Delphi Complete Works of Pausanias

by Pausanias

  [38.2] Fifty stades, I conjecture, from Temenium is Nauplia, which at the present day is uninhabited; its founder was Nauplius, reputed to be a son of Poseidon and Amymone. Of the walls, too, ruins still remain and in Nauplia are a sanctuary of Poseidon, harbors, and a spring called Canathus. Here, say the Argives, Hera bathes every year and recovers her maidenhood.

  [3] οὗτος μὲν δή σφισιν ἐκ τελετῆς, ἣν ἄγουσι τῇ Ἥρᾳ, λόγος τῶν ἀπορρήτων ἐστίν: τὰ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν Ναυπλίᾳ λεγόμενα ἐς τὸν ὄνον, ὡς ἐπιφαγὼν ἀμπέλου κλῆμα ἀφθονώτερον ἐς τὸ μέλλον ἀπέφηνε τὸν καρπόν — καὶ ὄνος σφίσιν ἐν πέτρᾳ πεποιημένος διὰ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἅτε ἀμπέλων διδάξας τομήν — , παρίημι οὐκ ἀξιόλογα ἡγούμενος.

  [38.3] This is one of the sayings told as a holy secret at the mysteries which they celebrate in honor of Hera. The story told by the people in Nauplia about the ass, how by nibbling down the shoots of a vine he caused a more plenteous crop of grapes in the future, and how for this reason they have carved an ass on a rock, because he taught the pruning of vines – all this I pass over as trivial.

  GENESIUM & THYREATIS

  [4] ἔστι δὲ ἐκ Λέρνης καὶ ἑτέρα παρ᾽ αὐτὴν ὁδὸς τὴν θάλασσαν ἐπὶ χωρίον ὃ Γενέσιον ὀνομάζουσι: πρὸς θαλάσσῃ δὲ τοῦ Γενεσίου Ποσειδῶνος ἱερόν ἐστιν οὐ μέγα. τούτου δ᾽ ἔχεται χωρίον ἄλλο Ἀπόβαθμοι: γῆς δὲ ἐνταῦθα πρῶτον τῆς Ἀργολίδος Δαναὸν σὺν ταῖς παισὶν ἀποβῆναι λέγουσιν. ἐντεῦθεν διελθοῦσιν Ἀνιγραῖα καλούμενα ὁδὸν καὶ στενὴν καὶ ἄλλως δύσβατον, ἔστιν ἐν ἀριστερᾷ μὲν καθήκουσα ἐπὶ θάλασσαν καὶ δένδρα — ἐλαίας μάλιστα — ἀγαθὴ τρέφειν γῆ, ἰόντι

  [38.4] From Lerna there is also another road, which skirts the sea and leads to a place called Genesium. By the sea is a small sanctuary of Poseidon Genesius. Next to this is another place, called Apobathmi (Steps). The story is that this is the first place in Argolis where Danaus landed with his daughters. From here we pass through what is called Anigraea, along a narrow and difficult road, until we reach a tract on the left which stretches down to the sea;

  [5] δὲ ἄνω πρὸς τὴν ἤπειρον ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς χωρίον ἐστίν, ἔνθα δὴ ἐμαχέσαντο ὑπὲρ τῆς γῆς ταύτης λογάδες Ἀργείων τριακόσιοι πρὸς ἄνδρας Λακεδαιμονίων ἀριθμόν τε ἴσους καὶ ἐπιλέκτους ὁμοίως. ἀποθανόντων δὲ ἁπάντων πλὴν ἑνὸς Σπαρτιάτου καὶ δυοῖν Ἀργείων, τοῖς μὲν ἀποθανοῦσιν ἐχώσθησαν ἐνταῦθα οἱ τάφοι, τὴν χώραν δὲ οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι γενομένου πανδημεί σφισιν ἀγῶνος πρὸς Ἀργείους κρατήσαντες βεβαίως αὐτοί τε παραυτίκα ἐκαρποῦντο καὶ ὕστερον Αἰγινήταις ἔδοσαν ἐκπεσοῦσιν ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων ἐκ τῆς νήσου. τὰ δὲ ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῦ τὴν Θυρεᾶτιν ἐνέμοντο Ἀργεῖοι: φασὶ δὲ ἀνασώσασθαι δίκῃ νικήσαντες.

