Caphyae you will go down to what is called Nasi. Fifty stades farther on is the Ladon. You will then cross the river and reach a grove called Soron, passing through Argeathae, Lycuntes, as it is called, and Scotane. Now the road to Psophis passes by way of Soron,

[8.23.9] which, like other Arcadian groves, breeds the following beasts wild boars, bears, and tortoises of vast size. One could of the last make harps not inferior to those made from the Indian tortoise. At the end of Soron are the ruins of the village Paus, and a little farther what is called Seirae; this Seirae forms a boundary between Cleitor and Psophis.

[8.24.1] XXIV. The founder of Psophis, according to some, was Psophis, the son of Arrhon, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Aristas, the son of Parthaon, the son of Periphetes, the son of Nyctimus. Others say that Psophis was the daughter of Xanthus, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Arcas. Such are the Arcadian traditions concerning their kings,

[8.24.2] but the most accurate version is that Eryx, the despot of Sicania, had a daughter named Psophis, whom Heracles, though he had intercourse with her, refused to take to his home, but left with child in the care of his friend Lycortas, who lived at Phegia, a city called Erymanthus before the reign of Phegeus. Having been brought up here, Echephron and Promachus, the sons of Heracles and the Sicanian woman, changed the name of Phegia to Psophis, the name of their mother.

[8.24.3] Psophis is also the name of the Zacynthian acropolis, because the first man to sail across to the island was Zacynthus, the son of Dardanus, a Psophidian who became its founder. From Seirae it is thirty stades to Psophis, by the side of which runs the river Aroanius, and a little farther away the river Erymanthus.

[8.24.4] The Erymanthus has its source in Mount Lampeia, which is said to be sacred to Pan. One might regard Lampeia as a part of Mount Erymanthus. Homer says34 that in Taygetus and Erymanthus . . . hunter . . . so . . . of Lampeia, Erymanthus, and passing through Arcadia, with Mount Pholoe on the right and the district of Thelpusa on the left, flows into the Alpheius.

[8.24.5] There is also a legend that Heracles at the command of Eurystheus hunted by the side of the Erymanthus a boar that surpassed all others in size and in strength. The people of Cumae among the Opici say that the boar's tusks dedicated in their sanctuary of Apollo are those of the Erymanthian boar, but the saying is altogether improbable.

[8.24.6] In Psophis there is a sanctuary of Aphrodite surnamed Erycine; I found only ruins of it remaining, but the people said that it was established by the sons of Psophis. Their account is probable, for in Sicily too, in the territory of Eryx, is a sanctuary of Erycine, which from the remotest times has been very holy, and quite as rich as the sanctuary in Paphos.

[8.24.7] The hero-shrines, however, of Promachus and Echephron, the sons of Psophis, were no longer distinguished when I saw them. In Psophis is buried Alcmaeon also, the son of Amphiaraus, and his tomb is a building remarkable for neither its size nor its ornament. About it grow cypresses, reaching to such a height that even the mountain by Psophis was overshadowed by them. These the inhabitants will not cut down, holding them to be sacred to Alcmaeon.

[8.24.8] They are called “maidens” by the natives. Alcmaeon, after killing his mother, fled from Argos and came to Psophis, which was still called Phegia after Phegeus, and married Alphesiboea, the daughter of Phegeus. Among the presents that he naturally gave her was the necklace. While he lived among the Arcadians his disease did not grow any better, so he had recourse to the oracle at Delphi. The Pythian priestess informed him that the only land into which the avenging spirit of Eriphyle would not follow him was the newest land, one brought up to light by the sea after the pollution of his mother's death.

[8.24.9] On discovering the alluvial deposit of the Achelous he settled there, and took to wife Callirhoe, said by the Acarnanians to have been the daughter of Achelous. He had two sons, Acarnan and Amphoterus; after this Acarnan were called by their present name (so the story runs) the dwellers in this part of the mainland, who previously were called Curetes. Senseless passions shipwreck many men, and even more women.

[8.24.10] Callirhoe conceived a passion for the necklace of Eriphyle, and for this reason sent Alcmaeon against his will to Phegia. Temenus and Axion, the sons of Phegeus, murdered him by treachery. The sons of Phegeus are said to have dedicated the necklace to the god in Delphi, and it is said that the expedition of the Greeks to Troy took place when they were kings in the city that was still called Phegia. The people of Psophis assert that the reason why they took no part in the expedition was because their princes had incurred the enmity of the leaders of the Argives, who were in most cases related by blood to Alcmaeon, and had joined him in his campaign against Thebes.

[8.24.11] That the Echinades islands have not been made mainland as yet by the Achelous is due to the Aetolian people, who have been driven from their homes and all their land has been laid waste. Accordingly, as Aetolia remains untilled, the Achelous does not bring as much mud upon the Echinades as it otherwise would do. My reasoning is confirmed by the fact that the Maeander, flowing through the land of the Phrygians and Carians, which is ploughed up each year, has turned to mainland in a short time the sea that once was between Priene and Miletus.

[8.24.12] The people of Psophis have also by the side of the Erymanthus a temple and image of Erymanthus. The images of all rivers except the Nile in Egypt are made of white marble; but the images of the Nile, became it descends to the sea through Aethiopia, they are accustomed to make of black stone.

[8.24.13] I heard in Psophis a statement about one Aglaus, a Psophidian contemporary with Croesus the Lydian. The statement was that the whole of his life was happy, but I could not believe it.

