Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER XXI.

I have also seen another Triton among the Curiosities at Rome, but not so big as this one at Tanagra. This is the appearance of Tritons: the hair on their head is like frog-wort in the marshes, and one hair is not to be distinguished from another, the rest of their body is rough with thin scales like the shark. Under their ears they have the gills of a fish, and the nose of a man but a somewhat larger mouth and the teeth of an animal. Their eyes are I think a greyish blue, and their hands and fingers and nails are like the claws of shell-fish. And under the breast and belly they have fins like dolphins instead of feet. I have also seen the Ethiopian bulls, which they call rhinoceroses because a horn projects from their nose and a little horn besides under it, but they have no horns on their head. I have seen also the Pæonian bulls, which are rough all over their bodies but especially in the breast and chin. I have seen also the Indian camels which are like leopards in colour. There is also a wild animal called the elk, which is something between a stag and a camel, and is found among the Celts. It is the only animal we know of that men cannot hunt or see at a distance, but when they are engaged in hunting other animals sometimes the deity drives the elk into their hands. But it scents men they say at a great distance, and hides among the rocks and in the recesses of caves. Hunters therefore, when they have drawn a large net completely round a large district or even a mountain, so that nothing in that area can escape, among other animals that they catch when they draw the net tight capture occasionally the elk. But if it should not happen to be in this area, there is no other device by which one could capture the elk. As to the wild animal which Ctesias speaks of in his account of the Indians, called by them martiora, but by the Greeks manslayer, I am convinced this is the tiger. As to the Indian tradition, that it has three rows of teeth in each of its jaws and stings at the end of its tail, with which it defends itself and hurls them at a distance like an archer his arrows, this report I cannot believe, and I think the Indians only accept it from their excessive terror of this animal. They are also deceived about its colour, for when it appears in the rays of the Sun the tiger often looks red and all one colour, either from its speed or if not running from its incessant motion, especially if it is not seen near. I think indeed that if anyone were to travel into the remote parts of Libya or India or Arabia, wishing to find the wild animals that are to be found in Greece, he would not find them at all, but he would find others different. For it is not only man that changes his appearance in different climates and lands, but also everything else is subject to the same conditions, for the Libyan asps have the same colour as the Egyptian ones, while in Ethiopia the earth produces them as black as the men. We ought therefore neither to receive any account too hastily, nor to discredit the uncommon, for example I myself have not seen winged serpents yet I believe there are such, for a Phrygian brought into Ionia a scorpion that had wings like locusts.

CHAPTER XXII.

At Tanagra besides the temple of Dionysus there is one of Themis, and another of Aphrodite, and a third of Apollo, near which are both Artemis and Leto. With respect to the two temples of Hermes the Ram-carrier and Hermes the Champion, they say Hermes got the first title because he allayed a pestilence by carrying a ram round the walls, and that is why Calamis made a statue of Hermes carrying a ram on his shoulders. And whoever is selected as the most handsome youth, carries a ram on his shoulders round the walls during the festival of Hermes. And Hermes they say was called Champion because, when the Eretrians came with a fleet from Eubœa to Tanagra, he led the young men out to battle, and himself (with a scraper like a young man) mainly brought about the rout of the Eubœans. There is also some purslane preserved in the temple of Hermes the Champion: for they fancy it was under this tree that Hermes was reared. And at no great distance is a theatre, and near it a portico. The people of Tanagra seem to honour their gods most of all the Greeks, for they keep their houses and temples apart, and their temples are in a pure place, and apart from men. And Corinna, the only Poetess of Tanagra, has a tomb in the town in a conspicuous place, and her painting is in the gymnasium, her head is adorned with a fillet because of her victory over Pindar at Thebes. And I think she conquered him because of her dialect, for she did not compose in Doric like Pindar, but in Æolic which the Æolians would understand, and she was also one of the handsomest of women as we can see from her painting. They have also two kinds of cocks, game cocks and those they call black cocks. The latter are in size like the Lydian birds and in colour like a crow, and their gills and crest are like the anemone, and they have small white marks on the end of their bill and tail. Such is their appearance.

And in Bœotia on the left of the Euripus is the mountain Messapium, and at the foot of it is the Bœotian city Anthedon on the sea, called according to some after the Nymph Anthedon, but according to others from Anthas who they say ruled here, the son of Poseidon by Alcyone the daughter of Atlas. At Anthedon in about the middle of the city is a temple and grove round it of the Cabiri, and near it is a temple of Demeter and Proserpine and their statues in white stone. There is also a temple of Dionysus and a statue of the god in front of the city in the land direction. Here too are the tombs of Otus and Ephialtes the sons of Iphimedea and Aloeus, who were slain by Apollo as both Homer[60] and Pindar have represented. Fate carried them off in Naxos beyond Paros, but their tombs are in Anthedon. And by the sea is a place called the leap of Glaucus. He was a fisherman but after eating a certain grass became a marine god and predicts the future, as is believed by many and especially by seafaring men, who every year speak of Glaucus’ powers of prophesy. Pindar and Æschylus have celebrated Glaucus from these traditions of the people of Anthedon, Pindar not so much, but Æschylus has made him the subject of one of his plays.

[60] Odyssey, xi. 318-320. Pindar, Pyth. iv. 156 sq.

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Thebans in front of the gate Prœtis have what is called the gymnasium of Iolaus, and a mound of earth constituting a race-course like that at Olympia and Epidaurus. There is also shown there the hero-chapel of Iolaus, who died in Sardinia, (as the Thebans admit), with the Athenians and Thespians who crossed over with him. As you leave the race-course on the right is the Hippodrome, and in it is the tomb of Pindar. When he was quite a young man, going one day to Thespiæ in the middle of a very hot day, he was tired and sleep came upon him. And he lay down a little above the road, and some bees settled on him as he slept and made their honey on his lips. This circumstance made him first write poems. And when he was famous throughout all Greece, the Pythian Priestess raised his fame still higher by proclaiming at Delphi, that Pindar was to have an equal share with Apollo of the firstfruits. It is said that he also had an appearance in a dream when he was advanced in years. Proserpine stood by him as he slept, and told him that she was the only one of the gods that was not celebrated by him, but he would also celebrate her in an Ode when he came to her. And he died before the close of the 10th day after this dream. And there was at Thebes an old woman related to Pindar, who had been accustomed to sing many of his Odes, to her Pindar appeared in a dream and recited his Hymn to Proserpine. And she directly she awoke wrote it down just as she had heard him reciting in her dream. In this Hymn Pluto has several titles, among others the Golden-reined, dearly an allusion to the Rape of Proserpine.

The road from the tomb of Pindar to Acræphnium is mostly level. They say Acræphnium was originally a city in the district of Thebes, and I heard that some Thebans fled for refuge there when Alexander destroyed Thebes, for through weakness and old age they were not able to get safe to Attica but dwelt there. This little city is situated on Mount Ptoum, and the temple and statue of Dionysus there are well worth seeing.

About 15 stades further you come to the temple of Ptoan Apollo. Ptous was the son of Athamas and Themisto, and from him both Apollo and the Mountain got their name according to the poet Asius. And before the invasion of Alexander and the Macedonians, and the destruction of Thebes, there was an infallible oracle there. And on one occasion a European whose name was Mys was sent by Mardonius to consult the oracle in his own tongue, and the god gave his response not in Greek but in the Carian dialect.[61]