Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

The part of the city on the other side of the river faces south, and has one of the most remarkable theatres in Greece, and in it is a perennial spring. And not far from the theatre are the foundations of a council-chamber, which was built for 10,000 Arcadians, and called from its builder Thersilium. And next is a house which in my time belonged to a private man, but was originally built for Alexander the son of Philip. And there is a statue of Ammon near it, like the square Hermæ, with ram’s horns on its head. And there is a temple built in common for the Muses and Apollo and Hermes, of which a few foundations only remain. There are also statues of one of the Muses, and of Apollo, like the square Hermæ. There are also ruins of a temple of Aphrodite, of which nothing remains but the vestibule and three statues of the goddess, one called the Celestial, the second the Common, the third has no title. And at no great distance is an altar of Ares, who had also it is said a temple there originally. There is also a racecourse beyond the temple of Aphrodite, in one direction extending towards the theatre, (and there is a spring of water there which they hold sacred to Dionysus,) and in another part of it there was said to be a temple of Dionysus, struck with lightning by the god two generations before my time, and there are still a few vestiges of it. But a joint-temple to Hercules and Hermes is no longer in existence, except the Altar. And in this direction there is a hill towards the east, and on it a temple of the Huntress Artemis, the votive offering of Aristodemus, and on the right are precincts sacred to the Huntress Artemis. Here too are a temple and statues of Æsculapius and Hygiea, and as you descend a little there are gods in a square shape called Workers, as Athene Ergane and Apollo Agyieus. And Hermes, Hercules, and Ilithyia, have special fame from Homer, for Hermes is the messenger of Zeus and conveys the souls of the departed to Hades, and Hercules is famous for the accomplishment of his many Labours, and Ilithyia is represented in the Iliad as presiding over childbirth. There is also another temple under this hill, of Æsculapius as a Boy, the statue of the god is erect and about a cubit in height, and there is also an Apollo seated on a throne about six feet high. There are here also stored up some bones too large to belong to a man, they are said to have belonged to one of the giants, whom Hopladamus called in to aid Rhea, the circumstances I shall narrate later on. And near this temple is a well, which contributes its water to the Helisson.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

That Megalopolis, peopled with such zeal on the part of all the Arcadians and with the best wishes from all Greece, has lost all its ancient prestige and felicity and is in our day mostly ruins, I nothing marvel at, knowing that the deity ever likes to introduce changes, and that fortune in like manner changes things strong and weak, present and past, reducing with a high hand everything in subjection to her. Witness Mycenæ, which in the days of the war against Ilium was the leading power in Greece, and Nineveh the seat of the Assyrian empire, and Thebes in Bœotia, which was once reckoned worthy to be at the head of Greece: the two former are in ruins and without inhabitants, while the name of Thebes has come down to a citadel only and a few inhabitants. And of the cities which were excessively wealthy of old, as Thebes in Egypt, and Orchomenus belonging to the Minyæ, and Delos the emporium of all Greece, the two former are hardly as wealthy as a man moderately well off, while Delos is actually without a population at all, if you do not reckon the Athenians who come to guard the temple. And of Babylon nothing remains but the temple of Bel and the walls, though it was the greatest city once that the sun shone upon, as nothing but its walls remain to Tiryns in Argolis. All these the deity has reduced to nothing. Whereas Alexandria in Egypt and Seleucia on the Orontes, that were built only yesterday, have attained to such a size and felicity, that fortune seems to lavish her favours upon them. Fortune also exhibits her power more mightily and wonderfully than in the good or bad fortune of cities in the following cases. No long sail from Lemnos is the island Chryse, in which they say Philoctetes met with his bite from the watersnake. This island was entirely submerged by the waves, so that it went to the bottom of the sea. And another island called Hiera, which did not then exist, has been formed by the action of the sea. So fleeting and unstable are human affairs!

CHAPTER XXXIV.