[8.24.14] The truth is that one man may receive fewer ills than his contemporaries, just as one ship may be less tossed by storms than another ship. But we shall not be able to find a man never touched by misfortune or a ship never met by an unfavorable breeze. For Homer35 too says in his poetry that by the side of Zeus is set a jar of good things, and another jar of evil things, taught by the god at Delphi, who once declared that Homer himself was both unhappy and blessed, being destined by birth to both states alike.

[8.25.1] XXV. As you go from Psophis to Thelpusa you first reach on the left of the Ladon a place called Tropaea, adjoining which is a grove, Aphrodisium. Thirdly, there is ancient writing on a slab:– “The boundary between Psophis and Thelpusa.”

In the Thelpusian territory is a river called Arsen (Male). Cross this and go on for about twenty-five stades, when you will arrive at the ruins of the village Caus, with a sanctuary of Causian Asclepius, built on the road.

[8.25.2] Thelpusa is some forty stades distant from this sanctuary. It is said that it was named after Thelpusa, a nymph, and that she was a daughter of Ladon. The Ladon rises in springs within the territory of Cleitor, as my account has already set forth. It flows first beside a place Leucasium and Mesoboa, through Nasi to Oryx, also called Halus, and from Halus it descends to Thaliades and a sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter.

[8.25.3] This sanctuary is on the borders of Thelpusa. In it are images, each no less than seven feet high, of Demeter, her daughter, and Dionysus, all alike of stone. After the sanctuary of the Eleusinian goddess the Ladon flows by the city Thelpusa on the left, situated on a high hill, in modern times so deserted that the market-place, which is at the extremity of it, was originally, they say, right in the very middle of it. Thelpusa has a temple of Asclepius and a sanctuary of the twelve gods; the greater part of this, I found, lay level with the ground.

[8.25.4] After Thelpusa the Ladon descends to the sanctuary of Demeter in Onceium. The Thelpusians call the goddess Fury, and with them agrees Antimachus also, who wrote a poem about the expedition of the Argives against Thebes. His verse runs thus:–

  There, they say, is the seat of Demeter Fury. Antimachus, unknown location.

Now Oncius was, according to tradition, a son of Apollo, and held sway in Thelpusian territory around the place Oncium; the goddess has the surname Fury for the following reason.

[8.25.5] When Demeter was wandering in search of her daughter, she was followed, it is said, by Poseidon, who lusted after her. So she turned, the story runs, into a mare, and grazed with the mares of Oncius; realizing that he was outwitted, Poseidon too changed into a stallion and enjoyed Demeter.

[8.25.6] At first, they say, Demeter was angry at what had happened, but later on she laid aside her wrath and wished to bathe in the Ladon. So the goddess has obtained two surnames, Fury because of her avenging anger, because the Arcadians call being wrathful “being furious,” and Bather (Lusia) because she bathed in the Ladon. The images in the temple are of wood, but their faces, hands and feet are of Parian marble.

[8.25.7] The image of Fury holds what is called the chest, and in her right hand a torch; her height I conjecture to be nine feet. Lusia seemed to be six feet high. Those who think the image to be Themis and not Demeter Lusia are, I would have them know, mistaken in their opinion. Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called Areion. For this reason they say that they were the first Arcadians to call Poseidon Horse.

[8.25.8] They quote verses from the Iliad and from the Thebaid in confirmation of their story. In the Iliad there are verses about Areion himself:

  Not even if he drive divine Areion behind,
  The swift horse of Adrastus, who was of the race of the gods. Hom. Il. 23.346

In the Thebaid it is said that Adrastus fled from Thebes:

  Wearing wretched clothes, and with him dark-maned Areion. Thebaid, unknown location.

They will have it that the verses obscurely hint that Poseidon was father to Areion, but Antimachus says that Earth was his mother:

[8.25.9]

  Adrastus, son of Talaus, son of Cretheus,
  The very first of the Danai to drive his famous horses,
  Swift Caerus and Areion of Thelpusa,
  Whom near the grove of Oncean Apollo
  Earth herself sent up, a marvel for mortals to see. Antimachus, unknown location.

[8.25.10] But even though sprung from Earth the horse might be of divine lineage and the color of his hair might still be dark. Legend also has it that when Heracles was warring on Elis he asked Oncus for the horse, and was carried to battle on the back of Areion when he took Elis, but afterwards the horse was given to Adrastus by Heracles. Wherefore Antimachus says about Areion:

  Adrastus was the third lord who tamed him. Antimachus, unknown location.

[8.25.11] The Ladon, leaving on the left the sanctuary of the Fury, passes on the left the temple of Oncaeatian Apollo, and on the right a sanctuary of Boy Asclepius, where is the tomb of Trygon, who is said to have been the nurse of Asclepius. For the story is that Asclepius, when little, was exposed in Thelpusa, but was found by Autolaus, the illegitimate son of Arcas, who reared the baby, and for this reason Boy Asclepius . . . I thought more likely, as also I set forth in my account of Epidaurus.36

[8.25.12] There is a river Tuthoa, and it falls into the Ladon at the boundary between Thelpusa and Heraea, called Plain by the Arcadians. Where the Ladon itself falls into the Alpheius is an island called the Island of Crows. Those who have thought that Enispe, Stratia and Rhipe, mentioned by Homer,37 were once inhabited islands in the Ladon, cherish, I would tell them, a false belief.

[8.25.13] For the Ladon could never show islands even as large as a ferry-boat. As far as beauty is concerned, it is second to no river, either in Greece or in foreign lands, but it is not big enough to carry islands on its waters, as do the Danube and the Eridanus.

[8.26.1] XXVI. The founder of Heraea was Heraeeus the son of Lycaon, and the city lies on the right of the Alpheius, mostly upon a gentle slope, though a part descends right to the Alpheius. Walks have been made along the river, separated by myrtles and other cultivated trees; the baths are there, as are also two temples to Dionysus. One is to the god named Citizen, the other to the Giver of Increase, and they have a building there where they celebrate their mysteries in honor of Dionysus.

