Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XXII.

And if you go about a stade forward from this tomb there are traces of a temple of Artemis surnamed Cordace, because the attendants of Pelops used to offer their sacrifices to the goddess there, and dance the national dance of Sipylus called the cordax. And not far from the temple is a building not very large, and in it is a brazen coffer, in which are deposited the remains of Pelops. And there is no vestige of a wall or any other building, but vines are planted all over the site on which Pisa was built. The founder of the town was they say Pisus, the son of Perieres and grandson of Æolus. And the people of Pisa brought on their own misfortunes by making themselves objectionable to the people of Elis, and by their desire to start the Olympian games instead of the people of Elis, and in the 8th Olympiad they invited Phido the Argive, the most haughty of all the Greek tyrants, and made him the patron of the games. And in the 34th Olympiad the people of Pisa and their king Pantaleon, the son of Omphalion, assembled together the neighbouring people, and instituted the Olympian games instead of the people of Elis. During these Olympiads, and also in the 104th Olympiad which was set on foot by the Arcadians, the people of Elis kept no register, nor do they include them in the Olympiads. And in the 48th Olympiad Damophon the son of Pantaleon gave the people of Elis reason to suspect that he intended to act treacherously against them, so they invaded Pisæa, but did not at this time do any damage, because they returned home again being persuaded by entreaties and promises. But when Pyrrhus the son of Pantaleon succeeded his brother Damophon on the throne, then the people of Pisa of their own accord commenced war with the people of Elis. And the people of Macistus and Scillus in Triphylia joined them in their revolt from the people of Elis, and of the other neighbouring people the Dyspontii, whose relations had always been very friendly with the people of Pisa, and whose founder Dysponteus was they state the son of Œnomaus. And the people of Elis eventually razed Pisa to the ground and all the towns that had assisted her in the war.

The ruins of Pylos in Elis are visible as you go over the mountains from Olympia to Elis. And from Pylos to Elis is 80 stades’ distance. This Pylos was built, as I have already mentioned, by the Megarian Pylon the son of Cleson. And being destroyed by Hercules, and once again peopled by the people of Elis, it was destined once more to lack inhabitants. Near it the river Ladon flows into the Peneus. And the people of Elis say that it is about this Pylos that the lines of Homer[80] are.

“He derived his origin from the river Alpheus, which flows in broad volume through the territory of Pylos.”

And they persuaded me by what they said, for the Alpheus flows through this district, and the lines cannot refer to the other Pylos. For by the Pylos near the island Sphacteria the Alpheus does not flow at all, nor do we know of any town in Arcadia formerly called Pylos. And about 50 stades from Olympia is the village belonging to Elis called Heraclea, and near it is the river Cytherus. There is a well that flows into the river, and there is a temple to the Nymphs by the well. And the proper names of these Nymphs individually are Calliphæa and Synallaxis and Pegæa and Iasis, and collectively Ionides. And people bathing in this well get cured from pains and aches of all kinds. And they say the Nymphs got their name Ionides from Ion, the son of Gargettus, who migrated to this place from Athens.

But if you wish to go to Elis through the plain, it is 120 stades to Letrini, and 180 from Letrini to Elis. Letrini was a small town originally founded by Letreus the son of Pelops, but now there are only a few buildings, and a temple and statue of Alphean Artemis. They give the following legend to account for the goddess being called Alphean. Alpheus they say was deeply in love with her, and when he found he could not marry her for all his wooing and vows, he had the boldness to try and force her, and went to a nightly revel at Letrini, which was to be held by her and the Nymphs with whom she associated in sport: and she, suspecting his plot, smeared with mud her own face and the faces of all the Nymphs present, and so Alpheus when he got there could not distinguish her from the Nymphs, and accordingly had to depart without effecting his object. So the people of Letrini called the goddess Alphean from Alpheus’ passion for her. And the people of Elis, for they had an ancient friendship for the people of Letrini, say that they borrowed their worship of the Elaphiæan Artemis from them, and used to perform rites to her as Alphea, but in process of time the name Elaphiæa prevailed. But in my opinion the people of Elis called Artemis Elaphiæa from her love of hunting deer: but their own tradition is that Elaphius was the name of a woman who was Artemis’ nurse. And about six stades beyond Letrini is a perennial lake about three stades in diameter.

CHAPTER XXIII.

And the notable things in Elis are an old gymnasium, in which before they go to Olympia the athletes go through all the customary training. There are some lofty plane-trees inside a wall growing all along the course, and the whole enclosure is called Colonnade, because Hercules the son of Amphitryon used to exercise there, and all the thorns and weeds that grew there were plucked up every day. There is a course called by the people of the place sacred, set apart for the races, and there is another course where they practise for the races and the pentathlum. There is also in the gymnasium a place called Plethrium, where the Umpires pit the athletes together according to their ages or difference in their training, and put them to wrestling to test their capacities. And there are in the gymnasium altars to some of the gods, as Idæan Hercules under the title of Champion, and Eros, and the god whom the Athenians and people of Elis alike call Anteros, and Demeter and Proserpine. There is no altar to Achilles, but he has a cenotaph in accordance with an oracle. And at the commencement of the general festival on a given day, when the sun begins to set, the women of Elis among other rites in honour of Achilles are wont to wail and strike the breast.

And there is another enclosure, smaller than the gymnasium but adjacent to it, which they call from its shape the Square. And here the athletes practise their wrestling, and here they test the athletes who are past wrestling, sometimes even applying blows with mild whips. And one of the statues is erected here, which were made of Zeus out of the fine-money of Sosander of Smyrna and Polyctor of Elis. There is also a third enclosure used as a gymnasium, which is called Maltho from the softness of its floor, and this is given up to the lads all the time the general festival lasts. And in a corner of Maltho there is a statue of Hercules, merely the head and shoulders, and in one of the wrestling-places is a figure of Eros and Anteros, Eros has a branch of palm which Anteros is trying to take away. And on each side of the entrance to Maltho is the statue of a boy-boxer, and the Custos Rotulorum at Elis says that it is a native of Alexandria above the island Pharos, called Serapion, who came to Elis and gave the people food when they were short of corn. That was why he received these honours: and the date when he received the crown at Olympia, and did this kindness to the people at Elis, was the 217th Olympiad. In this gymnasium the people of Elis also have a council chamber, where they practise extempore rhetoric, and submit all kinds of writings to public criticism: it is called Lalichmium from the name of its originator. And round it are some shields hung up, well worth seeing, not made for purposes of war, but simply for ornament.

You go from the gymnasium to the baths by the street called Silence near the temple of Artemis the Lover of Youths. The goddess was so called from her proximity to the gymnasium. And the street was called Silence from the following circumstance. Some men in the army of Oxylus being sent forward to reconnoitre Elis, and having cheered one another on the road, when they got near the walls, passed round the word for silence, and to listen if they could hear any sound within the town, and so stole into the town without being observed by this street, and returned again to Ætolia after having got the wished for intelligence. And the street received its name from the silence of these spies.