Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XXV.

There are also in the Acropolis at Athens statues of Pericles the son of Xanthippus and Xanthippus himself, who fought against the Persians at Mycale. The statue of Pericles stands by itself, but near that of Xanthippus is Anacreon of Teos, the first after Lesbian Sappho who wrote erotic poetry mainly: his appearance is that of a man singing in liquor. And near are statues by Dinomenes of Io the daughter of Inachus, and Callisto the daughter of Lycaon, both of whom had precisely similar fates, the love of Zeus and the hatred of Hera, Io being changed into a cow, and Callisto into a she-bear. And on the southern wall Attalus has pourtrayed the legendary battle of the giants, who formerly inhabited Thrace and the isthmus of Pallene, and the contest between the Amazons and the Athenians, and the action at Marathon against the Persians, and the slaughter of the Galati in Mysia, each painting two cubits in size. There too is Olympiodorus, illustrious for the greatness of his exploits, notably at that period when he infused spirit in men who had been continually baffled, and on that account had not a single hope for the future. For the disaster at Chæronea was a beginning of sorrows for all the Greeks, and made slaves alike of those who were absent from it, and of those who fought at it against the Macedonians. Most of the Greek cities Philip captured, and though he made a treaty with the Athenians nominally, he really hurt them most, robbing them of their islands, and putting down their naval supremacy. And for some time they were quiet, during the reign of Philip and afterwards of Alexander, but when Alexander was dead and the Macedonians chose Aridæus as his successor, though the whole power fell to Antipater, then the Athenians thought it no longer endurable that Greece should be for all time under Macedonia, but themselves took up arms and urged others to do the same. And the cities of the Peloponnesians which joined them were Argos, Epidaurus, Sicyon, Trœzen, Elis, Phlius, Messene, and outside the Peloponnese the Locrians, the Phocians, the Thessalians, the Carystians, and those Acarnanians who ranked with the Ætolians. But the Bœotians who inhabited the Theban territory which had been stripped of Thebans, fearing that the Athenians would eject them from Thebes, not only refused to join the confederate cities but did all they could to further the interests of the Macedonians. Now the confederate cities were led each by their own general, but the Athenian Leosthenes was chosen generalissimo, partly from his city’s renown, partly from his own reputation for experience in war. He had besides done good service to all the Greeks. For when Alexander wished to settle in Persia all of those who had served for pay with Darius and the satraps, Leosthenes was beforehand with him and conveyed them back to Europe in his ships. And now too, after having displayed more brilliant exploits than they expected, he infused dejection in all men by his death, and that was the chief reason of their failure. For a Macedonian garrison occupied first Munychia, and afterwards the Piræus and the long walls. And after the death of Antipater Olympias crossed over from Epirus and ruled for some time, after putting Aridæus to death, but not long after she was besieged by Cassander, and betrayed by the multitude. And when Cassander was king, (I shall only concern myself with Athenian matters), he captured Fort Panactus in Attica and Salamis, and got Demetrius the son of Phanostratus, (who had his father’s repute for wisdom), appointed king over the Athenians. He was however, deposed by Demetrius the son of Antigonus, a young man well disposed to the Greeks: but Cassander, (who had a deadly hatred against the Athenians), won over Lachares, who had up to this time been the leader of the democracy, and persuaded him to plot to be king: and of all the kings we know of he was most savage to men and most reckless to the gods. But Demetrius the son of Antigonus, though he had not been on the best of terms with the Athenian democracy, yet was successful in putting down the power of Lachares. And when the town was taken Lachares fled into Bœotia. But as he had taken the golden shields from the Acropolis, and had stripped the statue of Athene of all the ornaments that were removable, he was supposed to be very rich, and was killed for his money’s sake by the people of Corone. And Demetrius the son of Antigonus, having freed the Athenians from the yoke of Lachares, did not immediately after the flight of Lachares give up to them the Piræus, but after being victorious in war with them put a garrison in the town, and fortified what is called the Museum. Now the Museum is within the old town walls, on a hill opposite the Acropolis, where they say that Musæus sang, and died of old age, and was buried. And on the same place afterwards a tomb was erected to a Syrian. This hill Demetrius fortified.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Some time after a few remembered the fame of their ancestors, and when they considered what a change had come over the glory of Athens, they elected Olympiodorus as their general. And he led against the Macedonians old men and lads alike, hoping that by zeal rather than strength their fortunes in war would be retrieved. And when the Macedonians came out against him he conquered them in battle, and when they fled to the Museum he took it. So Athens was delivered from the Macedonians. And of the Athenians that distinguished themselves so as to deserve special mention, Leocritus the son of Protarchus is said to have displayed most bravery in action. For he was the first to scale the wall and leap into the Museum: and as he fell in the fight, among other honours conferred on him by the Athenians, they dedicated his shield to Zeus Eleutherius, writing on it his name and his valour. And this is the greatest feat of Olympiodorus, though he also recovered the Piræus and Munychia: and when the Macedonians invaded Eleusis he collected a band of Eleusinians and defeated them. And before this, when Cassander intended to make a raid into Attica, he sailed to Ætolia and persuaded the Ætolians to give their help, and this alliance was the chief reason why they escaped war with Cassander. And Olympiodorus has honours at Athens in the Acropolis and Prytaneum, and a painting at Eleusis. And the Phocians who dwell at Elatea have erected a brazen statue to him at Delphi, because he also helped them when they revolted from Cassander.