[8.26.2] There is also in Heraea a temple of Pan, as he is native to Arcadia, and of the temple of Hera I found remaining various ruins, including the pillars. Of Arcadian athletes the most renowned has been Damaretus of Heraea, who was the first to win the race in armour at Olympia.

[8.26.3] As you go down to the land of Elis from Heraea, at a distance of about fifteen stades from Heraea you will cross the Ladon, and from it to the Erymanthus is a journey of roughly twenty stades. The boundary between Heraea and the land of Elis is according to the Arcadians the Erymanthus, but the people of Elis say that the grave of Coroebus bounds their territory.

[8.26.4] But when the Olympic games, after not being held for a long period, were revived by Iphitus, and the Olympic festival was again held, the only prizes offered were for running, and Coroebus won. On the tomb is an inscription that Coroebus was the first man to win at Olympia, and that his grave was made at the end of Elean territory.

[8.26.5] There is a town, Aliphera, of no great size, for it was abandoned by many of its inhabitants at the union of the Arcadians into Megalopolis. As you go to this town from Heraea you will cross the Alpheius, and after going over a plain of just about ten stades you will reach a mountain, and ascending across the mountain for some thirty stades more you will come to the town.

[8.26.6] The city of Aliphera has received its name from Alipherus, the son of Lycaon, and there are sanctuaries here of Asclepius and Athena; the latter they worship more than any other god, saying that she was born and bred among them. They also set up an altar of Zeus Lecheates (In child-bed), because here he gave birth to Athena. There is a stream they call Tritonis, adopting the story about the river Triton.

[8.26.7] The image of Athena is made of bronze, the work of Hypatodorus, worth seeing for its size and workmanship. They keep a general festival in honor of some god or other; I think in honor of Athena. At this festival they sacrifice first to Fly-catcher, praying to the hero over the victims and calling upon the Fly-catcher. When they have done this the flies trouble them no longer.

[8.26.8] On the road from Heraea to Megalopolis is Melaeneae. It was founded by Melaeneus, the son of Lycaon; in my time it was uninhabited, but there is plenty of water flowing over it. Forty stades above Melaeneae is Buphagium,and here is the source of the Buphagus, which flows down into the Alpheius. Near the source of the Buphagus is the boundary between Megalopolis and Heraea.

[8.27.1] XXVII. Megalopolis is the youngest city, not of Arcadia only, but of Greece, with the exception of those whose inhabitants have been removed by the accident of the Roman domination. The Arcadians united into it to gain strength, realizing that the Argives also were in earlier times in almost daily danger of being subjected by war to the Lacedaemonians, but when they had increased the population of Argos by reducing Tiryns, Hysiae, Orneae, Mycenae, Mideia, along with other towns of little importance in Argolis, the Argives had less to fear from the Lacedaemonians, while they were in a stronger position to deal with their vassal neighbors.

[8.27.2] It was with this policy in view that the Arcadians united, and the founder of the city might fairly be considered Epaminondas of Thebes. For he it was who gathered the Arcadians together for the union and despatched a thousand picked Thebans under Pammenes to defend the Arcadians, if the Lacedaemonians should try to prevent the union. There were chosen as founders by the Arcadians, Lycomedes and Hopoleas of Mantineia, Timon and Proxenus of Tegea, Cleolaus and Acriphius of Cleitor, Eucampidas and Hieronymus of Maenalus, Possicrates and Theoxenus of the Parrhasians.

[8.27.3] The following were the cities which the Arcadians were persuaded to abandon through their zeal and because of their hatred of the Lacedaemonians, in spite of the fact that these cities were their homes: Alea, Pallantium, Eutaea, Sumateium, Asea, Peraethenses, Helisson, Oresthasium, Dipaea, Lycaea; these were cities of Maenalus. Of the Eutresian cities Tricoloni, Zoetium, Charisia, Ptolederma, Cnausum, Paroreia.

[8.27.4] From the Aegytae: Aegys, Scirtonium, Malea, Cromi, Blenina, Leuctrum. Of the Parrhasians Lycosura, Thocnia, Trapezus, Prosenses, Acacesium, Acontium, Macaria, Dasea. Of the Cynurians in Arcadia: Gortys, Theisoa by Mount Lycaeus, Lycaea, Aliphera. Of those belonging to Orchomenus: Theisoa, Methydrium, Teuthis. These were joined by Tripolis, as it is called, Callia, Dipoena, Nonacris.

[8.27.5] The Arcadians for the most part obeyed the general resolution and assembled promptly at Megalopolis. But the people of Lycaea, Tricoloni, Lycosura and Trapezus, but no other Arcadians, repented and, being no longer ready to abandon their ancient cities, were, with the exception of the last, taken to Megalopolis by force against their will,

[8.27.6] while the inhabitants of Trapezus departed altogether from the Peloponnesus, such of them as were left and were not immediately massacred by the exasperated Arcadians. Those who escaped with their lives sailed away to Pontus and were welcomed by the citizens of Trapezus on the Euxine as their kindred, as they bore their name and came from their mother-city. The Lycosurians, although they had disobeyed, were nevertheless spared by the Arcadians because of Demeter and the Mistress, in whose sanctuary they had taken refuge.

[8.27.7] Of the other cities I have mentioned, some are altogether deserted in our time, some are held by the people of Megalopolis as villages, namely Gortys, Dipoenae, Theisoa near Orchomenus, Methydrium, Teuthis, Calliae, Helisson. Only one of them, Pallantium, was destined to meet with a kindlier fate even then. Aliphera has continued to be regarded as a city from the beginning to the present day.