  [38.5] it is fertile in trees, especially the olive. As you go up inland from this is a place where three hundred picked Argives fought for this land with an equal number of specially chosen Lacedaemonian warriors. All were killed except one Spartan and two Argives, and here were raised the graves for the dead. But the Lacedaemonians, having fought against the Argives with all their forces, won a decisive victory; at first they themselves enjoyed the fruits of the land, but afterwards they assigned it to the Aeginetans, when they were expelled from their island by the Athenians. In my time Thyreatis was inhabited by the Argives, who say that they recovered it by the award of an arbitration.

  NERIS, EUA & MT PARNON

  [6] ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν

  πολυανδρίων ἰόντι Ἀνθήνη τέ ἐστιν, ἐς ἣν Αἰγινῆταί ποτε ᾤκησαν, καὶ ἑτέρα κώμη Νηρίς, τρίτη δὲ Εὔα μεγίστη τῶν κωμῶν: καὶ ἱερὸν τοῦ Πολεμοκράτους ἐστὶν ἐν ταύτῃ. ὁ δὲ Πολεμοκράτης ἐστὶ καὶ οὗτος Μαχάονος υἱός, ἀδελφὸς δὲ Ἀλεξάνορος, καὶ ἰᾶται τοὺς ταύτῃ καὶ τιμὰς παρὰ τῶν προσοίκων ἔχει.

  [38.6] As you go from these common graves you come to Athene, where Aeginetans once made their home, another village Neris, and a third Eua, the largest of the villages, in which there is a sanctuary of Polemocrates. This Polemocrates is one of the sons of Machaon, and the brother of Alexanor; he cures the people of the district, and receives honors from the neighbours.

  [7] ἀνατείνει δὲ ὑπὲρ τὰς κώμας ὄρος Πάρνων, καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῦ πρὸς Ἀργείους ὅροι καὶ Τεγεάτας εἰσίν: ἑστήκασι δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὅροις Ἑρμαῖ λίθου, καὶ τοῦ χωρίου τὸ ὄνομά ἐστιν ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν. ποταμὸς δὲ καλούμενος Τάναος — εἷς γὰρ δὴ οὗτος ἐκ τοῦ Πάρνωνος κάτεισι — ῥέων διὰ τῆς Ἀργείας καὶ ἐκδίδωσιν ἐς τὸν Θυρεάτην κόλπον.

  [7] Above the villages extends Mount Parnon, on which the Lacedaemonian border meets the borders of the Argives and Tegeatae. On the borders stand stone figures of Hermes, from which the name of the place is derived. A river called Tanaus, which is the only one descending from Mount Parnon, flows through the Argive territory and empties itself into the Gulf of Thyrea.

  BOOK III.

  Λακωνικά

  BOOK III.

  SPARTA, MYTHICAL HISTORY

  1. μετὰ δὲ τοὺς Ἑρμᾶς ἐστιν ἤδη Λακωνικὴ τὰ πρὸς ἑσπέρας. ὡς δὲ αὐτοὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι λέγουσι, Λέλεξ αὐτόχθων ὢν ἐβασίλευσε πρῶτος ἐν τῇ γῇ ταύτῃ καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου Λέλεγες ὧν ἦρχεν ὠνομάσθησαν. Λέλεγος δὲ γίνεται Μύλης καὶ νεώτερος Πολυκάων. Πολυκάων μὲν δὴ ὅποι καὶ δι᾽ ἥντινα αἰτίαν ἀπεχώρησεν, ἑτέρωθι δηλώσω: Μύλητος δὲ τελευτήσαντος παρέλαβεν ὁ παῖς Εὐρώτας τὴν ἀρχήν. οὗτος τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ λιμνάζον ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ διώρυγι κατήγαγεν ἐπὶ θάλασσαν, ἀπορρυέντος δὲ — ἦν γὰν δὴ τὸ ὑπόλοιπον ποταμοῦ ῥεῦμα — ὠνόμασεν Εὐρώταν.

