Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

Here too is a temple of Hercules called Champion, his statue is of white stone by Xenocritus and Eubius, both Thebans: the old wooden statue the Thebans think is by Dædalus and I think so too. He made it, so the story goes, in return for an act of kindness. For when he fled from Crete the boats he made were not large enough both for himself and Icarus his son, and he also employed sails, an invention not known in his day, that he might get the advantage of the boats of Minos (which were only rowed) by availing himself of a favourable wind, and he got off safe, but Icarus steering his boat rather awkwardly it upset they say, and he was drowned, and his dead body carried by the waves to an island beyond Samos which then had no name. And Hercules found and recognised the corpse, and buried it, where now is a mound of no great size, by the promontory that juts out into the Ægean Sea. And the island and the sea near it got their names from Icarus. And on the gables Praxiteles has carved most of the 12 Labours of Hercules, all in short but the killing of the Stymphelian birds, and the cleansing of the country of Elis, and instead of these is a representation of the wrestling with Antæus. And when Thrasybulus the son of Lycus and the Athenians with him put down the Thirty Tyrants, (they had started from Thebes on their return from exile), they offered to this temple of Hercules colossal statues of Athene and Hercules in Pentelican marble, by Alcamenes.

Near the temple of Hercules are a gymnasium and racecourse both called after the god. And beyond the stone Composer is an altar of Apollo Spodius, made of the ashes of the victims. There is divination there by omens, which kind of divination I know the people of Smyrna use more than all the other Greeks, for they have outside their walls beyond the city a Temple of Omens.

CHAPTER XII.

The Thebans used of old to sacrifice bulls to Apollo Spodius: but on one occasion during the festival when the time for the sacrifice drew nigh, and those who had been sent for the bull did not come with it, they sacrificed to the god one of the oxen in a waggon that chanced to be near, and since that time they have sacrificed oxen employed in labour. They also tell this tradition, that Cadmus when travelling from Delphi to Phocis was guided on his journey by a cow which he had purchased from the herds of Pelagon, which had on each side a white mark like the orb of the moon at the full. Cadmus and all the army with him were according to the oracle to make their home where the cow should lie down tired. This spot they show. There in the open air is an altar and statue of Athene, erected they say by Cadmus. To those who think that Cadmus came to Thebes from Egypt and not from Phœnicia this name of Athene affords refutation: for she is called Onga which is a Phœnician word, and not by the Egyptian name Sais. And the Thebans say that the house of Cadmus was originally in that part of the citadel where the market-place now is: and they shew the ruins of the bridal chambers of Harmonia and Semele, this last they do not allow men to enter even to this day. And those Greeks who believe that the Muses sang at the marriage of Harmonia say that this spot in the market-place is where they sang. There is also a tradition that together with the lightning that struck the bridal-chamber of Semele fell a piece of wood from heaven: and Polydorus they say adorned this piece of wood with brass, and called it Dionysus Cadmus. And very near is the statue of Dionysus, made by Onasimedes of brass throughout, the altar was made by the sons of Praxiteles.

There is also the statue of Pronomus, a man most attractive as a flute-player. For a long time flute-players had only three kinds of flutes, for some played in the Dorian measure, and other flutes were adapted to the Phrygian and Lydian measures. And Pronomus was the first who saw that flutes were fit for every kind of measure, and was the first to play different measures on the same flute. It is said also that by the appearance of his features and the motion of all his body he gave wonderful pleasure in the theatre, and a processional song of his is extant for the dwellers at Chalcis near the Euripus who came to Delos. To him and to Epaminondas the son of Polymnis the Thebans erected statues here.

CHAPTER XIII.

