Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

When you have crossed the river called Dirce from the wife of Lycus, (about this Dirce there is a tradition that she defamed Antiope and was consequently killed by the sons of Antiope), there are ruins of Pindar’s house, and a temple of the Dindymene Mother, the votive offering of Pindar, the statue of the goddess is by the Thebans Aristomedes and Socrates. They are wont to open this temple one day in each year and no more. I happened to be present on that day, and I saw the statue which is of Pentelican marble as well as the throne.

On the road from the gate Neistis is the temple of Themis and the statue of the goddess in white stone, and next come temples of the Fates and of Zeus Agoræus, the latter has a stone statue, but the Fates have no statues. And at a little distance is a statue of Hercules in the open air called Nose-cutter-off, because (say the Thebans) he cut off the noses of the envoys who came from Orchomenus to demand tribute.

About 25 stades further you come to the grove of Cabirian Demeter and Proserpine, which none may enter but the initiated. About seven stades from this grove is the temple of the Cabiri. Who they were and what are their rites or those of Demeter I must be pardoned by the curious for passing over in silence. But nothing prevents my publishing to everybody the origin of these rites according to the Theban traditions. They say there was formerly a town here, the inhabitants of which were called Cabiri, and that Demeter getting acquainted with Prometheus (one of the Cabiri), and Prometheus’ son Ætnæus, put something into their hands. What this deposit was, and the circumstances relating to it, it is not lawful for me to disclose. But the mysteries of Demeter were a gift to the Cabiri. But when the Epigoni led an army against Thebes and captured it, the Cabiri were driven out by the Argives, and for some time the mysteries were not celebrated. Afterwards however they are said to have been reestablished by Pelarge, the daughter of Potneus, and her husband Isthmiades, who taught them to the person whose name was Alexiarous. And because Pelarge celebrated the mysteries beyond the ancient boundaries, Telondes and all of the Cabiri who had left Cabiræa returned. Pelarge in consequence of an oracle from Dodona was treated with various honours, and a victim big with young was ordered for her sacrifice. The wrath of the Cabiri is implacable as has frequently been manifested. For example when some private persons at Naupactus imitated the mysteries at Thebes, vengeance soon came upon them. And those of Xerxes’ army who were with Mardonius and left in Bœotia, when they entered the temple of the Cabiri (partly from the hope of finding great wealth there, but more I think to insult the divinity), went mad and perished by throwing themselves into the sea from the rocks. And when Alexander after his victory put Thebes and all Thebais on fire, the Macedonians who went into the temple of the Cabiri with hostile intent were killed by lightning and thunderbolts. So holy was this temple from the first.

CHAPTER XXVI.

On the right of the temple of the Cabiri is a plain called the plain of Tenerus from Tenerus the seer, who they think was the son of Apollo and Melia, and a large temple to Hercules surnamed Hippodetes, because they say the Orchomenians came here with an army, and Hercules by night took their horses and tied them to their chariots. And a little further you come to the mountain where they say the Sphinx made her headquarters, reciting a riddle for the ruin of those she captured. Others say that with a naval force she used to sail the seas as a pirate, and made her port Anthedon, and occupied this mountain for her robberies, till Œdipus slew her after vanquishing her with a superior force, which he brought from Corinth. It is also said that she was the illegitimate daughter of Laius, and that her father out of good will to her told her the oracle that was given to Cadmus at Delphi, an oracle which no one knew but the kings of Thebes. Whenever then any one of her brothers came to consult her about the kingdom, (for Laius had sons by mistresses, and the oracle at Delphi only referred to his wife Epicaste and male children by her), she used subtlety to her brothers, saying that if they were the sons of Laius they would know the oracle given to Cadmus, and if they could not give it she condemned them to death, as being doubtful claimants of the blood royal. And Œdipus learnt this oracle in a dream.

