Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER I.

Those Greeks, who say that the Peloponnese is divided into five parts and no more, are obliged to admit that the people of Elis as well as the Arcadians dwell in the division of the Arcadians, and that the second division is Achaia, and that the Dorians have the remaining three. The indigenous races that inhabit the Peloponnese are Arcadians and Achæans. And the Achæans were driven out of their own land by the Dorians, but did not however evacuate the Peloponnese, but dispossessed the Ionians that lived in what was then called Ægialus, but is now called after them Achaia. The Arcadians on the other hand have always up to this day remained in Arcadia. But the other parts of the Peloponnese are peopled by strangers. The latest importation were the present Corinthians, who were introduced into the Peloponnese some 217 years ago by the Roman Emperor. And the Dryopes came into the Peloponnese from Mount Parnassus, the Dorians from Mount Œta.

We know that the people of Elis originally came from Calydon and other parts of Ætolia. And the oldest information I have found about them is as follows. The first king in this land was they say Aethlius, the son of Zeus by Protogenea the daughter of Deucalion, and the father of Endymion. The Moon was they say enamoured of this Endymion, and had by him 50 daughters. But a more probable account is that Endymion married Asterodia, others say Chromia the daughter of Itonus the son of Amphictyon, others say Hyperippe the daughter of Arcas, and had three sons, Pæon and Epeus and Ætolus, and one daughter Eurycyde. Endymion also made his sons contend in running at Olympia for the kingdom, and Epeus won, so the people over whom he ruled were first called Epeans. And of his brothers Ætolus they say remained at home, but Pæon vexed at his loss went as far away as possible, and the region beyond the river Axius was called Pæonia after him. As to the death of Endymion different accounts are given by the Heracleotæ at Miletus and by the people of Elis, but the latter show the sepulchre of Endymion, while the former say that he retired to Mount Latmus, where is his shrine. And Epeus married Anaxiroe, the daughter of Coronus, by whom he had a daughter Hyrmina, but no male offspring. And these were the events of his reign. Œnomaus the son of Alxion, (or the son of Ares, as poets have sung, which is the prevalent tradition), being ruler of the country called Pisæa, was deposed from his rule by Pelops the Lydian, who had crossed over from Asia Minor. And after his death Pelops occupied Pisæa and Olympia, slicing off from the territory of Epeus what bordered upon Pisæa. And Pelops (so the people of Elis say) was the first in the Peloponnese to build a temple to Hermes and sacrifice to him, thus turning away the wrath of the god for the murder of Myrtilus.

And Ætolus, the king after Epeus, had to flee from the Peloponnese, because the sons of Apis indicted him for the involuntary murder of their father. For Apis the son of Jason, a native of Pallantium in Arcadia, was killed by Ætolus’ driving over him in his chariot at the funeral games in memory of Azan. So Ætolus the son of Endymion fled to the mainland, to the neighbourhood of the river Achelous, which was called Ætolia after him. And the kingdom of the Epeans was reigned over by Eleus, the son of Eurycyde, the daughter of Endymion and (if we may believe the tradition) Poseidon. And the people in his dominions now changed their names from Epeans to Eleans.

And Eleus had a son called Augeas. And those who want to exalt him change his father’s name, and say that he was the son of Helius (the Sun-god). The oxen and goats of this Augeas were so numerous that most of the country could not be cultivated for their dung. Hercules therefore, whether for a part of Elis or some other reward, was persuaded by him to clear the country of this dung. And he effected this by turning the river Menius on to it. But Augeas, because the work had been effected by ingenuity rather than toil, refused to give Hercules his reward, and turned out of doors the eldest of his sons Phyleus, because he told him he was not acting with justice to a benefactor. He also made several preparations to defend himself against Hercules, should he come into Elis with an army, and entered into an alliance with Amarynceus and the sons of Actor. Now Amarynceus had an especial acquaintance with military matters, and his father Pyttius was a Thessalian by extraction, and had come from thence to Elis. And to Amarynceus Augeas gave a share of his power at Elis; and Actor and his sons also, who were natives of Elis, shared in the administration of the kingdom. The father of Actor was Phorbas the son of Lapithus, and his mother was Hyrmina, the daughter of Epeus, and Actor built and called after her the town of Hyrmina in Elis.

CHAPTER II.

Now in the campaign against Augeas Hercules had no opportunity to win laurels, for as the sons of Actor were in their prime for daring and vigour of youth, the allied forces of Hercules were constantly routed by them, until the Corinthians announced a truce during the Isthmian games, and the sons of Actor went to see the games, and Hercules lay in ambush for them and slew them at Cleonæ. And the perpetrator of the deed being unknown, Moline the mother of the lads took the greatest pains to discover their murderer. And when she discovered who it was, then the people of Elis claimed compensation for the murder from the Argives, for Hercules dwelt in Argolis at Tiryns. And as the Argives refused to give up Hercules, they next begged hard of the Corinthians, that all Argolis should be scratched from the Isthmian games. But being unsuccessful in this also, they say Moline put a curse upon the citizens if they went to the Isthmian games. And these curses of Moline are observed up to this day, and all the athletes at Elis make a practice of never going to the Isthmian contest. And there are two different traditions about this. One of them states that Cypselus the tyrant at Corinth offered a golden statue to Zeus at Olympia, but, Cypselus dying before his name was inscribed on the votive offering, the Corinthians asked the people of Elis to allow them to inscribe publicly the name of Corinth on the votive offering, and the people of Elis refusing they were angry with them, and forbade them to contend at the Isthmian games. But how would the Corinthians have been admitted at the contests at Olympia, if they had excluded the people of Elis from the Isthmian games? But the other tradition states that Prolaus, a man of much repute among the people of Elis, and Lysippe his wife had two sons Philanthus and Lampus, and they went to the Isthmian games, the one intending to compete in the pancratium among the boys, the other in wrestling, and before the games came on they were strangled or killed in some way by their rivals: and that was why Lysippe imposed her curses on the people of Elis, if they would not of their own accord cease to attend the Isthmian games. This tradition too is easily shewn to be a silly one. For Timon a native of Elis had victories in the pentathlum in all the other Greek contests, and there is an effigy of him at Olympia, and some elegiac verses which enumerate the various crowns that he carried off as victor, and the reason why he did not participate in the Isthmian contest. This is one couplet. “Our hero was prevented coming to the land of Sisyphus by the strife that arose in consequence of the sad fate of the sons of Molione.”

CHAPTER III.

Let this suffice on the matter. To resume, Hercules afterwards captured and sacked Elis, having got together an army of Argives Thebans and Arcadians: and the people of Elis were assisted by the men of Pylos in Elis and by the men of Pisa. And the men of Pylos were punished by Hercules, and he intended marching against Pisa, but was stopped by the following oracle from Delphi,

“Dear to the Father is Pisa, Pytho has entrusted it to me.”