CHAPTER XXV.
Not far from the tomb of Las the river called Scyras falls into the sea; it had no name for a long time and was called Scyras because Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, put in there with his fleet, when he sailed from Scyrus to marry Hermione. And when you have crossed the river there is an ancient temple at some distance from an altar of Zeus. And at forty stades’ distance from the river is Pyrrhichus in the heart of the country. Some say the town was so called from Pyrrhus the son of Achilles, others say Pyrrhichus was the god of the Curetes. There are some even that say Silenus came from Malea and dwelt here. That Silenus was brought up at Malea is plain from these lines of Pindar,[47]
‘The mighty, the dance-loving Silenus,
Reared by the Malea-born husband of Nais.’
That Pyrrhichus was his name has not been told us by Pindar, but is a tradition of those that live at Malea. And there is at Pyrrhichus a conduit in the market-place, which they think they owe to Silenus: and if the conduit were to fail them they would be short of water. And the temples at Pyrrhichus are two, one of Artemis the Putter-of-an-end-to-War, because here the Amazons were stopped from any further warfare, and one of Apollo Amazonius. Both have wooden statues, and tradition says they were votive offerings of the women that came from Thermodon.
As you go towards the sea from Pyrrhichus you come to Teuthrone, which they say was built by Teuthras an Athenian. And of all the gods they pay most honour to Issorian Artemis, and they have a fountain called Naia. And a hundred and fifty stades from Teuthrone is the promontory of Tænarum jutting out into the sea, and the harbours Achilleus and Psamathus. And on the promontory there is a temple like a cave, and before it a statue of Poseidon. And some of the Greeks have represented that it was here that Hercules brought up Cerberus from the lower world, though there is no underground road leading up to the cave, nor could one easily believe that the gods have any underground dwelling, where departed souls congregate. But Hecatæus the Milesian has a probable legend, that a dreadful serpent called Cerberus was reared at Tænarum, and that whoever was bitten by it was sure to die, so venomous was its bite, and this serpent was dragged by Hercules to Eurystheus. Homer, who first spoke of the dog being dragged from Hades by Hercules, gave him no name, nor complete description as he did of the Chimæra.[48] But others afterwards called the dog Cerberus, and said he was like a dog in all respects except that he had 3 heads, though Homer said no more that he was the domestic animal called the dog than if he had called a real serpent the dog of Hades. There are several works of art at Tænarum, and among others the harper Arion in brass riding on the dolphin’s back. As to Arion and the dolphin Herodotus[49] has given the tradition as he heard it in his history about Lydia. I have myself seen at Poroselene a dolphin so full of gratitude to a boy, by whom he had been healed of wounds received from some fishermen, that he was obedient to his call, and carried him on his back over the sea whenever he wished. There is also a fountain at Tænarum, which now presents nothing marvellous, but in former times they say gave to those who looked into it the sight of harbours and ships. This peculiarity of the water was stopped for all time by a woman’s washing her dirty linen in it.
About 40 stades’ sail from the promontory of Tænarum is a place called Cænepolis, which was also formerly called Tænarum. And in it is a chapel of Demeter, and a temple of Aphrodite near the sea, and a stone statue of the goddess erect. And 30 stades thence is Thyrides the topmost peak of Tænarum, and the ruins of the town of Hippola, and among them the temple of Athene of Hippola, and at a little distance the town and harbour of Messa. It is about 150 stades from this harbour to Œtylus. And the hero from whom Œtylus got its name was originally from Argos, being the son of Amphianax, the son of Antimachus. The most notable things to see in Œtylus are the temple of Serapis, and a wooden statue in the market-place of Carnean Apollo.