Description of Greece (Books III–IV: Laconia, Messenia) — Pausanias
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ΠΑΥΣΑΝΙΟΥ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΠΕΡΙΗΓΗΣΙΣ
Translation/edition: A. R. Shilleto (1886)
Language: English
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## Description of Greece


## Book III — Laconia

[3.1] Next to the Hermæ comes Laconia on the West. And according to the Lacedæmonian tradition Lelex the autochthon first reigned in this land, and the people over whom he ruled were called after him Leleges. And Lelex’ sons were Myles and a younger son Polycaon. Where Polycaon went to and why I shall relate elsewhere. But on the death of Myles his son Eurotas succeeded him in the kingdom. He diverted to the sea by a canal all the stagnant water that filled the plain, and as it flowed to the sea in mighty volume and became a noble river, he called it the Eurotas. As he had no male children he left the kingdom to Lacedæmon, whose mother was Taygete, (who gave her name to the mountain Taygetus), and reputed father Zeus. And Lacedæmon married Sparta the daughter of Eurotas, and when he succeeded to the kingdom he first gave the country and inhabitants his own name, and then built and gave his wife’s name to the city Sparta, which is so called even to our day. And Amyclas his son, wishing also himself to leave a memorial behind him, built the little town Amyclæ in Laconia. And of his sons Hyacinthus, the youngest and most handsome, died in his father’s lifetime, and there is a monument of him at Amyclæ close to the statue of Apollo. And on the death of Amyclas the succession devolved upon Argalus his eldest son, and after the death of Argalus upon Cynortas. And Cynortas had a son called Œbalus. He married Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus from Argos, and had a son Tyndareus, with whom Hippocoon contended for the kingdom, claiming it on the ground of seniority. And Icarius and his party espousing Hippocoon’s cause, he far exceeded Tyndareus in power, and compelled him to retire from fear to Pellene, according to the Lacedæmonian account. But the account of the Messenians is that Tyndareus fled to Aphareus in Messenia, and that Aphareus was the son of Perieres and the uterine brother of Tyndareus: and they say he dwelt at Thalamæ in Messenia, and had sons born to him there. And some time afterwards he was restored by Hercules and recovered his kingdom. And his sons reigned after him, as well as his son-in-law Menelaus the son of Atreus, and Orestes the husband of Hermione the daughter of Menelaus. But when the Heraclidæ returned in the reign of Tisamenus the son of Orestes, one party in Messene and Argos made Temenus king, and another section Cresphontes. And in Lacedæmon as Aristodemus had twins there were two royal houses, and they say this was in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. And they say that Aristodemus died at Delphi before the Dorians returned to the Peloponnese. Some indeed, magnifying their own history, say that Aristodemus was shot with arrows by Apollo, because he had not gone to the oracle, but consulted Hercules whom he chanced to meet first, as to how the Dorians should return to the Peloponnese. But the truer account is that the sons of Pylades and Electra, who were cousins of Tisamenus the son of Orestes, murdered Aristodemus. The names of his two sons were Procles and Eurysthenes, who though they were twins were in most respects very unlike one another. But though they hated one another very cordially, yet they jointly combined with Theras, the son of Autesion, their Argive mother’s brother, and their Regent, in establishing a colony at the island which was then called Calliste, Theras hoping that the descendants of Membliarus would abandon the kingdom of their own free will, as in fact they did, reckoning that Theras’ pedigree went up to Cadmus, whereas they were only descendants of Membliarus, a private individual whom Cadmus left in the island as leader of the colonists. And Theras gave his own name to the island instead of Calliste, and the people of Thera even now yearly offer victims to him as their founder. And Procles and Eurysthenes vied with one another in their zeal for carrying out the wishes of Theras, but in all other respects were at variance together. Not that, even if they had been one in heart and mind, I could have put all their descendants into one common pedigree, as cousin with cousin, and cousins’ children, with cousins’ children, and so on, that to the latest posterity they should arithmetically dovetail in with one another. I shall therefore pursue the history of each family separately, and not mix up the two together in one account.
[3.2] Eurysthenes, the eldest of the sons of Aristodemus, had a son Agis they say: (and from him they call the descendants of Eurysthenes Agidæ). During his reign, when Patreus the son of Preugenes founded the city in Achaia called to this day Patræ after him, the Lacedæmonians took part in that colony. They cooperated also with Grais, the son of Echelas, the son of Penthilus, the son of Orestes, who was sailing with a fleet to make a colony somewhere or other. And he indeed was destined to occupy the country between Ionia and Mysia, which is in our day called Æolis: his grandfather Penthilus had already occupied Lesbos, the island opposite this mainland. And during the reign of Echestratus the son of Agis at Sparta the Lacedæmonians expelled all the Cynurians that were in their prime, alleging as their excuse that robbers from Cynuria ravaged Argolis, and the Argives were their kinsmen, and that the Cynurians themselves made open incursions into Argolis. If tradition speaks true the Cynurians were originally Argives, and they say their founder was Cynurus the son of Perseus. And not many years afterwards Labotas the son of Echestratus was king at Sparta. This Labotas, as we are told by Herodotus in his account of Crœsus, had during his minority the famous legislator Lycurgus as his Regent, only Herodotus calls him Leobotes instead of Labotas. In his days first did the Lacedæmonians make war against the Argives, and they alleged as their reasons for declaring war that the Argives when they invaded Cynuria took a slice of Lacedæmonian territory, and tried to stir up their neighbouring subjects to revolt. In this war they say nothing very notable was done on either side: and those of this family who succeeded one another as kings, viz. Doryssus the son of Labotas and Agesilaus the son of Doryssus, both died at no great interval after one another. And it was when Agesilaus was king that Lycurgus legislated for the Lacedæmonians, and some say that he derived his laws from Crete, others that he was instructed by the Oracle at Delphi. And the Cretans say that their laws come from Minos, who received divine assistance in codifying them. And it seems to me that Homer has hinted as much in the following lines about the legislation of Minos, “There too is Gnossus, the great city where Minos reigned nine years, the bosom-friend of great Zeus.”¹ But of Lycurgus I shall have more to say hereafter. And the son of Agesilaus was Archelaus. In his reign the Lacedæmonians conquered in war and enslaved one of the neighbouring cities called Ægys, suspecting that the people of it had an understanding with the Arcadians. And Charillus, the king of the other family, assisted Archelaus against Ægys, and his own separate doings as leader of the Lacedæmonians I shall relate later on when I come to the so-called Eurypontidæ. And the son of Archelaus was Teleclus. In his reign the Lacedæmonians took in war the neighbouring cities of Amyclæ and Pharis and Geranthræ, which were then in the possession of the Achæans, and razed them to the ground. The inhabitants however of Pharis and Geranthræ, being terrified at the approach of the Dorians, agreed to evacuate the Peloponnese upon conditions: but the people of Amyclæ they could not drive out at first assault, but only after a long siege and the greatest exhibition of valour. And the Dorians themselves shewed this by erecting a trophy after the conquest of Amyclæ, as thinking that conquest no small feather in their cap. And not long after all this Teleclus was killed by the Messenians in the temple of Artemis in the town of Limnæ, on the borders between Laconia and Messenia. And after the death of Teleclus Alcamenes his son succeeded him, and during his reign the Lacedæmonians sent to Crete Charmidas the son of Euthys, one of the most famous men in Sparta, who put down the insurrection at Crete, and persuaded the Cretans to abandon the cities which were inland and in other respects weak, and to inhabit instead those which were conveniently situated on the coast. The Lacedæmonians also depopulated Helos, a city by the sea in the possession of the Achæans, and defeated the Argives who came to the help of the people of Helos.
[3.3] And after the death of Alcamenes Polydorus his son succeeded to the kingdom, and the Lacedæmonians sent a colony into Italy to Croton, and to the Locrians at the promontory Zephyrium: and the war that was called the war with Messene was at its height when Polydorus was king. The Lacedæmonians and Messenians give different reasons for this war. Their different accounts, and the progress of the war, will be set forth by me in their turn: but thus much will I record at present that Theopompus the son of Nicander had the greatest hand in the first war with the Messenians, being the king of the other house. And after the end of the war, when Messenia was already conquered by the Lacedæmonians, and Polydorus was in good repute at Sparta, and popular with the Lacedæmonians and especially with the populace, for he exhibited no violence either in word or deed to anyone, and in legal cases tempered justice with mercy, when in short he had a brilliant fame throughout all Greece, he was murdered by Polemarchus a man of no mean family in Lacedæmon, but hotheaded, as indeed he shewed by this murder. And after his death Polydorus received many notable honours from the Lacedæmonians. Polemarchus also had a monument at Sparta, whether being judged to have been a good man previously, or that his relatives buried him privately. During the reign of Eurycrates the son of Polydorus the Messenians patiently endured the Lacedæmonian yoke, nor was any revolution attempted by the Argive people, but in the days of Anaxander the son of Eurycrates—for fate was already driving the Messenians out of all the Peloponnese—the Messenians revolted from the Lacedæmonians, and fought against them for some time, but were eventually conquered, and evacuated the Peloponnese upon conditions of war. And the remnant of them became slaves on Lacedæmonian soil, except those who inhabited the maritime towns. All the circumstances of this war and revolt of the Messenians I have no need to recount in detail in the present part of my history. And Anaxander had a son Eurycrates, and this second Eurycrates a son Leo. During their reigns the Lacedæmonians met with the greatest reverses in fighting against the people of Tegea. And in the reign of Anaxandrides the son of Leo they overcame the people of Tegea, and in the following way. A Lacedæmonian by name Lichas came to Tegea at a time when Lacedæmon and Tegea were at peace together. And on Lichas’ arrival they made a search for the bones of Orestes, and the Spartans sought for them in accordance with an oracle. And Lichas discovered that they were lying in the shop of a blacksmith, and he discovered it in this way: all that he saw in the blacksmith’s shop he compared with the oracle at Delphi, thus he compared the blacksmith’s bellows to the winds, because they produce a strong wind, the hammer was the blow, that which resists the blow was the anvil, and that which was a source of woe to man he naturally referred to iron, for people already began to use iron in battle, for the god would have spoken of brass as a source of woe to man in the days of the heroes. And just as this oracle was given to the Lacedæmonians about the bones of Orestes, so afterwards the Athenians were similarly instructed by the oracle to bring Theseus’ bones to Athens from Scyrus, for otherwise Scyrus could not be taken. And Cimon the son of Miltiades discovered the bones of Theseus, he too by ingenuity, and not long after he took Scyrus. That in the days of the heroes all arms alike were brass is borne witness to by Homer in the lines which refer to the axe of Pisander and the arrow of Meriones. And I have further confirmation of what I assert in the spear of Achilles which is stored up in the temple of Athene at Phaselis, and the sword of Memnon in the temple of Æsculapius at Nicomedia, the former has its tip and handle of brass, and, the latter is of brass throughout. This we know to be the case. And Anaxandrides the son of Leo was the only Lacedæmonian that had two wives together and two households. For his first wife, excellent in other respects, had no children, and when the ephors bade him divorce her, he would not consent to this altogether, but only so far as to take a second wife as well. And the second wife bare a son Cleomenes, and the first wife, though so long barren, after the birth of Cleomenes bare Dorieus, and Leonidas, and Cleombrotus. And after the death of Anaxandrides, the Lacedæmonians though they thought Dorieus the better man both in council and war, reluctantly rejected him, and gave the kingdom to Cleomenes according to their law of primogeniture.
[3.4] And Dorieus, as he would not remain at Lacedæmon subject to Cleomenes, was sent to form a colony. And Cleomenes commenced his reign by an inroad into Argolis, gathering together an army of Lacedæmonians and allies. And when the Argives came out to meet him armed for battle, he conquered them, and when they were routed about 5,000 of them fled into a neighbouring grove, which was sacred to Argus the son of Niobe. And Cleomenes, who often had a touch of the mad, ordered the Helots to set this grove on fire, and the grove was entirely consumed, and all these fugitives in it. He also marched his army against Athens, and at first, by freeing the Athenians from the yoke of the sons of Pisistratus, got for himself good fame among the Lacedæmonians and all the Greeks, but afterwards in his favour to an Athenian called Isagoras, tried to get for him the dominion over the Athenians. But failing in this expectation, and the Athenians fighting stoutly for their freedom, he ravaged various parts of their territory, and they say laid waste a place called Orgas, sacred to the gods at Eleusis. He also went to Ægina, and arrested the leading men there for their support to the Medes, as they had persuaded the citizens to supply King Darius the son of Hystaspes with earth and water. And while Cleomenes was staying at Ægina, Demaratus the king of the other family was calumniating him to the multitude at Lacedæmon. And Cleomenes on his return from Ægina contrived to get Demaratus ejected from the kingdom, and bribed the priestess at Delphi to utter as oracular responses to the Lacedæmonians about Demaratus whatever he told her, and also instigated Leotychides, one of the royal house and same family as Demaratus, to be a rival claimant for the kingdom. And Leotychides caught at some words, which Aristo formerly had foolishly thrown out against Demaratus at his birth, saying that he was not his son. And when the Lacedæmonians took this question about Demaratus, as they took all their questions, to the oracle at Delphi, the priestess gave them as replies whatever Cleomenes had told her. Demaratus therefore was deposed from his kingdom by the hatred of Cleomenes and not on just grounds. And Cleomenes after this died in a fit of madness, for he seized his sword, and stabbed himself, and hacked his body about all over. The Argives say he came to this bad end as a judgment for his conduct to the 5,000 fugitives in the grove, the Athenians say it was because he ravaged Orgas, and the Delphians because he bribed the priestess at Delphi to tell falsehoods about Demaratus. Now there are other cases of vengeance coming from heroes and gods as on Cleomenes, for Protesilaus who is honoured at Eleus, a hero not a whit more illustrious than Argus, privately punished the Persian Artayctes, and the Megarians who had dared to till the holy land could never get pardon from the gods of Eleusis. Nor do I know of anyone that ever dared to tamper with the oracle but Cleomenes alone. And as Cleomenes had no male children the kingdom devolved upon Leonidas the son of Anaxandrides, the brother of Dorieus on both sides. It was in his reign that Xerxes led his army into Greece, and Leonidas with his 300 Lacedæmonians met him at Thermopylæ. There have been many wars between the Greeks and barbarians, but those can easily be counted wherein the valour of one man mainly contributed to glorious victory, as the valour of Achilles in the war against Ilium, and that of Miltiades in the action at Marathon. But indeed in my opinion the heroism of Leonidas excelled all the great deeds of former times. For Xerxes, the most sagacious and renowned of all the kings that ruled over the Medes and Persians, would have been prevented, at the narrow pass of Thermopylæ, by the handful of men that Leonidas had with him, from seeing Greece at all, and from afterwards burning Athens, had it not been for a certain Trachinian who led round by a pass on Mount Œta the army of Hydarnes so as to fall on the Greek flank, and, when Leonidas was conquered in this way, the barbarians passed into Greece over his dead body. And Pausanias the son of Cleombrotus was not king after Leonidas, but was Regent for Plistarchus Leonidas’ son during his minority, and he led the Lacedæmonians to Platæa and afterwards passed over to the Hellespont with a fleet. I especially admire the conduct of Pausanias to the Coan lady, who was the daughter of a man of no mean note among the Coans, viz. of Hegetorides the son of Antagoras, and against her will the concubine of Pharandates the son of Teaspis, a Persian: and when Mardonius fell in the battle at Platæa, and the barbarians were annihilated, Pausanias sent this lady home to Cos, with the ornaments and all other apparel that the Persian had given her. Moreover he would not suffer the dead body of Mardonius to be outraged, though the Æginetan Lampon urged it.
[3.5] Plistarchus the son of Leonidas died soon after succeeding to the kingdom, and Plistoanax the son of Pausanias, the hero of Platæa, succeeded him. And Plistoanax was succeeded by his son Pausanias. This is that Pausanias who led an army into Attica, ostensibly against Thrasybulus and the Athenians, but really to establish the dominion of the Thirty Tyrants who had been set over Athens by Lysander. And he conquered in an engagement the Athenians who guarded the Piræus, but directly after the battle he took his army off home again, not to bring upon Sparta the most shameful disgrace of establishing the power of unholy men. And when he returned from Athens with nothing to show for his battle, his enemies brought him to trial. Now a king of the Lacedæmonians is tried by a court composed of twenty-eight Seniors, and the Ephors, and the King of the other family. Fourteen of the Seniors and Agis, the King of the other family, condemned Pausanias, the rest of the Court acquitted him. And no long time after the Lacedæmonians gathering together an army against Thebes, the reason for which war we shall relate in our account about Agesilaus, Lysander marched into Phocis, and, having mustered the Phocians in full force, lost no time in advancing into Bœotia, and making an attack upon the fortified town Haliartus, which would not revolt from Thebes. Some Thebans however and Athenians had secretly entered the town, and they making a sally and drawing up in battle array, Lysander and several of the Lacedæmonians fell. And Pausanias, who had been collecting forces from Tegea and the rest of Arcadia, came too late to take part in the fight, and when he got to Bœotia and heard of the death of Lysander and the defeat of his army, he nevertheless marched his army to Thebes, intending to renew the fight there. But when he got there he found the Thebans drawn up in battle array against him, and it was also reported that Thrasybulus was coming up with an Athenian force; accordingly, fearing to be taken between two fires, he made a treaty with the Thebans, and buried those who had fallen in the sally from Haliartus. This conduct of his did not please the Lacedæmonians, but I praise his determination for the following reason. Well knowing that reverses always found the Lacedæmonians surrounded by a swarm of enemies, what happened after Thermopylæ and in the island of Sphacteria made him afraid of causing a third disaster. But as the citizens accused him of slowness in getting to Bœotia he did not care to stand a second trial, but the people of Tegea received him as a suppliant at the temple of Alean Athene. This temple was from time immemorial venerated throughout the Peloponnese, and afforded safety to all suppliants, as was shewn by the Lacedæmonians to Pausanias, and earlier still to Leotychides, and by the Argives to Chrysis, who all took sanctuary here, and were not demanded up. And after the voluntary exile of Pausanias, his sons Agesipolis and Cleombrotus being quite young, Aristodemus the next of kin was appointed Regent: and the success of the Lacedæmonians at Corinth was owing to his generalship. And when Agesipolis came of age and took over the kingdom, his first war was against the Argives. And as he was leading his army from Tegea into Argolis, the Argives sent an envoy to negotiate peace with him on the old conditions established among all Dorians. But he not only declined these proposals, but advanced with his army and ravaged Argolis. And there was an earthquake, but not even then would Agesipolis draw off his forces, though these tokens of Poseidon’s displeasure frightened the Lacedæmonians especially, [and also the Athenians.] And Agesipolis was now encamped under the walls of Argos, and the earthquakes ceased not, and some of the soldiers died struck by lightning, and others were dismayed by the thunder. So at last he returned from Argolis sorely against his will, and led an expedition against the Olynthians, and having been successful in battle, and taken most of the other cities in Chalcidice, and hoping to take Olynthus also, he was carried off by a sudden disease and died.
[3.6] And Agesipolis having died childless, the succession devolved upon Cleombrotus, under whom the Lacedæmonians fought against the Bœotians at Leuctra, and Cleombrotus, exposing himself too freely, fell at the commencement of the action. Somehow or other the Deity seems to like to remove the General first in great reverses, as from the Athenians he removed Hippocrates (the son of Ariphron) their General at Delium, and later on Leosthenes their General in Thessaly.
[3.6] The elder son of Cleombrotus, Agesipolis, did nothing worthy of record, and Cleomenes the younger succeeded after his brother’s death. And he had two sons, of whom the eldest Acrotatus died before his father, and when later on the younger Cleomenes died, there was a dispute who should be king between Cleonymus the son of Cleomenes and Areus the son of Acrotatus. The Senate decided that to Areus the son of Acrotatus and not to Cleonymus belonged the hereditary office. And Cleonymus got mightily enraged at being ejected from the kingdom, though the Ephors endeavoured to induce him by various honours, and by making him commander-in-chief of the army, not to be an enemy to his country. But in spite of this he eventually injured his country in various ways, and even went so far as to invite in Pyrrhus the grandson of Æacus.
[3.6] And during the reign of Areus the son of Acrotatus, Antigonus the son of Demetrius made an expedition against Athens both by land and sea. And an Egyptian fleet under Patroclus came to the aid of the Athenians, and the Lacedæmonians came out in full force with Areus the king at their head. And Antigonus having closely invested Athens, and barring the Athenian allies from every approach to the city, Patroclus sent messengers and begged the Lacedæmonians and Areus to begin the battle against Antigonus, and when they began he said he would fall on the rear of the Macedonians, for it was not reasonable that his force should attack the Macedonians first, being Egyptians and sailors. Then the Lacedæmonians were eager to bear the brunt of the battle, being animated by their friendship to the Athenians, and the desire to do something that posterity would not willingly forget. But Areus, as their provisions had been consumed, led his army home again. For he thought it sheer madness not to husband their resources, but lavish them all on strangers. And Athens holding out for a very long time, Antigonus made peace on conditions that he might have a garrison at the Museum. And some time after Antigonus himself withdrew the garrison there. And Areus had a son Acrotatus, and he had a son Areus, who was only 8 when he fell sick and died. And as now Leonidas was the only male left of the family of Eurysthenes, though quite an old man, the Lacedæmonians made him king. And it so chanced that Lysander, a descendant of Lysander the son of Aristocritus, especially disliked Leonidas. He associated with himself Cleombrotus, the son in law of Leonidas, and having won him over brought against Leonidas various charges, and the oath he had sworn to Cleonymus his father while quite a boy that he would destroy Sparta. So Leonidas was deposed from the kingdom, and Cleombrotus reigned in his room. And if Leonidas had given way to temper, and (like Demaratus the son of Aristo) had gone and joined the king of Macedonia or the king of Egypt, he would have got no advantage from the subsequent repentance of the Spartans. But as it was when the citizens exiled him he went to Arcadia, and from thence not many years afterwards the Lacedæmonians recalled him, and made him king the second time. And all that Cleomenes the son of Leonidas did, and all his boldness and bravery, and how the Spartan kings came to an end with him, I have previously recorded in connection with Aratus of Sicyon. Nor did I omit the details of Cleomenes’ death in Egypt.
[3.7] Of the family of Eurysthenes then, called the Agiadæ, Cleomenes the son of Leonidas was the last king at Sparta: but as to the other branch this is what I have heard. Procles the son of Aristodemus had a son called Sous, whose son Eurypon attained such glory that the family were called Eurypontidæ from him, though till his time they were called Proclidæ. And Eurypon had a son Prytanis, and it was in his days that animosity broke out between the Lacedæmonians and Argives, and even earlier than this quarrel they fought with the Cynurians, but during the succeeding generations, when Eunomus the son of Prytanis and Polydectes the son of Eunomus were kings, Sparta continued at peace. But Charillus the son of Polydectes ravaged the Argive territory, and made a raid into Argolis, and under his leadership the Spartans went out to Tegea, when the Lacedæmonians hoped to take Tegea and slice the district off from Arcadia, following a beguiling oracle. And after the death of Charillus Nicander his son succeeded to the kingdom, and it was in his reign that the Messenians killed Teleclus the king of the other family in the temple of Artemis Limnas. And Nicander invaded Argolis with an army, and ravaged most of the country. And the Asinæans having taken part with the Lacedæmonians in this expedition, not long afterwards paid the penalty to the Argives in the destruction of their country and their own exile. And Theopompus the son of Nicander, who was king after his father, I shall make mention of when I come to the history of Messenia. During his reign came on the contest for Thyrea between the Lacedæmonians and Argives. Theopompus himself took no part in this, partly from old age, but still more from sorrow at the death of his son Archidamus. Not that Archidamus died childless, for he left a son Zeuxidamus, who was succeeded in the kingdom by his son Anaxidamus. It was in his reign that the Messenians evacuated the Peloponnese, having been a second time conquered in war by the Spartans. And Anaxidamus had a son Archidamus, and he had a son Agesicles: and both of them had the good fortune to spend all their life in peace and without wars. And Aristo the son of Agesicles having married a girl who they say was the most shameless of all the girls in Lacedæmon, but in appearance the most beautiful girl next to Helen, had by her a son Demaratus seven months after marriage. And as he was sitting with the ephors in council a servant came and told him of the birth of his son. And Aristo, forgetting the lines in the Iliad² about the birth of Eurystheus, or perhaps not knowing them, said it couldn’t be his child from the time. He was sorry afterwards for these words which he had spoken. And when Demaratus was king and in other respects in good repute at Sparta, and had cooperated with Cleomenes in freeing the Athenians from the Pisistratidæ, this thoughtless word of Aristo, and the hatred of Cleomenes deprived him of the kingdom. And he went to Persia to king Darius, and they say his descendants continued for a long time in Asia. And Leotychides, who became king in his place, shared with the Athenians and their General Xanthippus, the son of Ariphron, in the action at Mycale, and also marched into Thessaly against the Aleuadæ. And though he might have reduced all Thessaly, as he was victorious in every battle, he allowed the Aleuadæ to buy him off. And being impeached at Lacedæmon he went voluntarily into exile to escape trial, and became a suppliant at Tegea at the temple of Alean Athene there, and as his son Zeuxidamus had previously died of some illness, his grandson Archidamus succeeded him, on his departure to Tegea. This Archidamus injured the Athenian territory excessively, invading Attica every year, and whenever he invaded it he went through all the country ravaging it, and also captured after a siege the town of Platæa which was friendly to the Athenians. Not that Platæa had ever stirred up strife between the Peloponnesians and Athenians, but as far as in its power lay had made them both keep the peace. But Sthenelaidas, one of the Ephors, a man of great power at Lacedæmon, was mainly the cause of the war at that time. And this war shook Greece, which was previously in a flourishing condition, to its foundation, and afterwards Philip the son of Amyntas reduced it completely, when it was already rotten and altogether unsound.