[8.27.8] Megalopolis was united into one city in the same year, but a few months later, as occurred the defeat of the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, when Phrasicleides was archon at Athens, in the second year of the hundred and second Olympiad,38 when Damon of Thurii was victor in the foot-race.

[8.27.9] When the citizens of Megalopolis had been enrolled in the Theban alliance they had nothing to fear from the Lacedaemonians. But when the Thebans became involved in what was called the Sacred War, and they were hard pressed by the Phocians, who were neighbors of the Boeotians, and wealthy because they had seized the sanctuary at Delphi,

[8.27.10] then the Lacedaemonians, if eagerness would have done it, would have removed bodily the Megalopolitans and the other Arcadians besides; but as the Arcadians of the day put up a vigorous defence, while their vassal neighbors gave them wholehearted assistance, no achievement of note was accomplished by either side. But the hatred felt by the Arcadians for the Lacedaemonians was not a little responsible for the rise of Philip, the son of Amyntas, and of the Macedonian empire, and the Arcadians did not help the Greeks at Chaeroneia or again in the struggle in Thessaly.

[8.27.11] After a short time a tyrant arose at Megalopolis in the person of Aristodemus, a Phigalian by birth and a son of Artylas, who had been adopted by Tritaeus, an influential citizen of Megalopolis. This Aristodemus, in spite of his being a tyrant, nevertheless won the surname of “the Good.” During his tyranny the territory of Megalopolis was invaded by the Lacedaemonians under Acrotatus, the eldest of the sons of King Cleomenes, whose lineage I have already traced with that of all the other Spartan kings.39 A fierce battle took place, and after many had fallen on both sides the army of Megalopolis had the better of the encounter. Among the Spartan killed was Acrotatus, who never succeeded to the throne of his fathers.

[8.27.12] Some two generations after the death of Aristodemus, Lydiades became tyrant, a man of distinguished family, by nature ambitious and, as he proved later, a devoted patriot. For he came to power while still young, but on reaching years of discretion he was minded to resign voluntarily the tyranny, although by this time his power was securely established. At this time Megalopolis was already a member of the Achaean League, and Lydiades became so famous among not only the people of Megalopolis but also all the Achaeans that he rivalled the fame of Aratus.

[8.27.13] The Lacedaemonians with all their forces under Agis, the son of Eudamidas, the king of the other house, attacked Megalopolis with larger and stronger forces than those collected by Acrotatus. They overcame in battle the men of Megalopolis, who came out against them, and bringing up a powerful engine against the wall they shook by it the tower in this place, and hoped on the morrow to knock it down by the engine.

[8.27.14] But the north wind was not only to prove a help to the whole Greek nation, when it dashed the greater part of the Persian fleet on the Sepiad rocks, but it also saved Megalopolis from being captured. For it blew violently and continuously, and broke up the engine of Agis, scattering it to utter destruction. The Agis whom the north wind prevented from taking Megalopolis is the man from whom was taken Pellene in Achaia by the Sicyonians under Aratus, and later he met his end at Mantineia.

[8.27.15] Shortly afterwards Cleomenes the son of Leonidas seized Megalopolis during a truce. Of the Megalopolitans some fell at once on the night of the capture in the defence of their country, when Lydiades too met his death in he battle,40 fighting nobly; others, about two-thirds of those of military age along with the women and children, escaped to Messenia with Philopoemen the son of Craugis.

[8.27.16] But those who were caught in the city were massacred by Cleomenes, who razed it to the ground and burnt it. How the Megalopolitans restored their city, and their achievements on their return, will be set forth in my account of Philopoemen. The Lacedaemonian people were in no way responsible for the disaster to Megalopolis, because Cleomenes had changed their constitution from a kingship to a tyranny.

[8.27.17] As I have already related, the boundary between Megalopolis and Heraea is at the source of the river Buphagus. The river got its name, they say, from a hero called Buphagus, the son of Iapetus and Thornax. This is what they call her in Laconia also. They also say that Artemis shot Buphagus on Mount Pholoe because he attempted an unholy sin against her godhead. GORTYS & RIVER LUSIUS

[8.28.1] XXVIII. As you go from the source of the river, you will reach first a place called Maratha, and after it Gortys, which to-day is a village, but of old was a city. Here there is a temple of Asclepius, made of Pentelic marble, with the god, as a beardless youth, and an image of Health. Scopas was the artist. The natives also say that Alexander the son of Philip dedicated to Asclepius his breastplate and spear. The breastplate and the head of the spear are still there to-day.

[8.28.2] Through Gortys flows a river called by those who live around its source the Lusius (Bathing River), because Zeus after his birth was bathed in it; those farther from the source call it the Gortynius after the village. The water of this Gortynius is colder than that of any other river. The Danube, Rhine, Hypanis, Borysthenes, and all rivers the streams of which freeze in winter, as they flow through land on which there is snow the greater part of the time, while the air about them is full of frost, might in my opinion rightly be called wintry;

[8.28.3] I call the water cold of those which flow through a land with a good climate and in summer have water refreshing to drink and to bathe in, without being painful in winter. Cold in this sense is the water of the Cydnus which passes through Tarsus, and of the Melas which flows past Side in Pamphylia. The coldness of the Ales in Colophon has even been celebrated in the verse of elegiac poets. But the Gortynius surpasses them all in coldness, especially in the season of summer. It has its source in Theisoa, which borders on Methydrium. The place where its stream joins the Alpheius is called Rhaeteae.

