Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XVIII.

Now the temple of the Dioscuri is ancient; they are designed standing, and their sons seated on horseback. Here too is a painting by Polygnotus of the marriage of the daughters of Leucippus, and by Micon of the Argonauts who sailed with Jason to Colchi: in this painting Acastus and his horses stand out remarkably well. And above the temple of the Dioscuri is the grove of Aglaurus, to whom and to her sisters Erse and Pandrosus they say Athene gave Erichthonius, after putting him in a chest and forbidding them to pry into the contents. Pandrosus they say obeyed, but the other two opened the chest, and went mad when they saw Erichthonius, and threw themselves down the Acropolis at the very steepest place. It was on that very spot that the Persians landed, and slew those Athenians who thought they understood the oracle better than Themistocles, and fortified the Acropolis with wooden palisades. And next is the Prytaneum, where the laws of Solon are written up, and where are images of the goddesses Peace and Vesta, and among other statues one to Autolycus the pancratiast; for Miltiades and Themistocles have been removed for a Roman and a Thracian! As one goes thence to the lower parts of the city is the temple of Serapis, whose worship the Athenians introduced to please Ptolemy. Of the Egyptian temples to Serapis the most famous is that at Alexandria, but the oldest is that at Memphis, into which strangers may not enter, nor even priests except during the ritual in connection with Apis. And not far from the temple of Serapis is the place where they say Pirithous and Theseus agreed to go to Lacedæmon, and afterwards to Thesprotia. And next is a temple erected to Ilithyia, who they say came from the Hyperborean regions to assist Leto in her travail-throes, and of whom other nations learnt from the people of Delos, who sacrifice to her and sing at her altar the Hymn of Olen. But the Cretans consider her to have been born at Amnisus in Gnossian territory, and to have been the daughter of Hera. And among the Athenians alone her statues are draped to the bottom of her feet. Two of her statues the women said were Cretan and votive offerings of Phædra, while the oldest was brought by Erysichthon from Delos.

And before going into the temple of Olympian Zeus—which Adrian the Roman Emperor built, and in which he placed that remarkable statue of Olympian Zeus (larger than any works of art except the Colossuses at Rhodes and Rome); it is in ivory and gold, and elegant if you consider the size—are two statues of Adrian in Thasian stone, and two in Egyptian stone: and brazen statues in front of the pillars of what the Athenians call their colonial cities. The whole circuit of the temple is about four stades, and is full of statues; for from each city is a statue of the Emperor Adrian, and the Athenians outdid them by the very fine colossal statue of the Emperor which they erected at the back of the temple. And in the temple precincts is an ancient statue of Zeus in brass and a shrine of Cronos and Rhea, and a grove to Earth by the title of Olympian. Here there is about a cubit’s subsidence of soil, and they say that after Deucalion’s flood the water came in and escaped there, and they knead every year a cake of barley meal with honey and throw it into the cavity. And there is on a pillar a statue of Isocrates, who left behind him 3 notable examples, his industry (for though he lived to the age of 98 he never left off taking pupils), his wisdom (for all his life he kept aloof from politics and public business), and his love of liberty (for after the news of the battle of Chæronea he pined away and died of voluntary starvation). And there are some Persians in stone holding up a brazen tripod, both themselves and the tripod fine works of art. And they say that Deucalion built the old temple of Olympian Zeus, bringing as evidence that Deucalion lived at Athens his tomb not far from this very temple. Adrian erected also at Athens a temple of Hera and Pan-Hellenian Zeus, and a temple for all the gods in common. But the most remarkable things are 100 pillars wrought in Phrygian stone, and the walls in the porticoes corresponding. And there is a room here with a roof of gold and alabaster stone, adorned also with statues and paintings: and books are stored up in it. And there is a gymnasium called the Adrian gymnasium: and here too are 100 pillars of stone from Libyan quarries.