Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XXX.

And near one another are temples of Apollo, and Artemis, and Dionysus. The wooden statue of Apollo is naked and of native art, but Artemis and Dionysus are draped, and Dionysus is represented with a beard. But the temple of Æsculapius is on the other side and not here, and the statue of stone, seated. And of all the gods the people of Ægina honour Hecate most, and celebrate her rites annually, saying that Orpheus the Thracian introduced those rites. And within the precincts is a temple, containing a wooden statue of Hecate by Myron, with only one head and one body. Alcamenes as it seems to me was the first who made the statue of Hecate with three heads and three bodies which the Athenians call Hecate Epipurgidia: it stands near the temple of Wingless Victory. And in Ægina as you go to the mountain of Pan-Hellenian Zeus is the temple of Aphæa, about whom Pindar wrote an ode for the Æginetans. And the Cretans say, (for her worship is indigenous among them too), that Eubulus was the son of that Carmanor who purged Apollo of the murder of Python, and that Britomartis was the daughter of Zeus by Carme the daughter of Eubulus: and that she rejoiced in races and hunting, and was a very great friend of Artemis. And fleeing from Minos, who was enamoured of her, she threw herself into some nets set for catching fish. Artemis made her a goddess, and she is worshipped not only by the Cretans but also by the Æginetans, who say that Britomartis was seen in their island. And she is called Aphæa in Ægina, but Dictynna in Crete. And the mountain Pan-Hellenium has nothing of note but the temple of Zeus, which they say Æacus erected. As to what concerns Auxesia and Lamia, how there was no rain at Epidaurus, and how after receiving olive trees from Athens they made wooden statues according to the bidding of the oracle, and how the Epidaurians did not pay to the Athenians their charge for the Æginetans having these statues, and how the Athenians who crossed over to Ægina to exact payment perished, all this has been told accurately and circumstantially by Herodotus. I do not therefore care to write again what has been so well told before, but this much I may say that I have seen the statues and sacrificed to them as they are accustomed to sacrifice at Eleusis.

Let so much suffice for Ægina, and Æacus and his exploits. And next to Epidauria come the people of Trœzen, who are proud of their country if any people are. And they say that Orus was a native of their country. To me however the name Orus seems decidedly Egyptian and not at all Greek. However they say he was their king, and that the country was called Oræa after him, and Althepus the son of Poseidon by Leis the daughter of Orus, succeeding to Orus, called the country Althepia. When he was king they say that Athene and Poseidon had a dispute about the country, and resolved to hold it in common, for so Zeus ordered them to do. And so they worship Athene under the names Polias and Sthenias, and Poseidon under the name of king. And so their ancient coins have on them a trident and the head of Athene. And next to Althepus Saron was king, who they say built the temple to Saronian Artemis near the sea where it was muddy on the surface, insomuch that it was called the Phœbæan marsh. And it chanced that Saron, who was very fond of hunting, was pursuing a stag and followed it to the sea as it fled. And it swam further and further from the land, and Saron continued to follow it up, till in his impetuosity he got out to open sea, and, as he was by now tired, and the waves were too much for him, he was drowned. And his dead body was cast on shore on the Phœbæan marsh, and they buried him in the grove of Artemis, and they call the sea here after him the Saronian marsh instead of the Phœbæan. The names of the kings that followed him they do not know till Hyperes and Anthas, who they say were the sons of Poseidon by Alcyone the daughter of Atlas, and built the cities in that country called Hyperea and Anthea. And Aetius the son of Anthas, succeeding his father and uncle in the kingdom, called one of these two cities Poseidonias. And when Trœzen and Pittheus joined Aetius, there were three kings instead of one, and the sons of Pelops were the stronger. And this proves it. After the death of Trœzen Pittheus joined together Hyperea and Anthea, and combined the inhabitants into one city, which he called Trœzen from the name of his brother. And many years afterwards the descendants of Aetius, the son of Anthas, were sent on a colony from Trœzen, and colonized Halicarnassus in Caria, and Myndus. And the sons of Trœzen, Anaphlystus and Sphettus, migrated to Attica, and gave their names to two townships. And as regards Theseus the son of Pittheus’ daughter I do not write to people who know all the history. But I must narrate thus much. When the Heraclidæ returned to the Peloponnese the people of Trœzen received as colonists the Dorians from Argos, having been formerly subject to the Argives. And Homer in his catalogue says that they were under the rule of Diomede. Diomede at least and Euryalus the son of Mecisteus, who were Regents for Cyanippus the son of Ægialeus, led the Argives to Troy. But Sthenelus, as I have shown before, was of more illustrious birth, being of the family of the Anaxagoridæ, and the kingdom of the Argives was more his by right. Such are all the historical details about Trœzen, except a list of the cities which are said to have been colonized from Trœzen. I will now describe the contents of the temples and other notable things in Trœzen.