Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

Not far from Pharæ is the grove of Carnean Apollo, and a fountain of water in it, and Pharæ is about six stades from the sea. As you go from thence into the interior of Messenia about 80 stades you come to the town of Thuria,—which they say Homer called Anthea in his verses. And Augustus gave Thuria to the Spartans. For when the future Emperor of Rome was at war with Mark Antony, several Greeks and especially Messenians fought for Antony because the Lacedæmonians espoused the side of Augustus. Accordingly Augustus punished the Messenians and others who had opposed him, some more some less. And the people of Thuria left their ancient city which was built on a height, and went and dwelt in the plain. Not that they altogether abandoned the upper city, for there are ruins of their walls and a temple there called the temple of the Syrian goddess. And a river called Aris flows by their town in the plain.

And there is in the interior a village called Calamæ and a place called Limnæ: in the latter place is a temple of Artemis of Limnæ, where they say Teleclus the king of Sparta was killed. And as you go from Thuria in the direction of Arcadia are the sources of the river Pamisus, in which small boys by being dipped are cured of diseases. And as you go to the left from these sources of the river and go forward about 40 stades, you come to the city of the Messenians under Mount Ithome: which is encircled not only by Mount Ithome but also in the direction of the Pamisus by Mount Eva. The mountain they say was called Eva from the Bacchic cry Evœ, which Dionysus and his attendant women first uttered here. And round Messene is a circular wall entirely constructed of stone, and towers and battlements are built on it. As to the walls of the Babylonians, or those called Memnon’s in Susa amongst the Persians, I have neither seen them nor heard anything of them from eye witnesses: but I can confidently affirm that the wall round Messene is stronger than those at Ambrosus in Phocis or at Byzantium or at Rhodes. And in the market-place at Messene there is a statue of Zeus Soter, and a conduit called Arsinoe, which got its name from the daughter of Leucippus, and water flows underground to feed it from a well called Clepsydra. And the gods who have temples are Poseidon and Aphrodite. And the most notable thing is a statue of the Mother of the Gods in Parian marble by Damophon, who most artistically rivetted the Zeus at Olympia when the ivory got loose. And honours were bestowed upon him by the people of Elis. He too designed the statue that the people of Messene call Laphria: whom they are accustomed to worship for the following reason. Among the Calydonians, who worship Artemis most of all the gods, her title is Laphria. And the Messenians who received Naupactus from the Athenians, and lived consequently very near to Ætolia, borrowed the worship of Artemis Laphria from the Calydonians. The statue I shall describe elsewhere. The title Laphria is only given to Artemis by the Messenians and the people of Patræ in Achaia. Ephesian Artemis is the title which all cities recognize, and by which men privately worship her as greatest of the gods; partly from the fame of the Amazons, who are said to have established the worship of her image, partly because she had a temple at Ephesus from time immemorial. And three other things contributed to her glory also, the size of the temple which exceeds all other human structures, the celebrity of the city of Ephesus, and the splendour of the goddess’ shrine.

At Messene there is also a temple and stone statue of Ilithyia. And hard by is a hall of the Curetes, where they sacrifice all kinds of living things alike. Beginning with bulls and goats, they even go as far as to cast birds into the flames. There is also a temple sacred to Demeter, and statues of Castor and Pollux represented as carrying off the daughters of Leucippus. I have already shown in a previous part of my work that the Messenians assert that Castor and Pollux are indigenous with them and not with the Lacedæmonians. And they have many statues well worth seeing in the temple of Æsculapius. For besides the statues of the god and his sons, and besides those of Apollo and the Muses and Hercules, there are statues of Thebes and Epaminondas the son of Cleommis, and of Fortune and of Lightbringing Artemis. Those in stone are the work of Damophon, the only Messenian statuary that I know of that has produced any remarkable statues. The effigy of Epaminondas in iron is by another hand. There is also at Messene a temple of Triopas and her statue in gold and Parian marble: and the paintings at the back of the temple are Aphareus and his sons, the kings of Messene before the expedition of the Dorians to the Peloponnese, and after the return of the Heraclidæ Cresphontes, the leader of the Dorians, and of those that dwelt at Pylos Nestor and Thrasymedes and Antilochus, who were preferred to the sons of Nestor partly because they were older, partly because they had taken part in the Trojan expedition. There are paintings also of Leucippus the brother of Aphareus, and of Hilaira, Phœbe, and Arsinoe. There are paintings also of Æsculapius, (the son of Arsinoe according to the tradition of the Messenians,) and Machaon and Podalirius, for they also had a share in the expedition to Ilium. These paintings were executed by Omphalion, the pupil of Nicias the son of Nicomedes: some say that he was also the slave of Nicias and his favourite.

CHAPTER XXXII.

The temple at Messene called the Sacrificial Chamber has statues of the gods generally worshipped among the Greeks, and also an effigy of Epaminondas in brass. There are also some ancient tripods, such as Homer describes as not having experienced fire.[60] And the statues in the gymnasium are the work of Egyptians, and are Hermes Hercules and Theseus, who are wont to be held in honour at gymnasiums and palæstras by all Greeks and by many barbarians. I also noticed a statue of Æthidas who was a contemporary of mine but older, and as he was very wealthy the Messenians paid him honours as a hero. None of the people of Messene deny that Æthidas was wealthy, but some say it is not that Æthidas who has a statue on the pillar, but a namesake and ancestor. And this earlier Æthidas was they say the General of the Messenians, when Demetrius the son of Philip and his army stole into the town by night when they little expected it.

There is here also the tomb of Aristomenes, and not a mere cenotaph, if their account is correct. But when I inquired how and from what place they brought home Aristomenes’ remains, they replied that they sent for them from Rhodes, obeying the direction of the God at Delphi. They also informed me of the sacrifices at this tomb. The bull they intend to sacrifice they bring to the tomb, and fasten it to a pillar near the tomb. And it being wild and unused to bonds is reluctant to remain there. And if by its struggles and mad bounds the pillar is moved, it is an auspicious omen to the people of Messene, but if it is not moved it is an omen of misfortune. And they amuse themselves with the fancy that Aristomenes though no longer alive was present at the fight at Leuctra, and they say he fought for the Thebans, and was the main cause of the Lacedæmonian defeat. I know that the Chaldæan and Indian astrologers were the first who taught that the soul of man is immortal, and several Greeks credited their assertion, and notably Plato the son of Aristo. And whoever are willing to believe this cannot deny the fact that the hatred of Aristomenes to the Lacedæmonians was eternal. And what I heard in Thebes lent probability to the tradition at Messene, though it does not altogether agree with their account. The Thebans say that on the eve of the battle at Leuctra they sent to several oracles, and among others to that of Trophonius at Lebadea. The answers are extant which were received from Ismenian and Ptoan Apollo, as also from Abæ and Delphi. But the response of Trophonius was in 4 hexameter verses. “Before contending with the foe erect a trophy, decking out the shield, which the ardent Aristomenes of Messene placed in my temple. I will assuredly destroy the host of hostile warriors.” And on the arrival of this oracular response they say that Epaminondas prevailed with Xenocrates to send for the shield of Aristomenes, and he decked it out as a trophy in a place where it would be visible to the Lacedæmonians. And some of them recognized the shield as they had seen it in time of peace at Lebadea, and all knew of it by report. And after the Thebans won their victory, they offered Aristomenes’ shield again to Trophonius as a votive offering. There is also a brazen statue of Aristomenes in the race-course at Messene. And not far from the theatre is the temple of Serapis and Isis.

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.