  [1.1] After the figures of Hermes we reach Laconia on the west. According to the tradition of the Lacedaemonians themselves, Lelex, an aboriginal was the first king in this land, after whom his subjects were named Leleges. Lelex had a son Myles, and a younger one Polycaon. Polycaon retired into exile, the place of this retirement and its reason I will set forth elsewhere. On the death of Myles his son Eurotas succeeded to the throne. He led down to the sea by means of a trench the stagnant water on the plain, and when it had flowed away, as what was left formed a river-stream, he named it Eurotas.

  [2] ἅτε δὲ οὐκ ὄντων: αὐτῷ παίδων ἀρρένων βασιλεύειν καταλείπει Λακεδαίμονα, μητρὸς μὲν Ταϋγέτης ὄντα, ἀφ᾽ ἧς καὶ τὸ ὄρος ὠνομάσθη, ἐς Δία δὲ πατέρα ἀνήκοντα κατὰ τὴν φήμην: συνῴκει δὲ ὁ
Λακεδαίμων Σπάρτῃ θυγατρὶ τοῦ Εὐρώτα. τότε δὲ ὡς ἔσχε τὴν ἀρχήν, πρῶτα μὲν τῇ χώρᾳ καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις μετέθετο ἀφ᾽ αὑτοῦ τὰ ὀνόματα, μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο ᾤκισέ τε καὶ ὠνόμασεν ἀπὸ τῆς γυναικὸς πόλιν, ἣ Σπάρτη καλεῖται καὶ ἐς ἡμᾶς.

  [1.2] Having no male issue, he left the kingdom to Lacedaemon, whose mother was Taygete, after whom the mountain was named, while according to report his father was none other than Zeus. Lacedaemon was wedded to Sparta, a daughter of Eurotas. When he came to the throne, he first changed the names of the land and its inhabitants, calling them after himself, and next he founded and named after his wife a city, which even down to our own day has been called Sparta.

  [3] Ἀμύκλας δὲ ὁ Λακεδαίμονος, βουλόμενος ὑπολιπέσθαι τι καὶ αὐτὸς ἐς μνήμην, πόλισμα ἔκτισεν ἐν τῇ Λακωνικῇ. γενομένων δέ οἱ παίδων Ὑάκινθον μὲν νεώτατον ὄντα καὶ τὸ εἶδος κάλλιστον κατέλαβεν ἡ πεπρωμένη πρότερον τοῦ πατρός, καὶ Ὑακίνθου μνῆμά ἐστιν ἐν Ἀμύκλαις ὑπὸ τὸ ἄγαλμα τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος. ἀποθανόντος δὲ Ἀμύκλα ἐς Ἄργαλον τὸν πρεσβύτατον τῶν Ἀμύκλα παίδων καὶ ὕστερον ἐς Κυνόρταν Ἀργάλου τελευτήσαντος ἀφίκετο ἡ ἀρχή.

  [1.3] Amyclas, too, son of Lacedaemon, wished to leave some memorial behind him, and built a town in Laconia. Hyacinthus, the youngest and most beautiful of his sons, died before his father, and his tomb is in Amyclae below the image of Apollo. On the death of Amyclas the empire came to Aigalus, the eldest of his sons, and afterwards, when Aigalus died, to Cynortas. Cynortas had a son Oebalus.

  [4] Κυνόρτα δὲ ἐγένετο Οἴβαλος. οὗτος Γοργοφόνην τε τὴν Περσέως γυναῖκα ἔσχεν ἐξ Ἄργους καὶ παῖδα ἔσχε Τυνδάρεων, ᾧ περὶ τῆς βασιλείας Ἱπποκόων ἠμφισβήτει καὶ κατὰ πρεσβείαν ἔχειν ἠξίου τὴν ἀρχήν. προσλαβὼν δὲ Ἰκάριον καὶ τοὺς στασιώτας παρὰ πολύ τε ὑπερεβάλετο δυνάμει Τυνδάρεων καὶ ἠνάγκασεν ἀποχωρῆσαι δείσαντα, ὡς μὲν Λακεδαιμόνιοί φασιν, ἐς Πελλάναν, Μεσσηνίων δέ ἐστιν ἐς αὐτὸν λόγος Τυνδάρεων