And next the statue of Olympiodorus is a brazen image of Artemis called Leucophryene, and it was erected to her by the sons of Themistocles: for the Magnesians, over whom Themistocles ruled, having received that post from the king, worship Artemis Leucophryene. But I must get on with my subject, as I have all Greece to deal with. Endœus was an Athenian by race, and the pupil of Dædalus, and accompanied Dædalus to Crete, when he fled there on account of his murder of Calus. The statue of Athene sitting is by him, with the inscription that Callias dedicated it and Endœus designed it.

There is also a building called the Erechtheum: and in the vestibule is an altar of Supreme Zeus, where they offer no living sacrifice, but cakes without the usual libation of wine. And as you enter there are three altars, one to Poseidon, (on which they also sacrifice to Erechtheus according to the oracle,) one to the hero Butes, and the third to Hephæstus. And on the walls are paintings of the family of Butes. The building is a double one, and inside there is sea water in a well. And this is no great marvel, for even those who live in inland parts have such wells, as notably the Aphrodisienses in Caria. But this well is represented as having a roar as of the sea when the South wind blows. And in the rock is the figure of a trident. And this is said to have been Poseidon’s proof in regard to the territory Athene disputed with him.

Sacred to Athene is all the rest of Athens, and similarly all Attica: for although they worship different gods in different townships, none the less do they honour Athene generally. And the most sacred of all is the statue of Athene in what is now called the Acropolis, but was then called the Polis (city), which was universally worshipped many years before the various townships formed one city: and the rumour about it is that it fell from heaven. As to this I shall not give an opinion, whether it was so or not. And Callimachus made a golden lamp for the goddess. And when they fill this lamp with oil it lasts for a whole year, although it burns continually night and day. And the wick is of a particular kind of cotton flax, the only kind imperishable by fire. And above the lamp is a palmtree of brass reaching to the roof and carrying off the smoke. And Callimachus the maker of this lamp, although he comes behind the first artificers, yet was remarkable for ingenuity, and was the first who perforated stone, and got the name of Art-critic, whether his own appellation or given him by others.

CHAPTER XXVII.

