CHAPTER XXII.
Now the temple of Flowery Hera is on the right hand of the temple of Leto, and in front of it is the tomb of the women who fell in the fight between the Argives and Perseus, and had marched with Dionysus from the islands in the Ægean, and who were called Marines from that circumstance. And right opposite the sepulchre of those women is the temple of Demeter, surnamed Pelasgian because Pelasgus the son of Triopas built it, and at no great distance from the temple is Pelasgus’ tomb. And beyond the tomb is a brazen shrine not very large, which contains old statues of Artemis and Zeus and Athene. Lyceas in his verses has represented it as a votive offering to Zeus the Contriver, and said that the Argives who went on the expedition to Ilium swore here that they would not give over fighting, till they should either capture Ilium or be killed fighting there. But others have said that the remains of Tantalus are in that brazen shrine. I will not dispute that the Tantalus who was the son of Thyestes or Broteus, (for both traditions are current), who married Clytæmnestra before Agamemnon, was buried here. But the Tantalus who was said to be son of Zeus or Pluto was buried at Sipylus in a very handsome tomb which I have myself seen. And moreover there was no necessity for him to flee from Sipylus, as happened afterwards to Pelops when Ilus the Phrygian came against him with an army. But let the enquiry proceed no further. As for the rites which take place at the neighbouring trench, they say they were instituted by Nicostratus, a man of those parts. To this day they place in the trench lighted torches to Proserpine the daughter of Demeter. There too is a temple of Poseidon under the name of the Flood-god—for Poseidon flooded most of the region, because Inachus and the other arbitrators decided that the land was Hera’s and not his. But Hera afterwards got Poseidon to draw the water off: and the Argives, at the place where the stream retired, built a temple to Poseidon the Flood-god. And as you go a little further is the tomb of Argos, who was reputed to be the son of Zeus and Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus: and next is the temple of the Dioscuri. And there are statues of them and their sons, Anaxis and Mnasinous, and with them their mothers Hilaira and Phœbe, in black ebony wood, by Dipœnus and Scyllis. Even the horses are mostly made of ebony, though partly of ivory. And near this temple of the Dioscuri is a temple of Ilithyia, the offering of Helen, when Theseus went with Pirithous to Thesprotia, and Aphidna was captured by the Dioscuri, and Helen was taken to Lacedæmon. For they say she was pregnant by Theseus, and bare a child in Argos and built this temple to Ilithyia, and gave the child to Clytæmnestra, who was now the wife of Agamemnon, and the child afterwards became the wife of Menelaus. Euphorion the Chalcidian and Alexander the Pleuronian have mentioned it in their poems, and still earlier Stesichorus of Himera, and they say like the Argives that Iphigenia was the daughter of Theseus by Helen. And beyond the temple of Ilithyia is the temple of Hecate, and the statue is the work of Scopas. It is of stone and right opposite are two brazen statues of Hecate, one by Polycletus, and the other by his brother Naucydes the son of Mothon. And as you go straight for the gymnasium, which is called Cylarabis after Cylarabus, the son of Sthenelus, you come to the tomb of Licymnius the son of Electryon. Homer says he was slain by Tleptolemus the son of Hercules, who had to fly from Argos in consequence of this murder. And, as you turn off a little towards Cylarabis and the gate in this direction, is the sepulchre of Sacadas, who was the first who played the Hymn to Apollo at Delphi on the flute: and it seems the anger of Apollo against flute-players (which he had in consequence of the contest with Marsyas the Silenus) was appeased by this Sacadas. In this gymnasium of Cylarabus is a bust of Athene Capanea, and they show the tomb of Sthenelus, and of Cylarabus himself. And not far from this gymnasium is a monument to the Argives who sailed with the Athenians to reduce Syracuse and Sicily.