[3.8] And on the death of Archidamus, Agis the elder of his sons being of age succeeded, and not Agesilaus. And Archidamus had also a daughter called Cynisca, who was most ambitious in regard to the races at Olympia, and was the first woman who trained horses, and the first woman who won the prize at Olympia, though after her several women, especially Lacedæmonian ones, won the prize at Olympia, though none came up to her fame in these contests. But the Spartans seem to me to admire least of all men the glory that proceeds from poetry, for except an epigram on Cynisca composed by some one or other, and still earlier one on Pausanias, composed by Simonides, inscribed on the tripod erected at Delphi, there is no record made by any poet on any of the Lacedæmonian kings. And in the reign of Agis, the son of Archidamus, the Lacedæmonians brought other charges against the people of Elis, but were especially annoyed at their being shut out of the contest at Olympia, and the privileges of the temple there. They therefore sent an envoy with an ultimatum to the people of Elis, bidding them allow the people of Lepreum, and all other resident aliens who were subject to them, to live according to their own laws. And the people of Elis making reply that, when they saw the subject cities of Sparta free, they would immediately set their own free, the Lacedæmonians under King Agis at once invaded Elis. On that occasion the army retired in consequence of an earthquake, when they had advanced as far as Olympia and the River Alpheus, but next year Agis wasted the country and carried off much booty. And Xenias a man of Elis, who was privately friendly to Agis and publicly a champion of the Lacedæmonians, conspired against the populace with the men who were wealthy, but before Agis and the army could come up and cooperate with them Thrasydæus, who was at this time the leader of the populace at Elis, conquered Xenias and his faction in battle and drove them from the city. And when Agis led his army home again, he left Lysistratus the Spartan with a portion of his force, and the refugees from Elis, to cooperate with the men of Lepreum in ravaging the district. And in the third year of the war the Lacedæmonians and Agis made preparations to invade Elis: but the people of Elis and Thrasydæus, who had been reduced by the war to the greatest extremity, made a convention to give liberty to their subject cities, and to raze the fortifications of their town, and to allow the Lacedæmonians to sacrifice to the god at Olympia and to contend in the games. After this Agis kept continually attacking Attica, and fortified Decelea as a constant menace to the Athenians: and after the Athenian fleet was destroyed at Ægos-potamoi, Lysander the son of Aristocritus and Agis violated the solemn oaths which the Lacedæmonians and Athenians had mutually sworn to observe, and at their own responsibility, and not at the bidding of the Spartan community, made an agreement with their allies to cut off Athens root and branch. These were the most notable exploits of Agis in war. And the hastiness of speech of Aristo about the legitimacy of his son Demaratus Agis also imitated in regard to his son Leotychides, for some evil genius put it into his head in the hearing of the Ephors to say that he did not think he was his son. He repented however of his speech afterwards, for when he was carried home sick from Arcadia and had got to Heræa, he solemnly declared before a multitude of witnesses that he did verily believe that Leotychides was his son, and conjured them with entreaties and tears to report what he had said to the Lacedæmonians. But after his death Agesilaus drove Leotychides from the kingdom, reminding the Lacedæmonians of Agis’ former speech, though the Arcadians came from Heræa, and bare witness what they had heard about Leotychides from Agis on his death-bed. And the variance between Agesilaus and Leotychides was heightened by the oracle at Delphi, which ran as follows:—
“Sparta, beware, although thou art so great,
Of having king o’er thee lame of one leg.
For unexpected woes shall then prevail,
And mortal-slaying wave of troublous war.”
Leotychides said that this oracle referred to Agesilaus, for he limped on one leg, but Agesilaus said it referred to Leotychides’ not being the legitimate son of Agis. And the Lacedæmonians did not avail themselves of their privilege to refer the question to Delphi: but Lysander, the son of Aristocritus, seems to have prevailed upon the people to unanimously choose Agesilaus.
[3.9] So Agesilaus the son of Archidamus was king, and the Lacedæmonians resolved to cross over into Asia with their fleet to capture Artaxerxes the son of Darius: for they had learnt from several people in authority, and especially from Lysander, that it was not Artaxerxes that had helped them in the war against the Athenians, but Cyrus who had supplied them with money for their ships. And Agesilaus, after being instructed to convey the expedition to Asia as commander of the land forces, sent round the Peloponnese to all the Greeks except at Argos and outside the Isthmus urging them to join him as allies. The Corinthians for their part, although they had been most eager to take part in the expedition to Asia, yet, when their temple of Olympian Zeus was suddenly consumed by fire, took it as an evil omen, and remained at home sorely against their will. And the Athenians urged, as pretext for refusing their aid, the strain of the Peloponnesian war and the city’s need of recovery from the plague: but their having learnt from envoys that Conon the son of Timotheus had gone to the great king, was their main motive. And Aristomenidas was sent as ambassador to Thebes, the father of Agesilaus’ mother, who was intimate with the Thebans, and had been one of the judges who, at the capture of Platæa, had condemned the garrison to be put to the sword. The Thebans however cried off like the Athenians, declining their aid. And Agesilaus, when his own army and that of the allied forces was mustered and his fleet ready to sail, went to Aulis to sacrifice to Artemis, because it was there that Agamemnon had propitiated the goddess when he led the expedition to Troy. And Agesilaus considered himself king of a more flourishing state than Agamemnon, and that like him he was leading all Greece, but the success would be more glorious, the happiness greater, to conquer the great King Artaxerxes, and to be master of Persia, than to overthrow the kingdom of Priam. But as he was sacrificing some Thebans attacked him, and threw the thigh-bones of the victims that were burning off the altar, and drove him out of the temple. And Agesilaus was grieved at the non-completion of the sacrifice, but none the less he crossed over to Asia Minor and marched for Sardis. Now Lydia was at this period the greatest province in Lower Asia Minor, and Sardis was the principal city for wealth and luxury, and it was the chief residence of the satrap by the sea, as Susa was the chief residence of the great king. And fighting a battle with Tissaphernes, the satrap of Ionia, in the plain near the river Hermus, Agesilaus defeated the Persian cavalry and infantry, though Tissaphernes’ army was the largest since the expedition of Xerxes against Athens, and earlier still the expedition of Darius against the Scythians. And the Lacedæmonians, delighted at the success of Agesilaus by land, readily made him leader of the fleet also. And he put Pisander his wife’s brother, a very stout soldier by land, in command of the triremes. But some god must have grudged his bringing things to a happy conclusion. For when Artaxerxes heard of the victorious progress of Agesilaus, and how he kept pushing on with his army, not content with what he had already gained, he condemned Tissaphernes to death, although he had in former times done him signal service, and gave his satrapy to Tithraustes, a longheaded fellow and very able man, who greatly disliked the Lacedæmonians. Directly he arrived at Sardis, he forthwith devised means to compel the Lacedæmonians to recall their army from Asia Minor. So he sent Timocrates a native of Rhodes into Greece with money, bidding him stir up war against the Lacedæmonians in Greece. And those who received Timocrates’ money were it is said Cylon and Sodamas among the Argives, and at Thebes Androclides and Ismenias and Amphithemis: and the Athenians Cephalus and Epicrates had a share, and the Corinthians with Argive proclivities as Polyanthes and Timolaus. But the war was openly commenced by the Locrians of Amphissa. For the Locrians had some land which was debated between them and the Phocians, from this land the Phocians, at the instigation of the Thebans and Ismenias, cut the ripe corn and drove off cattle. The Phocians also invaded Locris in full force, and ravaged the territory. Then the Locrians invited in the Thebans as their allies, and laid Phocis waste. And the Phocians went to Lacedæmon and inveighed against the Thebans, and recounted all that they had suffered at their hands. And the Lacedæmonians determined to declare war against the Thebans, and among other charges which they brought against them was their insult at Aulis to the sacrifice of Agesilaus. And the Athenians, having heard of the intention of the Lacedæmonians, sent to Sparta, begging them not to war against Thebes, but to submit their differences to arbitration. And the Lacedæmonians angrily dismissed the embassy. And what happened subsequently, viz. the expedition of the Lacedæmonians and the death of Lysander, has been told by me in reference to Pausanias. And what is known to history as the Corinthian war began with this march into Bœotia of the Lacedæmonians, and grew into a big war, and compelled Agesilaus to bring his army home from Asia Minor. And when he had crossed over in his ships from Abydos to Sestos, and marched into Thessaly through Thrace, the Thessalians attempted to bar his way to ingratiate themselves with the Thebans, partly also in consequence of their long standing friendship with Athens. And Agesilaus having routed their cavalry marched through Thessaly, and then through Bœotia, having conquered the Thebans and their allies at Coronea. And when the Bœotians were routed, some of them fled to the temple of Athene Itonia: and though Agesilaus was wounded in the battle, he did not for all that violate their sanctuary.
[3.10] And not long afterwards those Corinthians who had been exiled for their Lacedæmonian proclivities established the Isthmian games. But those who were at this time in Corinth remained there from fear of Agesilaus, but when he broke up his camp and returned to Sparta, then they also joined the Argives at the Isthmian games. And Agesilaus came again to Corinth with an army: and, as the festival of Hyacinthus was coming on, he sent home the natives of Amyclæ, to go and perform the customary rites to Apollo and Hyacinthus. This detachment were attacked on the road and cut to pieces by the Athenians under Iphicrates. Agesilaus also marched into Ætolia to help the Ætolians who were hard pressed by the Acarnanians, and compelled the Acarnanians to bring the war to an end, when they had all but taken Calydon and the other fortified towns in Ætolia. And some time afterwards he sailed to Egypt, to the aid of the Egyptians who had revolted from the great king: and many memorable exploits did he in Egypt. And he died on the passage home, for he was now quite an old man. And the Lacedæmonians, when they got his dead body, buried it with greater honours than they had shewn to any of their kings.
[3.10] And during the reign of Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, the Phocians seized the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Offers of mercenary aid came privately to the Thebans to fight against the Phocians, and publicly from the Lacedæmonians and Athenians, the latter remembering the old kindnesses they had received from the Phocians, and the Lacedæmonians under pretext of friendship, but really as I think in hostility to the Thebans. And Theopompus, the son of Damasistratus, said that Archidamus also had a share of the money at Delphi, and that also Dinichas, his wife, had received a bribe from the authorities of the Phocians, and that all this made Archidamus more willing to bring the Phocians aid. I do not praise receiving sacred money, and assisting men who made havoc of the most famous of oracles. But this much I can praise. The Phocians intended to kill all the young men at Delphi, and to sell the women and children into slavery, and to raze the city to its foundations: all this Archidamus successfully deprecated. And he afterwards crossed over into Italy, to assist the people of Tarentum in a war with their barbarian neighbours: and he was slain there by the barbarians, and his dead body failed to find a tomb through the wrath of Apollo. And Agis, the elder son of this Archidamus, met his death fighting against the Macedonians and Antipater. During the reign of Eudamidas the younger one the Lacedæmonians enjoyed peace. All about his son Agis, and his grandson Eurydamidas, I have already related in my account of Sicyonia.
[3.10] Next to the Hermæ³ is a place full of oak trees, and the name of it Scotitas (dark place) was not derived from the thickness of the foliage, but from Zeus surnamed Scotitas, whose temple is about 10 stades as you turn off the road to the left. And when you have returned to the road, and gone forward a little, and turned again to the left, there is a statue and trophy of Hercules: Hercules erected the trophy it is said after killing Hippocoon and his sons. And a third turn from the high road to the right leads to Caryæ and the temple of Artemis. For Caryæ is sacred to Artemis and the Nymphs, and there is a statue of Artemis of Caryæ in the open air, and here the Lacedæmonian maidens have a festival every year, and hold their national dances. And as you return to the high road and go straight on you come to the ruins of Sellasia, which place (as I have mentioned before) the Achæans reduced to slavery, when they had conquered in battle the Lacedæmonians and their king Cleomenes the son of Leonidas. And at Thornax, which you next come to, is a statue of Pythæan Apollo, very similar to the one at Amyclæ, which I shall describe when I come to Amyclæ. But the one at Amyclæ is more famous than the Lacedæmonian one, for the gold which Crœsus the Lydian sent to Pythæan Apollo was used to adorn it.
[3.11] On going forward from Thornax, you come to the city which was originally called Sparta, but afterwards Lacedæmon, which was once the name of the whole district. And according to my rule which I laid down in my account about Attica, not to give everything in detail but to select what was most worthy of account, so I shall deal in my account of Sparta: for I determined from the outset to pick out the most remarkable of the particulars which tradition hands down. From this determination I shall on no occasion deviate. At Sparta there is a handsome market-place, and a council chamber for the Senate, and public buildings in the market-place for the Ephors and guardians of the laws, and for those who are called the Bidiæi. The Senate is the most powerful governing body in Sparta, but all these others take part in the government: and the ephors and the Bidiæi are each five in number, and are appointed to preside over the games of the young men in the Platanistas and elsewhere, and the Ephors manage all other important matters, and furnish one of their number as the Eponymus, who like the magistrates of the same name at Athens presides over the rest. But the most notable thing in the market-place is what they call the Persian Portico, built of the spoils taken from the Medes: and in time they have brought it to its present size and magnificence. And there are on the pillars statues in white stone of Mardonius, the son of Gobryas, and other Persians. There is also a statue of Artemisia, the daughter of Lygdamis, who was Queen of Halicarnassus: and who they say of her own accord joined Xerxes in the expedition against Greece, and displayed great valour in the sea fight at Salamis. And there are two temples in the market-place, one to Cæsar, who was the first of the Romans that aimed at Autocracy, and established the present régime, and the other to Augustus his adopted son, who confirmed the Autocratic rule, and advanced further in consideration and power even than Cæsar had done. His name Augustus has the same signification as the Greek Sebastus. At the altar of Augustus they exhibit a brazen statue of Agias, who they say foretold Lysander that he would capture all the Athenian fleet at Ægos-potamoi but ten triremes: they got off safe to Cyprus, but the Lacedæmonians took all the rest and their crews. This Agias was the son of Agelochus, the son of Tisamenus. This last was a native of Elis of the family of the Iamidæ, who was told by the oracle that he should win the prize in 5 most notable contests. So he trained for the pentathlum at Olympia, and came off the ground unvictorious in that, though he won the prize in two out of the five, for he beat Hieronymus of Andros in running and leaping. But having been beaten by him in wrestling, and losing the victory, he interpreted the oracle to mean that he would win five victories in war. And the Lacedæmonians, who were not ignorant of what the Pythian priestess had foretold Tisamenus, persuaded him to leave Elis, and carry out the oracle for the benefit of the Spartans. And Tisamenus had his five victories, first at Platæa against the Persians, and secondly at Tegea in a battle between the Lacedæmonians and the people of Tegea and the Argives. And next at Dipæa against all the Arcadians but the Mantinæans: (Dipæa is a small town of the Arcadians near Mænalia.) And the fourth victory was at Ithome against the Helots that had revolted in the Isthmus. However all the Helots did not revolt, but only the Messenian portion who had separated themselves from the original Helots. But I shall enter into all this more fully hereafter. After this victory the Lacedæmonians, listening to Tisamenus and the oracle at Delphi, allowed the rebels to go away on conditions. And the fifth victory was at Tanagra in a battle against the Argives and Athenians. Such is the account I heard about Tisamenus. And the Spartans have in their market-place statues of Pythæan Apollo, and Artemis, and Leto. And this place is called Dance-ground because during the Festival of Gymnopædia,⁴ (and there is no feast more popular among the Lacedæmonians,) the boys have dances here in honour of Apollo. And at no great distance are temples of Earth, and Market Zeus, and Market Athene, and Poseidon whom they call Asphalius, and Apollo again, and Hera. There is also a huge statue of a man to represent the People of Sparta. And the Destinies have a temple at Sparta, near to which is the tomb of Orestes the son of Agamemnon: for they say his bones were brought from Tegea and buried here in accordance with the oracle. And near the tomb of Orestes is an effigy of Polydorus the son of Alcamenes, whom of all their kings they so extolled that the government seal all their public documents with Polydorus’ image. There is also a Market Hermes carrying a little Dionysus, and some antiquities called Ephorea, and among them memorials of Epimenides the Cretan, and of Aphareus the son of Perieres. And I think the Lacedæmonian account of Epimenides truer than the Argive one. Here also are statues of the Destinies, and some other statues. There is also a Hospitable Zeus and a Hospitable Athene.
[3.12] As you go from the market-place on the road which they call Apheta (starting-place), you come to what is called Booneta, (Ox-purchased). I must first explain the name of the road. They say that Icarius proposed a race for the suitors of Penelope, and that Odysseus won the prize is clear, and they started they say at the road called Apheta. And I think Icarius imitated Danaus in proposing this contest. For this was Danaus’ plan in regard to his daughters; as no one would marry any of them because of their atrocious crime, Danaus made it known that he would marry his daughters to any one who should select them for their beauty without requiring wedding-presents, but when only a few came to apply he established a race, and the winner might take his pick of the girls, and the second the next, and so on to the last in the race: and the girls still remaining had to wait for a second batch of suitors and a second race. And what the Lacedæmonians call Booneta on this road, was formerly the house of king Polydorus: and after Polydorus’ death they bought it of his widow for some oxen. For as yet there was no coinage either in silver or gold, but in primitive fashion they gave in barter oxen and slaves, and silver or gold in the lump. And mariners to India tell us the Indians give in exchange for Greek commodities various wares, but do not understand the use of money, and that though they have plenty of gold and silver. And opposite the public Hall of the Bidiæi is the temple of Athene, and Odysseus is said to have put there the statue of the goddess, and called it Celeuthea, when he outran the suitors of Penelope. And he built three temples of Celeuthea at some distance from one another. And along the road called Apheta there are hero-chapels of Iops, who is supposed to have been a contemporary of Lelex or Myles, and of Amphiaraus the son of Œcles, (and this last they think the sons of Tyndareus erected as Amphiaraus was their uncle), and also one of Lelex himself. And not far from these is the shrine of Tænarian Apollo, for that is his title, and at no great distance a statue of Athene, which they say was a votive offering of those who migrated to Italy and Tarentum. And the place which is called Hellenium is so called because those of the Hellenes (Greeks), who strove to prevent Xerxes’ passing into Europe, deliberated in this place how they should resist him. But another tradition says that it was here that those who went to Ilium to oblige Menelaus deliberated on the best plan for sailing to Troy, and exacting punishment of Paris for the rape of Helen. And near Hellenium they exhibit the tomb of Talthybius: as do also the people of Ægæ in Achaia in their market-place, who also claim the tomb of Talthybius as being with them. And the wrath of this Talthybius for the murder of the envoys, who were sent by King Darius to Greece to ask for earth and water, was publicly manifested to the Lacedæmonians, but on the Athenians was visited privately, and mainly on the house of one man, Miltiades the son of Cimon, for he was the person responsible for getting the envoys that came to Attica put to death by the Athenians. And the Lacedæmonians have an altar of Apollo Acritas, and a temple of Earth called Gaseptum, and above it is Apollo Maleates. And at the end of the road Apheta, and very near the walls, is the temple of Dictynna, and the royal tombs of the Eurypontidæ. And near Hellenium is the temple of Arsinoe, the daughter of Leucippus, and the sister of the wives of Polydeuces and Castor. And at what is called Garrison there is a temple of Artemis, and as you go on a little further there is a monument erected to the prophets from Elis who are called Iamidæ. And there is a temple of Maro and Alpheus, who, of the Lacedæmonians that fought at Thermopylæ, seem to have been reckoned most valiant next to Leonidas. And the temple of Victory-giving Zeus was erected by the Dorians, after a victory over the people of Amyclæ and the other Achæans, who at this time occupied Laconia. And the temple of the great Mother is honoured especially. And next to it are hero-chapels of Theseus, and the Arcadian Aulon, and the son of Tlesimenes: some say that Tlesimenes was the brother, others the son, of Parthenopæus the son of Melanion.
[3.12] And there is another outlet from the market-place, where is built the place called Scias, where even now they hold meetings. This Scias was they say built by the Samian Theodorus, who was the first discoverer of fusing, and making statues, in iron. Here the Lacedæmonians hung up the harp of Milesian Timotheus, censuring him for adding four chords in harpistry to the old Seven. And near Scias there is a round building (in which are statues of Olympian Zeus and Olympian Aphrodite) constructed they say by Epimenides, of whom they give a different account to that of the Argives, since they say that the Argives never fought with the Gnossians.
[3.13] Not far from Scias is the tomb of Cynortas the son of Amyclas, and the monument of Castor, and a temple to him over it. Castor and Pollux were not they say reckoned gods till the fortieth year after the battle between Idas and Lynceus, whose tombs are exhibited at Scias, though a more probable tradition states that they were buried in Messenia. But the misfortunes of the Messenians, and the long time they were away from the Peloponnese, have made many of their old traditions unknown to posterity, and since they do not themselves know them for certain, any one who chooses can doubt. Right opposite the temple of Olympian Aphrodite the Lacedæmonians have a temple of Saviour Proserpine, erected some say by the Thracian Orpheus, others say by Abaris who came from the Hyperboreans. And Carneus, whom they surname Œcetes, had honours in Sparta even before the return of the Heraclidæ, and a statue was erected to him in the house of Crius, the son of Theocles the prophet. As the daughter of this Crius was drawing water, some Dorian spies met her and had a conversation with her, and went to Crius, and learnt of him the way to capture Sparta. And the worship of Carnean Apollo was established among all the Dorians by Carnus, an Acarnanian by race and the prophet of Apollo: and when he was slain by Hippotes the son of Phylas the heavy wrath of Apollo fell upon the camp of the Dorians, and Hippotes had to flee for this murder, and the Dorians determined to propitiate the Acarnanian prophet by sacred rites. But indeed it is not this Carnean Œcetes, but the son of the prophet Crius that was honoured while the Achæans still held Sparta. It has indeed been written by Praxilla in her verses that Carneus was the son of Europa, and that Apollo and Leto brought him up. But there is another tradition recorded of him, that the Greeks cut down on Trojan Ida some cornel trees that grew in the grove of Apollo to make the Wooden Horse: and when they learnt of the anger of the god against them for this sacrilege, they propitiated him with sacrifices and called him Carnean Apollo from these cornel trees, transposing the letter ρ according to ancient custom.⁵
[3.13] And not far from Carnean Apollo is the statue of Aphetæus: where they say the suitors of Penelope started for their race. And there is a place which has porticoes forming a square, where nicknacks in old times used to be sold: at this place is an altar of Ambulian Zeus and Ambulian Athene, and also of Ambulian Castor and Pollux. And right opposite is what is called Colona (Hill), and a temple of Zeus of Colona, and near it the grove of the hero, who they say showed Dionysus the way to Sparta. And the women called Dionysiades and Leucippides sacrifice to this hero before they sacrifice to the god himself. But the other eleven women, whom they also call Dionysiades, have a race specially appointed for them: this custom came from Delphi. And not far from the temple of Dionysus is that of Zeus Euanemus, and on the right of this is the hero chapel of Pleuron. On the mother’s side the sons of Tyndareus were descended from Pleuron, for Areus says in his poems that Thestius, the father of Leda, was the son of Agenor and grandson of Pleuron. And not far from this hero chapel is a hill, and on the hill is a temple of Argive Hera, erected they say by Eurydice the daughter of Lacedæmon, and the wife of Acrisius the son of Abas. And the temple of Hyperchirian Hera was built according to the oracle, when the Eurotas overflowed a considerable part of the country. And the old wooden statue they call that of Aphrodite Hera, and when a daughter is married it is customary for mothers to sacrifice to that goddess. And on the road to the right of this hill is an effigy of Etœmocles. He and his father Hipposthenes won prizes for wrestling at Olympia, the father on eleven occasions, the son on twelve.
[3.14] As you go westwards from the market-place is the cenotaph of Brasidas the son of Tellis, and at no great distance a theatre in white stone well worth seeing. And opposite the theatre are the tombs of Pausanias the General at Platæa, and of Leonidas: and every year they have speeches over them, and a contest in which none but Spartans may compete. The remains of Leonidas were 40 years after his death removed from Thermopylæ by Pausanias, and there is a pillar with the names and pedigree of those who fought against the Medes at Thermopylæ. And there is in Sparta a place called Theomelida, where are the tombs of the kings descended from Agis, and at no great distance is what is called the Lounge of the Crotani; who belong to the Pitanatæ. And not far from this Lounge is the temple of Æsculapius, called the temple among the tombs of the descendants of Agis. And as you go on you come to the tomb of Tænarus, from whom they say the promontory Tænarum gets its name. And there are temples of Hippocurian Poseidon and Æginetan Artemis. And as you retrace your steps to the Lounge is the temple of Artemis Issora, they also call her Limnæa, though she is not called Artemis but Britomartis by the Cretans, but about her I shall speak when I come to Ægina. And very near the tombs of the descendants of Agis you will see a pillar, and inscribed on it are the victories which Chionis a Lacedæmonian carried off in the course, and others which he won at Olympia. For there he had seven victories, four in the course, and three in the double course. The shield race at the end of the sports was not then instituted. Chionis also took part they say with Theræan Battus in founding Cyrene, and in ejecting the neighbouring Libyans. And they allege the following as the reason why the temple of Thetis was built. When they were fighting against the Messenians who had revolted, and their king Anaxander invaded Messenia and took captive some women, and among them Cleo the priestess of Thetis, Anaxander’s wife Leandris begged Cleo of her husband, and she found Cleo in possession of a wooden statue of Thetis, and joined her in building a temple to the goddess: and Leandris built this according to the pattern which she saw in a dream: and the old wooden statue of Thetis they keep in a private place. And the Lacedæmonians say they were taught to worship Demeter Chthonia by Orpheus, but I am of opinion that the temple at Hermion taught them this worship of Demeter Chthonia. The Spartans have also a very recent temple of Serapis, and another of Olympian Zeus.
[3.14] And the Lacedæmonians give the name Dromus to the place where it is customary still for the young men to practise in running. As you go to this Dromus from the tomb of the descendants of Agis you see on the left hand the sepulchre of Eumedes, who was the son of Hippocoon, and an old statue of Hercules, to whom the Spartan youths called Sphærei sacrifice. This name is given to the lads who are just growing to manhood.⁶ There are also gymnasiums in Dromus, one the offering of the Spartan Eurycles. And outside Dromus, and opposite the statue of Hercules, is a house which now belongs to a private person, but was of old the house of Menelaus. And as you go on from Dromus you come to the temples of Castor and Pollux, and the Graces, and Ilithyia, and Carnean Apollo, and Sovereign Artemis. And on the right of Dromus is a temple of Æsculapius surnamed Agnitas (Willowy), because the god’s statue is made of willow, of the same kind as that called rhamnus: and at no great distance is a trophy, which they say Polydeuces put up after his victory over Lynceus. And this confirms in my opinion the probability that the sons of Aphareus were not buried at Sparta. Near the beginning of Dromus are Castor and Pollux of the Startingpoint, and as you go a little way further is the hero-chapel of Alco, who they say was the son of Hippocoon. And next to the hero-chapel of Alco is the temple of Poseidon whom they surname Domatites. And there is a place called Platanistas from the plane-trees which grow high and continuous round it. And this place, where it is customary for the young men to have their fights, is surrounded by water as an island is by the sea, and you enter it by bridges. On one side of these bridges is a statue of Hercules, and on the other one of Lycurgus, who not only legislated for the state generally but even for the fights of the youths. And the youths have the following customs also. They sacrifice before their fights in the temple of Phœbus, which is outside the city and not very far from Therapne. Here each division of the young men sacrifice a puppy dog to Enyalius,⁷ deeming the most valiant of domesticated animals a suitable victim to the most valiant of the gods. And I know no other Greeks who are accustomed to sacrifice puppy dogs except the Colophonians, who sacrifice a black puppy to Enodius. The sacrifices both of the Colophonians and also of these young men at Lacedæmon take place by night. And after their sacrifice the young men pit together tame boars to fight, whichever boar gets the victory, the party to which it belongs are generally victorious at Platanistas. This is what they do in the temple of Phœbus: and on the next day a little before noon they cross the bridges to Platanistas. And the approach for each division is appointed by lot the night before. And they fight with hands and feet, and bite and tear one another’s eyes out. So they fight, and violently attack one another full tilt, and push one another into the water.
