CHAPTER XXI.
And 20 stades further you will come to the Eurotas which flows very near the road, and to the tomb of Ladas, who surpassed all his contemporaries in swiftness of foot. At Olympia he received the prize for the long race, but I think he was tired out after his victory, for he died on this spot and was buried above the public road. Another Ladas, who also was a victor at Olympia but not in the long race, was they say an Achæan from Ægium, according to the archives of Elis about the victors at Olympia. And if you go on you come to the village called Characoma, and next to it is Pellana, formerly a town, where they say Tyndareus lived, when he fled from Sparta from Hippocoon and his sons. And the notable things I have myself seen there are the temple of Æsculapius and the fountain Pellanis, into which they say a maiden fell when she was drawing water, and after she had disappeared her veil was found in another fountain called Lancea. And about 100 stades from Pellana is a place called Belemina: best off for water of all Laconia, for not only does the river Eurotas flow through it, but it has also fountains in abundance.
As you go down to the sea in the direction of Gythium, you come to the Lacedæmonian village called Croceæ. The stonequarries here are not one continuous piece of rock, but stones are dug out of them like river stones, rather difficult to carve, but when they are carved admirably adapted to adorn the temples of the gods, and add very greatly to the beauty of fishponds and ornamental waters. And in front of the village are statues of the gods, as Zeus of Croceæ in stone, and at the quarry Castor and Pollux in brass. And next to Croceæ, as you turn to the right from the high road to Gythium, you will come to the small town called Ægiæ. They say Homer mentions it under the name Augeæ. Here is a marsh which is called Poseidon’s marsh, and the god has a temple and statue near it. The natives are afraid however to catch the fish, for they say that whoever fishes there becomes a fish and ceases to be a man.
Gythium is about 30 stades from Ægiæ, and is near the sea, and is inhabited by the Eleutherolacones, whom the Emperor Augustus liberated from the yoke of slavery imposed on them by the Lacedæmonians of Sparta. All the Peloponnese except the Isthmus of Corinth is surrounded by water: and the maritime parts of Laconia furnish shell fish from which purple dye is obtained, next in excellence to the Tyrian purple. And the Eleutherolacones have 18 cities, first Gythium as you descend from Ægiæ to the sea, and next Teuthrone, and Las, and Pyrrhichus, and near Tænarum Cænepolis, and Œtylus, and Leuctra, and Thalamæ, and Alagonia, and Gerenia: and opposite Gythium Asopus near the sea, and Acriæ, and Bœæ, and Zarax, and Epidaurus called Limera, and Brasiæ, and Geronthræ, and Marius. These are all that remain of what were once 24 cities of the Eleutherolacones. And the other six, which I shall also give an account of, are tributary to Sparta and not independent as those we have just spoken of. And the people of Gythium assign no mortal as their founder, but say that Hercules and Apollo, when their contest for the tripod was over, jointly built their town. In the market-place they have statues of Apollo and Hercules, and near them Dionysus. And in a different part of the town is Carnean Apollo, and a temple of Ammon, and a brazen statue of Æsculapius; his shrine has no roof to it, and there is a fountain of the god, and a temple sacred to Demeter, and a statue of Poseidon the Earth-holder. And the person that the people of Gythium call the old man, who they say lives in the sea, is I discovered Nereus, and this name Homer gave him in the Iliad in the speech of Thetis, ‘Ye now enter Ocean’s spacious bosom, to visit the old man of the sea and the homes of our sire.’[43] And the gates here are called Castorides, and in the citadel there is a temple and statue of Athene.