  φεύγοντα ἐλθεῖν ὡς Ἀφαρέα ἐς τὴν Μεσσηνίαν εἶναί τε Ἀφαρέα τὸν Περιήρους ἀδελφὸν Τυνδάρεω πρὸς μητρός: καὶ οἰκῆσαί τε αὐτὸν τῆς Μεσσηνίας φασὶν ἐν Θαλάμαις καὶ τοὺς παῖδας ἐνταῦθα οἰκοῦντι αὐτῷ γενέσθαι.

  [1.4] He took a wife from Argos, Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus, and begat a son Tyndareus, with whom Hippocoon disputed about the kingship, claiming the throne on the ground of being the eldest. With the end of Icarius and his partisans he had surpassed Tyndareus in power, and forced him to retire in fear; the Lacedaemonians say that he went to Pellana, but a Messenian legend about him is that he fled to Aphareus in Messenia, Aphareus being the son of Perieres and the brother of Tyndareus on his mother’s side. The story goes on to say that he settled at Thalamae in Messenia, and that his children were born to him when he was living there.

  [5] χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον κατῆλθέ τε ὑπὸ Ἡρακλέους Τυνδάρεως καὶ ἀνενεώσατο τὴν ἀρχὴν: ἐβασίλευσαν δὲ καὶ οἱ Τυνδάρεω παῖδες καὶ Μενέλαος ὁ Ἀτρέως Τυνδάρεω γαμβρὸς ὢν Ὀρέστης τε Ἑρμιόνῃ τῇ Μενελάου συνοικῶν. κατελθόντων δὲ Ἡρακλειδῶν ἐπὶ Τισαμενοῦ τοῦ Ὀρέστου βασιλεύοντος, Μεσσήνη μὲν καὶ Ἄργος ἑκατέρα μοῖρα Τήμενον, ἡ δὲ Κρεσφόντην ἔσχεν ἄρχοντας: ἐν Λακεδαίμονι δὲ ὄντων διδύμων τῶν Ἀριστοδήμου παίδων οἰκίαι δύο βασίλειαι γίνονται:

  [1.5] Subsequently Tyndareus was brought back by Heracles and recovered his throne. His sons too became kings, as did Menelaus the son of Atreus and son-in-law of Tyndareus, and Orestes the husband of Hermione the daughter of Menelaus. On the return of the Heracleidae in the reign of Tisamenus, son of Orestes, both districts, Messene and Argos, had kings put over them; Argos had Temenus and Messene Cresphontes. In Lacedaemon, as the sons of Aristodemus were twins, there arose two royal houses; for they say that the Pythian priestess approved.

  [6] συναρέσαι γὰρ τῇ Πυθίᾳ φασίν. Ἀριστοδήμῳ δὲ αὐτῷ πρότερον τὴν τελευτὴν συμβῆναι λέγουσιν ἐν Δελφοῖς πρὶν ἢ Δωριέας κατελθεῖν ἐς Πελοπόννησον. οἱ μὲν δὴ ἀποσεμνύνοντες τὰ ἐς αὐτὸν τοξευθῆναι λέγουσιν Ἀριστόδημον ὑπὸ Ἀπόλλωνος, ὅτι οὐκ ἀφίκοιτο ἐπὶ τὸ μαντεῖον, παρὰ δὲ Ἡρακλέους ἐντυχόντος οἱ πρότερον πύθοιτο ὡς ἐς Πελοπόννησον Δωριεῦσι γενήσεται ἥδε ἡ κάθοδος: ὁ δὲ ἀληθέστερος ἔχει λόγος Πυλάδου τοὺς παῖδας καὶ Ἠλέκτρας, ἀνεψιοὺς ὄντας Τισαμενῷ τῷ Ὀρέστου, φονεῦσαι τὸν Ἀριστόδημον.