[3.15] Near Platanistas there is a hero-chapel of Cynisca, the daughter of Archidamus king of Sparta: she was the first woman who trained horses, and the first woman who won the chariot-race at Olympia. And behind the portico near Platanistas are several other hero-chapels, one of Alcimus, and another of Enaræphorus, and at no great distance one of Dorceus, and above this one of Sebrus. These they say were sons of Hippocoon. And from Dorceus they call the fountain near the hero-chapel Dorcea, and from Sebrus they call the place Sebrium. And on the right of Sebrium is the sepulchre of Alcman, the sweetness of whose poems was not injured by the Lacedæmonian dialect, though it is the least euphonious. And there are temples of Helen and Hercules, hers near the tomb of Alcman, and his very near the walls with a statue in it of Hercules armed: Hercules was so represented in the statue they say because of his fight against Hippocoon and his sons. The animosity of Hercules against the family of Hippocoon originated they say in that, after killing Iphitus, when he came to Sparta to clear himself, they refused to clear him. The following matter also contributed to the beginning of strife. Œonus a lad, and nephew of Hercules, for he was the son of Alcmena’s brother, accompanied Hercules to Sparta, and as he was going round and looking at the city, when he was opposite the house of Hippocoon, a watch dog jumped out on him, and Œonus chanced to throw a stone and hit the dog. Then the sons of Hippocoon ran out, and struck Œonus with clubs till they had killed him. At this Hercules was furious against Hippocoon and his sons, and immediately (so angry was he) attacked them. For the moment he retired as he was wounded, but afterwards he brought others with him to Sparta to avenge himself on Hippocoon and his sons for the murder of Œonus. And the sepulchre of Œonus was erected near the temple of Hercules. And as you go eastwards from Dromus there is a path on the right hand to the temple of Athene under the title of Exactor of due punishment. For when Hercules took on Hippocoon and his sons adequate vengeance for what they had done, he built this temple to Athene under the title of Exactor of due punishment, for the old race of men called revenge punishment.⁸ And there is another temple of Athene as you go on another road from Dromus, erected they say by Theras the son of Autesion, the son of Tisamenus, the son of Thersander, when he sent a colony to the island which is now called Thera after him, but was of old called Calliste. And hard by is the temple of Hipposthenes who carried off most of the wrestling prizes, and whom they worship according to the oracle, as if they were awarding honours to Poseidon. And right opposite this temple is Enyalius in fetters, an old statue. And the opinion of the Lacedæmonians about this statue and about that of the Athenians called Wingless Victory is the same, viz. that Enyalius will never depart from the Lacedæmonians as being fettered, just as Victory will always remain with the Athenians because she has no wings to fly away. Athens and Lacedæmon have erected these statues on similar principles and with a similar belief. And at Sparta there is a Lounge called the Painted Lounge, and various hero-chapels near it, as of Cadmus the son of Agenor, and his descendants, Œolycus the son of Theras, and Ægeus the son of Œolycus. And they say these hero-chapels were built by Mæsis, Læas, and Europas, who are said to have been the sons of Hyræsus and grandsons of Ægeus. And they built also a hero-chapel to Amphilochus, because their ancestor Tisamenus was the son of Demonassa, the sister of Amphilochus. And the Lacedæmonians are the only Greeks with whom it is customary to call Hera Goateater and to sacrifice goats to her. And Hercules they say built a temple and sacrificed goats to her first, because when he was fighting against Hippocoon and his sons he met with no obstacle from Hera, though he thought the goddess opposed him on all other occasions. And they say he sacrificed goats to her as being in difficulty about getting any other victims. And not far from the theatre is the temple of Tutelary Poseidon and hero-chapels of Cleodæus the son of Hyllus, and of Œbalus. And the most notable of the Spartan temples of Æsculapius is at Booneta, on the left of which is the hero-chapel of Teleclus, of whom I shall give an account when I come to Messenia. And when you have gone forward a little further there is a hill not very high, and on it an old temple and wooden statue of Aphrodite in full armour. This is the only temple I know which has an upper story built above it, and in this upper story is a shrine of Aphrodite under the title of The Shapely, the goddess is seated with a veil on and fetters on her feet. They say Tyndareus added the fetters, symbolising by those bonds the bonds of love, that unite men so powerfully to women. For as to the other tradition, that Tyndareus punished the goddess by fetters, because he thought his daughters’ disgrace had come from the goddess, this I don’t at all accept: for it would have been altogether childish to make a small figure of cedar-wood and call it Aphrodite, and then think in punishing it one was punishing the goddess!
[3.16] And hard by is the temple of Hilaira and Phœbe, who the writer of the Cyprian poems says were the daughters of Apollo. And their priestesses are maidens, called also Leucippides as well as the goddesses. One of their statues was touched up by a priestess of the goddesses, who with an art not unknown in our days put a new face on the old statue, but a dream prevented her treating the other statue in the same way. Here is hung up an egg, fastened to the roof by fillets; they say it is the egg which Leda is said to have laid. And every year the women weave a coat for Apollo at Amyclæ, and they call the place where they weave it Coat. Near the temple is a house which they say the sons of Tyndareus originally lived in, but afterwards Phormio a Spartan got possession of it. To him Castor and Pollux came as strangers, they said they had come from Cyrene and desired to lodge at his house, and asked for a chamber, (with which they were greatly pleased), as long as they should remain at Sparta. But he bade them go to some other house where they might like to dwell, he could not give them that chamber, for it was the apartment of his daughter a maiden. And the next day maiden and her attendants had all vanished, but statues of Castor and Pollux were found in the chamber, and a table with some assa-fœtida on it. Such at least is the tradition.
[3.16] And as you go to the gates from the place called Coat there is a hero-chapel of Chilo, who was accounted one of the seven wise men, and of an Athenian hero who accompanied Dorieus, the son of Anaxandrides, on the expedition to colonize Sicily. And they put in at Eryx thinking that district belonged to the descendants of Hercules, and not to barbarians who really held it. For there is a tradition that Eryx and Hercules wrestled on the following conditions, that if Hercules conquered the land of Eryx should be his, but if Eryx conquered the oxen of Geryon, (which Hercules was then driving,) should be his, for these oxen had swum across to Sicily from the promontory at Scylla,⁹ and Hercules had crossed over after them to find them, and Eryx should have them if he came off victor. But the good will of the gods did not speed Dorieus the son of Anaxandrides as it had done Hercules, for Hercules killed Eryx, but the people of Segeste nearly annihilated Dorieus and his army. And the Lacedæmonians have built a temple to their legislator Lycurgus as to a god. And behind this temple is the tomb of Eucosmus, the son of Lycurgus, near the altar of Lathria and Anaxandra, who were twins, (and the sons of Aristodemus who married them were also twins), and the daughters of Thersander the son of Agamedidas, the king of the Cleestonæans, and the great grandson of Ctesippus the son of Hercules. And right opposite the temple are the tombs of Theopompus the son of Nicander, and Eurybiades, who fought against the Medes in the Lacedæmonian gallies at Artemisium and Salamis. And hard-by is what is called the hero-chapel of Astrabacus.
[3.16] And the place called Limnæum is the temple of Orthian Artemis. The wooden statue of the goddess is they say the very one which Orestes and Iphigenia formerly stole from the Tauric Chersonese. And the Lacedæmonians say it was brought to their country when Orestes was king there. And their account seems to me more probable than the account of the Athenians. For why should Iphigenia have left the statue at Brauron? And when the Athenians were preparing to leave the place, would they not have put it on board ship? And so great still is the fame of Tauric Artemis, that the Cappadocians who live near the Euxine claim that the statue was theirs, and the Lydians who have a temple of Anaitian Artemis make the same claim. But it appears it was neglected by the Athenians and became a prey to the Medes: for it was carried from Brauron to Susa, and afterwards the Syrians of Laodicea received it from Seleucus and still have it. And the following facts plainly prove to me that the Orthian Artemis at Lacedæmon is the same wooden statue which was taken from the barbarians: that Astrabacus and Alopecus, (the sons of Irbus, the son of Amphisthenes, the son of Amphicles, the son of Agis), when they found the statue immediately went mad; and also that the Limnatæ among the Spartans, and the people of Cynosura, Mesoa, and Pitane, who were sacrificing to Artemis, had a quarrel and even went so far as to kill one another, and after many were killed at the altar a pestilence destroyed the rest. And after that an oracle bade them sprinkle human blood over the altar. And instead of a person drawn by lot being sacrificed, Lycurgus changed it to flogging the young men there, and so the altar got sprinkled with human blood. And the priestess stands by during the operation, holding the wooden statue, which is generally light from its smallness, but if the scourgers spare any young man at all in his flogging either on account of his beauty or rank, then this wooden statue in the priestess’ hand becomes heavy and no longer easy to hold, and she makes complaint of the scourgers and says it is so heavy owing to them. So innate is it with this statue, in consequence of the sacrifices at the Tauric Chersonese, to delight in human blood. And they not only call the goddess Orthia, but also Bound-with-willow-twigs, because the statue was found in a willow bush, and the willows so tenaciously twined round it that they kept it in an upright posture.
[3.17] And not far from that of Orthian Artemis is the temple of Ilithyia: this temple they say was built, and Ilithyia accounted a goddess, in obedience to the oracle at Delphi. And the Lacedæmonians have no citadel rising to a notable height, as the Cadmea at Thebes, or Larissa among the Argives: but as there are several hills in the city the highest of these is called the citadel. Here is erected a temple of Athene called Poliuchus and Chalciœcus. And this temple began to be built they say by Tyndareus: and after his death his sons wished to finish the building, and they had an opportunity in the spoils from Aphidna. But as they too died before the conclusion of the work, the Lacedæmonians many years afterwards completed the temple, and made a statue of Athene in brass. And the artificer was Gitiadas a native of Sparta, who also composed Doric poems and a hymn to the goddess. Many too of the Labours of Hercules are delineated in brass, and many of his successes on his own account, and several of the actions of Castor and Pollux, and their carrying off the daughters of Leucippus, and Hephæstus freeing his mother from her bonds. I have given an explanation of all these before, and the legends about them, in my account of Attica. There too are the Nymphs giving Perseus, as he is starting for Libya and Medusa, the invisible cap, and the sandals with which he could fly through the air. There too are representations of the birth of Athene, and of Amphitrite, and Poseidon, which are the largest and as it seems to me finest works of art.
[3.17] There is also another temple there of Athene the Worker. At the South Porch there is also a temple of Zeus called the Arranger, and the tomb of Tyndareus in front of it. And the West Porch has two Eagles and two Victories to correspond, the votive offering of Lysander, and a record of his two famous exploits, the one near Ephesus when he defeated Antiochus, the pilot of Alcibiades, and the Athenian gallies, and the other at Ægos-potamoi where he crushed the Athenian navy. And at the left of Athene Chalciœcus they have built a temple of the Muses, because the Lacedæmonians do not go out to battle to the sound of the trumpet, but to the music of flutes and lyre and harp. And behind Athene Chalciœcus is the temple of Martial Aphrodite. Her wooden statues are as old as any among the Greeks.
[3.17] And on the right of Athene Chalciœcus is a statue of Supreme Zeus, the most ancient of all brass statues, for it is not carved in one piece, but forged piece by piece and deftly welded together, and studs keep it together from falling to pieces. The artificer was they say Clearchus a man of Rhegium, who some say was the pupil of Dipœnus and Scyllis, others say of Dædalus. And at what is called the Scenoma there is a figure of a woman, the Lacedæmonians say it is Euryleonis, who won the prize at Olympia with a pair of horses.
[3.17] And near the altar of Athene Chalciœcus are erected two figures of Pausanias the General at Platæa. His fate I shall not relate to people who know it, for what I have written before is quite sufficient. I shall merely therefore state what I heard from a man of Byzantium, that Pausanias was detected plotting, and was the only one of those that took sanctuary with Athene Chalciœcus that did not get indemnity, and that for no other reason than that he could not clear himself of the guilt of murder. For when he was at the Hellespont in command of the allied fleet, he got enamoured of a Byzantian maiden called Cleonice, and at nightfall a detachment of his men brought her to him. And Pausanias had fallen asleep, and when this maiden came into the room she knocked down inadvertently the light that was burning, and the noise woke him. And Pausanias, whose conscience smote him for having betrayed Greece, and who was therefore always in a state of nervous alarm and panic, was beside himself and stabbed the maiden with a scimetar. This guilt Pausanias could not clear himself from, though he endeavoured in every way to propitiate Zeus the Acquitter, and even went to Phigalia in Arcadia to the necromancers, but he paid to Cleonice and the deity the fit penalty. And the Lacedæmonians at the bidding of the oracle made brazen statues for the god Epidotes, and otherwise honoured him, because he it was who in the case of Pausanias turned aside the wrath of Zeus the god of Suppliants.
[3.18] Near the two figures of Pausanias is a statue of Youth-prolonging Aphrodite, made at the bidding of an oracle, and statues of Sleep and Death. People have reckoned them to be brothers according to Homer’s lines in the Iliad.¹⁰ And on the way to Alpium as it is called you come to the temple of Athene the Eye-preserver, erected they say by Lycurgus who had one of his eyes knocked out by Alcander, because he did not find Lycurgus’ legislation agreeable. And he took refuge at this place, and the Lacedæmonians prevented his losing his remaining eye, so he built a temple to Athene the Eye-preserver. And as you go on from thence you come to the temple of Ammon. The Lacedæmonians seem from time immemorial to have used his oracle in Libya most of all the Greeks. And it is said that, when Lysander was besieging Aphytis in Pallene, Ammon appeared to him by night, and told him it would be better for him and Lacedæmon to raise the siege. And accordingly he did so, and induced the Lacedæmonians to honour the god even more than before. And the people of Aphytis honour Ammon as much as the Ammonians themselves in Libya. And the following is the tradition about Cnagian Artemis. Cnageus they say was a native of Sparta, and went on the expedition against Aphidna with Castor and Pollux, and was taken prisoner in the battle and sold into slavery in Crete, and was slave at the temple of Artemis in Crete, and in course of time ran off with the priestess who also took with her the image of the goddess. This is why they call her Cnagian Artemis. But I cannot help thinking this Cnageus must have gone to Crete in some other way, and not as the Lacedæmonians say, for I do not think a battle was fought at Aphidna, as Theseus was detained in Thesprotia, and the Athenians were not unanimous for him, but inclined rather to Menestheus. Not but that, if a contest took place, one might readily believe that prisoners were taken by the conquerors, especially as it was a decisive victory, for Aphidna was captured. Let this suffice for the subject.
[3.18] On the road from Sparta to Amyclæ you come to the river Tiasa. Tiasa was they think the daughter of Eurotas, and near the river is a temple of the Graces Phaenna and Clete, whom Alcman has celebrated. And they think that Lacedæmon erected this temple to the Graces and gave them these names. The things worth seeing at Amyclæ are the statue of Ænetus on a pillar (he won all the prizes in the pentathlum, and died they say directly after being crowned for his victory at Olympia,) and some brazen tripods, three¹¹ of which are older they say than the Messenian War. Under the first of these is a statue of Aphrodite, under the second one of Artemis, both the design and work of Gitiadas. And the third is by Callon of Ægina, and under it is a statue of Proserpine the daughter of Demeter. And the Parian Aristander has represented a woman with a lyre to signify Sparta no doubt, and Polycletus the Argive has represented Aphrodite called the Aphrodite near Amyclæan Apollo. These 3 tripods are bigger than any of the rest, and were dedicated in consequence of the victory at Ægos-potamoi. And Bathycles the Magnesian, who made the throne of Amyclæan Apollo, also carved some of the Graces on the throne and a statue of Artemis Leucophryene. Who he learnt his art from, or in whose reign he made this throne I pass by, but I have seen it and will describe it. Before and behind it are two Graces and two Seasons, on the left is the Hydra and Typhos, and on the right the Tritons. But to narrate every detail of this work of art would tire my readers, to make therefore a short summary, since most are well known, Poseidon and Zeus are carrying off Taygetes, the daughter of Atlas, and her sister Alcyone. There also is Atlas delineated, and the combat between Hercules and Cycnus, and the fight of the Centaurs with Pholus. There too is the Minotaur represented by Bathycles (I know not why) as fettered and led alive by Theseus. And there is a dance of Phæacians on the throne, and Demodocus is singing. There too is Perseus’ victory over Medusa. And not to mention the contest of Hercules with the giant Thurius, and of Tyndareus with Eurytus, there is the rape of the daughters of Leucippus. And there is Hermes carrying to heaven Dionysus as a boy, and Athene taking Hercules to dwell among the gods. And there is Peleus handing over Achilles for his education to Chiron, who is said to have been his tutor. And there is Cephalus carried off by Aurora for his beauty. And there are the gods bringing their gifts at the wedding of Harmony. There too is the single combat between Achilles and Memnon, and Hercules slaying Diomede, King of Thrace, and Nessus by the river Evenus, and Hermes bringing up the goddesses to Paris for the trial of beauty, and Adrastus and Tydeus stopping the fight between Amphiarus and Lycurgus the son of Pronax. And Hera is gazing at Io already changed into a heifer, and Athene is running away from the pursuit of Hephæstus. There too is Hercules fighting with the hydra, and bringing up Cerberus from Hades. There too are Anaxis and Mnasinous each of them on horseback, and Megapenthes, the son of Menelaus, and Nicostratus both on one horse. And there is Bellerophon killing the Chimæra in Lycia, and Hercules driving off the cattle of Geryon. And on each side of the upper portions of the throne are Castor and Pollux on horseback: under their horses are some Sphinxes and some wild beasts running above, on Castor’s side a leopard, but near Pollux a lioness. And at the very top of the throne is a company of the Magnesians who assisted Bathycles in this work of art. And if you go under the throne to see its interior parts where the Tritons are, there is the boar of Calydon, and Hercules slaying the sons of Actor, and Calais and Zetes driving away the Harpies from Phineus, and Pirithous and Theseus carrying off Helen, and Hercules throttling the Nemean lion. And there are Apollo and Artemis transfixing Tityus. And there is the contest of Hercules with the Centaur Oreus, and of Theseus with the Minotaur, and the wrestling of Hercules with Achelous, and Hera bound by Hephæstus as the story goes, and the games established by Acastus in memory of his father, and what we read in the Odyssey about Menelaus and the Egyptian Proteus. Lastly there is Admetus yoking to his chariot a boar and a lion, and the Trojans making their offerings at the grave of Hector.
[3.19] As to the seat for the god on this throne, it is not one continuous surface but has several partitions with intervals between them. The largest partition is in the middle, where there is a statue about 30 cubits high I conjecture, for no one has taken its measure. And this is not by Bathycles but an ancient and inartistic production, for except the face toes and hands it resembles a brazen pillar. There is a helmet on its head, and a lance and bow in its hands. And the base of the statue is like an altar, and they say Hyacinthus is buried there, and at the festival of Hyacinthus, before they sacrifice to Apollo, they make offerings to Hyacinthus on this altar through a brazen door which is on the left of the altar. And carved upon this altar are effigies of Biris and Amphitrite and Poseidon, and Zeus and Hermes talking together, and near them Dionysus and Semele, and near Semele Ino. On this altar too are effigies of Demeter and Proserpine and Pluto, the Destinies and the Seasons, Aphrodite and Athene and Artemis; and they are carrying to heaven Hyacinthus and his sister Polybœa who they say died a virgin. Hyacinthus has a small beard, and Nicias the son of Nicomedes has represented him as very handsome, hinting at the love of Apollo for him. There is also a representation of Hercules being taken to heaven by Athene and the other gods; as also effigies of the daughters of Thestius and the Muses and the Seasons. As to the Zephyr, and the story of Hyacinth having been accidentally slain by Apollo, and the legends about the flower Hyacinth, the traditions may possibly be baseless, but let them stand.
[3.19] Amyclæ was destroyed by the Dorians, and is now only a village, which contains a temple and statue of Alexandra well worth seeing, (by Alexandra the people of Amyclæ mean Cassandra the daughter of Priam).
[3.19] There is here also an effigy of Clytæmnestra, and a statue of Agamemnon, and his supposed tomb. And Amyclæan Apollo and Dionysus are the chief gods worshipped here, the latter they call very properly in my opinion Psilax (Winged). Psila is the Dorian word for wings, and wine elevates men and lightens their judgment just as wings elevate birds. And such is all that is memorable about Amyclæ.
[3.19] Another road from Sparta leads to Therapne. And on the way is a wooden statue of Athene Alea. And before you cross the Eurotas a little above the bank stands the temple of Wealthy Zeus. And when you have crossed the Eurotas, you come to the temple of Cotylean Æsculapius built by Hercules, who called Æsculapius Cotylean because in the first conflict with Hippocoon and his sons he received a wound on his cotyle or hip. And of all the temples built on this road, the most ancient is one of Ares, on the left of the road, and the statue of the god was they say brought by Castor and Pollux from Colchi. And Theritas gets its name they say from Thero, who was the nurse of Ares. And perhaps they got the name Theritas from the Colchians, for the Greeks know nothing of a nurse of Ares called Thero. But I cannot but think that the name Theritas was given to Ares not on account of his nurse, but because in an engagement with the enemy one must be mild no longer, but be like the description of Achilles in Homer, “as a lion he knows savageness.”¹²
[3.19] Therapne got its name from Therapne, the daughter of Lelex, and it has a temple of Menelaus, and they say that Menelaus and Helen were buried here. But the Rhodians have a different account to that of the Lacedæmonians, and say that Helen after the death of Menelaus, while Orestes was still on his travels, was driven away by Nicostratus and Megapenthes and went to Rhodes, as she was a connection of Polyxo the wife of Tlepolemus, for Polyxo was of Argive descent, and being the wife of Tlepolemus fled with him to Rhodes, and there became Queen, being left with one fatherless child. This Polyxo they say desired to avenge on Helen the death of Tlepolemus, and when she got her in her power sent to her as she was bathing some attendants dressed like the Furies, and they laid hold of Helen and hung her on a tree, and for this reason the Rhodians have a temple to Helen Hung on the Tree. And I will record the tradition of the people of Croton about Helen, which is the same as that of the people of Himera. There is in the Euxine sea, near the mouth of the Ister, an island sacred to Achilles called Leuce. It is 20 stades in extent, entirely thick forest and full of beasts domesticated and wild, and contains a temple and statue of Achilles. They say Leonymus of Croton was the first that ever sailed to it. For when there was a war between the people of Croton and the Locrians in Italy, and the Locrians invited in Ajax the son of Oileus to aid them because of their kinsmanship to the Opuntians, Leonymus the general of the Crotonians attacked that part of the enemy’s army where he was told that Ajax was stationed, and got wounded in the breast, and, as he suffered very much from his wound, went to Delphi. And the Pythian Priestess sent him to the island Leuce, and told him that Ajax would appear there and heal his wound. And in process of time getting well he returned from Leuce, and said that he had seen Achilles, and Ajax the son of Oileus, and Ajax the son of Telamon, and that Patroclus and Antilochus were in the company, and that Helen was married to Achilles and had told him to sail to Himera, and tell Stesichorus that the loss of his eyesight was a punishment to him from her. In consequence of this Stesichorus composed his palinode.
[3.20] At Therapne too I saw the fountain Messeis. Some of the Lacedæmonians say that the fountain called in our day Polydeucea, and not this one at Therapne, was called by the ancients Messeis. But the fountain Polydeucea, and the temple of Polydeuces, are on the right of the road to Therapne. And not far from Therapne is a temple of Phœbus, and in it a shrine of Castor and Polydeuces, and the youths sacrifice here to Enyalius. And at no great distance is a temple of Poseidon under the name of the Earth-holder. And as you go on thence on the road to Taygetus you come to a place they call Alesiæ (i.e. Mill-town), for they say that Myles the son of Lelex was the first that discovered the use of mills, and first ground here. At Alesiæ there is a hero-chapel to Lacedæmon the son of Taygete. And as you go on from thence and cross the river Phellias, on the road from Amyclæ to the sea you come to Pharis, formerly a populous town in Laconia, and leaving the river Phellias on the right is the way to Mount Taygetus. And there is in the plain a shrine of Messapian Zeus. He got this title they say from one of his priests. As you go thence towards Mount Taygetus there is a place called Bryseæ, where was formerly a town, and there is still a temple of Dionysus and his statue in the open air. But the statue in the temple only women may look upon: and women only conduct the ritual in connection with the sacrifices. The highest point of Mount Taygetus is Taletum above Bryseæ. This they say is sacred to the Sun, and they sacrifice there to the Sun horses and other victims, as do also the Persians. And not far from Taletum is the forest called Evoras, which supports several wild beasts and especially wild goats. In fact Mount Taygetus throughout affords excellent goat-hunting and boar-hunting, and superfine deer-hunting and bear-hunting. And between Taletum and Evoras is a place they call Theras, where they say Leto came from the heights of Taygetus. And there is a temple to Demeter under the name Eleusinia. Here the Lacedæmonians say Hercules was hidden by Æsculapius, while he was being cured of his wound. And there is in it a wooden statue of Orpheus, the work as they say of the Pelasgi. And I know that Orphic rites take place here also. Near the sea is a town called Helus, which Homer has mentioned in his catalogue of the Lacedæmonians,
‘Those who dwelt at Amyclæ and Helus the city by the sea.’¹³
It was founded by Heleus the youngest son of Perseus, and the Dorians in after days reduced it by siege. Its inhabitants were the first slaves of the Lacedæmonian commonalty, and were the first called Helots from the place of their birth. Afterwards Helot was the general name the Dorians gave their slaves, even when they were Messenians, just as all the Greeks are called Hellenes from Hellas in Thessaly. From Helus they bring on stated days the wooden statue of Proserpine, the daughter of Demeter, to Eleusinium. And 15 stades from Eleusinium is the place called Lapithæum from a native called Lapithus. It is on Mount Taygetus, and not far from it is Dereum, where is a statue of Derean Artemis in the open air, and near it a fountain which they call Anonus. And next to Dereum, about 20 stades further on is Harplea, which extends as far as the plain.
