Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XIII.

And within Altis there is a separate grove to Pelops: who of the heroes at Olympia is as much held in the highest honour as Zeus is among the gods. This grove is on the right of the temple of Zeus towards the North, just at such a distance from the temple as to admit of statues and votive offerings between, and it extends from the middle of the temple to the back, and is surrounded by a stone wall, and has trees planted in it, and statues. And the entrance to it is from the west. And it is said to have been dedicated to Pelops by Hercules the son of Amphitryon, who was fourth in descent from Pelops. And he is said to have sacrificed in the trench to Pelops. And the magistrates for the year sacrifice to him even now a black ram. The seer has no portion of this sacrifice, the neck of the ram only is usually given to the person called the wood-cutter. He is one of the temple servants, and his function is to furnish wood for the sacrifices at a fixed price, both to cities and to any private individual. And the wood is always of the white poplar tree. And whatever stranger or native of Elis eats the flesh of the victim sacrificed to Pelops may not enter the temple of Zeus. Those who sacrifice to Telephus at Pergamum north of the river Caicus are in a similar predicament: they may not enter the temple of Æsculapius till they have had a bath. And the following tradition is still told about Pelops. During the protracted siege of Ilium the seers are said to have prophesied that they would never capture the town till they procured the bows of Hercules and a bone of Pelops. So they sent it is said for Philoctetes to the camp, and the shoulder-blade of Pelops was brought from Pisa. And on the return home of the Greeks, the ship that had the shoulder-blade of Pelops was wrecked near Eubœa. And many years after the capture of Ilium Damarmenus, a fisherman of Eretria, cast his net into the sea and fished up this bone, and marvelling at the size of it hid it in the sand. And eventually he went to Delphi, desiring to know who the bone belonged to, and what he should do with it. And it chanced providentially that some persons of Elis, seeking a cure for the pestilence, were at Delphi at this period. And the Pythian Priestess told them to preserve the bones of Pelops, and told Damarmenus to give what he had found to the people of Elis. And when he had done so the people of Elis gave him several presents, and made Damarmenus and his descendants custodians of this bone. But this shoulder-blade of Pelops has not survived to our day, because in my opinion it was buried too deep, partly also from time and the action of the sea. And there are still traces even to our day of Pelops and Tantalus having brought colonies to Greece, as the marsh called after Tantalus, and his well-known grave. And the throne of Pelops is at Sipylus on the top of the mountain above the temple of the Placianian mother, and after you have crossed the river Hermus there is a statue of Aphrodite at Temnus still in existence made of myrtle: and the tradition is that it was a votive offering of Pelops to propitiate the goddess, before begging her help towards marrying Hippodamia.

And the altar of Olympian Zeus is about equidistant from the grove of Pelops and the temple of Hera, and is situated in front of both. Some say it was erected by Idæan Hercules, others say by some heroes of the district two generations after him. It was they say made of the débris of the thigh bones of the victims sacrificed to Zeus, as the altar at Pergamum. The Samian Hera has also an altar made of similar material, an altar not a whit more handsome than those which in Attica they call extemporary altars. And the first base of the altar of Olympia, called the pro-altar, has a circumference of 125 feet, and above the pro-altar is a circumference of 32 feet. And the whole height of the altar is 22 feet. It is customary to sacrifice the victims at the lower part, at the pro-altar: but the thigh-bones they bring to the highest part of the altar and burn them there. And stone steps lead up to the pro-altar on both sides, but up to the high altar there are merely steps of débris. Maidens may ascend as far as the pro-altar, and likewise women at the seasons when they are allowed to be at Olympia, but men alone may ascend to the high altar. And private individuals, and the people of Elis daily, offer sacrifices to Zeus besides at the general Festival. And annually the seers observe the 19th day of the month Elaphius by carrying the débris from the Town Hall, and kneading it with the water of the River Alpheus, and thus construct their altar. No other water is ever used for this purpose, and that is why the Alpheus is considered more friendly to Olympian Zeus than any other river. There is also at Didymi (a town of the Milesians) an altar made by Hercules the Theban of victims’ blood. So at least the Milesians say. But the blood of the victims has never raised it to any great height even in these latter days.