CHAPTER XIX.
As to the seat for the god on this throne, it is not one continuous surface but has several partitions with intervals between them. The largest partition is in the middle, where there is a statue about 30 cubits high I conjecture, for no one has taken its measure. And this is not by Bathycles but an ancient and inartistic production, for except the face toes and hands it resembles a brazen pillar. There is a helmet on its head, and a lance and bow in its hands. And the base of the statue is like an altar, and they say Hyacinthus is buried there, and at the festival of Hyacinthus, before they sacrifice to Apollo, they make offerings to Hyacinthus on this altar through a brazen door which is on the left of the altar. And carved upon this altar are effigies of Biris and Amphitrite and Poseidon, and Zeus and Hermes talking together, and near them Dionysus and Semele, and near Semele Ino. On this altar too are effigies of Demeter and Proserpine and Pluto, the Destinies and the Seasons, Aphrodite and Athene and Artemis; and they are carrying to heaven Hyacinthus and his sister Polybœa who they say died a virgin. Hyacinthus has a small beard, and Nicias the son of Nicomedes has represented him as very handsome, hinting at the love of Apollo for him. There is also a representation of Hercules being taken to heaven by Athene and the other gods; as also effigies of the daughters of Thestius and the Muses and the Seasons. As to the Zephyr, and the story of Hyacinth having been accidentally slain by Apollo, and the legends about the flower Hyacinth, the traditions may possibly be baseless, but let them stand.
Amyclæ was destroyed by the Dorians, and is now only a village, which contains a temple and statue of Alexandra well worth seeing, (by Alexandra the people of Amyclæ mean Cassandra the daughter of Priam).
There is here also an effigy of Clytæmnestra, and a statue of Agamemnon, and his supposed tomb. And Amyclæan Apollo and Dionysus are the chief gods worshipped here, the latter they call very properly in my opinion Psilax (Winged). Psila is the Dorian word for wings, and wine elevates men and lightens their judgment just as wings elevate birds. And such is all that is memorable about Amyclæ.
Another road from Sparta leads to Therapne. And on the way is a wooden statue of Athene Alea. And before you cross the Eurotas a little above the bank stands the temple of Wealthy Zeus. And when you have crossed the Eurotas, you come to the temple of Cotylean Æsculapius built by Hercules, who called Æsculapius Cotylean because in the first conflict with Hippocoon and his sons he received a wound on his cotyle or hip. And of all the temples built on this road, the most ancient is one of Ares, on the left of the road, and the statue of the god was they say brought by Castor and Pollux from Colchi. And Theritas gets its name they say from Thero, who was the nurse of Ares. And perhaps they got the name Theritas from the Colchians, for the Greeks know nothing of a nurse of Ares called Thero. But I cannot but think that the name Theritas was given to Ares not on account of his nurse, but because in an engagement with the enemy one must be mild no longer, but be like the description of Achilles in Homer, “as a lion he knows savageness.”[41]
Therapne got its name from Therapne, the daughter of Lelex, and it has a temple of Menelaus, and they say that Menelaus and Helen were buried here. But the Rhodians have a different account to that of the Lacedæmonians, and say that Helen after the death of Menelaus, while Orestes was still on his travels, was driven away by Nicostratus and Megapenthes and went to Rhodes, as she was a connection of Polyxo the wife of Tlepolemus, for Polyxo was of Argive descent, and being the wife of Tlepolemus fled with him to Rhodes, and there became Queen, being left with one fatherless child. This Polyxo they say desired to avenge on Helen the death of Tlepolemus, and when she got her in her power sent to her as she was bathing some attendants dressed like the Furies, and they laid hold of Helen and hung her on a tree, and for this reason the Rhodians have a temple to Helen Hung on the Tree. And I will record the tradition of the people of Croton about Helen, which is the same as that of the people of Himera. There is in the Euxine sea, near the mouth of the Ister, an island sacred to Achilles called Leuce. It is 20 stades in extent, entirely thick forest and full of beasts domesticated and wild, and contains a temple and statue of Achilles. They say Leonymus of Croton was the first that ever sailed to it. For when there was a war between the people of Croton and the Locrians in Italy, and the Locrians invited in Ajax the son of Oileus to aid them because of their kinsmanship to the Opuntians, Leonymus the general of the Crotonians attacked that part of the enemy’s army where he was told that Ajax was stationed, and got wounded in the breast, and, as he suffered very much from his wound, went to Delphi. And the Pythian Priestess sent him to the island Leuce, and told him that Ajax would appear there and heal his wound. And in process of time getting well he returned from Leuce, and said that he had seen Achilles, and Ajax the son of Oileus, and Ajax the son of Telamon, and that Patroclus and Antilochus were in the company, and that Helen was married to Achilles and had told him to sail to Himera, and tell Stesichorus that the loss of his eyesight was a punishment to him from her. In consequence of this Stesichorus composed his palinode.