[8.28.4] Adjoining the land of Theisoa is a village called Teuthis, which in old days was a town. In the Trojan war the inhabitants supplied a general of their own. His name according to some was Teuthis, according to others Ornytus. When the Greeks failed to secure favorable winds to take them from Aulis, but were shut in for a long time by a violent gale, Teuthis quarrelled with Agamemnon and was about to lead the Arcadians under his command back home again.

[8.28.5] Whereupon, they say, Athena in the guise of Melas, the son of Ops, tried to turn Teuthis aside from his journey home. But Teuthis, his wrath swelling within him, struck with his spear the thigh of the goddess, and actually did lead his army back from Aulis. On his return to his native land the goddess appeared to him in a vision with a wound in her thigh. After this a wasting disease fell on Teuthis, and its people, alone of the Arcadians, suffered from famine.

[8.28.6] Later, oracles were delivered to them from Dodona, telling them what to do to appease the goddess, and in particular they had an image of Athena made with a wound in the thigh. This image I have myself seen, with its thigh swathed in a purple bandage. There are also at Teuthis sanctuaries of Aphrodite and Artemis.

[8.28.6] These are the notable things at Teuthis. On the road from Gortys to Megalopolis stands the tomb of those who were killed in the fight with Cleomenes. This tomb the Megalopolitans call Paraebasium (Transgression) because Cleomenes broke his truce with them. Adjoining Paraebasium is a plain about sixty stades across. On the right of the road are ruins of a city Brenthe, and here rises a river Brentheates, which some five stades farther on falls into the Alpheius.

[8.29.1] XXIX. After crossing the Alpheius you come to what is called Trapezuntian territory and to the ruins of a city Trapezus. On the left, as you go down again from Trapezus to the Alpheius, there is, not far from the river, a place called Bathos (Depth), where they celebrate mysteries every other year to the Great Goddesses. Here there is a spring called Olympias which, during every other year, does not flow, and near the spring rises up fire. The Arcadians say that the fabled battle between giants and gods took place here and not at Pellene in Thrace, and at this spot sacrifices are offered to lightnings, hurricanes and thunders.

[8.29.2] Homer does not mention giants at all in the Iliad, but in the Odyssey he relates how the Laestrygones attacked the ships of Odysseus in the likeness not of men but of giants,41 and he makes also the king of the Phaeacians say that the Phaeacians are near to the gods like the Cyclopes and the race of giants.42 In these places then he indicates that the giants are mortal, and not of divine race, and his words in the following passage are plainer still:–

  Who once was king among the haughty giants;
  But he destroyed the infatuate folk, and was destroyed himself. Hom. Od. 7.59-60

“Folk” in the poetry of Homer means the common people.

[8.29.3] That the giants had serpents for feet is an absurd tale, as many pieces of evidence show, especially the following incident. The Syrian river Orontes does not flow its whole course to the sea on a level, but meets a precipitous ridge with a slope away from it. The Roman emperor43 wished ships to sail up the river from the sea to Antioch. So with much labour and expense he dug a channel suitable for ships to sail up, and turned the course of the river into this.

[8.29.4] But when the old bed had dried up, an earthenware coffin more than eleven cubits long was found in it, and the corpse was proportionately large, and human in all parts of its body. This corpse the god in Clarus, when the Syrians came to his oracle there, declared to be Orontes, and that he was of Indian race. If it was by warming the earth of old when it was still wet and saturated with moisture that the sun made the first men, what other land is likely to have raised men either before India or of greater size, seeing that even to-day it still breeds beasts monstrous in their weird appearance and monstrous in size?

[8.29.5] Some ten stades distant from the place named Depth is what is called Basilis. The founder of it was Cypselus, who gave his daughter in marriage to Cresphontes, the son of Aristomachus. To-day Basilis is in ruins, among which remains a sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter. Going on from here you will cross the Alpheius again and reach Thocnia, which is named after Thocnus, the son of Lycaon, and to-day is altogether uninhabited. Thocnus was said to have built the city on the hill. The river Aminius, flowing by the hill, falls into the Helisson, and not far away the Helisson falls into the Alpheius.

[8.30.1] XXX. This Helisson, beginning at a village of the same name – for the name of the village also is Helisson – passes through the lands of Dipaea and Iycaea, and then through Megalopolis itself, descending into the Alpheius twenty stades away from the city of Megalopolis. Near the city is a temple of Poseidon Overseer. I found the head of the image still remaining.

[8.30.2] The river Helisson divides Megalopolis just as Cnidus and Mitylene are cut in two by their straits, and in the north section, on the right as one looks down the river, the townsfolk have made their market-place. In it is an enclosure of stones and a sanctuary of Lycaean Zeus, with no entrance into it. The things inside, however, can be seen – altars of the god, two tables, two eagles, and an image of Pan made of stone.

[8.30.3] His surname is Sinoeis, and they say that Pan was so surnamed after a nymph Sinoe, who with others of the nymphs nursed him on her own account. There is before this enclosure a bronze image of Apollo worth seeing, in height twelve feet, brought from Phigalia as a contribution to the adornment of Megalopolis.

[8.30.4] The place where the image was originally set up by the Phigalians is named Bassae. The surname of the god has followed him from Phigalia, but why he received the name of Helper will be set forth in my account of Phigalia. On the right of the Apollo is a small image of the Mother of the Gods, but of the temple there remains nothing save the pillars.

[8.30.5] Before the temple of the Mother is no statue, but I found still to be seen the pedestals on which statues once stood. An inscription in elegiacs on one of the pedestals says that the statue was that of Diophanes, the son of Diaeus, the man who first united the whole Peloponnesus into what was named the Achaean League.