As you go from Megalopolis to Messene, you will come in about 7 stades to a temple of some goddesses on the left of the high road. They call both goddesses and place Maniæ, which is I fancy a title of the Eumenides, for they say Orestes was driven mad here after the murder of his mother. And not far from the temple is a small mound, with a stone finger upon it, the mound is called Finger’s tomb, because here they say Orestes in his madness gnawed off one of his fingers. And there is another place contiguous called Ace, because there Orestes was healed of his madness: there too is a temple to the Eumenides. These goddesses, they say, when they wanted to drive Orestes mad, appeared black to him, and when he had gnawed off his finger then they appeared white, and this sight made him sane, and he turned away their wrath by offering to them expiations, and he sacrificed to these white goddesses; they usually sacrifice to them and the Graces together. And near the place Ace is a temple called Shearing-place, because Orestes cut off his hair inside it. And the Antiquarians of the Peloponnese say that this pursuit of Orestes by the Furies of his mother Clytæmnestra happened prior to the trial before the Areopagus, when his accuser was not Tyndareus, for he was no longer alive, but Perilaus the cousin of Clytæmnestra, who asked for vengeance for the murder of his kinswoman. Perilaus was the son of Icarius, who afterwards had daughters born to him.

From Maniæ to the Alpheus is about 15 stades, to the place where the river Gatheatas flows into the Alpheus, as earlier still the river Carnion falls into the Gatheatas. The sources of the Carnion are at Ægytis below the temple of Apollo Cereates; and the Gatheatas has its rise at Gatheæ in the Cromitic district, which is about 40 stades from the Alpheus, and in it the ruins can still be traced of the town of Cromi. From Cromi it is about 20 stades to Nymphas, which is well watered and full of trees. And from Nymphas it is about 20 stades to Hermæum, the boundary between the districts of Messenia and Megalopolis, where there is a Hermes on a pillar.

CHAPTER XXXV.

This road leads to Messene, but another leads from Megalopolis to Carnasium in Messenia, where the Alpheus has its rise, at the place where the Malus and the Scyrus mingle their waters with it in one stream. If you keep the Malus on the right for about thirty stades and then cross it, you will mount on higher ground till you come to the place called Phædria, which is about 15 stades from the village called Hermæum, near the temple of Despœna. Hermæum is the boundary between the districts of Messenia and Megalopolis, and there are statues not very large of Despœna and Demeter, Hermes and Hercules: and I think the wooden statue of Hercules made by Dædalus on the borders of Messenia and Arcadia once stood here.

The road to Lacedæmon from Megalopolis is 30 stades to the Alpheus, and then along the riverside till you come to one of its tributaries the Thius, which you leave on the left and arrive at Phalæsiæ, about 40 stades from the Alpheus. Phalæsiæ is about 20 stades from the temple of Hermes at Belemina. The Arcadians say that Belemina originally belonged to them, and that the Lacedæmonians robbed them of it. But their account is not probable on other grounds, nor is at all likely that the Thebans would have allowed the Arcadians to be stripped of their territory in this quarter, could they with justice have righted them.

From Megalopolis are also roads to the interior of Arcadia, as to Methydrium 170 stades from Megalopolis, and 13 stades further to the place called Scias, where are ruins of a temple to Sciadian Artemis, erected tradition says by Aristodemus the tyrant. And 10 stades further there are the ruins of a place called Charisiæ, and another 10 stades further is Tricoloni, which was formerly a town; and there is still on the hill a temple and square statue of Poseidon, and a grove of trees round the temple. Tricoloni was founded by the sons of Lycaon, and Zœtia about 15 stades from Tricoloni, (not in a direct line but a little to the left); was founded they say by Zœteus the son of Tricolonus. And Paroreus, the younger son of Tricolonus, founded Paroria, which is about 10 stades from Zœtia. Both are without inhabitants now, but at Zœtia there are temples of Demeter and Artemis. And there are other towns in ruins, as Thyræum 15 stades from Paroria, and Hypsus on a hill of the same name above the plain. Between Thyræum and Hypsus all the country is hilly and abounds with wild beasts. I have previously shewn that Thyræus and Hypsus were sons of Lycaon.