[3.20] On the road from Sparta to Arcadia there is a statue of Athene called Parea in the open air, and near it a temple of Achilles, which it is customary to keep shut. But those of the youths who intend to contend at Platanistas are wont to sacrifice there to Achilles before the contest. And the Spartans say this temple was built for them by Prax, who was the great grandson of Pergamus, the son of Neoptolemus. And as you go on you come to the tomb called The Horse, for Tyndareus sacrificed a horse here and put an oath to all the suitors of Helen, making them stand by the horse’s entrails. And the oath was to aid Helen, and whoever should be chosen for her husband, if they were wronged. And after putting this oath to them he buried the remains of the horse here. And at no great distance there are seven pillars set there after some ancient custom, I suppose, to represent the seven planets. And on the road there is a grove of Carnean Apollo called Stemmatius, and a temple of Mysian Artemis. And the statue of Modesty, about 30 stades’ distance from Sparta, is the votive offering of Icarius, said to have been made on the following occasion. When Icarius gave Penelope in marriage to Odysseus, he endeavoured to persuade Odysseus to live at Lacedæmon, but failing in that he begged his daughter to remain with him, and when she set out for Ithaca followed the chariot, and besought her earnestly to return. And Odysseus for a time refused his consent to this, but at last gave Penelope permission either to accompany him of her own volition, or to go back to Lacedæmon with her father. And she they say made no answer, but, as she veiled her face at this proposal, Icarius perceived that she wished to go off with Odysseus, and let her go, and dedicated a statue of Modesty in the very place in the road where they say Penelope had got to when she veiled herself.
[3.21] And 20 stades further you will come to the Eurotas which flows very near the road, and to the tomb of Ladas, who surpassed all his contemporaries in swiftness of foot. At Olympia he received the prize for the long race, but I think he was tired out after his victory, for he died on this spot and was buried above the public road. Another Ladas, who also was a victor at Olympia but not in the long race, was they say an Achæan from Ægium, according to the archives of Elis about the victors at Olympia. And if you go on you come to the village called Characoma, and next to it is Pellana, formerly a town, where they say Tyndareus lived, when he fled from Sparta from Hippocoon and his sons. And the notable things I have myself seen there are the temple of Æsculapius and the fountain Pellanis, into which they say a maiden fell when she was drawing water, and after she had disappeared her veil was found in another fountain called Lancea. And about 100 stades from Pellana is a place called Belemina: best off for water of all Laconia, for not only does the river Eurotas flow through it, but it has also fountains in abundance.
[3.21] As you go down to the sea in the direction of Gythium, you come to the Lacedæmonian village called Croceæ. The stonequarries here are not one continuous piece of rock, but stones are dug out of them like river stones, rather difficult to carve, but when they are carved admirably adapted to adorn the temples of the gods, and add very greatly to the beauty of fishponds and ornamental waters. And in front of the village are statues of the gods, as Zeus of Croceæ in stone, and at the quarry Castor and Pollux in brass. And next to Croceæ, as you turn to the right from the high road to Gythium, you will come to the small town called Ægiæ. They say Homer mentions it under the name Augeæ. Here is a marsh which is called Poseidon’s marsh, and the god has a temple and statue near it. The natives are afraid however to catch the fish, for they say that whoever fishes there becomes a fish and ceases to be a man.
[3.21] Gythium is about 30 stades from Ægiæ, and is near the sea, and is inhabited by the Eleutherolacones, whom the Emperor Augustus liberated from the yoke of slavery imposed on them by the Lacedæmonians of Sparta. All the Peloponnese except the Isthmus of Corinth is surrounded by water: and the maritime parts of Laconia furnish shell fish from which purple dye is obtained, next in excellence to the Tyrian purple. And the Eleutherolacones have 18 cities, first Gythium as you descend from Ægiæ to the sea, and next Teuthrone, and Las, and Pyrrhichus, and near Tænarum Cænepolis, and Œtylus, and Leuctra, and Thalamæ, and Alagonia, and Gerenia: and opposite Gythium Asopus near the sea, and Acriæ, and Bœæ, and Zarax, and Epidaurus called Limera, and Brasiæ, and Geronthræ, and Marius. These are all that remain of what were once 24 cities of the Eleutherolacones. And the other six, which I shall also give an account of, are tributary to Sparta and not independent as those we have just spoken of. And the people of Gythium assign no mortal as their founder, but say that Hercules and Apollo, when their contest for the tripod was over, jointly built their town. In the market-place they have statues of Apollo and Hercules, and near them Dionysus. And in a different part of the town is Carnean Apollo, and a temple of Ammon, and a brazen statue of Æsculapius; his shrine has no roof to it, and there is a fountain of the god, and a temple sacred to Demeter, and a statue of Poseidon the Earth-holder. And the person that the people of Gythium call the old man, who they say lives in the sea, is I discovered Nereus, and this name Homer gave him in the Iliad in the speech of Thetis, ‘Enter ye now Ocean’s spacious bosom, to visit the old man of the sea and the homes of our sire.’¹⁴ And the gates here are called Castorides, and in the citadel there is a temple and statue of Athene.
[3.22] And about 3 stades from Gythium is the White Stone, where they say Orestes sat to cure himself of his madness. In the Doric tongue the stone was called Zeus Cappotas. And opposite Gythium lies the island Cranae, where according to Homer Paris first carried off Helen. Facing this island on the mainland is the temple of Aphrodite Migonitis, and the whole place is called Migonium. The temple they say was built by Paris. And Menelaus, returning home safe 8 years after the capture of Ilium, placed near the temple of Aphrodite Migonitis statues of Thetis and Praxidice. There is a mountain too above Migonium sacred to Dionysus, which they call Larysium: and here at the commencement of spring they have a feast to Dionysus, alleging among other reasons for the festival that they found here a ripe cluster of grapes.
[3.22] On the left of Gythium about 30 stades’ distance you will see on the mainland the walls of Trinasus, which seems to me to have been a fort and not a town. And I think it got its name from the three small islands which lie here near the mainland. And about 80 stades from Trinasus you come to the ruins of Helus, and 30 stades further to Acriæ a city on the sea, where is a handsome temple of the Mother of the Gods, and her statue in stone. And the inhabitants of Acriæ say that this is the oldest of all the temples of this goddess in the Peloponnese: though the Magnesians who live north of Sipylus have on a rock called Coddinus the most ancient statue of the Mother of the Gods; and the Magnesians say it was made by Broteas the son of Tantalus. Acriæ once produced a victor at Olympia in Nicocles, who carried off at two Olympiads five victories in the chariot race. His tomb is between the gymnasium and the walls near the harbour. It is about 120 stades from Acriæ to Geronthræ. Geronthræ was inhabited before the Heraclidæ came to the Peloponnese, and the inhabitants were driven out by the Dorians of Lacedæmon, who, when they had driven out the Achæans from Geronthræ, put in colonists of their own. But Geronthræ now belongs to the Eleutherolacones. On the road from Acriæ to Geronthræ there is a village called Palæa, and at Geronthræ there is a temple and grove of Ares, whose festival they celebrate annually, when women are forbidden to enter the grove. And near the market-place are fountains of drinkable water. And in the citadel there is a temple of Apollo, and the head of his image in ivory: all the rest of the image was destroyed by fire when the old temple was burnt. Another town belonging to the Eleutherolacones is Marius, 100 stades from Geronthræ. There is an old temple there common to all the gods, and round it a grove with fountains, there are also fountains in the temple of Artemis. Marius indeed has plenty of water if any place. And above Marius is a village called Glyptia in the interior of the country. And there is another village called Selinus about 20 stades from Geronthræ.
[3.22] So much for the interior of Laconia from Acriæ. And the town Asopus on the sea is about 60 stades from Acriæ. In it is a temple of the Roman Emperors, and inland from Asopus about 12 stades is a temple of Æsculapius, they call the god Philolaus there. And the bones that are honoured in the gymnasium are exceedingly large, but not too big for a mortal. And there is a temple of Athene called Cyparissia in the citadel: and at the foot of the citadel there some ruins of a town called the town of the Paracyparissian Achæans. There is also in this district a temple of Æsculapius about 50 stades from Asopus, and they call the place in which this temple is Hyperteleatum. And there is a promontory jutting out into the sea about 200 stades from Asopus, which they call Ass’ jawbone. This promontory has a temple of Athene, without either statue or roof, said to have been built by Agamemnon. There is also a monument of Cinadus, who was the pilot of Menelaus’ ship. And next to this promontory is what is called the Bay of Bœæ, and the city Bœæ is at the head of the bay. It was built by Bœus, one of the sons of Hercules who is said to have peopled it from the three towns Etis, Aphrodisias, and Sida. Two of these ancient towns are reputed to have been built by Æneas, when he was fleeing to Italy and driven into this bay by storms, his daughter Etias gave her name to Etis, and the third town was they say called after Sida the daughter of Danaus. Those who were driven out of these towns enquired where they should dwell: and the oracle told them that Artemis would shew them where to dwell. On their starting their journey a hare sprung in view, this hare they made their guide: and as it hid in a myrtle tree they built their city on the site of the myrtle tree, and they still venerate the myrtle tree, and call Artemis their Saviour. There is also a temple of Apollo in the market-place of Bœæ, and in another part of the city temples of Æsculapius and Serapis and Isis. The ruins of the three towns are not more than 7 stades from Bœæ, and on the road you see a stone statue of Hermes on the left, and among the ruins can trace temples of Æsculapius and Hygiea.
[3.23] And Cythera lies opposite Bœæ, and to the promontory of Platanistus—the point where the island is nearest to the mainland—from the promontory on the mainland called Ass’ jaw-bone is about 4 stades’ sail. And at Cythera there is a station for ships called Scandea, and Scandea is about 10 stades from the town of Cythera as you go along the cliffs. And the temple of Celestial Aphrodite is the most holy and most ancient of all the temples the Greeks have of Aphrodite, and the statue is an old wooden one, the goddess is in complete armour.
[3.23] As you sail from Bœæ to the promontory of Malea there is a harbour called Nymphæum, and a statue of Poseidon erect, and a cave very near the sea, and in it a spring of fresh water, and many people live in the neighbourhood. And as you double the promontory of Malea, and sail about 100 stades, you come to a place called Epidelium on the borders of Bœæ, where is a temple of Apollo. It is called Epidelium because the wooden statue of Apollo there now was formerly at Delos. For Delos being formerly an emporium for the Greeks, and being thought likely to give security to commerce because of the god, Menophanes a General of Mithridates, either of his own insolence or obeying the orders of Mithridates, (for to a man looking only to lucre divine things come after gain), seeing that Delos had no fortifications and that the inhabitants were unarmed, sailed to it and slew all the resident aliens, and the Delians also, and robbed the merchants of much money, and carried off all the votive offerings, and also enslaved the women and children, and razed Delos to the ground. And during the sack and plunder one of the barbarians in very wantonness threw this wooden statue into the sea, and the waves landed it here at the place called Epidelium in the district of Bœæ. But the fierce wrath of the god failed not to pursue Menophanes and Mithridates himself, for Menophanes, when he put to sea again after laying Delos waste, was lain in wait for by the merchants who had escaped, and his vessel sunk, and Mithridates subsequently was compelled by the god to be his own executioner when his power was entirely destroyed, and he driven hither and thither by the Romans. And some say that he found a violent death as a favour at the hands of one of his mercenaries. Such was the end of these men for their impiety.
[3.23] And adjacent to the district of Bœæ is Epidaurus Limera, about 200 stades from Epidelium. And they say that it was colonized and inhabited not by the Lacedæmonians but by some Epidaurians that lived in Argolis, who, sailing to Cos to see Æsculapius on public business put in at Laconia here, and according to visions they had continued here. And they say that the dragon which they had brought with them from Epidaurus escaped from the ship and dived into a hole not far from the sea, and according to their visions and the wonderful behaviour of their dragon they determined to dwell there. And at the point where the dragon dived into a hole they erected altars to Æsculapius, and some olive trees grow in the vicinity. About two stades further there is on the right hand some water called the water of Ino, in size only a small lake, but it goes very deep into the ground. Into this water on the festival of Ino they throw barley cakes. If the water absorbs them it is thought a lucky sign for the person who throws them in, but if they float on the surface it is judged a bad sign. The craters at Ætna have the same prophetic power. For they throw into them gold and silver vessels, and offerings of all kinds. And if the fire absorbs them they rejoice at it as a good sign, but if it rejects them they regard it as a sure sign of misfortune for the person who has thrown them in. And on the road from Bœæ to Epidaurus Limera there is a temple of Artemis called by the Epidaurians Limnas. The town is at no great distance from the sea, and is built on an eminence: and the sights worth seeing here are the temple of Aphrodite, and a statue of Æsculapius in stone erect, and a temple of Athene in the citadel, and in front of the harbour a temple of Zeus Soter. And into the sea near the town juts out the promontory Minoa. And the bay is very similar to all the others in Laconia made by the encroaches of the sea. And the seashore has pebbles beautiful in shape and of all kinds of colours.
[3.24] About 100 stades from Epidaurus Limera is Zarax, in other respects convenient as a harbour, but especially ravaged of all the towns of the Eleutherolacones, for Cleonymus, the son of Cleomenes, the son of Agesipolis, razed to the ground this alone of the Laconian towns. But I have elsewhere spoken of Cleonymus. And at Zarax there is nothing remarkable but a temple of Apollo at the end of the harbour, and a statue of the god with a lyre.
[3.24] And as you go along the coast from Zarax about 6 stades, and then turn and strike into the interior of the country for about 10 stades, you come to the ruins of Cyphanta, where is a temple of Æsculapius called Stethæum, and the statue of the god is of stone. And there is a spring of cold water bubbling out from the rock. They say Atalanta was parched with thirst hunting here, and struck the rock with her lance and the water gushed forth. And Brasiæ near the sea is the last place which belongs to the Eleutherolacones here, and it is about 200 stades’ sail from Cyphanta. And the natives here have traditions different to all the other Greeks, for they say that Semele bare a son to Zeus, and that she and her son Dionysus were spirited away by Cadmus and put into a chest, and this chest was they say carried by the waves to Brasiæ, and they say they buried magnificently Semele who was no longer alive, and reared Dionysus. And in consequence of this the name of their city, which had been hitherto called Oreatæ was changed to Brasiæ, because of this landing from the chest. To this day in fact most people speak of things cast ashore by the waves as brashed¹⁵ ashore. The people of Brasiæ say further that Ino came to their land on her travels, and when she came there wished to be the nurse of Dionysus. And they show the cave where she reared Dionysus, and they call the plain Dionysus’ garden. And there are temples of Æsculapius and Achilles there, and they have an annual feast to Achilles. And there is a small promontory at Brasiæ, which slopes gently to the sea, and there are some brazen statues on it not more than a foot high with hats on their heads, I know not whether they are meant for Castor and Pollux or the Corybantes, however there are three figures, and there is also a statue of Athene. And on the right of Gythium is Las, ten stades from the sea, and forty from Gythium. And the town is now built on the ground between the three mountains called respectively Ilium and Asia and Cnacadium, but it was originally on the crest of Asia: and there are still ruins of the old town, and before the walls a statue of Hercules, and a trophy over the Macedonians, who were a portion of Philip’s army when he invaded Laconia, but wandered from the rest of the army, and ravaged the maritime parts of the country. And there is among the ruins a temple of Athene under the title of Asia, erected they say by Castor and Pollux on their safe return from Colchi, where they had seen a temple of Athene Asia. I know that they took part in the expedition with Jason, and that the Colchians honour Athene Asia I have heard from the people of Las. And there is a fountain near the new town called from the colour of its water Galaco (milky), and near the fountain is a gymnasium, and an ancient statue of Hermes. And on Mount Ilium there is a temple of Dionysus, and on the top of the hill one of Æsculapius, and on Cnacadium Carnean Apollo. And if you go forward about 30 stades from Carnean Apollo there are at a place called Hypsi, on the borders of Sparta, temples of Æsculapius and of Daphnean Artemis. And on a promontory near the sea is the temple of Artemis Dictynna, whose feast they keep annually. And on the left of this promontory the river Smenus discharges itself into the sea. The water is fresh to drink, and rises on Mount Taygetus, and is not more than five stades distant from Hypsi. And in the place called Araïnum is the tomb of Las, and over his tomb a statue. This Las they say was the founder of the town, and was killed by Achilles, who they say came to their town to ask Helen in marriage of Tyndareus. But to speak truth it was Patroclus that killed Las: for it was he that wooed Helen. For that Achilles is not represented as one of Helen’s suitors in the Catalogue of Women, would indeed be no proof that he did not ask for Helen’s hand: but Homer has stated very early in the Iliad¹⁶ that Achilles went to Troy to gratify the sons of Atreus, and not bound by any oath to Tyndareus, and has represented Antilochus in the Games saying that he was younger than Odysseus,¹⁷ and has described Odysseus as discoursing about what he had seen in Hades and other things, and how he wished to see Theseus and Pirithous, who were older men than himself, and we know that Theseus ran away with Helen. So it is hardly permissible at all to think that Achilles could have been a suitor of Helen.
[3.25] Not far from the tomb of Las the river called Scyras falls into the sea; it had no name for a long time and was called Scyras because Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, put in there with his fleet, when he sailed from Scyrus to marry Hermione. And when you have crossed the river there is an ancient temple at some distance from an altar of Zeus. And at forty stades’ distance from the river is Pyrrhichus in the heart of the country. Some say the town was so called from Pyrrhus the son of Achilles, others say Pyrrhichus was the god of the Curetes. There are some even that say Silenus came from Malea and dwelt here. That Silenus was brought up at Malea is plain from these lines of Pindar,¹⁸
‘The mighty, the dance-loving Silenus,
Reared by the Malea-born husband of Nais.’
That Pyrrhichus was his name has not been told us by Pindar, but is a tradition of those that live at Malea. And there is at Pyrrhichus a conduit in the market-place, which they think they owe to Silenus: and if the conduit were to fail them they would be short of water. And the temples at Pyrrhichus are two, one of Artemis the Putter-of-an-end-to-War, because here the Amazons were stopped from any further warfare, and one of Apollo Amazonius. Both have wooden statues, and tradition says they were votive offerings of the women that came from Thermodon.
[3.25] As you go towards the sea from Pyrrhichus you come to Teuthrone, which they say was built by Teuthras an Athenian. And of all the gods they pay most honour to Issorian Artemis, and they have a fountain called Naia. And a hundred and fifty stades from Teuthrone is the promontory of Tænarum jutting out into the sea, and the harbours Achilleus and Psamathus. And on the promontory there is a temple like a cave, and before it a statue of Poseidon. And some of the Greeks have represented that it was here that Hercules brought up Cerberus from the lower world, though there is no underground road leading up to the cave, nor could one easily believe that the gods have any underground dwelling, where departed souls congregate. But Hecatæus the Milesian has a probable legend, that a dreadful serpent called Cerberus was reared at Tænarum, and that whoever was bitten by it was sure to die, so venomous was its bite, and this serpent was dragged by Hercules to Eurystheus. Homer, who first spoke of the dog being dragged from Hades by Hercules, gave him no name, nor complete description as he did of the Chimæra.¹⁹ But others afterwards called the dog Cerberus, and said he was like a dog in all respects except that he had 3 heads, though Homer said no more that he was the domestic animal called the dog than if he had called a real serpent the dog of Hades. There are several works of art at Tænarum, and among others the harper Arion in brass riding on the dolphin’s back. As to Arion and the dolphin Herodotus²⁰ has given the tradition as he heard it in his history about Lydia. I have myself seen at Poroselene a dolphin so full of gratitude to a boy, by whom he had been healed of wounds received from some fishermen, that he was obedient to his call, and carried him on his back over the sea whenever he wished. There is also a fountain at Tænarum, which now presents nothing marvellous, but in former times they say gave to those who looked into it the sight of harbours and ships. This peculiarity of the water was stopped for all time by a woman’s washing her dirty linen in it.
[3.25] About 40 stades’ sail from the promontory of Tænarum is a place called Cænepolis, which was also formerly called Tænarum. And in it is a chapel of Demeter, and a temple of Aphrodite near the sea, and a stone statue of the goddess erect. And 30 stades thence is Thyrides the topmost peak of Tænarum, and the ruins of the town of Hippola, and among them the temple of Athene of Hippola, and at a little distance the town and harbour of Messa. It is about 150 stades from this harbour to Œtylus. And the hero from whom Œtylus got its name was originally from Argos, being the son of Amphianax, the son of Antimachus. The most notable things to see in Œtylus are the temple of Serapis, and a wooden statue in the market-place of Carnean Apollo.
[3.26] From Œtylus to Thalamæ the distance by road is about 80 stades, and by the roadside is a temple and oracle of Ino. They get their oracular responses asleep, for whatever they want to know the goddess shews them in dreams. And there are two brazen statues in the open air part of the temple, one of Pasiphae, and one of the Sun. What the statue in the temple is made of is not easy to see from the quantity of the garlands, but they say that it too is of brass. And fresh water flows from a sacred fount, called the water of the Moon. Pasiphae indeed is not the indigenous goddess of the people of Thalamæ.
[3.26] And about twenty stades from Thalamæ is a place called Pephnos, by the sea. There is a little island in front of it not greater than a big rock, which is also called Pephnos, and the people of Thalamæ say that it was the birthplace of Castor and Pollux. Alcman also gives us the same account I know in one of his poems. But they do not say that they were brought up at Pephnos, for Hermes took them to Pellana. And in this island there are brazen statues of Castor and Pollux about a foot high in the open air. These the sea cannot move from their position, though in winter time it dashes violently over the rock. This is indeed wonderful, and the ants there are whiter in colour than ants generally. The Messenians say that the island originally belonged to them, so that they claim Castor and Pollux as theirs rather than as deities of the Lacedæmonians.
[3.26] About twenty stades from Pephnos is Leuctra. Why it was so called I do not know: but if it was from Leucippus the son of Perieres, as the Messenians say, this will be why they honour Æsculapius here most of all the gods, as the son of Arsinoe the daughter of Leucippus. And there is a statue of Æsculapius in stone, and one of Ino in another part of the town. There is also a temple and statue of Cassandra the daughter of Priam, who is called Alexandra by the people of Leuctra: and there are some wooden statues of Carnean Apollo, who is worshipped in the same way as by the Lacedæmonians at Sparta. And in the citadel there is a temple and statue of Athene. And there is a temple and grove of Eros, and in winter-time water flows through the grove: but the leaves that fall from the trees in autumn could never be carried away by the water even if it were very plentiful. But what I know happened in my time at a part of Leuctra near the sea, I will now relate. The wind fanned a fire in the wood so that it burnt down most of the trees: and when the spot became bare, there was a statue of Ithomatan Zeus discovered which had been erected there. The Messenians say that this is a proof that Leuctra was originally part of Messenia. But Ithomatan Zeus might have received honours from the Lacedæmonians as well, if they originally lived at Leuctra.
[3.26] And Cardamyle, which Homer²¹ has mentioned in the promises of gifts made by Agamemnon, is subject to Sparta, as the Emperor Augustus detached it from Messenia. It is eight stades from the sea, and sixty from Leuctra. And not far from the seashore is a grove sacred to the daughters of Nereus, for the story goes that they climbed up to this place from the sea to see Pyrrhus the son of Achilles, when he went off to Sparta to marry Hermione. In this small town there is a temple of Athene and Carnean Apollo, whom they worship according to the Dorian fashion.
[3.26] And the city called, by Homer²² Enope, the inhabitants of which are Messenians though they join the Council of the Eleutherolacones, is called in our time Gerenia. Some say Nestor was brought up in this city, others that he fled here when Pylos was taken by Hercules. Gerenia contains the tomb and temple of Machaon the son of Æsculapius: from whom men may have possibly learnt the healing of diseases. The sacred place they call Rhodon, and the statue of Machaon is erect in brass. And on its head is a garland, which the Messenians call ciphos²³ in their country’s tongue. The writer of the epic poem called The Little Iliad says that Machaon was killed by Eurypylus the son of Telephus. That is why (as I myself know) in the rites in the temple of Æsculapius at Pergamum, they begin with the Hymns of Telephus, but make no reference in their singing to Eurypylus, nor will they name him at all in the temple, because they know he was the murderer of Machaon. And the tradition is that Nestor recovered the bones of Machaon. And Podalirius, when the Greeks were returning after the sack of Ilium, was carried they say out of his way to Syrnum a place in the Continent of Caria, and getting there safe built a town there.
[3.26] In the Gerenian district is the mountain Calathium, and on it is a temple of Clæa and a grotto near the temple, with a narrow entrance: within there are several objects worth seeing. And from Gerenia to Alagonia in the interior is about 30 stades, but that town I have already mentioned amongst the Eleutherolacones. And the sights best worth seeing there are the temples of Dionysus and Artemis.

## Book IV — Messenia

[4.1] The border of Messenia towards Laconia, as fixed by Augustus, is at Gerenia, and in our time is called the Chœrian dell. This country, originally without inhabitants, is described to have been inhabited by the first colonists in the following manner. After the death of Lelex, who reigned in what is now called Laconia, but was then called Lelegia after him, Myles who was the elder of his sons succeeded him, and Polycaon the younger was only a private person till he married the Argive Messene, the daughter of Triopas, the son of Phorbas. But Messene, being full of pride owing to her father, who was foremost of all the Greeks in merit and power, did not think it tolerable that her husband should be a private person. So they gathered together an army from Argos and Lacedæmon and invaded this country, and the whole district was called Messene from her. And several other cities were built, as well as the place where the royal headquarters were established, viz. Andania. Before the battle which the Thebans fought with the Lacedæmonians at Leuctra, and the building of Messene in our day close to Ithome, I know of no city that was previously called Messene. My inference is very much confirmed by Homer. For in the catalogue of those who went to Ilium, when enumerating Pylos and Arene and other cities, he mentions no Messene. And in the Odyssey he shews that by this time the Messenians were a race and not a city,
‘For the Messenians took cattle from Ithaca,’²⁴
and clearer still in speaking of the bow of Iphitus,
‘They two in Messene met one another,
In the house of Ortilochus.’²⁵
By the house of Ortilochus in Messene he meant the town of Pheræ, as he has shewn in the visit of Pisistratus to Menelaus,
‘They went to Pheræ to the house of Diocles,
The son of Ortilochus.’²⁶
[4.1] However the first rulers of this country were Polycaon (the son of Lelex) and his wife Messene. Caucon, the son of Celænus, the son of Phlyus, introduced here from Eleusis the mysteries of the Great Goddesses. Phlyus was according to the Athenian tradition the son of Mother Earth. And this tradition of theirs is confirmed by the Hymn of Musæus made for the Lycomidæ in honour of Demeter. And the rites of the Great Goddesses were held in greater honour many years afterwards, owing to Lycus the son of Pandion, than in Caucon’s days. And they still call the place where he purged the initiated the oak coppice of Lycus. That there is an oak-coppice in this land called Lycus’ is also borne out by Rhianus the Cretan,
‘By rocky Elæum and beyond the oak-coppice of Lycus.’