  [1.6] Tradition has it that Aristodemus himself died at Delphi before the Dorians returned to the Peloponnesus, but those who glorify his fate assert that he was shot by Apollo for not going to the oracle, having learned from Heracles, who met him before he arrived there, that the Dorians would make this return to the Peloponnesus. But the more correct account is that Aristodemus was murdered by the sons of Pylades and Electra, who were cousins of Tisamenus son of Orestes.

  SPARTA, HISTORY

  [7] ὀνόματα μὲν δὴ τοῖς παισὶν αὐτοῦ Προκλῆς καὶ Εὐρυσθένης ἐτέθη, δίδυμοι δὲ ὄντες διάφοροι τὰ μάλιστα ἦσαν. προεληλυθότες δὲ ἐπὶ μέγα ἀπεχθείας ὅμως ἐν κοινῷ Θήρᾳ τῷ Αὐτεσίωνος, ἀδελφῷ τῆς μητρὸς σφῶν ὄντι Ἀργείας, ἐπιτροπεύσαντι δὲ καὶ αὐτῶν, συνήραντο ἐς ἀποικίαν. τὴν δὲ ἀποικίαν ὁ Θήρας ἔστελλεν ἐς τὴν νῆσον τὴν τότε ὀνομαζομένην Καλλίστην, τοὺς ἀπογόνους οἱ τοῦ Μεμβλιάρου παραχωρήσεσθαι τῆς βασιλείας ἐλπίζων ἑκόντας, ὅπερ οὖν καὶ ἐποίησαν

  [1.7] The names given to the sons of Aristodemus were Procles and Eurysthenes, and although they were twins they were bitter enemies. Their enmity reached a high pitch, but nevertheless they combined to help Theras, the son of Autesion and the brother of their mother Argeia and their guardian as well, to found a colony. This colony Theras was dispatching to the island that was then called Calliste, and he hoped that the descendants of Membliarus would of their own accord give up the kingship to him. This as a matter of fact they did,

  [8] λαβόντες λογισμὸν ὅτι Θήρᾳ μὲν ἐς αὐτὸν ἀνῄει Κάδμον τὸ γένος, οἱ δὲ ἦσαν ἀπόγονοι Μεμβλιάρου: Μεμβλίαρον δὲ ἄνδρα ὄντα τοῦ δήμου Κάδμος ἐν τῇ νήσῳ κατέλιπεν ἡγεμόνα εἶναι τῶν ἐποίκων. καὶ Θήρας μὲν τῇ τε νήσῳ μετέβαλεν ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ τὸ ὄνομα καί οἱ καὶ νῦν ἔτι οἱ Θη�
�αῖοι κατὰ ἔτος ἐναγίζουσιν ὡς οἰκιστῇ: Προκλεῖ δὲ καὶ Εὐρυσθένει μέχρι μὲν τῆς προθυμίας τῆς ἐς τὸν Θήραν ἐς τὸ αὐτὸ συνῆλθον αἱ γνῶμαι, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ διειστήκει σφίσιν ἐπὶ παντὶ τὰ βουλεύματα.

  [1.8] taking into account that the family of Theras went back to Cadmus himself, while they were only descendants of Membliarus, who was a man of the people whom Cadmus left in the island to be the leader of the settlers. And Theras changed the name of the island, renaming it after himself, and even at the present day the people of Thera every year offer to him as their founder the sacrifices that are given to a hero. Procles and Eurysthenes were of one mind in their eagerness to serve Theras; but in all else their purposes were always widely different.

  [9] οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ὁμονοησάντων τοὺς ἀπογόνους αὐτῶν ἐς κοινὸν κατάλογον ὑπάξειν ἂν ἔμελλον: οὐ γάρ τι τὰ πάντα ἐς τὸ αὐτὸ συνεληλύθασιν ἡλικίας, ὡς ἀνεψιόν τε ἀνεψιῷ καὶ ἀνεψιῶν παῖδας, ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τοὺς κατωτέρω κατὰ ἀριθμὸν τυχεῖν ἀλλήλοις γεγονότας τὸν ἴσον. ἑκατέραν οὖν τὴν οἰκίαν ἐπέξειμι αὐτῶν ἰδίως καὶ οὐκ ἀμφοτέρας ἅμα ἐς τὸ αὐτὸ ἀναμίξας.