In the temple of Athene Polias is a Hermes of wood, (said to be a votive offering of Cecrops,) almost hidden by myrtle leaves. And of the antique votive offerings worthy of record, is a folding chair the work of Dædalus, and spoils taken from the Persians, as a coat of mail of Masistius, who commanded the cavalry at Platæa, and a scimetar said to have belonged to Mardonius. Masistius we know was killed by the Athenian cavalry: but as Mardonius fought against the Lacedæmonians and was killed by a Spartan, they could not have got it at first hand, nor is it likely that the Lacedæmonians would have allowed the Athenians to carry off such a trophy. And about the olive they have nothing else to tell but that the goddess used it as a proof of her right to the country when it was contested by Poseidon. And they record also that this olive was burnt when the Persians set fire to Athens, but though burnt it grew the same day two cubits. And next to the temple of Athene is the temple of Pandrosus; who was the only one of the three sisters who didn’t peep into the forbidden chest. Now the things I most marvelled at are not universally known. I will therefore write of them as they occur to me. Two maidens live not far from the temple of Athene Polias, and the Athenians call them the carriers of the holy things: for a certain time they live with the goddess, but when her festival comes they act in the following way by night. Putting upon their heads what the priestess of Athene gives them to carry, (neither she nor they know what these things are,) these maidens descend, by a natural underground passage, from an enclosure in the city sacred to Aphrodite of the Gardens. In the sanctuary below they deposit what they carry, and bring back something else closely wrapped up. And these maidens they henceforth dismiss, and other two they elect instead of them for the Acropolis. And near the temple of Athene is an old woman, about a cubit in size, well-modelled, with an inscription saying that she is the handmaid Lysimache, and there are large brazen statues of two men standing apart as for a fight: the one they call Erechtheus and the other Eumolpus. And yet all that know Athenian Antiquities are aware that it was Eumolpus’ son, Immaradus, that was slain by Erechtheus. And at the base are statues of Tolmides’ prophet, and Tolmides himself, who was the Athenian Admiral, and did great damage especially to the maritime region of the Peloponnesians, and burnt the dockyards of the Lacedæmonians at Gythium, and took Bœæ in the neighbouring country, and the island of Cytherus, and made a descent on Sicyonia, and, when the Sicyonians fought against him as he was ravaging their land, routed them and pursued them up to the city. And afterwards when he returned to Athens, he conducted colonies of the Athenians to Eubœa and Naxos, and attacked the Bœotians with a land force: and, having laid waste most of the country, and taken Chæronea after a siege, when he got to Haliartia was himself killed in battle and his whole army defeated. Such I learnt were the fortunes of Tolmides. And there are old statues of Athene: they are entire but rather grimy, and too weak to bear a knock, for fire passed upon them when Xerxes found the city bare of fighting men, as they had all gone to man the fleet. There is also a representation of a boar-hunt, (about which I know nothing for certain unless it is the Calydonian boar,) and of the fight between Cycnus and Hercules. This Cycnus they say killed among others the Thracian Lycus in a prize fight: but was himself slain by Hercules near the river Peneus.

Of the legends that they tell at Trœzen about Theseus one is that Hercules, visiting Pittheus at Trœzen, threw down during dinner his lion’s skin, and that several Trœzenian lads came into the room with Theseus, who was seven years of age at most. They say that all the other boys when they saw the lion’s skin fled helter skelter, but Theseus not being afraid kept his ground, and plucked an axe from one of the servants, and began to attack it fiercely, thinking the skin was a live lion. This is the first Trœzenian legend about him. And the next is that Ægeus put his boots and sword under a stone as means of identifying his son, and then sailed away to Athens, and Theseus when he was eighteen lifted the stone and removed what Ægeus had left there. And this legend is worked in bronze, all but the stone, in the Acropolis. They have also delineated another exploit of Theseus. This is the legend. A bull was ravaging the Cretan territory both elsewhere and by the river Tethris. In ancient times it appears wild beasts were more formidable to men, as the Nemean and Parnasian lions, and dragons in many parts of Greece, and boars at Calydon and Erymanthus and Crommyon in Corinth, of whom it was said that some sprang out of the ground, and others were sacred to the gods, and others sent for the punishment of human beings. And this bull the Cretans say Poseidon sent into their land, because Minos, who was master of the Grecian sea, held Poseidon in no greater honour than any other god. And they say that this bull crossed over from Crete to the Peloponnese, and that one of the twelve Labours of Hercules was to fetch it to Eurystheus. And when it was afterwards let go on the Argive plain, it fled through the Isthmus of Corinth, and into Attica to the township of Marathon, and killed several people whom it met, and among them Androgeos the son of Minos. And Minos sailed to Athens, (for he could not be persuaded that the Athenians had had no hand in the death of Androgeos,) and did great damage, until it was covenanted to send annually seven maidens and seven boys to Crete to the Minotaur, who was fabled to live in the Labyrinth at Gnossus. As to the bull that had got to Marathon, it is said to have been driven by Theseus into the Acropolis, and sacrificed to Athene. And the township of Marathon has a representation of it.