Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XIII.

By the return of the Heraclidæ all the Peloponnese was disturbed except Arcadia, for many of the cities had to take Dorian settlers, and frequent changes of inhabitants took place. The following were the changes at Phlius. Rhegnidas a Dorian (the son of Phalces the son of Temenus) marched against it from Argos and Sicyon. And some of the Phliasians were content with his demands, that they should remain in their own land, that he should be their king, and that the Dorians and he should have lands assigned to them. But Hippasus and his party stood out for a vigorous defence, and not for yielding up to the Dorians their numerous advantages without a fight. But as the people preferred the opposite view, Hippasus and those who agreed with him fled to Samos. And the great grandson of this Hippasus was Pythagoras, surnamed the Wise: who was the son of Mnesarchus, the son of Euphron, the son of Hippasus. This is the account the Phliasians give of their own history, and in most particulars the Sicyonians bear them out.

The most notable public sights are as follows. There is in the citadel at Phlius a cypress grove, and a temple hoary from old antiquity. The deity to whom the temple belongs is said by the most ancient of the Phliasians to have been Ganymeda, but by later ones Hebe: of whom Homer has made mention in the single combat between Menelaus and Paris, saying that she was the cupbearer of the gods, and again in the descent of Odysseus to Hades he has said that she was the wife of Hercules. But Olen in his Hymn to Hera says that she was reared by the Seasons, and was mother of Ares and Hebe. And among the Phliasians this goddess has various honours and especially in regard to slaves; for they give them entire immunity if they come as suppliants here, and when prisoners are loosed of their fetters they hang them up on the trees in the grove. And they keep a yearly feast which they call Ivy-cuttings. But they have no statue in any secret crypt, nor do they display one openly: and they have a sacred reason for acting so, for on the left as you go out there is a temple of Hera with a statue in Parian marble. And in the citadel there are some precincts sacred to Demeter, and in them a temple and statue of Demeter and Persephone, and also a brazen statue of Artemis, which seemed to me ancient. And as you go down from the citadel there is on the right a temple and beardless statue of Æsculapius. Under this temple is a theatre. And not far from it is a temple of Demeter, and some old statues of the goddess in a sitting posture.

And in the market-place there is a brazen she-goat, mostly gilt. It got honours among the Phliasians for the following reason. The constellation which they call the She-Goat does continuous harm to vines at its rise. And that no serious detriment might result from it, they paid various honours to this brazen goat, and decked its statue with gold. Here too is a monument of Aristias the son of Pratinas. The Satyrs carved by Aristias and Pratinas are reckoned the best carving next to that of Æschylus. In the back part of the market-place is a house called by the Phliasians the seer’s house. Into it Amphiaraus went (so they say) and lay all night in sleep before giving his oracular responses: and according to their account he for some time lived there privately and not as a seer. And since his time the building has been shut up entirely. And not far off is what is called Omphalus, the centre of all the Peloponnese, if indeed their account is correct. Next you come to an ancient temple of Dionysus, and another of Apollo, and another of Isis. The statue of Dionysus may be seen by anybody, as also that of Apollo: but that of Isis may only be seen by the priests. The following is also a tradition of the Phliasians, that Hercules, when he returned safe from Libya with the apples of the Hesperides, went to Phlius for some reason or other, and when he was living there was visited by Œneus, who was a connexion by marriage. On his arrival from Ætolia either he feasted Hercules, or Hercules feasted him. However this may be, Hercules struck the lad Cyathus, the cupbearer of Œneus, on the head with one of his fingers, not being pleased with the drink he offered him: and as this lad died immediately from the blow, the Phliasians erected a chapel to his memory. It was built near the temple of Apollo, and has a stone statue of Cyathus in the act of handing the cup to Hercules.