Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

Past Lycosura in a westerly direction flows the river Plataniston, which everyone must cross who is going to Phigalia, after which an ascent of 30 stades or a little more takes you to that town. How Phigalus was the son of Lycaon, and how he was the original founder of the town, and how in process of time the name of the town got changed into Phialia from Phialus the son of Bucolion, and afterwards got back its old name, all this I have entered into already. There are other traditions not worthy of credit, as that Phigalus was an Autochthon and not the son of Lycaon, and some say that Phigalia was one of the Nymphs called Dryads. When the Lacedæmonians attacked Arcadia and invaded Phigalia, they defeated the inhabitants in a battle and laid siege to the town, and as the town was nearly taken by storm the Phigalians evacuated it, or the Lacedæmonians allowed them to leave it upon conditions of war. And the capture of Phigalia and the flight of the Phigalians from it took place when Miltiades was chief magistrate at Athens, in the 2nd year of the 30th Olympiad, in which Chionis the Laconian was victor for the third time. And it seemed good to those Phigalians who had escaped to go to Delphi, and inquire of the god as to their return. And the Pythian Priestess told them that if they tried by themselves to return to Phigalia she foresaw no hope of their return, but if they took a hundred picked men from Oresthasium, and they were slain in battle, the Phigalians would get their return through them. And when the people of Oresthasium heard of the oracular message given to the Phigalians, they vied with one another in zeal who should be one of the 100 picked men, and participate in the expedition to Phigalia. And they engaged with the Lacedæmonian garrison and fulfilled the oracle completely: for they all died fighting bravely, and drove out the Spartans, and put it in the power of the Phigalians to recover their native town. Phigalia lies on a hill which is mostly precipitous, and its walls are built on the rocks, but as you go up to the town there is a gentle and easy ascent. And there is a temple of Artemis the Preserver, and her statue in stone in an erect position. From this temple they usually conduct the processions. And in the gymnasium there is a statue of Hermes with a cloak on, which does not cease at his feet but covers the whole square figure. There is also a temple of Dionysus called Acratophorus by the people of the place, the lower parts of the statue are not visible being covered by leaves of laurel and ivy. And all the statue that can be seen is coloured with vermilion so as to look very gay. The Iberes find this vermilion with their gold.

[41] Iliad, xxi. 194-197.

[42] Iliad, xxiv. 615-617.

CHAPTER XL.

The people of Phigalia have also in their market-place the statue of Arrhachion the pancratiast, an antique one in all other respects and not least so in its shape. The feet are not very wide apart, and the hands are by the side near the buttocks. The statue is of stone, and they say there was an inscription on it, which time has obliterated. This Arrhachion had two victories at Olympia in the two Olympiads before the 54th, through the equity of the umpires and his own merit. For when he contended for the prize of wild olive with the only one of his antagonists that remained, his opponent got hold of him first and with his feet hugged him, and at the same time grappled his neck tightly with his arms. And Arrhachion broke the finger of his antagonist, and gave up the ghost being throttled, and his antagonist also, though he had throttled Arrhachion, fainted away from the pain his finger gave him. And the people of Elis crowned the dead body of Arrhachion and proclaimed him victor. I know the Argives did the same in the case of Creugas the boxer of Epidamnus, for though he was dead they gave him the crown at Nemea, because his opponent Damoxenus the Syracusan violated their mutual agreements. For as they were boxing evening came on, and they agreed in the hearing of all the audience that they should strike one another once in turn. Boxers did not at this time wear the cestus loaded with iron, but they wore leather thongs, (which they fastened under the hollow of the hand that the fingers might be left uncovered), made of ox hides and thin and deftly woven together after an old fashion. Then Creugas delivered the first blow on Damoxenus’ head, and Damoxenus bade Creugas hold back his hand, and as he did so struck him under the ribs with his fingers straight out, and such was the hardness of his nails and the violence of the blow that his hand pierced his side, seized his bowels and dragged and tore them out. Creugas immediately expired. And the Argives drove Damoxenus off the course because he had violated the conditions, and instead of one blow had given several to his antagonist. To Creugas though dead they assigned the victory, and erected to him a statue in Argos, which is now in the temple of Lycian Apollo.

CHAPTER XLI.

The Phigalians have also in their market-place a mortuary chapel to the 100 picked men from Oresthasium, and annually offer funeral sacrifices to them as to heroes. And the river called Lymax which falls into the Neda flows by Phigalia. It got its name Lymax they say from the purifications of Rhea. For when after giving birth to Zeus the Nymphs purified her after travail, they threw into this river the afterbirth, which the ancients called Lymata. Homer bears me out when he says that the Greeks purifying themselves to get rid of the pestilence threw the purifications into the sea.[43] The Neda rises on the mountain Cerausius, which is a part of Mount Lycæus. And where the Neda is nearest to Phigalia, there the lads of the town shear off their hair to the river. And near the sea it is navigable for small craft. Of all the rivers that we know of the Mæander is most winding having most curves and sinuosities. And next for winding would come the Neda. About 12 stades from Phigalia are hot baths, and the Lymax flows into the Neda not far from that place. And where they join their streams is a temple of Eurynome, holy from remote antiquity, and difficult of access from the roughness of the ground. Round it grow many cypresses close to one another. Eurynome the Phigalian people believe to be a title of Artemis, but their Antiquarians say that Eurynome was the daughter of Oceanus, and is mentioned by Homer in the Iliad as having joined Thetis in receiving Hephæstus.[44] And on the same day annually they open the temple of Eurynome: for at all other times they keep it shut. And on that day they have both public and private sacrifices to her. I was not in time for the festival, nor did I see the statue of Eurynome. But I heard from the Phigalians that the statue has gold chains round it, and that it is a woman down to the waist and a fish below. To the daughter of Oceanus who dwelt with Thetis in the depths of the sea these fish extremities would be suitable: but I do not see any logical connection between Artemis and a figure of this kind.

Phigalia is surrounded by mountains, on the left by Cotilius, on the right by the projecting mountain Elaion. Cotilius is about 40 stades from Phigalia, and on it is a place called Bassæ, and a temple of Apollo the Helper, the roof of which is of stone. This temple would stand first of all the temples in the Peloponnese, except that at Tegea, for the beauty of the stone and neatness of the structure. And Apollo got his title of Helper in reference to a pestilence, as among the Athenians he got the title of Averter of Ill because he turned away from them some pestilence. He helped the Phigalians about the time of the Peloponnesian war, as both titles of Apollo shew plainly, and Ictinus the builder of the temple at Phigalia was a contemporary of Pericles, and the architect of what is called the Parthenon at Athens. I have already mentioned the statue of Apollo in the market-place at Megalopolis.

And there is a spring of water on Mount Cotilius, from which somebody has written that the river Lymax takes its rise, but he can neither have seen the spring himself, nor had his account from any one who had seen it. I have done both: and the water of the spring on Mount Cotilius does not travel very far, but in a short time gets lost in the ground altogether. Not that it occurred to me to inquire in what part of Arcadia the river Lymax rises. Above the temple of Apollo the Helper is a place called Cotilum, where there is a temple of Aphrodite lacking a roof, as also a statue of the goddess.

[43] Iliad, i. 314.