[8.30.6] The portico of the marketplace, called the Philippeium, was not made by Philip, the son of Amyntas, but as a compliment to him the Megalopolitans gave his name to the building. Near it I found a temple of Hermes Acacesius in ruins, with nothing remaining except a tortoise of stone. Adjoining this Philippeium is another portico, smaller in size, where stand the government offices of Megalopolis, six rooms in number. In one of them is an image of Ephesian Artemis, and in another a bronze Pan, surnamed Scoleitas, one cubit high.

[8.30.7] It was brought from the hill Scoleitas, which is within the walls, and from a spring on it a stream descends to the Helisson. Behind the government offices is a temple of Fortune with a stone image not less than five feet high. The portico called Myropolis, situated in the market-place, was built from the spoils taken when the Lacedaemonians fighting under Acrotatus, the son of Cleomenes, suffered the reverse sustained at the hands of Aristodemus, then tyrant of Megalopolis.

[8.30.8] In the marketplace of that city, behind the enclosure sacred to Lycaean Zeus, is the figure of a man carved in relief on a slab, Polybius, the son of Lycortas. Elegiac verses are inscribed upon it saying that he roamed over every land and every sea, and that he became the ally of the Itomans and stayed their wrath against the Greek nation. This Polybius wrote also a history of the Romans, including how they went to war with Carthage, what the cause of the war was, and how at last, not before great dangers had been run, Scipio . . . whom they name Carthaginian, because he put an end to the war and razed Carthage to the ground.

[8.30.9] Whenever the Romans obeyed the advice of Polybius, things went well with them, but they say that whenever they would not listen to his instructions they made mistakes. All the Greek cities that were members of the Achaean League got permission from the Itomans that Polybius should draw up constitutions for them and frame laws. On the left of the portrait-statue of Polybius is the Council Chamber.

[8.30.10] Here then is the Chamber, but the portico called “Aristander's” in the market-place was built, they say, by Aristander, one of their townsfolk. Quite near to this portico, on the east, is a sanctuary of Zeus, surnamed Saviour. It is adorned with pillars round it. Zeus is seated on a throne, and by his side stand Megalopolis on the right and an image of Artemis Saviour on the left. These are of Pentelic marble and were made by the Athenians Cephisodotus and Xenophon.

[8.31.1] XXXI. At the other end, the western, of the portico is an enclosure sacred to the Great Goddesses. The Great Goddesses are Demeter and the Maid, as I have already explained in my account of Messenia,44 and the Maid is called Saviour by the Arcadians. Carved in relief before the entrance are, on one side Artemis, on the other Asclepius and Health.

[8.31.2] Of the Great Goddesses, Demeter is of stone throughout, but the Saviour has drapery of wood. The height of each is about fifteen feet. The images . . . and before them he made small maids in tunics reaching to the ankles, each of whom carries on her head a basket full of flowers. They are said to be daughters of Damophon, but those inclining to a more religious interpretation hold that they are Athena and Artemis gathering the flowers with Persephone.

[8.31.3] By the side of Demeter there is also a Heracles about a cubit high. This Heracles, says Onomacritus in his poem, is one of those called Idaean Dactyls. Before it stands a table, on which are carved in relief two seasons, Pan with pipes, and Apollo playing the harp. There is also an inscription by them saying that they are among the first gods.

[8.31.4] Nymphs too are carved on the table: Neda carrying an infant Zeus, Anthracia, another Arcadian nymph, holding a torch, and Hagno with a water-pot in one hand and a bowl in the other. Anchirhoe and Myrtoessa carry water-pots, with what is meant to be water coming down from them. Within the precinct is a temple of Zeus Friendly. Polycleitus of Argos made the image; it is like Dionysus in having buskins as footwear and in holding a beaker in one hand and a thyrsus in the other, but an eagle sitting on the thyrsus does not fit in with the received accounts of Dionysus.

[8.31.5] Behind this temple is a small grove of trees surrounded by a wall; nobody may go inside, and before it are images of Demeter and the Maid some three feet high. Within the enclosure of the Great Goddesses is also a sanctuary of Aphrodite. Before the entrance are old wooden images of Hera, Apollo and the Muses, brought, it is said, from Trapezus,

[8.31.6] and in the temple are images made by Damophon, a wooden Hermes and a wooden Aphrodite with hands, face and feet of stone. The surname Deviser given to the goddess is, in my opinion, a most apt one; for very many are the devices, and most varied are the forms of speech invented by men because of Aphrodite and her works.

[8.31.7] In a building stand statues also, those of Callignotus, Mentas, Sosigenes and Polus. These men are said to have been the first to establish at Megalopolis the mysteries of the Great Goddesses, and the ritual acts are a copy of those at Eleusis. Within the enclosure of the goddesses are the following images, which all have a square shape: Hermes, surnamed Agetor, Apollo, Athena, Poseidon, Sun too, surnamed Saviour, and Heracles. There has also been built for them a of vast size, and here they celebrate the mysteries in honor of the goddesses.

[8.31.8] To the right of the temple of the Great Goddesses there is also a sanctuary of the Maid. The image is of stone, about eight feet high; ribbons cover the pedestal all over. Women may enter this sanctuary at all times, but men enter it only once every year. Adjoining the market-place on the west there is built a gymnasium.

[8.31.9] Behind the portico called after Philip of Macedon are two hills, rising to no great height. Ruins of a sanctuary of Athena Polias are on one, while on the other45 a temple of Hera Full-grown, this too being in ruins. Under this hill is a spring called Bathyllus, which is one of the tributaries that swell the Helisson.