And that this Lycus was the son of Pandion is plain by the inscription on the statue of Methapus. This Methapus reformed some of the rites. He was an Athenian by race, an organizer of all sorts of mystic rites. He it was who established also among the Thebans the rites of the Cabiri. And he erected near the enclosure of the Lycomidæ a statue with an inscription which confirms my account. “I have purified the home and paths of Hermes and the firstborn daughter of Demeter, where they say Messene established games to the Great Goddesses, owing to the son of Caucon, the illustrious descendant of Phlyus. But I wonder that Lycus the son of Pandion should establish the sacred rites of Atthis in venerable Andania.” This inscription shews that Caucon who came to Messene was the descendant of Phlyus, and confirms all the other facts about Lycus, and that the mysteries in ancient times were celebrated at Andania. And it seems also common sense that Messene would not establish the mysteries in any other place than where she and Polycaon lived.
[4.2] And being very anxious to know accurately who the sons of Polycaon were by Messene, I perused the poem called the Great Eœæ and the Naupactian poems, and also all the genealogical information of Cinæthon and Asius. And yet I did not discover anything in them except that the Great Eœæ say that Polycaon the son of Butes married Euæchme, the daughter of Hyllus the son of Hercules, but they make no mention of either Messene or her husband. But in after time, when none of the descendants of Polycaon survived, they continued five generations and no more, they introduced as King Perieres the son of Æolus. To his court came as the Messenians say Melaneus, a skilful archer and for that reason thought to be the son of Apollo, and Perieres assigned to him Carnasium to dwell in, which was formerly called Œchalia from the wife of Melaneus. But the Thessalians and Eubœans—for there are almost always disputed accounts of most Grecian events—give different accounts. The former say that Eurytium a place deserted in our days was a city in old times and called Œchalia: but Creophylus in his Heraclea has written what corresponds with the account of the Eubœans. And Hecatæus the Milesian writes that Œchalia is in Scium a part of Eretria. But the Messenians seem to me to give the most probable account, especially about the bones of Eurytus, which I shall touch upon later. And Perieres had by Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus Aphareus and Leucippus who, on his death, succeeded their father as kings of the Messenians, but Aphareus had most power. During his reign he built the city Arene which got its name from the daughter of Œbalus, his wife and uterine sister. For Gorgophone was married to Œbalus, as I have already mentioned, in my account of Argolis, and also in my account of Laconia. Aphareus then built the city Arene in Messenia, and received into his house his cousin Neleus, the son of Cretheus, the son of Æolus (who was surnamed Poseidon), when he fled from Pelias at Iolcus, and gave him the maritime parts of the land, among which were several other cities besides Pylos, where Neleus dwelt, and made it his seat of government. And Lycus the son of Pandion came also to Arene, when he also fled from Athens from his brother Ægeus. And he taught the mysteries of the Great Goddesses to Aphareus and his sons and his wife Arene. And he introduced them into Andania, for Caucon there initiated Messene. And the elder and more manly of Aphareus’ children was Idas, and the younger was Lynceus, of whom Pindar said, believe it who will, that he had such keen eyesight that he could see through the trunk of a tree. We do not know of Lynceus having had a son, but Ides had by Marpessa a daughter Cleopatra, who married Meleager. And the writer of the Cyprian Poems says that the wife of Protesilaus, (who when the Greeks got to the Troad was the first who ventured to land), was by name Polydora, and he also says that she was the daughter of Meleager the son of Œneus. If this be correct then all these three women, beginning with Marpessa, committed suicide after the death of their husbands.
[4.3] But when between the sons of Aphareus and Castor and Pollux (their uncles) a quarrel arose about cattle, and Lynceus was slain by Pollux, while Idas died smitten with lightning, the house of Aphareus was entirely deprived of male offspring, and upon Nestor the son of Neleus devolved the kingdom of the Messenians, over all whom Idas reigned over and others besides, except those who followed the sons of Æsculapius. For they say that the sons of Æsculapius that went on the expedition to Ilium were Messenians: for Æsculapius was the son of Arsinoe the daughter of Leucippus, and not the son of Coronis. And they call a deserted place in Messenia Tricca, it is mentioned by Homer in the passage where Nestor is consoling Machaon, who was wounded with an arrow. He would not have exhibited such kindness except to a neighbour and king of the same tribe. They confirm also greatly this account about the children of Æsculapius by showing at Gerenia the monument of Machaon, and at Pharæ the temple of the sons of Machaon.
[4.3] And after the end of the war against Ilium, and the death of Nestor after his return home, the expedition of the Dorians and return of the Heraclidæ two generations afterwards drove out the descendants of Neleus from Messenia. And this was as it were the climax of the doings of Temenus which I have already described. But I will narrate this much more. When the Dorians assigned Argos to Temenus, Cresphontes asked of them Messenia, on the ground that he was older than Aristodemus, who had just died. But Theras the son of Autesion vehemently opposed Cresphontes; he was of Theban ancestry and fifth descendant of Polynices the son of Œdipus, and at this time Guardian of Aristodemus’ sons, as he was their uncle on the mother’s side, for Aristodemus had married the daughter of Autesion, whose name was Argia. But Cresphontes, for he was determined to have Messenia, begged of Temenus to decide the question by lots. And Temenus put into a water-pot which had water in it the lots of Cresphontes and the sons of Aristodemus separately, so that he whose lot came up first should have Messenia. Temenus prepared both the lots, the lot of the sons of Aristodemus he made of clay dried in the sun, and Cresphontes’ lot of clay that had been baked in the furnace: and the lot of the sons of Aristodemus melted, and stuck to the bottom of the water-pot, so that Cresphontes (for his lot came out) got possession in this way of Messenia. And the old Messenians were not turned out by the Dorians, but agreed to Cresphontes being their king, and to the partition of the land among the Dorians. And they were brought over to this compliance by suspicion of their former kings, because they were Minyæ who had originally sprung from Iolcus. And the wife of Cresphontes was Merope the daughter of Cypselus (who was at that time king of the Arcadians), by whom he had several children and the name of the youngest was Æpytus. And his palace, where he himself and his sons meant to live, he built at Stenyclerus: for in ancient times Perieres and the other kings lived at Andania, and after Aphareus had built Arene he and his sons lived there, and in the reign of Nestor and his descendants the Court lived at Pylos, but Cresphontes changed the royal residence to Stenyclerus. And, as he chiefly ingratiated himself with the people, the wealthy classes rose up in insurrection against him and killed him and all his sons except Æpytus, who being quite a boy was brought up by Cypselus, and alone survived of all the house, and when he grew to man’s estate the Arcadians restored him to Messene. And the other kings of the Dorians, the sons of Aristodemus, and Isthmius the son of Temenus, joined in bringing him back. And when Æpytus became king he punished his father’s murderers, and all those who had instigated the crime: and bringing over to his side by his attentions those who were in high position among the Messenians, and the populace by gifts, he arrived at such a pitch of honour that his descendants were called Æpytidæ instead of Heraclidæ.
[4.3] And Glaucus the son of Æpytus, who succeeded his father, in all other respects imitated his father both in public and private, but far exceeded him in piety. For when the sacred enclosure of Zeus on the summit of Ithome did not receive honours among the Dorians, through the neglect of Polycaon and Messene, Glaucus restored his worship: and was the first to sacrifice to Machaon the son of Æsculapius at Gerenia, and awarded such gifts to Messene the daughter of Triopas as are usually bestowed on heroes. And Isthmius Glaucus’ son also built a temple to Gorgasus and Nicomachus at Pharæ. And the son of Isthmius was Dotadas, who, though Messenia had several other havens, constructed one at Mothone. And Sybotas the son of Dotadas decreed that annually the king should sacrifice by the river Pamisus, and offer victims to Eurytus the son of Melaneus in Œchalia, before the rites of the Great Goddesses that are still celebrated in Andania.
[4.4] And in the reign of Phintas, the son of Sybotas, the Messenians first sent to Apollo at Delos sacrifices and a choir of men. And their processional Hymn to the god was composed by Eumelus, and these are considered the only genuine lines of Eumelus. It was during the reign of this Phintas that a disagreement for the first time came about between the Lacedæmonians and the Messenians. The cause is doubtful, but is traditionally as follows. On the borders of Messenia is a temple of Artemis Limnas, in which the Messenians and Lacedæmonians were the only Dorians that had a share. The Lacedæmonians say that some maidens of theirs who were present at the feast were violated by some Messenians, and that their king Teleclus, (the son of Archelaus, the son of Agesilaus, the son of Doryssus, the son of Labotas, the son of Echestratus, the son of Agis,) was slain in endeavouring to prevent this outrage. They also say that the maidens who were violated put themselves to death from shame. But the Messenian account is that Teleclus plotted against their persons of quality that came to the temple, on account of the excellence of the Messenian soil, and picked out some beardless Spartans, and, dressing them in female attire and ornaments like maidens, introduced them armed with daggers among some of the Messenians who were resting: but the other Messenians came up to the rescue, and killed the beardless young men and Teleclus himself. And the Lacedæmonians—for their king had not contrived all this without the common consent—knowing that they had begun the wrong, did not demand vengeance for the murder of Teleclus. These are the different accounts the two nations give, let everyone accept the view he prefers.
[4.4] And a generation afterwards, when Alcamenes the son of Teleclus was king at Lacedæmon, and the king of the other family was Theopompus, the son of Nicander, the son of Charillus, the son of Polydectes, the son of Eunomus, the son of Prytanis, the son of Eurypon, and Antiochus and Androcles the sons of Phintas were kings of the Messenians, strife arose between the Lacedæmonians and Messenians, and the Lacedæmonians began hostilities, availing themselves, as they were full of animosity and very warlike, of an adequate and even specious pretext. But had their disposition been more peaceable it would have been settled by arbitration. This is what happened. Polychares a Messenian in other respects not obscure was a victor at Olympia in the games, when the people of Elis were celebrating their 4th Olympiad and competed only in the race in which Polychares was victor. This man had much cattle and, because he had not sufficient land to pasture them upon, he handed them over to Euæphnus a Spartan to feed on his land, on condition that he should have a share in the produce of the cattle. Now Euæphnus was a person who preferred unrighteous gains to acting with integrity, and was generally speaking a wheedling fellow, so he sold the oxen of Polychares to merchants who sailed to Laconia, and went himself to Polychares and reported to him that some pirates had landed on the spot, and violently robbed him both of cattle and herdsmen. And while he was deceiving Polychares one of the herdsmen fled from the merchants, and coming back to Polychares found Euæphnus with him, and accused him to his master. And being detected and having no defence, he earnestly begged for pardon from Polychares and his son: on the score that, among the elements in human nature whereby we become unjust almost by compulsion, the love of gain is the most powerful. And he stated the sum which he had received for the cattle, and asked Polychares’ son to go with him and carry it back to his father. And when they went on their journey and got to Laconia, Euæphnus dared a deed more unholy than the former, he slew the son of Polychares. And when Polychares knew of this last misfortune, he went to Lacedæmon to the kings and Ephors, and went wailing through the multitude, reckoning up what he had suffered at the hands of Euæphnus, whom he had treated as a friend, and trusted more than all the Lacedæmonians. And when he got no redress, though he went continually to the authorities, then he went off his head, and giving way to his anger, and being perfectly reckless of the consequences, endeavoured to kill every Lacedæmonian he met.
[4.5] The Lacedæmonian account is that they went to war because Polychares was not given up to them, and because of the murder of Teleclus, and because they were suspected earlier still of having had a hand in the villany of Cresphontes about the lots. But the Messenians contradict what I have already said about Teleclus, and point to the fact that Æpytus the son of Cresphontes was restored by the sons of Aristodemus, which they would never have done had they been at variance with Cresphontes. And they say that they did not give up Polychares to the Lacedæmonians for punishment, because neither would they give up Euæphnus, but they were willing that sentence should be given by the Argives (who were the kinsmen of both) at Amphictyonia, or that the case should be submitted to the Court at Athens called the Areopagus, because that court seemed from ancient times appointed for murder cases. They also say that the Lacedæmonians did not go to war on this account, but in consequence of their ambition plotted against their land and did various things, alleging at one time the condition of Arcadia, at another the state of Argos, for they were never satisfied with slicing off from time to time the territory of both of those people. And they were the first to become friends of the barbarian Crœsus who sent them gifts, at the time when he reduced to slavery all the Greeks in Asia Minor, and all the Dorians that dwelt in the mainland of Caria. And they declare that, when the Phocian leaders plundered the temple at Delphi, the kings at Sparta and other noblemen privately, and the Ephors and senators publicly, had a hand in it. And above all, to shew that the Lacedæmonians would stick at nothing for lucre, they twitted them with their alliance with Apollodorus the tyrant of Cassandrea. Why indeed the Messenians consider this such a bitter taunt, I cannot now discuss: for except that the courage of the Messenians and the length of time they fought differed from the tyranny of Apollodorus, they suffered nearly as much as the people of Cassandrea. These are the causes which each nation assign for the war.
[4.5] And now an embassy of Lacedæmonians came to demand the extradition of Polychares. The kings of the Messenians however answered the embassy that after deliberation with the people they would send an answer to Sparta, and accordingly after the departure of the embassy they convened the citizens to a general assembly. And different opinions were bandied about; Androcles thought they ought to give up Polychares as having acted impiously and most savagely, Antiochus took the opposite view, and maintained that it would be most distressing if Polychares should suffer before the eyes of Euæphnus, and enumerated the harrowing details of what his punishment would be. And eventually the rival parties of Androcles and Antiochus proceeded to such lengths that they took up arms. However their strife was not long continued, for the party of Antiochus, being far superior in numbers, slew Androcles and the most illustrious of his partizans. And Antiochus being now the only king sent letters to Sparta, to say that he would submit the matter to the arbitration of the courts I have mentioned. But the Lacedæmonians are said to have given no answer to the bearers of these letters. And not many months afterwards Antiochus died, and Euphaes his son succeeded him. And the Lacedæmonians not only sent no herald to proclaim war with the Messenians, nor openly renounced friendship with them, but made their preparations as secretly as possible, and previously bound themselves by oath that neither for length of war (if it should not be decided speedily), nor for reverses (if they should meet with even great ones), would they leave off till they had won Messenia by the fortune of war. After taking this oath they made a night-attack on Amphea, having appointed Alcamenes the son of Teleclus as their General. Amphea is a small town in Messenia but near Laconia, situated on a high hill, and well supplied with water. And in other respects Amphea seemed a very convenient base for their war. So they captured the town, the gates being open and no garrison there, and killed all the Messenians that they took in the town, some even in their beds, and others as they found them sitting as suppliants at the temples and altars of the gods, and only a few escaped. This was the first attack the Lacedæmonians made upon Messenia, in the second year of the ninth Olympiad, in which Xenodocus the Messenian was victor in the race. And at Athens there were not as yet yearly magistrates appointed by lot: for the descendants of Melanthus, who were called Medontidæ, had at first much of their power taken away by the people, and instead of a kingdom their power became limited, and afterwards their authority was definitely restricted to ten years. At the time of the capture of Amphea Æsimides, the son of Æschylus, was in the fifth year of his government over the Athenians.
[4.6] But before I write the history of this war, and the actions and sufferings entailed by it upon both parties by Providence, I wish to relate in their order the exploits of Aristomenes the Messenian hero. For this war between the Lacedæmonians and their allies and the Messenians and their mercenaries did not get its name from the attacking force, as the Persian and Peloponnesian wars, but was called the Messenian war from the disasters which befell the Messenians, just as the war at Ilium got called Trojan and not Grecian, so it was in this war, which Rhianus of Bene and Myron of Priene have celebrated, the former in poetry, the latter in prose. Neither of them however have narrated fully the events of the war from beginning to end, but Myron has described the capture of Amphea and its consequences up to the death of Aristodemus, and Rhianus has not touched at all the commencement of the war, but only what eventually happened to the Messenians in consequence of their quarrel with the Lacedæmonians, and he has not described even the whole of this, but only what took place after the battle which they fought at what was called the great trench; and the hero Aristomenes on whose account only I mentioned Rhianus and Myron, and who was the first and foremost in bringing the name of Messene to honour, this hero (I say) has been introduced by Myron into his history, and by Rhianus into his poem, in which Aristomenes is as much lauded as Achilles by Homer in the Iliad. As these two have given such different accounts, I am obliged to accept one of them and not both together. Rhianus appears to me to speak more probably about the age of Aristomenes. But Myron, as one can learn in other particulars and not least in the history of this Messenian war, does not with sufficient accuracy test the truth or at least probability of what he relates. For he states that Aristomenes slew Theopompus, the king of the Lacedæmonians, a little before the death of Aristodemus, whereas we know that Theopompus did not die in battle or in any other way before the end of the war. And in fact Theopompus concluded the war, as the elegiac lines of Tyrtæus bear me out,
‘To our king Theopompus god-beloved,
Through whom we took Messene spacious town.’
Aristomenes therefore in my opinion was in the second Messenian war, and I shall relate in detail all about him when I come to that part of my subject.
[4.6] Now the Messenians, when they heard all that had happened at Amphea from those who escaped from its capture, convened delegates from all their towns at Stenyclerus. And when the people were gathered together in the assembly, several of those in authority, and last of all the king, exhorted them not to be dejected at the fall of Amphea as if all the war were decided thereby, and not to fear the preparations of the Lacedæmonians as more formidable than their own, for although they had had longer experience in war, yet the Messenians would find necessity a great spur to brave men, and would meet with greater favour from the gods as defending their country, and not commencing hostilities.
[4.7] With these words Euphaes dismissed the assembly, and from that time forward kept all the Messenians under arms, compelling those that did not know to learn the art of war, and making those that did practise more frequently than before. And the Lacedæmonians made incursions into Messenia, but did not injure the country inasmuch as they considered it their own, neither did they cut down trees nor pull down houses; but they drove off whatever cattle they found, and carried off the corn and all fruit. They likewise made attacks on some of the towns but took none, inasmuch as they were strongly fortified and carefully guarded, and after much loss they desisted from the attempt, and ceased attacking them. And the Messenians plundered the maritime parts of Laconia, and all the farms in the neighbourhood of Mount Taygetus. And in the 4th year after the capture of Amphea Euphaes, full of zeal from the ardour of the Messenians who were boiling over with rage at the Lacedæmonians, and at the same time thinking their training complete, ordered a march, and bade the slaves follow with wood and all other things necessary for entrenching a camp. And the Lacedæmonians heard from the garrison at Amphea that the Messenians were on the march, and they too marched out to battle. And at a place in Messenia very convenient for a battle, with a deep ravine in front of it, Euphaes drew up the Messenians in battle array, having appointed Cleonnis to the chief command: the cavalry and light-armed troops, which were both less than 500, were under Pytharatus and Antander. And when the two armies engaged the ravine prevented the heavy-armed troops from encountering, though they advanced against one another eagerly and impetuously in their mutual hatred, but the cavalry and the light-armed troops engaged above the ravine, and they were equally matched in numbers and skill, and consequently the battle was evenly poised. But while these were engaged, Euphaes ordered the slaves first to fortify the rear of the army and then the flanks with stockades. And when night overtook them and the battle was stayed, then they fortified also the front of the camp opposite the ravine, so that next day the tactical skill and foresight of Euphaes dawned upon the Lacedæmonians, and they found that they could not fight against the Messenians if they would not come out of their entrenchments, and they despaired of besieging them as they had no siege train.
[4.7] And so they returned home: and a year afterwards, when the old man reviled them and taunted them with cowardice and disregard of their oath, they openly made preparations for a second campaign against the Messenians. And they were led by both their kings, Theopompus the son of Nicander, and Polydorus the son of Alcamenes, for Alcamenes was now dead. And the Messenians made counter-preparations, and when the Spartans marched to battle moved out to meet them. And the Lacedæmonians were led by Polydorus on the left wing, and Theopompus on the right, and in the centre by Euryleon, a Lacedæmonian for the nonce but originally a Theban descended from Cadmus, the fifth descendant from Ægeus, the son of Œolycus, the son of Theras, the son of Autesion. And opposite the right wing of the Lacedæmonians were the Messenians under Antander and Euphaes, and on the wing opposite Polydorus under Pytharatus, and in the centre under Cleonnis. And as they were just going to engage, the kings came up and exhorted their men. To the Lacedæmonians Theopompus made a short harangue according to the custom of his country, reminding them of their oath against the Messenians, and how noble an ambition it was to shew themselves more capable of brilliant exploits than their fathers who subjugated their neighbours, and to acquire a richer territory. Euphaes spoke at greater length than the Lacedæmonian king, but not more so than the occasion warranted. For he shewed that the contest was not only for land or possessions, but they knew clearly he said what misery would come upon them if they were conquered: their wives and children would be led off into captivity, the lightest punishment for their young men would be death, perhaps not unaccompanied by outrage, their temples would be plundered, their country destroyed by fire. He was not he said merely making suppositions, what those who were taken at Amphea had suffered was proof positive of all that he said. Rather than bear such ills it would be preferable to die nobly, and it would be much easier (when they were yet unconquered and as bold as the enemy) to vanquish their adversaries by their courage, than to retrieve their ruined fortunes if they were faint-hearted now.
[4.8] Such was the speech of Euphaes. And directly the leaders on either side gave the signal for battle, the Messenians came on at the double, and exposed themselves freely as men dealing death in their rage at every blow, and everyone was anxious to begin the fight. And the Lacedæmonians rushed out to meet them with equal ardour, but took care not to break their line. And when they got to close quarters, they threatened one another, rattling their arms, and looking fiercely at one another, and proceeded to abuse, the Lacedæmonians saying that the Messenians were already their slaves, and that they were not a whit freer than the Helots, and the Messenians replying that they were impious in what they were attempting, viz. in attacking kinsmen for the sake of gain, and were profane to the national gods of the Dorians and especially to Hercules. And by this time they followed up words with blows, and rushed on one another pell mell (with greatest vigour the Lacedæmonians), man attacking man. From their long experience and practice in war the Lacedæmonians had the advantage, and also from their numbers, (for the neighbouring nations who were subject to them they had with them in their army, and the Asinæi and Dryopes, who a generation earlier had been driven by the Argives from their own land and had come to Lacedæmon as suppliants, were now compelled to swell their army), and against the light-armed troops of the Messenians they had Cretan archers, mercenaries. And the Messenians were animated equally by despair and contempt of death, and all their sufferings they looked on as necessary rather than dreadful to those who loved their country’s honour, and the more vigorously they fought the harder they thought would things go for the Lacedæmonians. And some of them advancing in front of their lines exhibited brilliant bravery, and others badly wounded and scarce alive were animated by desperation. And they cheered one another on, those who were alive and yet unwounded encouraging the wounded to receive with joy their fate, and sell their lives as dearly as possible: and the wounded, (when they perceived their strength failing, and that they would soon yield up their breath), urging on the unwounded to shew as much courage as themselves had shewn, and not to let their death be useless to their country. But the Lacedæmonians at first made no harangues to their men, and were not as ready as the Messenians to display heroic courage: but being accustomed to war from boys their formation in line was deeper, and they expected that the Messenians could not hold out as long as they could, nor stand the strain of their heavy armour, nor their wounds. Such were the peculiar features of each army in respect to both the behaviour and feelings of the combatants: what was common to both was that no quarter was asked for, perhaps this was despaired of from their fierce hatred, and they felt the greatest self-indignation that they had not sold their lives dearer: and those that killed their man abstained both from boasting and reproaches, being uncertain which party would win. And most unexpectedly fell those who were endeavouring to plunder some of the dead bodies, for either by disclosing some naked part of their body they got pierced with darts, not on their guard in their thirst for plunder, or they were killed by some of those whom they were attempting to rob who were still alive. The kings also fought right valiantly, and Theopompus rushed with ungovernable rage against Euphaes, intending to kill him. And Euphaes seeing him rushing on said to Antander that Theopompus was displaying as much bravery as his ancestor Polynices: for Polynices led an army from Argos against his own country, and he and his brother mutually slew one another: and Theopompus (he added) wished to load the family of the Heraclidæ with the same guilt as that of the family of Laius and Œdipus: he would not however go with joy from the battle. With these words he himself went forward to meet Theopompus. Hereupon the battle, which had rather flagged, took up fresh vigour again, and their bodies were renewed as it were, and the fearlessness of death on both sides was increased, so that one might have thought the battle had only just commenced. And eventually Euphaes’ division, nearly mad with desperate valour and stoutheartedness, for the King’s bodyguard were all picked men, broke the enemy’s line, routed Theopompus, and put the Lacedæmonians in that part of the field to flight. But the other wing of the Messenians was hard pressed, for Pytharatus their General was dead, and without a leader they became disordered and dejected. But neither did Polydorus pursue the fleeing Messenians, nor Euphaes the fleeing Lacedæmonians. For Euphaes and his staff thought it better to come to the aid of their vanquished friends: nor did they engage with Polydorus and his troops: for by this time it was already dark, and the Lacedæmonians were prevented from following the fugitives not least by their ignorance of the country. It was also their country’s custom not to pursue an enemy too hotly, being more anxious not to break their line than to annihilate the enemy. And in the centre on both sides, the Lacedæmonians under Euryleon, and the Messenians under Cleonnis, the fight was pretty equal, till the approach of night put an end to the contest.
[4.8] This battle was fought on both sides mainly by the heavy armed infantry. Some cavalry there was indeed, but they had no great influence on the fortunes of the day, for the Peloponnesians of that day were not good horsemen. And the light armed troops of the Messenians and the Cretans on the Lacedæmonian side did not come to the encounter at all: for they were posted in ancient fashion among the infantry. And on the following day neither party were minded to renew the battle nor to erect a trophy of victory, but as the day wore on they sent out heralds to treat of the burying of their dead, and as this was agreed to on both sides, they began to bury their dead immediately.
