Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XXIV.

About 100 stades from Epidaurus Limera is Zarax, in other respects convenient as a harbour, but especially ravaged of all the towns of the Eleutherolacones, for Cleonymus, the son of Cleomenes, the son of Agesipolis, razed to the ground this alone of the Laconian towns. But I have elsewhere spoken of Cleonymus. And at Zarax there is nothing remarkable but a temple of Apollo at the end of the harbour, and a statue of the god with a lyre.

And as you go along the coast from Zarax about 6 stades, and then turn and strike into the interior of the country for about 10 stades, you come to the ruins of Cyphanta, where is a temple of Æsculapius called Stethæum, and the statue of the god is of stone. And there is a spring of cold water bubbling out from the rock. They say Atalanta was parched with thirst hunting here, and struck the rock with her lance and the water gushed forth. And Brasiæ near the sea is the last place which belongs to the Eleutherolacones here, and it is about 200 stades’ sail from Cyphanta. And the natives here have traditions different to all the other Greeks, for they say that Semele bare a son to Zeus, and that she and her son Dionysus were spirited away by Cadmus and put into a chest, and this chest was they say carried by the waves to Brasiæ, and they say they buried magnificently Semele who was no longer alive, and reared Dionysus. And in consequence of this the name of their city, which had been hitherto called Oreatæ was changed to Brasiæ, because of this landing from the chest. To this day in fact most people speak of things cast ashore by the waves as brashed[44] ashore. The people of Brasiæ say further that Ino came to their land on her travels, and when she came there wished to be the nurse of Dionysus. And they show the cave where she reared Dionysus, and they call the plain Dionysus’ garden. And there are temples of Æsculapius and Achilles there, and they have an annual feast to Achilles. And there is a small promontory at Brasiæ, which slopes gently to the sea, and there are some brazen statues on it not more than a foot high with hats on their heads, I know not whether they are meant for Castor and Pollux or the Corybantes, however there are three figures, and there is also a statue of Athene. And on the right of Gythium is Las, ten stades from the sea, and forty from Gythium. And the town is now built on the ground between the three mountains called respectively Ilium and Asia and Cnacadium, but it was originally on the crest of Asia: and there are still ruins of the old town, and before the walls a statue of Hercules, and a trophy over the Macedonians, who were a portion of Philip’s army when he invaded Laconia, but wandered from the rest of the army, and ravaged the maritime parts of the country. And there is among the ruins a temple of Athene under the title of Asia, erected they say by Castor and Pollux on their safe return from Colchi, where they had seen a temple of Athene Asia. I know that they took part in the expedition with Jason, and that the Colchians honour Athene Asia I have heard from the people of Las. And there is a fountain near the new town called from the colour of its water Galaco (milky), and near the fountain is a gymnasium, and an ancient statue of Hermes. And on Mount Ilium there is a temple of Dionysus, and on the top of the hill one of Æsculapius, and on Cnacadium Carnean Apollo. And if you go forward about 30 stades from Carnean Apollo there are at a place called Hypsi, on the borders of Sparta, temples of Æsculapius and of Daphnean Artemis. And on a promontory near the sea is the temple of Artemis Dictynna, whose feast they keep annually. And on the left of this promontory the river Smenus discharges itself into the sea. The water is fresh to drink, and rises on Mount Taygetus, and is not more than five stades distant from Hypsi. And in the place called Araïnum is the tomb of Las, and over his tomb a statue. This Las they say was the founder of the town, and was killed by Achilles, who they say came to their town to ask Helen in marriage of Tyndareus. But to speak truth it was Patroclus that killed Las: for it was he that wooed Helen. For that Achilles is not represented as one of Helen’s suitors in the Catalogue of Women, would indeed be no proof that he did not ask for Helen’s hand: but Homer has stated very early in the Iliad[45] that Achilles went to Troy to gratify the sons of Atreus, and not bound by any oath to Tyndareus, and has represented Antilochus in the Games saying that he was younger than Odysseus,[46] and has described Odysseus as discoursing about what he had seen in Hades and other things, and how he wished to see Theseus and Pirithous, who were older men than himself, and we know that Theseus ran away with Helen. So it is hardly permissible at all to think that Achilles could have been a suitor of Helen.