Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER II.

As one enters into the city there is a monument of Antiope the Amazon. Pindar says that this Antiope was carried off by Pirithous and Theseus, but the account by Hegias of Trœzen is as follows: that Hercules besieging Themiscyra near the river Thermodon could not take it; but that Antiope being enamoured of Theseus, (who was besieging the place with Hercules), handed the place over to him. This is the account Hegias has given. But the Athenians say that, when the Amazons came, Antiope was shot by Molpadia with an arrow, and that Molpadia was slain by Theseus. There is a monument also to Molpadia among the Athenians. And as one ascends from the Piræus there are remains of the walls which Conon re-erected after the sea-fight off Cnidus; for those which Themistocles had built after the defeat of the Persians had been pulled down during the rule of The Thirty Tyrants, as they were called. And along the way the most notable tombs are those of Menander the son of Diopeithes, and a cenotaph of Euripides without the body. For Euripides was buried in Macedonia, having gone to the court of King Archelaus; and the manner of his death, for it has been told by many, let it be as they say. Poets even in those days lived with kings and earlier still, for when Polycrates was tyrant at Samos Anacreon lived at his court, and Æschylus and Simonides journeyed to Syracuse to the court of Hiero; and to Dionysius, who was afterwards tyrant in Sicily, went Philoxenus; and to Antigonus, king of the Macedonians, went Antagoras of Rhodes and Aratus of Soli. On the other hand Hesiod and Homer either did not get the chance of living at kings’ courts, or of their own accord didn’t value it, the former because he lived in the country and shrank from travelling, and the latter, having gone on his travels to very distant parts, depreciated pecuniary assistance from the powerful in comparison with the glory he had amongst most men, for from him too we have the description of Demodocus’ being at the court of Alcinous, and that Agamemnon left a poet with his wife. There is also a tomb not far from the gates, with the statue of a soldier standing near a horse; who the soldier is I don’t know, but Praxiteles modelled both the horse and the soldier.

As one enters into the city there is a building for the getting ready of processions, which they conduct some annually, some at various intervals. And near is the temple of Demeter, and the statues in it are her and her daughter and Iacchus with a torch; and it is written on the wall in Attic letters that they are the production of Praxiteles. And not far from this temple is Poseidon on horseback, in the act of hurling his spear at the giant Polybotes, in respect to whom there is a story among the Coans as to the promontory of Chelone; but the inscription of our days assigns the statue to another and not to Poseidon. And there are porticoes from the gates to the Ceramicus, and in front of them brazen statues of women and men who have obtained some celebrity. And one of the porticoes has not only shrines of the gods, but also what is called the gymnasium of Hermes; and there is in it the house of Polytion, in which they say the most notable of the Athenians imitated the Eleusinian mysteries. But in my time it was consecrated to Dionysus. And this Dionysus they call Melpomenos for the same reason that they call Apollo Musagetes. Here are statues of Pæonian Athene and Zeus and Mnemosyne and the Muses, and Apollo (the votive offering and work of Eubulides), and Acratus a satellite of Dionysus: his face alone is worked in the wall. And next to the shrine of Dionysus is a room with statues of earthenware, Amphictyon the king of the Athenians feasting Dionysus and all the other gods. Here too is Pegasus Eleutherensis, who introduced Dionysus to the Athenians; and he was assisted by the oracle at Delphi, which foretold that the god would come and settle there in the days of Icarius. And this is the way Amphictyon got the kingdom. They say that Actæus was first king of what is now Attica; and on his death Cecrops succeeded to the kingdom having married Actæus’ daughter, and he had three daughters, Erse, and Aglaurus, and Pandrosus, and one son, Erysichthon. He never reigned over the Athenians, for he chanced to die in his father’s lifetime, and the kingdom of Cecrops fell to Cranaus, the foremost of the Athenians in power and influence. And they say that Cranaus had among other daughters Atthis; from her they named the country Attica, which was before called Actæa. And Amphictyon rose up in insurrection against Cranaus, although he was married to his daughter, and deposed him from the kingdom; but was himself afterwards ejected by Erichthonius and his fellow conspirators. And they say that Erichthonius had no mortal father, but that his parents were Hephæstus and Mother Earth.