[8.32.1] XXXII. Such are the notable things on this site. The southern portion, on the other side of the river, can boast of the largest theater in all Greece, and in it is a spring which never fails. Not far from the theater are left foundations of the council house built for the Ten Thousand Arcadians, and called Thersilium after the man who dedicated it. Hard by is a house, belonging to-day to a private person, which originally was built for Alexander, the son of Philip. By the house is an image of Ammon, like the square images of Hermes, with a ram's horns on his head.

[8.32.2] The sanctuary built in common for the Muses, Apollo and Hermes had for me to record only a few foundations, but there was still one of the Muses, with an image of Apollo after the style of the square Hermae. The sanctuary of Aphrodite too was in ruins, save that there were left the fore-temple mid three images, one surnamed Heavenly, the second Common, and the third without a surname.

[8.32.3] At no great distance is an altar of Ares, and it was said that originally a sanctuary too was built for the god. Beyond the Aphrodite is built also a race-course, extending on one side to the theater (and here they have a spring, held sacred to Dionysus), while at the other end of the race-course a temple of Dionysus was said to have been struck by lightning two generations before my time, and a few ruins of it were still there when I saw it. The temple near the race-course shared by Heracles and Hermes was no longer there, only their altar was left.

[8.32.4] There is also in this district a hill to the east, and on it a temple of Artemis Huntress this too was dedicated by Aristodemus. To the right of the Huntress is a precinct. Here there is a sanctuary of Asclepius, with images of the god and of Health, and a little lower down there are gods, also of square shape, surnamed Workers, Athena Worker and Apollo, God of Streets. To Hermes, Heracles and Eileithyia are attached traditions from the poems of Homer: that Hermes is the minister of Zeus and leads the souls of the departed down to Hades,46 and that Heracles accomplished many difficult tasks47; Eileithyia, he says in the Iliad, cares for the pangs of women.48

[8.32.5] Under this hill there is another sanctuary of Boy Asclepius. His image is upright and about a cubit in height, that of Apollo is seated on a throne and is not less than six feet high. Here are also kept bones, too big for those of a human being, about which the story ran that they were those of one of the giants mustered by Hopladamus to fight for Rhea, as my story will relate hereafter. Near this sanctuary is a spring, the water flowing down from which is received by the Helisson.

[8.33.1] XXXIII. Megalopolis was founded by the Arcadians with the utmost enthusiasm amidst the highest hopes of the Greeks, but it has lost all its beauty and its old prosperity, being to-day for the most part in ruins. I am not in the least surprised, as I know that heaven is always willing something new, and likewise that all things, strong or weak, increasing or decreasing, are being changed by Fortune, who drives them with imperious necessity according to her whim.

[8.33.2] For Mycenae, the leader of the Greeks in the Trojan war, and Nineveh, where was the royal palace of the Assyrians, are utterly ruined and desolate; while Boeotian Thebes, once deemed worthy to be the head of the Greek people, why, its name includes only the acropolis and its few inhabitants. Of the opulent places in the ancient world, Egyptian Thebes and Minyan Orchomenus are now less prosperous than a private individual of moderate means, while Delos, once the common market of Greece, has no Delian inhabitant, but only the men sent by the Athenians to guard the sanctuary.

[8.33.3] At Babylon the sanctuary of Belus still is left, but of the Babylon that was the greatest city of its time under the sun nothing remains but the wall. The case of Tiryns in the Argolid is the same. These places have been reduced by heaven to nothing. But the city of Alexander in Egypt, and that of Seleucus on the Orontes, that were founded but yesterday, have reached their present size and prosperity because fortune favours them.

[8.33.4] The following incident proves the might of fortune to be greater and more marvellous than is shown by the disasters and prosperity of cities. No long sail from Lemnos was once an island Chryse, where, it is said, Philoctetes met with his accident from the water-snake. But the waves utterly overwhelmed it, and Chryse sank and disappeared in the depths. Another island called Hiera (Sacred) . . . was not during this time. So temporary and utterly weak are the fortunes of men.

[8.34.1] XXXIV. As you go from Megalopolis to Messene, after advancing about seven stades, there stands on the left of the highway a sanctuary of goddesses. They call the goddesses themselves, as well as the district around the sanctuary, Maniae (Madnesses). In my view this is a surname of the Eumenides; in fact they say that it was here that madness overtook Orestes as punishment for shedding his mother's blood.

[8.34.2] Not far from the sanctuary is a mound of earth, of no great size, surmounted by a finger made of stone; the name, indeed, of the mound is the Tomb of the Finger. Here, it is said, Orestes on losing his wits bit off one finger of one of his hands. Adjoining this place is another, called Ace (Remedies) because in it Orestes was cured of his malady. Here too there is a sanctuary for the Eumenides.

[8.34.3] The story is that, when these goddesses were about to put Orestes out of his mind, they appeared to him black; but when he had bitten off his finger they seemed to him again to be white and he recovered his senses at the sight. So he offered a sin-offering to the black goddesses to avert their wrath, while to the white deities he sacrificed a thank-offering. It is customary to sacrifice to the Graces also along with the Eumenides. Near to the place called Ace is another . . . a sanctuary called . . . because here Orestes cut off his hair on coming to his senses.

[8.34.4] Historians of Peloponnesian antiquities say that what Clytaemnestra's Furies did to Orestes in Arcadia took place before the trial at the Areopagus; that his accuser was not Tyndareus, who no longer lived, but Perilaus, who asked for vengeance for the mother's murder in that he was a cousin of Clytaemnestra. For Perilaus, they say, was a son of Icarius, to whom afterwards daughters also were born.

