Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

Such are the statues made out of fines as far as I could ascertain. There are also other statues of Zeus, some erected publicly, some privately. There is also an altar in Altis near the entrance to the course. On this altar the people of Elis do not sacrifice to any of the gods, but the trumpeters and heralds stand here when they proclaim the games. On the brazen base of this altar is a statue to Zeus, six cubits in height, with a thunderbolt in each hand, the votive offering of the people of Cynætha. And the young Zeus with a necklace round his neck is the votive offering of Cleolas of Phlius.

And near what is called the Hippodamium there is a semicircular basement of stone, and statues on it of Zeus and Thetis and Aurora supplicating Zeus for their children. These are in the midst of the basement. And at each extremity of the basement stand Achilles and Memnon in the attitude of antagonists. Similarly opposite to one another stand a Greek and barbarian, Odysseus opposite Helenus, for these are selected as most remarkable for wisdom in either army, and Paris is opposite Menelaus from their old hostility, and Æneas opposite Diomede, and Deiphobus opposite Ajax the son of Telamon. These are all by Lycius the son of Myron, and are votive offerings of the people of Apollonia near the Ionian sea. And there are some elegiac lines in ancient characters under the feet of Zeus.

“We are votive offerings from Apollonia, which long-haired Phœbus built near the Ionian sea. Those who seized the borders of Abantis offered this spoil from Thronium.”

Now the region called Abantis and the town in it called Thronium were in Thesprotia near the mountains Ceraunia. For when the Greek ships were dispersed on their return from Ilium, the Locrians from Thronium near the river Boagrius and the Abantes from Eubœa in 8 ships put in to shore near the mountains Ceraunia. And there they dwelt and built the town of Thronium, and by common consent called all the district they lived in Abantis, and were afterwards beaten in war and expelled by their neighbours of Apollonia. And Apollonia was a colony from Corcyra, and the Corinthians had a share in the spoil.

And as you go on a little further there is a Zeus looking east, with an eagle in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other. And he has a crown on his head composed of lilies. This statue is the votive offering of the people of Metapontum, and the design of the Æginetan Aristonous. But who Aristonous learnt his craft from we do not know, nor the period in which he flourished. The Phliasians also erected as votive offerings statues of Zeus and Asopus’ daughters and Asopus himself. And this is the arrangement of the statues. Nemea comes first of the sisters, and next her is Zeus laying hold of Ægina. And next Ægina is Harpina, who according to the tradition of the Phliasians and the people of Elis had an amour with Ares, and bare to him Œnomaus, the king of the district of Pisa. And next to her are Corcyra and Thebe, and Asopus comes last. The tradition about Corcyra is that she had an amour with Poseidon, and a similar legend about Thebe and Zeus is sung by Pindar.

The men of Leontini erected a statue to Zeus privately and not publicly. The height of it is 7 cubits, and Zeus has in his hands an eagle and javelin according to the descriptions of the poets. And it was erected by Hippagoras and Phrynon and Ænesidemus, not I think the Ænesidemus who was tyrant at Leontini.

CHAPTER XXIII.

And as you pass on to the entrance to the council chamber there is a statue of Zeus without an inscription, (and another as you turn to the North). This is towards the East, and was erected by the Greeks who fought at Platæa against Mardonius and the Medes. On the right of the basement are inscribed the states that took part in the action, the Lacedæmonians first, and next the Athenians, third the Corinthians, fourth the Sicyonians, fifth the Æginetans, then the Megarians and Epidaurians, of the Arcadians the men of Tegea and Orchomenus, and in addition to these the inhabitants of Phlius Trœzen and Hermion, and in Argolis the men of Tiryns, and of the Bœotians only the people of Platæa, and of the Argives the inhabitants of Mycenæ, and the islanders from Ceos and Melos, and the Ambraciotes from Thesprotia, and the Tenii and people of Lepreum, the latter only from Triphylia, but the Tenii not only from the Ægean and the Cyclades but also from Naxos and Cythnus, and the men of Styra from Eubœa, and next to them the people of Elis and Potidæa and Anactorium, and lastly the people of Chalcis near the Euripus. Of these cities the following were unpeopled in my day. Mycenæ and Tiryns were razed to the ground by the Argives after the Persian war. And the Ambraciotes and men of Anactorium, who were colonists from Corinth, were induced by the Roman Emperor Augustus to form the colony of Nicopolis near Actium. And the people of Potidæa were twice ejected from their country, by Philip, the son of Amyntas, and earlier still by the Athenians, and though subsequently they were restored by Cassander, yet the name of their city was changed to Cassandrea in honour of their new founder. And the statue at Olympia, that was a votive offering of the Greeks, was by Anaxagoras the Æginetan, though those who have compiled a history of sculptors have omitted to mention him.

There is also in front of this statue of Zeus a brazen pillar, on which are inscribed the conditions of peace for 30 years between the Lacedæmonians and the Athenians, which was made by the Athenians after their second reduction of Eubœa, in the 3rd year of that Olympiad in which Crison of Himera won the prize. And this was one of the conditions specified, that the city of the Argives should have no share in this peace between the Athenians and Lacedæmonians, but that privately the Athenians and Argives if they chose might be friendly to one another. This is plainly stated in the conditions. And there is another statue of Zeus near the chariot of Cleosthenes, (about which I shall speak later), the votive offering of the Megarians, and the design of the brothers Phylacus and Onæthus and their sons: I cannot tell their period or country, or from whom they learned their craft. And near the chariot of Gelon there is an old statue of Zeus with a sceptre, the votive offering they say of the people of Hybla. There are two Hyblas in Sicily, one called Gereatis, and the other to this day called Hybla Major. Both are in the neighbourhood of Catana, Hybla Major is quite deserted, but Gereatis is still inhabited, and has a temple to the Hyblæan goddess who is worshipped in Sicily. And I think it was from there that the statue of Zeus came to Olympia. For Philistus the son of Archomenides records that they were the best interpreters of portents and dreams, and the most noted for piety of all the barbarians in Sicily. And near the votive offering of the people of Hybla is a brazen pedestal and a Zeus upon it, eighteen feet high I conjecture. And who offered it to the god, and whose design it is, is stated in the following elegiac lines:

“The people of Cleitor erected this votive offering to the god, with the tithe collected from many cities taken by storm by them. And the artificers were the Laconian brothers Aristo and Telestas.”