[4.9] But the Messenians after the battle began to find their affairs in a deplorable condition: for they were nearly ruined by their outlay in money expended in keeping garrisons in the towns, and their slaves deserted to the Lacedæmonians. Also a pestilence fell upon them, which troubled them greatly being like the plague, though it did not prevail universally throughout their country. And after deliberation about their present condition they determined to abandon their towns in the interior of the country, and dwell in the mountain district of Ithome. And there was a small town at Ithome which Homer has mentioned in his catalogue,
‘And rocky Ithome.’²⁷
To this town they repaired, extending its ancient limits so as to make it a sufficient defence for all of them. And the place was in other respects a strong position: for Ithome is as high as any of the mountains within the Isthmus, and in this respect most difficult of access. They thought they would also send an envoy to Delphi, and they selected for this mission Tisis the son of Alcis, who in general merit and in divination was considered inferior to nobody. This Tisis on his return from Delphi was laid in wait for by the Lacedæmonians who were in garrison at Amphea: but he would not be taken alive, so valiantly did he defend himself against those that had lain in ambush, in spite of the wounds he received from them, till a voice was heard without any appearance of the speaker, “Let the bearer of the oracle go.” And Tisis, directly he got safe to Ithome, and had delivered his oracle to the king, fell down dead of his wounds. And Euphaes collected the Messenians together and recited the oracle. “Sacrifice a pure virgin (selected by lot out of the family of the Æpytidæ) by night to the gods below. But if you cannot find one of the Æpytidæ, then sacrifice anyone else who offers himself as a willing victim.” This being the utterance of the god, forthwith all the maidens of the family of the Æpytidæ drew lots. And when the lot fell upon the daughter of Lyciscus, Epebolus the seer said it would not do to sacrifice her; for she was not really the daughter of Lyciscus, but a girl that the wife of Lyciscus being barren had palmed off as hers. While he was making this revelation, Lyciscus took off the girl and fled to Sparta. And the Messenians being very dejected at finding out the flight of Lyciscus, Aristodemus, a man of the family of the Æpytidæ, and in other respects and in war more illustrious than Lyciscus, offered to sacrifice his own daughter. But the affairs of mankind, and not least their desires, are secretly directed by Fate, just as the bottom of a river has pebbles, so that Aristodemus on this occasion, endeavouring to save Messene, was prevented by the following circumstance. A Messenian, whose name is not known, happened to be deeply in love with the daughter of Aristodemus, and was on the eve of marrying her. He at first disputed the right of Aristodemus to the maiden as he had betrothed her to him, and argued that he being her betrothed alone had right to her. And afterwards, when he found this argument unavailing, he invented a shameful story, that he had had an amour with her and that she was pregnant by him. And at last he wrought up Aristodemus to such a pitch, that driven to madness in his anger he killed his daughter, and afterwards cut her up and found she was not pregnant. And Epebolus who was present bade somebody else give his daughter as a victim, for the daughter of Aristodemus (he said) could be no more use to them now she was dead: for her father had indeed killed her, but not sacrificed her to the gods as the Pythian oracle ordered. When the seer had said this the mass of the Messenians rushed forward to kill the girl’s lover, as he had caused Aristodemus to commit a useless crime, and had rendered doubtful the safety of the community. But this man was a very great friend of Euphaes. Euphaes accordingly persuaded the Messenians that the oracle was fulfilled by the death of the girl, and that what Aristodemus had done was sufficient. And when he had said this all the Æpytidæ agreed with him: for each was anxious to have his fears removed about having to sacrifice his own daughter. So they hearkened to the advice of the king and broke up the assembly, and afterwards turned their attention to the sacrifices and festival of the gods.
[4.10] But the Lacedæmonians on hearing the oracle of the Messenians were very dejected, both they and their kings, and henceforth shrank from resuming the war. But in the sixth year after the flight of Lyciscus from Ithome the Lacedæmonians (as their sacrifices were auspicious) led an army to Ithome. But the Cretans chanced to be absent, and the allies of the Messenians were also behindhand. For the Spartans were an object of suspicion to other Peloponnesians and especially to the Arcadians and Argives. The Argives indeed were going to come to help the Messenians secretly without the knowledge of the Lacedæmonians, privately rather than from public decree. But the Arcadian expedition was publicly announced, though they were behindhand too. But the Messenians were induced by confidence in the oracle to hazard war even without allies. In most respects the battle was no different from the former one, for daylight on this occasion too failed the combatants: it is not however mentioned that either wing or division were broken, for they say the troops did not remain in the order in which they were placed at first, but the bravest men came from the wings in both armies into the centre, and there was the strain of battle. For Euphaes was more ardent in fight than one would have expected from a king, and recklessly rushing upon Theopompus and his staff, received many mortal wounds. As he fainted away and fell to the ground, and could scarce breathe, the Lacedæmonians strove with might and main to drag him to their army. But their previous goodwill to Euphaes, and their future disgrace if they abandoned him, roused the Messenians, and it appeared better to them to give up their lives for their king rather than purchase safety by abandoning him. Accordingly the peril of Euphaes prolonged the battle, and added to the bravery exhibited on both sides, and afterwards he revived, and saw that his men were fighting as valiantly as the foe, and not many days afterwards he died, having been king of the Messenians for 13 years, and having been at war with the Lacedæmonians during all his reign. And as he had no children he left the choice of his successor to the people, and Cleonnis and Damis were rival competitors with Aristodemus, being considered superior to him both in other respects and in war. And Antander had been killed in the battle jeoparding his life for Euphaes. And the opinions of the seers, Epebolus and Ophioneus, were both similar, that the kingdom of Æpytus and his descendants should not be conferred upon a man polluted with the murder of a daughter. Nevertheless Aristodemus was elected and became king. And Ophioneus the Messenian seer was blind from his birth, and had the following mode of divination. By enquiring into a person’s private and public fortune in the past he informed them what it would be in the future. This was his divination, and Aristodemus having become king through the people was desirous to gratify them in all that was reasonable, and of those in authority he held Cleonnis and Damis in special honour. He also paid great attention to the allies, and sent gifts to the most influential Arcadians both at Argos and Sicyon. And in the war which was carried on in the reign of Aristodemus they pillaged from time to time, and in the summertime made incursions into one another’s country. There were counter-incursions into Laconia on the part of the Arcadians with the Messenians. But the Argives did not think it well openly to proclaim their hostility against the Lacedæmonians, but made their preparations so as to strike in when the fray begun.
[4.11] In the fifth year of the reign of Aristodemus, when both nations were about to take the field again after open proclamation of war, both very much weakened by the length and expenses of the war, then allies came to both, to the Lacedæmonians the Corinthians alone of all the Peloponnesians, and to the Messenians the Arcadians in full force, and picked men from Argos and Sicyon. The Lacedæmonians placed the Corinthians and Helots and the provincials in the centre, and themselves with their kings took up their position on the wings, in deeper and fuller formation than was ever before adopted. And the dispositions of Aristodemus and his staff for the battle were as follows. For all the Arcadians or Messenians that were strong in body and stout of heart, but had not good weapons, he picked out the best arms, and when the action became hot, posted them among the Argives and Sicyonians: and extended his line so as not to be taken in flank by the enemy. And he took care that his men were so placed that they had the mountain Ithome in their rear. And he appointed Cleonnis to the command here, and himself and Damis stayed with the light-armed troops, and a few slingers and archers: most in this part of the army were well adapted physically for attack and retreat, and lightly armed. Each had a breastplate or shield, but such as were deficient in this respect had goatskins and sheepskins, or the skins of wild beasts, the Arcadian mountaineers in particular had the skins of wolves and bears. And each had several javelins, and some had lances. And these lay in ambush in Ithome where they could be best concealed from sight. And the heavy armed troops of the Messenians and the allies stood the first onset of the Lacedæmonians, and afterwards were in all respects full of bravery. They were outnumbered by the enemy, but being picked men they fought against an armed mob and not against men of equal discipline to themselves, consequently they held out much longer through their bravery and skill. Moreover the light-armed troops of the Messenians, when the signal was given, rushed against the Lacedæmonians and hemmed them in, and hurled their javelins at their flanks, and the bolder of them rushed in and fought hand to hand. And the Lacedæmonians, though they saw before them a second danger and so hopeless a one in the same place, yet were not in despair, but turned upon the light-armed troops and tried to repel them, but as because of the lightness of their armour they easily ran away, the Lacedæmonians were both perplexed and irritated. Somehow or other men are apt to be especially vexed at what happens contrary to their expectation. And so here those of the Spartans who were already wounded, and those who were nearest to the light-armed troops, as their comrades lay dead, rushed out of their ranks wherever they saw the light-armed troops pressing on, and in their heat pursued rather too far as the enemy retired. Then the light-armed troops of the Messenians, as they had done at first, struck them, and hurled their javelins at them as they stood their ground, and when they pursued made a feint to flee, and attacked them as they tried to rejoin their men. And this they did in various parts of the field, and at different points in the enemy’s lines. And the heavy-armed of the Messenians and the allies at this juncture pressed more boldly right at the foe. And eventually the Lacedæmonians, spent with the length of the battle and their wounds, and at the same time harassed beyond measure by the light-armed troops, broke their ranks. And in the rout the light-armed troops harassed them all the more. Of the Lacedæmonians who were cut to pieces in the battle, I could not ascertain the number, but I believe it was very large. And the return home to some was easy, but to the Corinthians it was sure to be dangerous, for, whether they returned through Argolis or by Sicyon, they had equally to pass through hostile country.
[4.12] The Lacedæmonians were troubled at this reverse that had befallen them, and at the many excellent warriors they had lost in the battle. And they despaired of success in the war, so they sent envoys to Delphi. And this was the oracle the Pythian Priestess gave. ‘Phœbus bids you not only apply yourselves to warlike deeds, but as it was by cunning that the people got the Messenian land, by the selfsame cunning as it was got shall it be taken.’ The kings and Ephors, though they were very anxious to do so, could not find out a good plan till they imitated the wiliness of Odysseus at Ilium. They sent 100 men to Ithome to spy out the enemies’ designs, who were to pretend to be deserters. And to keep up the cheat these men were publicly condemned at Sparta as deserters. But on their arrival Aristodemus sent them home again at once, saying, “The injuries done to the Lacedæmonians are recent, their craft ancient.” The Lacedæmonians having failed in this manœuvre next attempted to tamper with the allies of the Messenians. But as the Arcadians rejected their overtures, for to them the envoys went first, they did not proceed to Argos. And Aristodemus hearing of all these intrigues on the part of the Lacedæmonians sent himself messengers to consult the oracle at Delphi. And this was the answer of the Pythian priestess. “The glory in the war the god gives you, but take care that the treacherous hostile ambush be not too much for you through Spartan wiles; for if Ares is to have their well-wrought armour, and the garlands of their dances are to belong to sorrowing owners, then must they avoid the appearance of two hidden things. Nor shall the sacred light of day behold the end of all this till fate shall come to the things that change their nature.” Aristodemus however and the seers could not understand what was meant: but a few years afterwards the god threw light on it and fulfilled it. Remarkable things too happened at this time to the Messenians. As Lyciscus lived as a resident alien at Sparta his daughter, whom he had taken with him in his flight from Messene, chanced to die. And as he often went to visit his daughter’s grave, some Arcadian cavalry lay in wait for him and carried him off. And he was taken to Ithome, and being brought before the assembly he made his defence; he had not left his country he said intending treason, but in consequence of believing the assertion of the seer that she was not his genuine daughter. In this line of defence he was not believed to be speaking the truth till a woman, who was at that time the priestess of Hera, came into the theatre. And she confessed that the child was hers, and that she had given it to the wife of Lyciscus to palm off as her own. And now (she continued) by revealing my secret I shall depose myself from my priesthood. This she said because it was a custom in Messene that, if any of the children of a priest or priestess died, the priesthood should pass to somebody else. Thinking therefore that the woman was speaking the truth, they chose for the goddess a priestess in her place, and said that Lyciscus had acted in a pardonable way.
[4.12] And after that they resolved, for it was the 20th year of the war, to send again to Delphi to enquire about their chance of victory. And to their enquiry the Pythian Priestess returned this answer. “To those who shall first set up 100 tripods at the altar of Zeus of Ithome the god will give the Messenian land with fame in war. This is the will of Zeus. But guile moves you on, and behind is vengeance, and you cannot deceive the god. Act as fate shall determine. Ruin takes people by turns.” When they heard this they thought the oracle was in their favour, and promised them victory in the war; for as they were in possession of the temple of Zeus within the walls of Ithome, they thought the Lacedæmonians could not be beforehand with them in erecting tripods. And so they intended making wooden tripods, for they had not means enough to make tripods of brass. But somebody from Delphi reported the oracle at Sparta. And the Spartans had a public consultation about it, but could hit upon no plan, but Œbalus, a man of no great repute but evidently possessed of good judgment, made 100 tripods of clay roughly, and took them with him and nets as if he were a hunter. And being unknown even to most of the Lacedæmonians he easily escaped the detection of the Messenians. For joining himself with some countrymen he went with them into Ithome, and directly night came on he offered these clay tripods to the god, and returned to Sparta and told the Lacedæmonians what he had done. And the Messenians when they saw what had happened were terribly upset, and guessed (as indeed was the case) that it was a trick of the Lacedæmonians: however Aristodemus consoled them with arguments suited to the present conjuncture, and placed their wooden tripods which were already made at the altar at Ithome. It happened also that Ophioneus, the seer who was blind from birth, greatly to the surprise of all men recovered his sight: for he had a sharp headache and recovered his sight after it.
[4.13] And thenceforward—for fate already turned the scales towards the capture of Ithome—the god gave them various predictions of their coming destiny. For the statue of Artemis, which was of brass as well as the armour, dropped its shield; and as Aristodemus was about to sacrifice the victims to Zeus at Ithome, the rams of their own accord violently dashed their heads against the altar, and were killed by the blow. And a third phenomenon happened. Some dogs assembled in the same place and howled all night, and eventually went off in a body to the camp of the Lacedæmonians. This troubled Aristodemus, as also the following vision of the night. He dreamed that he was going out to battle fully armed, and saw lying on a table the victims’ entrails, and his daughter appeared to him in a black dress with her breast and belly ripped up, and he thought she threw away what was on the table, and took away his armour, and instead of it put upon him a golden crown and white robe. And as Aristodemus was dispirited, for he thought the dream announced to him the end of his life, (for the Messenians buried their notable men in white raiment with crowns on their heads), somebody brought him word that Ophioneus had suddenly become blind again as before. Then he understood the hidden sense of the oracle, that by the pair who appeared after being hidden, and returned again as fate necessitated, the Pythian Priestess meant the eyes of Ophioneus. Thereupon Aristodemus laying to heart his domestic misfortunes, that he had been the murderer of his daughter to no purpose, and seeing no future hope of safety for his country, cut his throat at his daughter’s grave, being such an one as would in all human calculation have saved his country had not fortune brought to nothing his plans and actions. And he died after a reign of six years and a few months. And to the Messenians their affairs now seemed desperate, so that they were very near sending a supplicatory embassy to the Lacedæmonians, though pride restrained them from actually doing so, so much did they feel the blow of Aristodemus’ death. And when they gathered together in their assembly they did not choose another king, but appointed Damis dictator. And he, having selected Cleonnis and Phyleus as his coadjutors, made preparations for the campaign according to his best ability under the circumstances: for he was pressed hard by the siege, and not least by famine and the fear that famine inspired that they could not hold out from want of supplies. There was no deficiency of bravery or venturesomeness on the part of the Messenians: all their generals and notables were killed. For about five months they held out, and towards the close of the year evacuated Ithome, having been at war for full twenty years, as the lines of Tyrtæus testify: “They in the twentieth year left the rich pastures, and fled from the high hills of Ithome.” This war came to an end in the first year of the fourteenth Olympiad, in which Dasmon the Corinthian was victor in the stadium, the Medontidæ at Athens being still in possession of their ten year office, and at the completion of the fourth year of office of Hippomenes.
[4.14] And the Messenians who had friends at Sicyon and at Argos and amongst the Arcadians retired to those places, and those of the family of the priests who performed the mysteries to the Great Goddesses went to Eleusis. And the multitude dispersed to their several nationalities. And the Lacedæmonians first razed Ithome to the ground, and afterwards attacked and captured the other cities. And out of the spoils they set up to Apollo of Amyclæ some brazen tripods: under the first tripod is a statue of Aphrodite, and under the second one of Artemis, and under the third one of Proserpine the daughter of Demeter. These they erected there. And of the Messenian land they gave to the Asinæi, who had been ejected by the Argives, the territory by the sea that they still have: and to the descendants of Androcles, (for Androcles had a daughter and she had sons, and after the death of Androcles they fled to Sparta), they gave what is called Hyamea. And the following conditions were imposed on the Messenians by the Lacedæmonians. First of all they bound them by oath not to revolt or to attempt any revolutionary movement. And next they appointed no stated tribute, but they were to bring to Sparta from the land half its produce. With respect too to the burials of kings and other people in authority, provision was made that the men and women in Messenia should wear black raiment, and a punishment was ordained for those who violated this rule. And as to their exactions from the Messenians they have been described by Tyrtæus: “As asses worn out by long continued toil, carrying to their masters from bitter necessity half of all the fruit the country yields.” And that necessity was laid on them of mourning for their masters’ deaths he has manifested in the following lines, “They and their wives together wailing for their masters, when baneful death seized on any one.”
[4.14] The Messenians in these circumstances, and with no hope of any kinder treatment from the Lacedæmonians, and thinking death in battle or a wholesale migration from the Peloponnese preferable to their present condition, resolved upon a general rising. And they were mainly induced to this by the young men, who had had no experience of war, and were ambitious, and preferred death in a free country to happiness in all other conditions with slavery. These youths were reared in various parts of Messenia, but the bravest and most numerous were in the neighbourhood of Andania, and among them Aristomenes, who is still honoured among the Messenians as a hero: and the circumstances attending his birth they think rather remarkable. For they say that a demon or god in the form of a dragon had an intrigue with Nicotelea his mother. I have heard the Macedonians say similar things about Olympias, and the Sicyonians about Aristodama. But the difference is that the Messenians do not claim that Aristomenes was the son of Hercules or Zeus, as the Macedonians say that Alexander was the son of Ammon, and as the people of Sicyon say that Aratus was the son of Æsculapius, but most of the Greeks say that Pyrrhus was the father of Aristomenes, though I know that the Messenians call Aristomenes the son of Nicomedes at the libations. He then, being in fall vigour of age and boldness, and other influential persons tried to bring about a general rising. And this was not at first done openly, but they sent secretly to Argos and the Arcadians, to see if they would assist them as energetically as they had done in the former war, bonâ fide and not half-heartedly.
[4.15] And when they had made all their preparations for war, and their allies were even more zealous than they had expected, for the hostility between the Arcadians and Argives and the Lacedæmonians had blazed out fiercely, then in the thirty-ninth year after the capture of Ithome they rose in insurrection, in the fourth year of the 23rd Olympiad, in which the Hyperesian Icarus was victor in the stadium. And at Athens there were now annual archons, and the archon this year was Tlesias. Who were kings at Lacedæmon at this time has not been recorded by Tyrtæus, but Rhianus in his poem has said that Leotychides was king during this war. I cannot agree with him in this: as to Tyrtæus, though he has not mentioned expressly the time, yet one may suppose he has hinted it in the following passage,—in the elegiac lines he wrote about the former war. “Nineteen years unceasingly they fought for their country, ever with stout heart, those warriors the fathers of our fathers.” Manifestly then it was in the third generation after the former war that the Messenians commenced this war, and the period is marked by the fact that the kings then at Sparta were Anaxander the son of Eurycrates the son of Polydorus, and of the other family Anaxidamus the son of Zeuxidamus, the son of Archidamus, the son of Theopompus. I go as far as the fourth descendant of Theopompus, because Archidamus the son of Theopompus died in his father’s lifetime, and the kingdom devolved upon Zeuxidamus his grandson. And Leotychides clearly was king after Demaratus the son of Aristo, and Aristo was seventh descendant from Theopompus.
[4.15] And now in the first year after their insurrection the Messenians engaged with the Lacedæmonians at a place in their country called Deræ, and neither side had allies. And the battle was an undecided one, but they say Aristomenes exhibited in it preterhuman bravery, so that they elected him king after the battle, for he was of the family of the Æpytidæ, and though he was for refusing they also appointed him commander in chief. He was inclined to let them disown no one who had done valiantly in war: and for himself thought it right first and foremost (as the war with the Lacedæmonians was only just begun) to thoroughly frighten them by some bold stroke, and so to awe them more for the future. Accordingly he went by night to Lacedæmon and hung up a shield at the temple of Athene Chalciœcus, and on it was the inscription, “Aristomenes offers this to the goddess from Spartan spoils.”
[4.15] The Lacedæmonians also had an oracular answer from Delphi, that an Athenian would give them good advice. They sent therefore envoys to the Athenians to report the oracle, and to ask for the man who was to give them this good advice. And the Athenians neither wishing that the Lacedæmonians should get the best part of the Peloponnese without great danger, nor to disobey the god, took counsel accordingly, and sent to Sparta one Tyrtæus a schoolmaster, who was thought to have very little intelligence and was lame in one foot. And he on his arrival there recited his elegiac verses and his anapæsts privately to the authorities, and publicly to all whom he could collect together. And a year after the battle of Deræ, when both nations had now allies, they prepared for battle in a village called Boar’s Memorial. The Messenians had the men of Elis and Arcadia as their allies in the action, and had moreover help from Argos and Sicyon. There were also present all the Messenians that had fled voluntarily, both those from Eleusis who were the hereditary priests of the mysteries of the Great Goddesses, and the descendants of Androcles: for these too hastened to their assistance. And to the help of the Lacedæmonians came the Corinthians, and some of the people of Lepreum from hatred to the men of Elis. The Asinæi were neutral. Boar’s Memorial is near Stenyclerus in Messenia, and was so called because they say Hercules had a mutual covenant there with the sons of Neleus over a boar’s entrails.
[4.16] And when the seers in both armies had commenced by sacrifice, the Lacedæmonian seer being Hecas, the descendant and namesake of that Hecas who had come to Sparta with the sons of Aristodemus, and the Messenian seer being Theoclus, a descendant of Eumantis (a native of Elis and one of the Iamidæ whom Cresphontes had introduced into Messene), both armies were with more confidence stirred up to battle. And there was ardour exhibited by several according to their age and prowess, but notably by Anaxander, the king of the Lacedæmonians, and the Spartans in his division: and in the Messenian army Phintas and Androcles, the descendants of Androcles, and the men who were posted with them, strove to show their valour. And Tyrtæus and the priests of the Great Goddesses took no part in the action but that of cheering on the rears of their respective armies. And this was the disposition of Aristomenes. Eighty picked men of the Messenians about the same age as himself were in close attendance upon him, and each of them thought himself highly flattered to be posted near Aristomenes: and they were very keen at detecting in a glance one another’s ideas and especially their leader’s plans in the very germ. They and Aristomenes had the brunt of the battle, being posted opposite to Anaxander and the bravest of the Lacedæmonians. And receiving wounds fearlessly, and rushing on with the greatest recklessness, in time they routed by their boldness Anaxander’s division. As these fled Aristomenes commanded another Messenian regiment to pursue them: and himself rushed into the thick of the fight, and routed the men there, and then again turned to some other part of the field. And having driven these also from their positions he hurried on, charging those that were left, until he had thoroughly beaten all the Lacedæmonian force, allies and all. And as they felt some shame in fleeing, and yet could not stand these frequent charges, he dashed in amongst them with more formidable fury than one could have expected from one man. But near a wild pear tree that grew in the plain Theoclus tried to prevent his passing: for he said Castor and Pollux were seated on the pear tree. And Aristomenes giving way to passion, and not hearing all the words of the seer, when he got to the pear tree dropped his shield, and this loss of Aristomenes gave the Lacedæmonians breathing time to stop from their flight: for he lost some time trying to find his shield.
[4.16] And when the Lacedæmonians were dispirited at this blow, and were minded to finish the war, Tyrtæus put heart into them by reciting his verses, and got some Helots enrolled into the regiments in place of the dead men. And when Aristomenes returned to Andania, the women welcomed him with ribands and pelted him with flowers, and sang for him a song not forgotten even in our days, “To the mid plain and high mountain at Stenyclerus did Aristomenes pursue the Lacedæmonians.” And he afterwards recovered his shield by going to Delphi, and, as the Pythian Priestess ordered him, by descending to the sacred shrine of Trophonius at Lebadea. And afterwards he took the shield, and hung it up as a votive offering at Lebadea, and I have myself seen it hanging up there. Its design is an eagle with its wings extended at the upper part of the shield. And now Aristomenes on his return from Bœotia, having recovered his shield at the shrine of Trophonius, immediately went in for further action. And, having gathered together a levy of Messenians besides his own bodyguard of picked men, he marched at nightfall to a city of Laconia, whose old name was Pharis as in Homer’s catalogue, but it was called Pharæ by the Spartans and other neighbouring people. Marching there he cut to pieces those who attempted to defend themselves, and after carrying off much booty returned to Messene. And the Lacedæmonian hoplites under Anaxander their king attacking him on the road, he routed them also, and was fain to pursue Anaxander. But being wounded in his hinder quarters with a javelin he stayed the pursuit, without losing the plunder he had got. And after waiting sufficient time for his wound to be healed, he intended to enter Sparta by night, when he was prevented by the apparition of Helen and Castor and Pollux, and lay in ambush at nightfall for some maidens who were dancing to Artemis at Caryæ, and arrested all who were remarkable for the wealth and position of their fathers, and brought them by night to a village in Messenia and went to rest, having committed the custody of them to some men of his regiment. Thereupon the young men in drink I suppose, and otherwise unable to control their passions by reason, endeavoured to violate the maidens, and when Aristomenes forbade them to act in a manner not customary for Greeks, they took no notice of him, so that he was obliged to kill the most unruly of them. And the maidens he had taken captive he let go for a good ransom with their honour safe.
[4.17] And there is a place in Laconia called Ægila, where is a temple of Demeter. There Aristomenes and his soldiers, knowing that the women were keeping festival to Demeter, wished to seize them: but as these women inspired by the goddess made a bold defence, most of the Messenians received wounds with the swords which they used to sacrifice the victims with, and the sharp pointed spits on which they stuck their meat to roast it. And Aristomenes they struck with their torches and took him alive. However he escaped the same night to Messenia. They say that Archidamea the priestess of Demeter had the guilt of letting him escape. But she did not let him go for money, but was an old sweetheart of his, and made out that Aristomenes had escaped by burning²⁸ his bonds.