About 15 stades from this mountain are the ruins of Onchestus, where they say Onchestus the son of Poseidon dwelt, and in my time there was a statue of Onchestian Poseidon, and the grove which Homer has mentioned.[63] And as you turn to the left from the temple of the Cabiri in about 50 stades you will come to Thespia built under Mount Helicon. The town got its name they say from Thespia the daughter of Asopus. Others say that Thespius the son of Erechtheus came from Athens, and gave his name to it. At Thespia is a brazen statue of Zeus Soter: they say that, when a dragon once infested the town, Zeus ordered one of the lads chosen by lot every year to be given to the monster. The names of his other victims they do not record, but for Cleostratus the last victim they say his lover Menestratus invented the following contrivance. He made for him a brazen breastplate with a hook on each of its plates bent in, and Cleostratus armed with this cheerfully gave himself up to the dragon, for he knew that though he would perish himself he would also kill the monster. From this circumstance Zeus was called the Saviour. They have also statues of Dionysus and Fortune, and Hygiea, and Athene the Worker, and near her Plutus.

[63] Iliad, ii. 506.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Of the gods the Thespians have always honoured Eros most, of whom they have a very old statue in rude stone. But who instituted the worship of Eros at Thespia I do not know. This god is worshipped not a whit less by the Pariani who live near the Hellespont, who were originally from Ionia and migrated from Erythræ, and are now included amongst the Romans. Most men think Eros the latest of the gods, and the son of Aphrodite. But the Lycian Olen, who wrote the most ancient Hymns of the Greeks, says in his Hymn to Ilithyia that she was the mother of Eros. And after Olen Pamphus and Orpheus wrote verses to Eros for the Lycomidæ to sing at the mysteries, and I have read them thanks to a torch-bearer at the mysteries. But of these I shall make no further mention. And Hesiod, (or whoever wrote the Theogony and foisted it on Hesiod), wrote I know that Chaos came first, and then Earth, and Tartarus, and Eros. And the Lesbian Sappho has sung many things about Eros which do not harmonize with one another. Lysippus afterwards made a brazen statue of Eros for the Thespians, and still earlier Praxiteles made one in Pentelican marble. I have told elsewhere all about Phryne’s ingenious trick on Praxiteles. This statue of Eros was removed first by the Roman Emperor Gaius, and, though it was restored by Claudius to Thespia, Nero removed it to Rome once more. And there it was burnt by fire. But of those who acted thus impiously to the god Gaius, always giving the same obscene word to a soldier, made him so angry that at last he killed him for it,[64] and Nero, besides his dealings to his mother and wedded wives, showed himself an abominable fellow and one that had no true affinity with Eros. The statue of Eros in Thespia in our day is by the Athenian Menodorus, who made an imitation of the statue of Praxiteles. There are also statues in stone by Praxiteles of Aphrodite and Phryne. And in another part of the town is a temple of Black Aphrodite, and a theatre and market-place well worth seeing: there is also a brazen statue of Hesiod. And not far from the market-place is a brazen Victory, and a small temple of the Muses, and some small stone statues in it.

There is also a temple of Hercules at Thespia, the priestess is a perpetual virgin. The reason of this is as follows. They say that Hercules in one night had connection with all the fifty daughters of Thestius but one: her he spared and made her his priestess on condition that she remained a virgin all her life. I have indeed heard another tradition, that Hercules in the same night had connection with all the daughters of Thestius, and that they all bare him sons, and the eldest and youngest twins. But I cannot believe this credible that Hercules should have been so angry with the daughter of his friend. Besides he who, while he was among men, punished insolent persons and especially those who showed impiety to the gods, would not have been likely to have built a temple and appointed a priestess to himself as if he had been a god. And indeed this temple seems to me too ancient for Hercules the son of Amphitryon, and was perhaps erected by the Hercules who was one of the Idæan Dactyli, temples of whom I have found among the people of Erythræ in Ionia, and among the people of Tyre. Nor are the Bœotians ignorant of this Hercules, for they say that the temple of Mycalessian Demeter was entrusted to Idæan Hercules.