Epaminondas was of illustrious descent, but his father was very poor even for an average Theban, and he learnt very carefully the national education, and when he was quite a stripling went to school to Lysis the Tarentine, who had been a pupil of Pythagoras of Samos. And, when the Lacedæmonians were at war with the Mantineans, Epaminondas is said to have been sent amongst others from Thebes to aid the Lacedæmonians. And when Pelopidas was wounded in the battle, he ran great risks to bring him out of it safe. And afterwards when Epaminondas went on an embassy to Sparta, when the Lacedæmonians agreed to ratify with the Greeks the peace known as the peace of Antalcidas, and Agesilaus asked him if the Thebans would allow the various towns in Bœotia to subscribe to the peace separately, “Not,” he answered, “O Spartans, until we see your neighbouring towns setting us the example.” And when war at last broke out between the Lacedæmonians and the Thebans, and the Lacedæmonians attacked the Thebans with their own forces and those of their allies, Epaminondas with part of his army stationed himself near the marsh Cephisis, as the Peloponnesians were going to make their attack in that quarter, but Cleombrotus the king of the Lacedæmonians turned aside to Ambrosus in Phocis, and after slaying Chæreas, who had been ordered to guard the by-roads, and the men who were with him, passed by and got to Leuctra in Bœotia. There Cleombrotus and the Lacedæmonians generally had portents from the gods. The Spartan kings when they went out to war used to be accompanied by flocks of sheep, to sacrifice to the gods and to give them good omens before battles. These flocks were led by a particular kind of goat that the shepherds called catoiades. And on this occasion some wolves attacked the flocks but did no harm to the sheep, only slew the goats. Vengeance is said to have come upon the Lacedæmonians in consequence of the daughters of Scedasus. Scedasus lived at Leuctra and had two daughters Molpia and Hippo. They were very beautiful and two Lacedæmonians, Phrurarchidas and Parthenius, iniquitously violated them, and they forthwith hung themselves, for this outrage was more than they could bear: and Scedasus, when he could get no reparation at Lacedæmon for this outrage, returned to Leuctra and committed suicide. Then Epaminondas offered funeral rites to Scedasus and his daughters, and vowed that a battle should take place there, as much for their vengeance as for the safety of Thebes. But the Bœotarchs were not all of the same view, but differed in their opinions. Epaminondas and Malgis and Xenocrates were for engaging the Lacedæmonians without delay, whereas Damoclidas and Damophilus and Simangelus were against an engagement, and recommended the withdrawal of the women and children into Attica, and that they should themselves prepare for a siege. Thus the votes of the six were equally divided, but the vote of the 7th Bœotarch on his return to the camp, (he had been on the look-out at Cithæron, and his name was Bacchylides), being given on the side of Epaminondas, it was agreed to stake everything on a battle. Now Epaminondas had suspicions about the fidelity of several of the Bœotians especially the Thespians, fearing therefore that they would desert in the battle, he gave leave to whoever would to go home, and the Thespians went off in full force, and any other Bœotians who had ill-will to the Thebans. And when the engagement came on, the allies of the Lacedæmonians, who had previously not been overwell pleased with them, openly showed their hostility by not standing their ground, but giving way wherever the enemy attacked. But the battle between the Lacedæmonians and the Thebans was well contested, the former relying on their long military experience and ashamed to impair the old prestige of Sparta, while the latter saw that the fate of their country their wives and children was staked on the result of this fight. But after many Lacedæmonians of high rank had fallen as also their king Cleombrotus, then the Spartans though hard pressed felt obliged to continue the combat, for amongst the Lacedæmonians it was considered most disgraceful to allow the dead body of one of their kings to remain in the hands of the enemy.

This victory of the Thebans was the most notable of all victories won by Greeks over Greeks: for the Lacedæmonians on the next day instead of renewing the battle purposed burying their dead, and sent a herald to the Thebans to ask leave to do so. And Epaminondas knowing that it was always the custom of the Lacedæmonians to conceal their losses, said that their allies must first bury their dead, and afterwards he would permit the Lacedæmonians to bury theirs. And as some of the allies had none to bury, (as none of them were killed), and others had lost only a few, the Lacedæmonians buried their dead, and thus it was clear that most of the dead were Spartans. Of the Thebans and Bœotians who remained to share in the battle there fell only 47 men, while the Lacedæmonians lost more than 1,000.

CHAPTER XIV.

Directly after the battle Epaminondas allowed all the other Peloponnesians to depart to their homes, but the Lacedæmonians he kept shut up at Leuctra. But when he heard that the Spartans were coming in full force to their relief, then he allowed them to depart on conditions of war, for he said that it was better to fight on Lacedæmonian than Bœotian ground. And the Thespians, looking with regret at their past ill-will to the Thebans and with anxiety at their present fortunes, thought it best to abandon their own city and flee to Ceressus, a fortified place belonging to them, into which they had formerly thrown themselves when the Thessalians invaded their country. But the Thessalians on that occasion, as they seemed hardly likely to capture Ceressus consulted the oracle at Delphi, and this was the response they received. “Shady Leuctra and the Alesian soil are dear to me, dear to me too are the unfortunate daughters of Scedasus. In the future looms a lamentable battle there: but no one shall capture it till the Dorians lose the flower of their young men, when its day of fate shall have come. Then shall Ceressus be captured, but not before.”