Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XXIII.

Now the Greeks among other things say that they had the seven wise men. And among these they include the Lesbian tyrant and Periander the son of Cypselus: and yet Pisistratus and his son Hippias were far more humane and wise than Periander, both in war and in all that appertained to citizen life, until Hippias because of the death of Hipparchus acted with great cruelty, especially to a woman called Leæna, (Lioness). For after the death of Hipparchus, (I speak now of what has never before been recorded in history, but yet is generally believed by the Athenians), Hippias tortured her to death, knowing that she had been Aristogiton’s mistress, and thinking that she could not have been ignorant of the plot against Hipparchus. In return for this, when the Pisistratidæ had been deposed from the kingdom, a brazen lioness was erected by the Athenians to her memory, and near her a statue of Aphrodite, which they say was a votive offering of Callias, designed by Calamis.

And next is a brazen statue of Diitrephes pierced with arrows. This Diitrephes, among other things which the Athenians record, led back the Thracian mercenaries who came too late, for Demosthenes had already sailed for Syracuse. And when he got to the Euripus near Chalcis, and opposite Mycalessus in Bœotia, he landed and took Mycalessus: and the Thracians slew not only the fighting men, but also the women and children. And this proves what I say, that all the cities of the Bœotians, whom the Thebans had dispossessed, were inhabited in my time by those who had fled at their capture. Therefore if the barbarians had not landed and slain all the Mycalessians, those that were left would afterwards have repeopled the city. A very wonderful fact about this statue of Diitrephes is that it was pierced with arrows, seeing that it was not customary for any Greeks but the Cretans to shoot with the bow. For we know that the Opuntian Locrians were so armed as early as the Persian war, for Homer described them as coming to Ilium with bows and slings. But the use of bows did not long remain even with the Malienses: and I think that they did not use them before the days of Philoctetes, and soon afterwards ceased to use them. And next to Diitrephes, (I shall not mention the more obscure images), are some statues of goddesses, as Hygiea, (Health), who they say was the daughter of Æsculapius, and Athene by the same name of Hygiea. And there is a small stone such as a little man can sit on, on which they say Silenus rested, when Dionysus came to the land. Silenus is the name they give to all old Satyrs. About the Satyrs I have conversed with many, wishing to know all about them. And Euphemus a Carian told me that sailing once on a time to Italy he was driven out of his course by the winds, and carried to a distant sea, where people no longer sail. And he said that here were many desert islands, some inhabited by wild men: and at these islands the sailors did not like to land, as they had landed there before and had experience of the natives, but they were obliged on that occasion. These islands he said were called by the sailors Satyr-islands, the dwellers in them were red-haired, and had tails at their loins not much smaller than horses. When they perceived the sailors they ran down to the ship, spoke not a word, but began to handle the women on board. At last the sailors in dire alarm landed a barbarian woman on the island: and the Satyrs treated her in such a way as we will not venture to describe.

I noticed other statues in the Acropolis, as the boy in brass with a laver in his hand by Lycius the son of Myron, and Perseus having slain Medusa by Myron. And there is a temple of Brauronian Artemis, the statue the design of Praxiteles, but the goddess gets her name from Brauron. And the ancient statue is at Brauron, called Tauric Artemis. And a brazen model of the Wooden Horse is here, and that this construction of Epeus was a design to break down the walls, every one knows who does not consider the Phrygians plainly fatuous. And tradition says of that Horse that it had inside it the bravest of the Greeks, and this model in brass corresponds in every particular, and Menestheus and Teucer are peeping out of it, as well as the sons of Theseus. And of the statues next the Horse, Critias executed that of Epicharinus training to run in heavy armour. And Œnobius did a kindness to Thucydides the son of Olorus. For he passed a decree that Thucydides should be recalled from exile to Athens, and as he was treacherously murdered on his return, he has a tomb not far from the Melitian gates. As to Hermolycus the Pancratiast, and Phormio the son of Asopichus, as others have written about them I pass them by: only I have this little bit more to say about Phormio. He being one of the noblest of the Athenians, and illustrious from the renown of his ancestors, was heavily in debt. He went therefore to the Pæanian township, and had his maintenance there until the Athenians chose him as Admiral. He however declined on the score that he owed money, and that he would have no influence with the sailors till he had paid it. Accordingly the Athenians paid his debts, for they would have him as Admiral.