CHAPTER XXXIII.
And as you go towards the hill of Ithome, where the Messenians have their citadel, is the spring called Clepsydra. However willing one may be it is a matter of no small difficulty to enumerate all the people who put in the claim that Zeus was born and bred among them. The people of Messene have this tradition among others. They say that Zeus was reared among them, and that Ithome and Neda were his nurses, and that Neda gave her name to the river, and Ithome hers to the mountain. And these Nymphs they say, when Zeus was stolen away by the Curetes from fear of Cronos, washed him here at Clepsydra, and the spring got its name from the theft of the Curetes: and every day they take water from this spring to the temple of Zeus of Ithome. And the statue of Zeus is the work of Ageladas, and was made originally for the Messenians that dwelt at Naupactus. And a priest chosen annually keeps the statue in his house. And they have an annual feast at Ithome, and originally they had a musical contest, as one may infer from other sources, but especially from the lines of Eumelus, which are part of his Processional Hymn at Delos, “Welcome to Zeus of Ithome was the pure muse with free sandals.” I think from these verses that Eumelus knew that they had a musical contest at the Feast of Zeus of Ithome.
At the gates in the direction of Megalopolis in Arcadia there is a statue of Hermes of Athenian design: the busts of Hermes among the Athenians are square, and others have borrowed this design from them. And if you go about 30 stades down from these gates you come to the river Balyra. It was so called they say because Thamyris threw his lyre away there in his blindness, Thamyris the son of Philammon and the nymph Argiope. Argiope they say lived at Parnassus for a while, but when she became pregnant removed to Odrysæ, because Philammon would not marry her. And this is the reason why they call Thamyris Odrysian and Thracian. And the rivers Leucasia and Amphitus are tributaries of the Balyra.
After you have crossed these you come to the plain called the plain of Stenyclerus; this Stenyclerus was a hero. And right opposite the plain is what was called of old Œchalia, but in our day the Carnasian grove, mostly of cypress trees. And the gods who have statues are Carnean Apollo and Hermes carrying a ram. And the daughter of Demeter is here called the Virgin, and near her statue water wells from a spring. But the rites of the Great Goddesses, who have their Mysteries at the Carnasian grove, I must not reveal: but they are in my opinion second only in sanctity to the Eleusinian Mysteries. I am also prevented by a dream from revealing to the public all about the cinerary urn of brass found by the Argive General, in which the remains of Eurytus the son of Melaneus are kept. And the river Charadrus flows along the Carnasian grove, and as you go on about 8 stades to the left you come to the ruins of Andania. That the town was so named from a woman called Andania is admitted by the antiquarians: I know however nothing about her parents, or who she married. And on the road from Andania to Cyparissiæ you come to a place called Polichne, where the rivers Electra and Cœus flow. Perhaps the names of these rivers refer to Electra the daughter of Atlas and to Cœus the father of Leto, or Electra and Cœus are possibly some local heroes.
And after crossing the Electra you come to the well called Achaia, and the ruins of the city Dorium. And it is here at Dorium that Homer has described Thamyris as having been stricken blind, because he said he could excel the Muses in singing.[61] But Prodicus the Phocæan, (if the poem called the Minyad is indeed his), says that punishments were reserved for Thamyris in Hades because of his boastful language to the Muses. But I am of opinion that Thamyris lost his eyesight through disease: as indeed happened to Homer subsequently. But Homer went on composing all his life, for he did not yield to his misfortune, whereas Thamyris wooed the Muse no longer, completely overcome by his ever-present trouble.