[4.17] And in the third year of the war, when an engagement was about to take place at what was called The Great Trench, and when the Arcadians had come from all their cities to help the Messenians, the Lacedæmonians bribed Aristocrates, the son of Icetas, a native of Trapezus, king and general of the Arcadians at this period. The Lacedæmonians are the first we know of that bribed an enemy, and the first that made renown in arms a thing to be purchased by money. For before the Lacedæmonians violated honour in their war with the Messenians, in regard to this treason of Aristocrates the Arcadian, their fighting men were distinguished for bravery, and good fortune from the deity. Afterwards too at Ægos-potamoi, when they opposed the fleet of the Athenians, they certainly bribed Adimantus and other Athenian Admirals. But in process of time upon the Lacedæmonians came what is called the Retribution of Neoptolemus. For Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, having slain Priam at the altar of Household Zeus, was himself also slain at Delphi at the temple of Apollo, and—in consequence of that—suffering what one had inflicted on another got called the Retribution of Neoptolemus. For when the Lacedæmonians were at the zenith of their power, and had destroyed the fleet of the Athenians, and Agesilaus had reduced most of Asia Minor, then it was not possible to strip the Mede of all his power, because the barbarian circumvented them by sending money to Corinth and Argos and Athens and Thebes, and what was called the Corinthian war was brought about by this money, so that Agesilaus was compelled to leave Asia Minor. And so the deity made to recoil upon themselves the wiliness that the Lacedæmonians had displayed to the Messenians. And Aristocrates when he had received money from Lacedæmon, at first hid his plans from the Arcadians, but when they were on the eve of an engagement, then he threw them into consternation, by telling them they were in difficulty and straits and had no means of retreat if they should be beaten. He also said the sacrifices were not auspicious. He ordered everyone therefore to run away when he gave the signal. And when the Lacedæmonians began the engagement and the Messenians were opposite to them, thereupon at the commencement of the battle Aristocrates led off the Arcadians, and thus the Messenian centre and left wing was left exposed. For the Arcadians had occupied both these parts of the field, as the people of Elis were not present at the battle, nor the people of Argos and Sicyon. And Aristocrates put the finishing touch to his treason by fleeing through the Messenian lines. And they were quite bewildered at the unexpected state of affairs, and were disturbed by the passage of the Arcadians through their lines, so that most of them nearly forgot what they were about: for instead of the Lacedæmonians pressing on against the Arcadians they saw them fleeing, and some begged them to stand their ground, others reviled them as traitors and covenant-breakers. And for the Lacedæmonians to surround the Messenians who were now left alone was easy enough, and with the greatest ease they won a victory that was a foregone conclusion. And though Aristomenes and his division bravely stood their ground against the multitude of the Lacedæmonians that pressed against them, and endeavoured to keep them in check, yet they were too few to avail much. And such a quantity of Messenians were cut to pieces, that they, who had expected to be masters of the Lacedæmonians, now instead of having slaves had hardly any hope of safety. And of their leaders fell Androcles and Phintas and others, and Phanas, (who fought especially bravely, and had been victor at Olympia in the double course). And Aristomenes after the battle collected the Messenian fugitives, and persuaded them to leave Andania and any other towns in the heart of the country, and to take up their residence on the mountain Eira. And when they assembled there they were besieged by the Lacedæmonians who wished to take them. However they resisted and held out for eleven years after the disaster at The Great Trench. That that was the time the blockade lasted is plain from the verses of Rhianus about the Lacedæmonians.
“Along the ridges of the mountain white
Twenty-two summers and winters did they fight.”
The word used for summers in the line just above is a word properly meaning the grass when it is ripe, or a little before hay harvest.
[4.18] And the Messenians when they were hemmed in at Eira, and debarred the rest of their country, except what was occupied by the people of Pylos near the sea, and the people of Mothone, plundered Laconia and their own country, which they now regarded as enemy’s country. And several joined them in these raids, as chance brought it about, and Aristomenes got together some picked men in number about 300. They harried and carried off from the Lacedæmonians whatever they could, corn and flocks and wine, but furniture and human beings they ransomed for money. So that the Lacedæmonians made a decree, inasmuch as they were farming for the benefit of the people of Eira rather than their own, not to cultivate Messenia and the neighbouring parts of Laconia till after the war. And from that time there was scarcity in Sparta, and with the scarcity came riots, for those who got their money by farming could not bear to see their lands lie fallow, but their vexation was checked by the verses of Tyrtæus. And Aristomenes with his picked men made a sally when the night was considerably advanced, and stole a march upon the enemy by getting to Amyclæ before daybreak, and seized the fort and plundered Amyclæ, and was off again before help could come from Sparta. And he afterwards overran the whole country, till making an attack on more than half the Lacedæmonian army under both their kings, he received several wounds as he defended himself valiantly, and as he was struck on the head by a stone his eyes got dizzy, and the Lacedæmonians rushing at him all together took him alive. Fifty of his men also were captured. These were all condemned by the Lacedæmonians to be thrown into their underground cavern called Ceadas; where they throw in their greatest malefactors. The other Messenians who were thrown in were killed instantaneously: but Aristomenes had some good genius who both now and on all occasions looked after him. Those who exaggerate everything about him say that, when he was thrown into Ceadas, an eagle flew under him and supported him with its wings, so that he reached the bottom safely without a wound or scratch. The god on this occasion must have also shown him some outlet. For when he got to the bottom of the cavern, he sat down and muffling his head in his cloak expected death which he felt certain. But on the third day after he heard a noise, and unveiled his face, and when his eyes got accustomed to the darkness, saw a fox preying on the dead carcases. And reflecting that it must have an outlet somewhere, he waited till the fox came near and when it came near seized hold of it, and in one of his hands, when the fox turned on him, held his cloak that it might bite that and not him. As it ran he ran with it, and was dragged by it along a very difficult path. At last he saw a little hole, just big enough for a fox to pass through, and light glimmered through it. And the fox, directly it was liberated by Aristomenes, betook itself to its hole. And Aristomenes, as the hole was too small to let him through, enlarged it with his hands and got home safe to Eira, having had most remarkable good fortune in respect to his capture, (for his spirit and bravery were such that no one could have expected to take him alive), and stranger still and most plainly not without divine assistance was this getting out safe from Ceadas.
[4.19] And it was almost immediately reported to the Lacedæmonians by deserters that Aristomenes had got home safe: but being considered as incredible as if anyone were to say that a dead man had come to life again, it was only believed in consequence of the following transaction on the part of Aristomenes. The Corinthians sent a force to help the Lacedæmonians to take Eira. Aristomenes, learning from his scouts that they were marching rather carelessly, and that their camps were negligently made up, attacked them by night, and as they were asleep slew most of them, and among others their leaders Hypermenides, and Achladæus, and Lysistratus, and Sidectus. He plundered also the tent of the generals, and the Lacedæmonians soon saw that it was Aristomenes and no other Messenian that had done all this. He sacrificed also to Zeus of Ithome the sacrifice which they call Hecatomphonia. It was of very remote antiquity, and any Messenian who had killed 100 enemies had a right to offer it. And Aristomenes first offered this sacrifice when he fought the battle at Boar’s Memorial, and the slaughter of these Corinthians by night gave him the right to offer this sacrifice a second time. They say also that he offered the sacrifice a third time as the result of various raids. But the Lacedæmonians, as the festival of Hyacinthus was now coming on, made a truce of 40 days with the inhabitants of Eira, and returned home and kept the festival, and some Cretan bowmen, who had been sent for as mercenaries from Lyctus and other towns, made incursions into various parts of Messenia. And as Aristomenes was at some distance from Eira, feeling perfect security as it was truce time, seven of these bowmen lay in wait for him, and took him prisoner, and bound him with the bands of their quivers. And it was evening. And two of them went to Sparta, and announced the capture of Aristomenes to the Lacedæmonians: and the remaining five retired to a farm in Messenia, where a fatherless maiden lived with her mother. The night before this maiden had had a dream. Some wolves (she dreamed) brought a lion to the farm bound and without claws, and she freed the lion from its bonds and got it claws, and then the wolves were torn in pieces by it. And now when the Cretans brought in Aristomenes, the maiden remembered her dream of the previous night, and asked her mother who he was: and when she learnt who he was she took courage, and looked earnestly at him, and understood the meaning of the dream. She therefore poured out wine freely for the Cretans, till drink overpowered them, and then withdrew the sword of the one who was fastest asleep. Then she cut the bonds of Aristomenes, and he took the sword and killed all 5. And Gorgus the son of Aristomenes took the maiden to wife. And thus Aristomenes requited to the damsel her saving of his life, and Gorgus was only 18 when he married her.
[4.20] But in the 11th year of the siege it was fated that Eira should fall, and that the Messenians should be dispersed, and the god accomplished what had been oracularly foretold to Aristomenes and Theoclus. For when they went to Delphi after the disaster at the Great Trench, and enquired as to their safety, the Pythian Priestess replied as follows,
“When he-goat drinks of Neda’s winding stream,
I cease to guard Messene. Her end is near.”
Now the Neda rises in Mount Lycæus: and the river flows through Arcadia and into Messenia again, and divides the maritime parts of Messenia and Elis. And now they were afraid of their he-goats drinking of the Neda: but the god had quite a different meaning which I will unfold. The wild fig tree, which some of the Greeks call Olynthe, is called by the Messenians Tragus (that is He-Goat). At this time there was a wild fig tree on the banks of the river Neda which did not grow upright, but bent into the stream and touched the water with its topmost boughs. And the seer Theoclus having noticed it conjectured that by the he-goat drinking of the Neda the Pythian Priestess meant this wild fig, and that therefore the fate of Messene was imminent. And he preserved silence on the matter to everyone else, but he took Aristomenes to this fig tree, and pointed out to him that their period of safety had passed. And Aristomenes was convinced by him that it was as he said, and that there was no room for delay, and he adopted the following contrivance under the present conjuncture. The Messenians had some sacred records, which if lost would ruin Messene and keep her under for ever, but which if preserved would, according to the oracular utterances of Lycus the son of Pandion, give the Messenians a chance one day to recover their country, and Aristomenes knowing these oracular utterances conveyed away by night these arcana: and going to the most unfrequented part of Mount Ithome buried them there, and prayed to Zeus of Ithome and to the gods who had hitherto befriended the Messenians to be witnesses of this deposit, and not to allow the Lacedæmonians to rob them of their only hope of returning home again one day. And after this trouble came to the Messenians, as earlier still it did to the Trojans, from adultery. They occupied the mountainous district all round Eira as far as the Neda, and some lived outside the gates. And no other deserter came to them from Laconia, but a herdsman, a slave of Emperamus who was a man of some note at Sparta. This herdsman lived not far from the Neda. There he saw the wife of one of the Messenians who lived outside the walls coming to draw water: and he got enamoured of her, and ventured to talk with her, and overcame her chastity by gifts. And from that time forward this herdsman watched when her husband went upon garrison duty. Now the Messenians had to go on guard by turns in the citadel: it was here that they were chiefly afraid of the enemy getting into the place. And whenever the husband mounted guard, this herdsman used to go and visit his wife. And on one occasion he and others had to mount guard at night, and it chanced to be a very wet night. And the Messenians left their guard. For the quantity of rain pouring down almost forced them in, as they had no battlements or turrets in their improvised fortifications, and at the same time they did not expect that the Lacedæmonians would attack them in a night so wild and dark. And Aristomenes had been wounded a few days previously in rescuing a Cephallenian merchant and his goods, (he was a friend of his and used to introduce into Eira all necessary supplies, but had been captured by the Lacedæmonians and some Apteræan bowmen under Euryalus a Spartan), and therefore could not as usual go his nightly rounds. This was the chief reason why the citadel was abandoned by the guard. And as each of them went off from his post so did the husband of the woman who had this intrigue with the herdsman. And she at this time had the herdsman at her house, but perceiving the return of her husband quickly concealed him, and welcomed her husband rather more than usual, and asked him the reason of his return. And he, ignorant that she was unfaithful to him and had her paramour there, told her the truth, and said that, on account of the violence of the rain, and other circumstances which he mentioned, they had left their posts. And the herdsman overheard, and immediately, when he understood the condition of affairs, deserted the Messenians for the Lacedæmonians. The Lacedæmonian kings were at this time absent from the camp: but Emperamus the master of the herdsman was commander in chief of the forces that were besieging Eira. The herdsman then went to his master, and first begged pardon for his absence from home, and next showed him how they could capture Eira, mentioning all the circumstances which he had heard from the Messenian.
[4.21] What the herdsman said seemed trustworthy, and he led Emperamus and the Spartan force. Their march was difficult owing to the darkness and steady downpour. Still they advanced with alacrity, and, as soon as they got to the citadel of Eira, fixed scaling ladders and got over the walls with all dispatch. And the Messenians had several indications of their coming trouble, especially the unusual barking of the dogs, who barked fiercely and continuously. Perceiving then that the final struggle had come upon them, they had no time for arming themselves properly, but each seized what weapon he could find to defend their last possession out of all Messenia, their last inch of fatherland! The first who noticed that the enemy had got inside the walls, and who rushed up to the fray, were Gorgus the son of Aristomenes, and Aristomenes himself, and Theoclus the seer and Manticlus his son, and with them Euergetidas a man held in especial honour at Messene, who had improved his fortunes by his marriage with Agnagora, the sister of Aristomenes. And all the others at this time, though they perceived that they were in a trap, yet had a little hope in spite of the outlook: but Aristomenes and the seer knew that it was all up with the Messenians, remembering the Pythian Priestess’ oracle about the he-goat, but they concealed none the less the true state of affairs, and were silent about it to everybody. And they went all round the town energetically and exhorted every Messenian they met to play the man, and called from their houses those that yet remained in them. During the night nothing very notable was done on either side, for the attacking party were hindered by their ignorance of the ground and the boldness of Aristomenes, and the Messenians were rather backward in taking the word from their generals, and if anyone lit a torch or struck a light, the rain immediately put it out. And when day broke and they could see one another clearly, then Aristomenes and Theoclus endeavoured to nerve the Messenians to desperate courage, by giving them the necessary directions, and reminding them of the heroism of the people of Smyrna, who, though they were only Ionians, by their boldness and vigour drove out of their city Gyges, the son of Dascylus, and the Lydians who were in possession of it. And the Messenians hearing this were animated with the courage of despair, and forming what ranks they could rushed against the Lacedæmonians. And even the women eagerly hurled tiles, and whatever each could lay hold of, at the enemy: but they were partly prevented doing this from the slipperiness of the roofs through the frequent rain: but they seized arms and thus kindled still more the courage of the men, when they saw that even the women preferred perishing with their country to being led off as slaves to Lacedæmon, insomuch that had it been possible they would have given destiny the go-by. And the downpour of rain continued all day, and there was thunder and lightning, and they could hardly see for the lightning that flashed in their faces. And all this inspired courage in the Lacedæmonians, who thought that the god was visibly helping them, and as the lightning was on their right the seer Hecas announced that the omen was auspicious. He also devised the following stratagem. The Lacedæmonians were far the most numerous, but inasmuch as the battle was on a limited area and not fought tactically, but various bodies of men fought haphazard in various parts of the city, it happened that the rearmen of each division were useless. He therefore ordered them to retire to the camp and get some food and sleep, and come back again before evening to relieve their companions, who had borne the burthen and heat of the day. And thus by fighting and resting by turns they held out the longer, but the Messenians were getting entirely worn out, for it was now the third night that they had been fighting day and night continuously. And when the next morning came, and they were suffering from sleeplessness and constant rain and cold all combined, hunger and thirst assailed them too. Their women especially were ready to faint by reason of being unused to war, and by the long continuance of their efforts. Then the seer Theoclus came up and spoke to Aristomenes. “Why do you continue in vain this struggle? It is decreed that Messene must perish, long ago did the Pythian Priestess foretell this imminent ruin, and lately did the wild fig tree teach the same lesson. To me the god assigns an end with my country: but you may save the Messenians and yourself.” When he had spoken thus to him, he rushed against the foe, and said to the Lacedæmonians in a loud voice, “You shall not for long joy in your conquest of Messene.” After that he fiercely attacked those who were opposite to him and slew them, and was himself wounded, and breathed out his last having first glutted his soul with slaughter. And Aristomenes called all the Messenians back from the fight, except those who were fighting with remarkable bravery, whom he allowed to remain fighting. And the rest he ordered to follow where he should lead, with the women and children in their lines. To the command of this portion of the army he appointed Gorgus and Manticlus: and himself took up a position in the front rank, and by the motion of his head and the waving of his spear plainly showed that he was asking for a passage through, and already meditated retreat. Emperamus and the Spartans on the spot were right glad to let the Messenians through their lines, and not to irritate too much men who were mad in rage and desperate to the last degree. And Hecas the seer also bade them act so.
[4.22] Directly the Arcadians heard of the capture of Eira, they at once begged Aristocrates to lead them to save the Messenians or perish with them. But he having been bribed by the Lacedæmonians refused to lead them, and said that he knew none of the Messenians were alive for them to assist. But when the Arcadians received more certain intelligence that some survived who had been compelled to leave Eira, they set out to meet them at Mount Lycæus, having got ready both food and raiment, and sent certain influential persons to comfort the Messenians and guide them on their march. And when they got safe to Mount Lycæus the Arcadians welcomed them, and treated them kindly in other respects, and invited them to dwell in their cities, and said they would give them a share of the land. But Aristomenes in his grief for the capture of Eira and his hatred to the Lacedæmonians contrived the following plan. He selected from the whole body 500 Messenians, who he knew were prodigal of their lives, and selected them in the hearing of the other Arcadians and Aristocrates, not knowing that he was a traitor—for he thought Aristocrates had fled through cowardice and want of manliness rather than in treason—and he asked the 500 in his presence, whether they would die with him to avenge their country. And when they said they would he revealed his whole plan, that the following evening he intended to lead them to Sparta. For at this time most of the Lacedæmonians were at Eira, and others were busy in plundering the property of the Messenians. “And if we should capture Sparta and keep it,” continued Aristomenes, “we shall be able to exchange it for Messene: and if we fail we shall die together, having done deeds that posterity will not forget.” After he had made this speech, about 300 of the Arcadians wished to join him in his desperate undertaking. And for the moment they delayed their departure, as the victims were not auspicious. On the following day however they knew that their secret had been revealed to the Lacedæmonians, and that they had been betrayed by Aristocrates for the second time. For Aristocrates had at once disclosed by letter the design of Aristomenes, and given the letter to his most trusty slave, and sent it to Anaxander at Sparta. And on his return this slave was intercepted by some Arcadians who had previously been hostile to Aristocrates, and were now rather suspicious about him. And having intercepted this slave they brought him before the Arcadians, and showed the people the answer of Anaxander from Lacedæmon. It was to the effect that, just as Aristocrates’ flight at an opportune moment from the Great Trench had not been unrewarded by the Lacedæmonians, so he should not be without further reward for his present information. And when this was reported to them all, the Arcadians began to stone Aristocrates, and urged the Messenians to do the same. But they looked at Aristomenes. And he looked on the ground and wept. So the Arcadians stoned Aristocrates to death, and cast him unburied out of their borders, and put up a pillar in the temple of Lycæan Zeus with the following inscription. “Time is sure to bring justice at last to an unjust king, and time with Zeus’ cooperation has easily found out Messene’s traitor. It is difficult for a perjured man to escape the god. Hail, royal Zeus, and save Arcadia.”
[4.23] And all the Messenians that were captured at Eira, or in any other part of Messenia, were incorporated by the Lacedæmonians among the Helots: and the people of Pylos and Mothone and all the maritime towns removed in ships, after the capture of Eira, to Cyllene the arsenal of Elis. And from there they sent to the Messenians in Arcadia, wishing them to join them in an expedition to seek some city to dwell in, and bade them make Aristomenes the founder of the colony. But he said that for his part as long as he lived he would fight against the Lacedæmonians, and that he knew very well that Sparta would always have trouble through him: but he gave them Gorgus and Manticlus as their leaders. Euergetidas also retired to Mount Lycæus with the rest of the Messenians: and from thence, when he saw that Aristomenes’ plan about the capture of Sparta had fallen through, having got together about 50 of the Messenians he made a raid against the Lacedæmonians at Eira, and falling in with them still plundering he turned their chant of victory into a dirge. And fate seized him there, and Aristomenes ordered the leaders of the Messenians, and whoever wished, to take part in the colony to go to Cyllene. And all took part in it, except those that were prevented by old age, or were destitute of means for dwelling abroad. And these remained where they were among the Arcadians.
[4.23] Eira was taken, and the second war between the Lacedæmonians and the Messenians finished, in the Archonship over the Athenians of Autosthenes, in the first year of the 28th Olympiad, in which Chionis the Laconian was victor.
[4.23] And when the Messenians had got together at Cyllene, they resolved to winter there for that winter, and the people of Elis provided them with supplies and money: but directly Spring came they deliberated where they should go. And the view of Gorgus was that they should occupy Zacynthus beyond Cephallenia, and become islanders instead of dwelling on the mainland, and should sail in their ships to the maritime parts of Laconia and ravage their territory. Manticlus on the other hand exhorted them to forget Messene and their animosity to the Lacedæmonians, and sail to Sardinia and occupy that large and fertile island. Meantime Anaxilas sent a message to the Messenians inviting them to Italy. He was King at Rhegium, and fourth in descent from Alcidamidas, who had migrated from Messene to Rhegium, after the death of King Aristodemus and the capture of Ithome. This Anaxilas then invited the Messenians, and when they went to Rhegium he told them that the people of Zancle were at variance with him, and that they had a fertile country and a city in the rich part of Sicily, all which he said he would give them, and help them in conquering the country. And as they eagerly accepted his offer, Anaxilas conveyed them over into Sicily. Now Zancle was a place which had originally been occupied by pirates, and, as the land there was then unoccupied, they built a fort near the harbour, and made Zancle their headquarters for expeditions both by land and sea: and their leaders were Cratæmenes the Samian and Perieres from Chalcis. And eventually Perieres and Cratæmenes resolved to invite in other colonists from Greece. But now Anaxilas conquered the people of Zancle who put out to sea in their fleet, and the Messenians conquered them on land. And being blockaded by land by the Messenians and simultaneously by sea by the people of Rhegium, when their fort was taken, they fled for refuge to the altars of the gods and to the temples. Anaxilas however urged on the Messenians to slay the suppliants, though they prayed hard for quarter, and to enslave the rest together with their women and children. But Gorgus and Manticlus begged that Anaxilas would not compel them, who had been shamefully treated by their fellow-countrymen, to act with equal cruelty to Greeks. And after that they took the people of Zancle from the altars, and having mutually given and received pledges dwelt together as one people. But the name of the town they changed from Zancle to Messene. All this took place in the 29th Olympiad, in which Chionis the Laconian was victor the second time, and Miltiades was Archon at Athens. And Manticlus built a temple of Hercules for the new colony, and a statue of the god was placed outside the fort called Hercules Manticlus, just as Belus at Babylon got its name from an Egyptian called Belus, and Ammon in Libya from the name of the shepherd who built the temple. This was the end of the wandering of the Messenian exiles.
[4.24] Meantime Aristomenes, when he refused the leadership of those who were going on the new colony, married his sister Agnagora to Tharyx of Phigalia, and his two eldest daughters to Damothoidas of Lepreum and Theopompus of Heræum. And he himself went to Delphi and consulted the oracle. What answer was returned is not recorded. But Damagetus a native of Rhodes, the King of Ialysus, had also at this time come to consult the oracle as to where he should marry a wife from, and the Pythian Priestess replied that he was to marry the daughter of the noblest of the Greeks. And Aristomenes had a third daughter, and he married her, thinking her father far the noblest Greek of his time. And Aristomenes went to Rhodes with his daughter, and from thence he intended to go to Sardis to Ardys the son of Gyges, and to Ecbatana the royal residence of the Medes to the Court of King Phraortes, but before he could carry out this intention he chanced to die of some illness, so that the fates did not permit him to wreak his vengeance on the Lacedæmonians. And Damagetus and the people of Rhodes built a splendid monument to him, and paid honours to his memory. The traditions about those who are called the Diagoridæ in Rhodes, (who were descended from Diagoras, the son of Damagetus, the son of Dorieus, the son of Damagetus by the daughter of Aristomenes), I have omitted, that I might not appear to have introduced irrelevant matter.
[4.24] And the Lacedæmonians, when they had made themselves masters of Messenia, shared it out among themselves all but the territory of the Asinæi, and Mothone they gave to the people of Nauplia who had recently been ejected by the Argives.
[4.24] And the Messenians who were captured at Eira, and compulsorily incorporated among the Helots, revolted again from the Lacedæmonians in the 79th Olympiad, in which the Corinthian Xenophon was victor, and Archimedes Archon at Athens. And they seized the following opportunity. Some of the Lacedæmonians, on a charge for which they were condemned to death, fled to Tænarum as suppliants; and there the Ephors took them from the altar and slew them. And the wrath of Poseidon came upon those Spartans who had violated his rights of sanctuary, and he adjudged the town to be utterly razed to the ground. And it was after this calamity that the Helots who were Messenians revolted and went to Mount Ithome. And the Lacedæmonians sent for several allies to help to subdue them, and among others for Cimon (the son of Miltiades) their friend, of whom they also begged some Athenian troops. But when these Athenian troops came they suspected them as likely to introduce revolutionary ideas among their own men, so in their suspicion they soon sent them home again from Ithome. But when the Athenians observed that suspicion on the part of the Lacedæmonians they were indignant and became friendly to the Argives, and, when those of the Messenians who were besieged at Ithome were allowed to surrender upon conditions, gave Naupactus to them, (having taken it from the Locrians in Ætolia called Ozolæ). And the Messenians were allowed to surrender partly because of the strength of the place, partly because the Pythian Priestess prophesied to the Lacedæmonians that there would be vengeance from Zeus of Ithome if they violated his right of sanctuary. So they were allowed to evacuate the Peloponnese upon conditions for these reasons.