[8.34.5] The road from Maniae to the Alpheius is roughly fifteen stades long. At this point the river Gatheatas falls into the Alpheius, and before this the Carnion flows into the Gatheatas. The source of the Carnion is in Aegytian territory beneath the sanctuary of Apollo Cereatas; that of the Gatheatas is at Gatheae in Cromitian territory.

[8.34.6] The Cromitian territory is about forty stades up from the Alpheius, and in it the ruins of the city Cromi have not entirely disappeared. From Cromi it is about twenty stades to Nymphas, which is well supplied with water and covered with trees. From Nymphas it is twenty stades to the Hermaeum, where is the boundary between Messenia and Megalopolis. Here they have made a Hermes also on a slab.

[8.35.1] XXXV. This road leads to Messene, and there is another leading from Megalopolis to Carnasium in Messenia. The first thing you come to on the latter road is the Alpheius at the place where it is joined by the Malus and the Scyrus, whose waters have already united. From this point keeping the Malus on the right after about thirty stades you will cross it and ascend along a rather steep road to a place called Phaedrias.

[8.35.2] About fifteen stades distant from Phaedrias is an Hermaeum called “by the Mistress”; it too forms a boundary between Messenia and Megalopolis. There are small images of the Mistress and Demeter; likewise of Hermes and Heracles. I am of opinion that the wooden image also, made for Heracles by Daedalus, stood here on the borders of Messenia and Arcadia.

[8.35.3] The road from Megalopolis to Lacedaemon is thirty stades long at the Alpheius. After this you will travel beside a river Theius, which is a tributary of the Alpheius, and some forty stades from the Alpheius leaving the Theius on the left you will come to Phalaesiae. This place is twenty stades away from the Hermaeum at Belemina.

[8.35.4] The Arcadians say that Belemina belonged of old to Arcadia but was severed from it by the Lacedaemonians. This account struck me as improbable on various grounds, chiefly because the Thebans, I think, would never have allowed the Arcadians to suffer even this loss, if they could have brought about restitution with justice.

[8.35.5] There are also roads from Megalopolis leading to the interior of Arcadia; to Methydrium it is one hundred and seventy stades, and thirteen stades from Megalopolis is a place called Scias, where are ruins of a sanctuary of Artemis Sciatis, said to have been built by Aristodemus the tyrant. About ten stades from here are a few memorials of the city Charisiae, and the journey from Charisiae to Tricoloni is another ten stades.

[8.35.6] Once Tricoloni also was a city, and even to-day there still remains on a hill a sanctuary of Poseidon with a square image, and around the sanctuary stands a grove of trees. These cities had as founders the sons of Lycaon; but Zoetia, some fifteen stades from Tricoloni, not lying on the straight road but to the left of Tricoloni, was founded, they say, by Zoeteus, the son of Tricolonus. Paroreus, the younger of the sons of Tricolonus, also founded a city, in this case Paroria, ten stades distant from Zoetia.

[8.35.7] To-day both towns are without inhabitants. In Zoetia, however, there still remains a temple of Demeter and Artemis. There are also other ruins of cities: of Thyraeum, fifteen stades from Paroria, and of Hypsus, lying above the plain on a mountain which is also called Hypsus. The district between Thyraeum and Hypsus is all mountainous and full of wild beasts. My narrative has already pointed out that Thyraeus and Hypsus were sons of Lycaon.49

[8.35.8] To the right of Tricoloni there is first a steep road ascending to a spring called Cruni. Descending from Cruni for about thirty stades you come to the grave of Callisto, a high mound of earth, whereon grow many trees, both cultivated and also those that bear no fruit. On the top of the mound is a sanctuary of Artemis, surnamed Calliste (Most Beautiful). I believe it was because he had learnt it from the Arcadians that Pamphos was the first in his poems to call Artemis by the name of Calliste.

[8.35.9] Twenty-five stades from here, a hundred stades in all from Tricoloni, there is on the Helisson, on the straight road to Methydrium, the only city left to be described on the road from Tricoloni, a place called Anemosa, and also Mount Phalanthus, on which are the ruins of a city Phalanthus. It is said that Phalanthus was a son of Agelaus, a son of Stymphalus.

[8.35.10] Beyond this is a plain called the Plain of Polus, and after it Schoenus, so named from a Boeotian, Schoeneus. If this Schoeneus emigrated to Arcadia, the race-courses of Atalanta, which are near Schoenus, probably got their name from his daughter. Adjoining is . . . in my opinion called, and they say that the land here is Arcadia to all.

28. Chelydorea means “Mountain of the flayed tortoise.” 29. See Hes. Th. 383. Compare also Hes. Th. 776, 785 foll., Hes. Th. 805, 806. 30. Hom. Il. 2.751 31. 546 B.C 32. Or, “Since that time.” 33. See Hom. Il. 2.608. 34. Hom. Il. 7.102 35. Hom. Il. 24.527 36. See Paus. 2.26.4 foll. 37. Hom. Il. 2.606 38. 371 B.C 39. See Paus. 3.6.2. 40. 226 B.C

41. Hom. Od. 10.118 foll. 42. Hom. Od. 7.205 foll. 43. It is not known who the emperor was, but some suppose that it was Tiberius. 44. Paus. 4.1.5. 45. This sense can scarcely be got from the Greek. The emendations would give (a) (Kayser's and my second) the sense of the translation, and (b) (my first) “On one of them are ruins of a sanctuary and a temple,” etc. 46. Hom. Od. 24.1, Hom. Od. 24.10, Hom. Od. 24.100. 47. Hom. Il. 8.362 foll. 48. Hom. Il. 16.187 and Hom. Il. 19.103. 49. See Paus. 8.3.3.