[4.25] And when they got Naupactus, they were not content with the town and region that they had got through the Athenians, but a strong desire came upon them to get a place for themselves by their own valour. And as they knew that the Œniadæ, who had a rich soil in Acarnania, had been for all time at variance with the Athenians, they marched against them. And being not superior in point of numbers, but far superior in respect to bravery, they won a victory over them, and shut them up in their fort and blockaded them. And the Messenians employed every human invention for taking cities, they tried to get over the walls by scaling ladders, and undermined the fort, and bringing up such engines as they could get at short notice kept battering away at the walls. And those in the town, fearing that if the town was taken they would be undone, and their wives and children sold into slavery, preferred to surrender upon conditions. And for about a year the Messenians occupied the town and enjoyed the produce of the country, but the year after the Acarnanians gathering a force together from all their towns planned a march upon Naupactus. But they changed their minds about this when they saw that their march would be through the country of the Ætolians, who were always hostile to them, and at the same time they expected the Naupactians had a navy, as indeed they had, and as they were masters of the sea it would not be possible to subdue them with a land army. So they changed their plan with alacrity, and marched against the Messenians at Œniadæ. And they began to lay siege to the town: for they did not suppose that so few men would come to such a pitch of recklessness as to sally out and fight against them. And the Messenians had got together a store of corn and other provisions, expecting a long siege: but they thought before the blockade commenced they would have one good fight in the open, and as they were Messenians, who had only been inferior to the Lacedæmonians in luck not in courage, they would not be frightened at this mob that had come from Acarnania. And the Athenians remembered the action at Marathon, how thirty myriads of Medes were slain by less than 10,000. So they determined to fight the Acarnanians, and the battle was fought as follows. The Acarnanians inasmuch as they were far more numerous easily surrounded the Messenians, except where the gates at the back of the Messenians checked them, and the men on the walls stoutly defended their comrades. Here they could not be surrounded. But both their flanks were sore pressed by the Acarnanians, and they shot at them from all sides. And the Messenians being a compact body, wherever they made a general attack on the Acarnanians, threw the enemy’s ranks into confusion, and killed and wounded many, yet could not bring about a complete rout. For wherever the Acarnanians observed that their lines were pierced by the Messenians, there they brought up large detachments of men, and beat the Messenians back by sheer force of numbers. And whenever the Messenians were unsuccessful in an attack, and tried in some other place to break the Acarnanian line, the same result would follow. At whatever point they attacked they produced confusion and something like a rout, but the Acarnanians came swarming up, and so the Messenians had very unwillingly to retire. And the struggle being very evenly poised till night came on, and the attacking force of the Acarnanians being augmented the following evening from several towns, a regular blockade of the Messenians commenced. And they had no fear that the town would be taken by storm, either by the Acarnanians getting over the walls, or by their being compelled to desert their garrison duty. But by the 8th month all their supplies were consumed. To the Acarnanians they jeeringly cried out that their provisions would last even a ten years’ siege: but about the time of first sleep they quietly slipped out of Œniadæ, and being compelled to fight their way through directly the Acarnanians got to know of this flitting, lost about 300 but killed a still greater number of the enemy, and most of them succeeded in cutting their way through, and by the assistance of the Ætolians who were friendly to them got safe to Naupactus.
[4.26] And from this time forward their hostility to the Lacedæmonians increased, as they notably shewed in the war between the Peloponnesians and Athenians. For they made Naupactus a base against the Peloponnese, and when the Spartans were cut off at Sphacteria some Messenian bowmen from Naupactus assisted the Athenians. But after the reverse of the Athenians at Ægos-potamoi, the Lacedæmonians being masters of the sea drove the Messenians from Naupactus, and some went into Sicily to their kinsmen at Zancle and Rhegium, but most to Libya to the Euesperitæ, who being hard pressed in war by some of the neighbouring barbarians invited in the Greeks as colonists. To them went most of the Messenians under Comon, who had been their General at Sphacteria.
[4.26] And a year before the Theban victory at Leuctra, the god foretold to the Messenians their return to the Peloponnese. For the priest of Hercules (they say) in Messene at the Sicilian Strait saw in a dream Hercules Manticlus invited in a friendly way by Zeus to Ithome. And among the Euesperitæ Comon dreamt that he had dealings with his dead mother, and that subsequently his mother came to life again. And he hoped as the Athenians were now powerful at sea that they would be restored to Naupactus: and the dream seemed to indicate that Messene would revive. And no long time after came to the Lacedæmonians at Leuctra the disaster that had long been fated: for the concluding words of the oracle given to Aristodemus the king of the Messenians were,
“Do as fate bids: woe comes to all in turn.”
[4.26] As at that time it was fated for him and the Messenians to be unfortunate, so in after time was it fated for Lacedæmon when her day had come. And now the Thebans after the victory of Leuctra sent messengers to Italy and Sicily and to the Euesperitæ, to recall the Messenians from their wanderings to the Peloponnese. And they gathered together quicker than anyone would have thought, from yearning affection to their fatherland, and from their abiding hate to the Lacedæmonians. And Epaminondas was in doubt what city he should build as a base against the Lacedæmonians, or where he should find a site, for the Messenians would not dwell again at Andania and Œchalia, because they had been so unlucky when they lived there before. As he was in this doubt they say an old man, very like a priest of the mysteries, appeared to him in a vision of the night, and said to him, “My gift to you is universal conquest in war: and when you shall leave this earth I will make your name, O Theban, immortal and ever glorious. But do you in return restore to the Messenians their country and cities, for the wrath of Castor and Pollux towards them is now appeased.” These were his words to Epaminondas, who revealed the dream to Epiteles the son of Æschines, whom the Argives chose as their General and the restorer of Messene. This man was bidden in a dream, in the place where he should find at Ithome an ivy and myrtle tree growing, to dig between them and recover an old woman who was ill and confined there in a brass coffin and already near to death’s door. And Epiteles when day broke went to the appointed place, and dug up a cinerary urn of brass, and took it at once to Epaminondas and narrated his dream, and he told him to remove the lid and see what was in it. And he after sacrifice and prayer to the person who had sent him this dream opened the urn, and found some tin beaten very thin, and rolled up like a book. On it were written the mysteries of the Great Goddesses, and it was in fact what Aristomenes had buried. And they say the person who appeared to Epiteles and Epaminondas in their dreams was Caucon, who formerly came from Athens to Andania to Messene the daughter of Triopas.
[4.27] The wrath of Castor and Pollux against the Messenians began before the battle at Stenyclerus, and I conjecture it to have originated in the following way. Panormus and Gonippus, two lads of Andania in the bloom of youth, were great friends, and used jointly to make incursions and raids into Laconia. And as the Lacedæmonians in camp were keeping the festival of Castor and Pollux, and after the banquet were full of wine and merrymaking, Gonippus and Panormus, clad in white tunics and purple cloaks, well mounted, with hats on their heads and spears in their hands, presented themselves to the Lacedæmonians. And when they saw them they bowed down before them and worshipped them, thinking they were Castor and Pollux who had come to the sacrifice. But these young men mixed up with them and rode through them and stabbed many with their lances, and, after many of them had fallen, rode back to Andania, having thus outraged the festival of Castor and Pollux. This is what I think made the Twin Brethren hate the Messenians. But now, as was hinted to Epaminondas in his dream, the Twin Brethren had no objection to the return of the Messenians. And Epaminondas was very greatly encouraged also to the restoration of Messene by the oracles of Bacis, who had been driven mad by the Nymphs and had given various prophetic utterances to several of the Greeks, and amongst others this one about the return of the Messenians:
“And then shall Sparta lose her glorious flower,
Messene built again be for all time.”
I find also that Bacis foretold the manner in which Eira would be taken: this is one of his prophetic lines,
“Those from conquered Messene with its splashing fountains.”
And as the records of the Mysteries had been recovered, the priests entered them in books. And Epaminondas, as the place where the Messenians now have their capital seemed most convenient to settle in, bade the seers examine if the gods were favourable to the spot. And on their replying that the omens were favourable, he at once made preparations for building the town, ordering a large supply of stone, and sending for builders who should artistically lay out streets and build houses and temples and lines of walls. And when all was in readiness the Arcadians furnished victims, and Epaminondas and the Thebans sacrificed to Dionysus and Apollo Ismenius in the accustomed manner, and the Argives to Argive Hera and Nemean Zeus, and the Messenians to Zeus of Ithome and Castor and Pollux, and the priests of the Mysteries to the Great Goddesses and Caucon. And with one consent they invoked the heroes to come and dwell with them, especially Messene the daughter of Triopas, and Eurytus and Aphareus and his sons, and of the Heraclidæ Cresphontes and Æpytus. But most unanimous of all was the cry for Aristomenes. And that day they devoted to sacrifices and prayers, and on the following days they raised the circuit of the walls, and began to build their houses and temples inside the walls. And they carried on this work only to the music of Bœotian and Argive flutes, and the tunes of Sacadas and Pronomus now first came into competition. And they called the capital Messene, and they restored others of their towns. But the people of Nauplia were not turned out of Mothone, the Asinæi also were allowed to remain where they were, the latter out of gratitude because they had refused to join the Lacedæmonians against them. And the people of Nauplia, when the Messenians returned to the Peloponnese, had brought them as gifts whatever they had, and had continually prayed to the deity for their return, and had also made many requests to the Messenians for their own safety.
[4.27] Thus the Messenians returned to the Peloponnese, and were restored to their country, 287 years after the capture of Eira, when Dyscinetus was Archon at Athens, and in the third year of the 102nd Olympiad, in which Damon of Thurii won the second prize. It was indeed no short time that the Platæans were exiles from their country, or the Delians when (expelled from Delos by the Athenians) they dwelt at Adramyttium. The Minyæ from Orchomenus also, having been driven out by the Thebans from Orchomenus after the battle of Leuctra, were restored to Bœotia by Philip the son of Amyntas, as the Platæans also. And although Alexander stript Thebes of Thebans, yet not many years afterwards Cassander the son of Antipater rebuilt it. The exile from Platæa seems to have been the longest of those which I have recorded, however it was not longer than two generations. But the Messenians were wanderers from the Peloponnese for nearly 300 years, during which time it is evident that they abandoned none of their national customs, nor did they change their Doric dialect, but even to our day they preserve it purer than any other of the Peloponnesians.
[4.28] On their return no apprehension was felt by them at first about the Lacedæmonians: for they, being afraid of the Thebans, did not interfere with the rebuilding of Messene, nor the gathering of the Arcadians into one town. But when the Phocian War, otherwise called the Holy War, withdrew the Thebans from the Peloponnese, then the Lacedæmonians pricked up their courage, and could no longer keep their hands off the Messenians. And the Messenians bore the brunt of the war alone, except the assistance they got from the Argives and Arcadians; they also begged for help from the Athenians,—but they replied that they could not join them in an incursion into Laconia, but if the Lacedæmonians were the aggressors and carried the war into Messenia, then they promised that they would not fail them. And eventually the Messenians got the help of Philip, the son of Amyntas, and the Macedonians, and this they say prevented them from participation in the struggle of the Greeks at Chæronea. Not that they would ever have been inclined to take up arms against the Greeks. But after the death of Alexander, when the Greeks commenced a second war against the Macedonians, the Messenians took their part in this, as I have before shewn in my account of Attica. But they did not join the Greeks in fighting against the Galati, as Cleonymus and the Lacedæmonians would not make a treaty with them.
[4.28] And not long afterwards the Messenians occupied Elis, partly by cunning partly by audacity. The people of Elis in ancient times were the most orderly of all the Peloponnesians, but when Philip the son of Amyntas did all that harm to Greece that we have mentioned, and corrupted by bribes the most influential of the people of Elis, then for the first time in their history the people of Elis took up arms and became factious. And after they had taken the first plunge, they were likely with less reluctance to go into future civil strife, inasmuch as through the Lacedæmonians their policy had been shifted, and they had drifted into civil war. And the Lacedæmonians hearing of the factions at Elis made preparations to assist those who were for their party. And while they were drilling and mobilizing their forces, about 1000 picked men of the Messenians secretly approached Elis, with Lacedæmonian colours on their shields. And when the men in Elis who were friendly to the Spartans saw their shields, they concluded they had come to help them and admitted them within the walls. But when the Messenians got in, in the way I have described, they expelled from the town the Lacedæmonian party, and entrusted the town to their own friends. Their stratagem was Homeric, and the Messenians seem to have imitated Homer for the nonce, for Homer has represented in the Iliad Patroclus wearing the armour of Achilles, and how the Trojans, thinking that Achilles was leading the attack, were thrown into confusion in their van. Other stratagems of war are found in Homer, as when he describes two Greek spies coming to the Trojans by night instead of one, and afterwards a supposed deserter coming to Troy really to spy out the weak points. Moreover he represents those Trojans who were either too young or too old to fight as manning the walls, while those of a suitable age took the field against the Greeks. And those of the Greeks that were wounded gave their armour to other fighting men, that their services too might not be altogether lost. Thus Homer’s ideas have been generally useful to mankind.
[4.29] And no long time after this action at Elis the Macedonians under Demetrius, the son of Philip the son of Demetrius, attacked Messene. Most of the audacity displayed by Perseus against Philip and his son Demetrius I have already described in my account about Sicyon: and the capture of Messene took place as follows. Philip was in need of money, and, as he must have it by hook or by crook, sent Demetrius with a fleet to the Peloponnese. And Demetrius chanced to put in at one of the least frequented harbours of Argolis: and without losing time he led his army by the shortest cuts through the country to Messene. And having posted in the van all his light-armed troops, as he was well acquainted with the road to Ithome, he got stealthily into the town a little before dawn, and took up his position between the town and the citadel. And when day broke and those in the town perceived their imminent peril, their first thought was that the Lacedæmonians had got into the town, so they rushed against them with the greatest alacrity owing to their ancient animosity. But when both from their arms and language they discovered that they were Macedonians under Demetrius the son of Philip, a panic came over them, when they considered the military renown of the Macedonians, and the good fortune which they had invariably had. However the magnitude of the impending danger suggested to them an almost supernatural bravery, and at the same time the hope to see better days supported them: for they could not but think their return to the Peloponnese after so long an exile was not against the will of the Deity. The Messenians therefore in the town rushed against the Macedonians with impetuosity, and the garrison in the citadel galled them from their higher position. The Macedonians from their courage and tactical skill fought at first like lions: but at last spent with their long march, and not only pressed hard by men, but pelted with tiles and stones by the women, fled in disorder. And most of them perished miserably, being pushed down the rocks, for Ithome was very precipitous here, but a few threw away their arms and got off safe.
[4.29] What prevented the Messenians from joining at first the Achæan League was as follows. They had of their own accord gone to the aid of the Lacedæmonians when they were attacked by Pyrrhus the son of Æacus, and for this good service there were already friendlier relations between themselves and Sparta. They did not therefore wish to revive the old feud by going to the Achæan League, as the Achæans were most openly hostile to the Lacedæmonians. And what has not escaped my notice, and cannot have escaped the notice of the Messenians is that, even had there been no Achæan League, the Achæans would have been hostile to the Lacedæmonians, for among the Achæans the Argives and Arcadians were no small element. In process of time however the Messenians joined the Achæan League. And not long afterwards Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas and grandson of Cleonymus, took Megalopolis the chief town of the Arcadians in truce time. In the capture of the town about a third of the inhabitants were captured or slain, but Philopœmen the son of Craugis and those who escaped with him (and they say that rather more than two thirds of the people of Megalopolis got away) were kindly received by the Messenians, partly on account of the ancient friendliness which the Arcadians had first exhibited in the days of Aristomenes, and partly in consequence of the part they had taken in the rebuilding of Messene. The Messenians even went so far as to assign to the Arcadians equal rights to themselves. Such vicissitudes and changes are there in all human affairs, that the deity put it into the power of the Messenians to preserve in turn the Arcadians, and (what was still less to be expected) one day to capture Sparta. For when they fought against Cleomenes at Sellasia they joined Aratus and the Achæans in taking Sparta. And when the Lacedæmonians had got rid of Cleomenes, there rose up against them the tyrant Machanidas: and after his death Nabis sprang up as tyrant over them. And, as he not only plundered men but also sacrilegiously robbed the holy places, in no long time he amassed considerable sums of money, and got together with this money an army. And when he occupied Messene Philopœmen and the people of Megalopolis made a sally by night, and the Spartan tyrant departed on conditions. And the Achæans after this, in consequence of some difference with the Messenians, marched out against them in full force, and ravaged their territory. And again about harvest time they collected a force for the purpose of attacking Messenia, but Dinocrates a prominent man among the people, who had been recently elected ruler of the Messenians, forced Lycortas and the army with him to retire without effecting their object, and having occupied the byroads between Messenia and Arcadia he protected²⁹ the Messenians in their town and in all the neighbouring districts. And when Philopœmen with a few cavalry came a little later than the army of Lycortas, not having been able to gather any tidings about them, the Messenians having the advantage of ground beat them in battle, and took Philopœmen alive. And the manner of his capture and his death I shall relate hereafter in my account of Arcadia. Suffice it here to state that those Messenians who were guilty of the death of Philopœmen were punished, and Messene again joined the Achæan League.
[4.29] Hitherto I have had to deal with the many sufferings of the Messenians, and to describe how the Deity, having scattered them to the ends of the earth, and to places most remote from the Peloponnese, restored them to their own country a long time afterwards. And now let us turn to a description of the country and its towns.
[4.30] There is in our days in Messenia, about 20 stades from the Chœrian dell, a town by the sea called Abia. They say in old times it was called Ire, and that it was one of the seven towns, which Homer represents Agamemnon as promising to Achilles. And when Hyllus and the Dorians were conquered in battle by the Achæans, then they say Abia, the nurse of Glenus the son of Hercules, went to Ire, and there lived, and built a temple of Hercules, and for that reason Cresphontes afterwards assigned her several honours, and changed the name of the town to her name Abia. There were notable temples there both to Hercules and Æsculapius.
[4.30] And Pharæ is distant from Abia about 80 stades, and the water by the road is salt. The Emperor Augustus ordered the Messenians at Pharæ to be ranked under Laconia. The founder of the city was they say Pharis, the son of Hermes by Phylodamea the daughter of Danaus. And Pharis they say had no male children, but only a daughter Telegone. The direct line of genealogy has been given by Homer in the Iliad, who says that the twins Crethon and Ortilochus were the sons of Diocles, and that Diocles himself was the son of Ortilochus, the son of Alpheus. But he has said nothing about Telegone, who according to the Messenian tradition was the wife of Alpheus and mother of Ortilochus. I have also heard at Pharæ that Diocles had a daughter Anticlea as well as his twin sons, and that she bare Nicomachus and Gorgasus to Machaon the son of Æsculapius: they lived at Pharæ, and after the death of Diocles succeeded to the kingdom. And a constant tradition about them has prevailed even to this day, that they have the power of healing illnesses and people maimed in body. And because of this the people sacrifice to them and offer votive offerings. At Pharæ there is also a temple and ancient statue of Fortune. The first person that I know of that has mentioned Fortune is Homer. He has mentioned her in his Hymn to Demeter, when enumerating the other daughters of Oceanus, how they played with Demeter’s daughter Proserpine, and among them Fortune, also a daughter of Oceanus. These are the lines.³⁰ “We all were in the pleasant meadow, Leucippe, Phæno, Electra, and Ianthe, Melobosis, and Fortune, and Ocyroe of the beautiful eyes.” But he has said nothing further about her, how she is the greatest goddess in human affairs and has the greatest influence, as in the Iliad he represented Athene and Enyo as supreme in war, and Artemis as dreaded in childbirth, and Aphrodite as the goddess of marriages. He has not symbolized Fortune in this way. But Bupalus, a man of wonderful ability in building temples and making models of animals, is the first person we know of that made a statue of Fortune. His was for the people of Smyrna. Fortune has a globe on her head, and in one of her hands what is called by the Greeks the horn of Amalthea. Thus did he typify the actions of this goddess. Pindar also subsequently wrote various lines about Fortune, and named her City-Preserver.
[4.31] Not far from Pharæ is the grove of Carnean Apollo, and a fountain of water in it, and Pharæ is about six stades from the sea. As you go from thence into the interior of Messenia about 80 stades you come to the town of Thuria,—which they say Homer called Anthea in his verses. And Augustus gave Thuria to the Spartans. For when the future Emperor of Rome was at war with Mark Antony, several Greeks and especially Messenians fought for Antony because the Lacedæmonians espoused the side of Augustus. Accordingly Augustus punished the Messenians and others who had opposed him, some more some less. And the people of Thuria left their ancient city which was built on a height, and went and dwelt in the plain. Not that they altogether abandoned the upper city, for there are ruins of their walls and a temple there called the temple of the Syrian goddess. And a river called Aris flows by their town in the plain.
[4.31] And there is in the interior a village called Calamæ and a place called Limnæ: in the latter place is a temple of Artemis of Limnæ, where they say Teleclus the king of Sparta was killed. And as you go from Thuria in the direction of Arcadia are the sources of the river Pamisus, in which small boys by being dipped are cured of diseases. And as you go to the left from these sources of the river and go forward about 40 stades, you come to the city of the Messenians under Mount Ithome: which is encircled not only by Mount Ithome but also in the direction of the Pamisus by Mount Eva. The mountain they say was called Eva from the Bacchic cry Evœ, which Dionysus and his attendant women first uttered here. And round Messene is a circular wall entirely constructed of stone, and towers and battlements are built on it. As to the walls of Babylon, or those called Memnon’s in Susa amongst the Persians, I have neither seen them nor heard anything of them from eye witnesses: but I can confidently affirm that the wall round Messene is stronger than those at Ambrosus in Phocis or at Byzantium or at Rhodes. And in the market-place at Messene there is a statue of Zeus Soter, and a conduit called Arsinoe, which got its name from the daughter of Leucippus, and water flows underground to feed it from a well called Clepsydra. And the gods who have temples are Poseidon and Aphrodite. And the most notable thing is a statue of the Mother of the Gods in Parian marble by Damophon, who most artistically rivetted the Zeus at Olympia when the ivory got loose. And honours were bestowed upon him by the people of Elis. He too designed the statue that the people of Messene call Laphria: whom they are accustomed to worship for the following reason. Among the Calydonians, who worship Artemis most of all the gods, her title is Laphria. And the Messenians who received Naupactus from the Athenians, and lived consequently very near to Ætolia, borrowed the worship of Artemis Laphria from the Calydonians. The statue I shall describe elsewhere. The title Laphria is only given to Artemis by the Messenians and the people of Patræ in Achaia. Ephesian Artemis is the title which all cities recognize, and by which men privately worship her as greatest of the gods; partly from the fame of the Amazons, who are said to have established the worship of her image, partly because she had a temple at Ephesus from time immemorial. And three other things contributed to her glory also, the size of the temple which exceeds all other human structures, the celebrity of the city of Ephesus, and the splendour of the goddess’ shrine.
[4.31] At Messene there is also a temple and stone statue of Ilithyia. And hard by is a hall of the Curetes, where they sacrifice all kinds of living things alike. Beginning with bulls and goats, they even go as far as to cast birds into the flames. There is also a temple sacred to Demeter, and statues of Castor and Pollux represented as carrying off the daughters of Leucippus. I have already shown in a previous part of my work that the Messenians assert that Castor and Pollux are indigenous with them and not with the Lacedæmonians. And they have many statues well worth seeing in the temple of Æsculapius. For besides the statues of the god and his sons, and besides those of Apollo and the Muses and Hercules, there are statues of Thebes and Epaminondas the son of Cleommis, and of Fortune and of Lightbringing Artemis. Those in stone are the work of Damophon, the only Messenian statuary that I know of that has produced any remarkable statues. The effigy of Epaminondas in iron is by another hand. There is also at Messene a temple of Triopas and her statue in gold and Parian marble: and the paintings at the back of the temple are Aphareus and his sons, the kings of Messene before the expedition of the Dorians to the Peloponnese, and after the return of the Heraclidæ Cresphontes, the leader of the Dorians, and of those that dwelt at Pylos Nestor and Thrasymedes and Antilochus, who were preferred to the sons of Nestor partly because they were older, partly because they had taken part in the Trojan expedition. There are paintings also of Leucippus the brother of Aphareus, and of Hilaira, Phœbe, and Arsinoe. There are paintings also of Æsculapius, (the son of Arsinoe according to the tradition of the Messenians,) and Machaon and Podalirius, for they also had a share in the expedition to Ilium. These paintings were executed by Omphalion, the pupil of Nicias the son of Nicomedes: some say that he was also the slave of Nicias and his favourite.
[4.32] The temple at Messene called the Sacrificial Chamber has statues of the gods generally worshipped among the Greeks, and also an effigy of Epaminondas in brass. There are also some ancient tripods, such as Homer describes as not having experienced fire.³¹ And the statues in the gymnasium are the work of Egyptians, and are Hermes Hercules and Theseus, who are wont to be held in honour at gymnasiums and palæstras by all Greeks and by many barbarians. I also noticed a statue of Æthidas who was a contemporary of mine but older, and as he was very wealthy the Messenians paid him honours as a hero. None of the people of Messene deny that Æthidas was wealthy, but some say it is not that Æthidas who has a statue on the pillar, but a namesake and ancestor. And this earlier Æthidas was they say the General of the Messenians, when Demetrius the son of Philip and his army stole into the town by night when they little expected it.
[4.32] There is here also the tomb of Aristomenes, and not a mere cenotaph, if their account is correct. But when I inquired how and from what place they brought home Aristomenes’ remains, they replied that they sent for them from Rhodes, obeying the direction of the God at Delphi. They also informed me of the sacrifices at this tomb. The bull they intend to sacrifice they bring to the tomb, and fasten it to a pillar near the tomb. And it being wild and unused to bonds is reluctant to remain there. And if by its struggles and mad bounds the pillar is moved, it is an auspicious omen to the people of Messene, but if it is not moved it is an omen of misfortune. And they amuse themselves with the fancy that Aristomenes though no longer alive was present at the fight at Leuctra, and they say he fought for the Thebans, and was the main cause of the Lacedæmonian defeat. I know that the Chaldæan and Indian astrologers were the first who taught that the soul of man is immortal, and several Greeks credited their assertion, and notably Plato the son of Aristo. And whoever are willing to believe this cannot deny the fact that the hatred of Aristomenes to the Lacedæmonians was eternal. And what I heard in Thebes lent probability to the tradition at Messene, though it does not altogether agree with their account. The Thebans say that on the eve of the battle at Leuctra they sent to several oracles, and among others to that of Trophonius at Lebadea. The answers are extant which were received from Ismenian and Ptoan Apollo, as also from Abæ and Delphi. But the response of Trophonius was in 4 hexameter verses. “Before contending with the foe erect a trophy, decking out the shield, which the ardent Aristomenes of Messene placed in my temple. I will assuredly destroy the host of hostile warriors.” And on the arrival of this oracular response they say that Epaminondas prevailed with Xenocrates to send for the shield of Aristomenes, and he decked it out as a trophy in a place where it would be visible to the Lacedæmonians. And some of them recognized the shield as they had seen it in time of peace at Lebadea, and all knew of it by report. And after the Thebans won their victory, they offered Aristomenes’ shield again to Trophonius as a votive offering. There is also a brazen statue of Aristomenes in the race-course at Messene. And not far from the theatre is the temple of Serapis and Isis.
[4.33] And as you go towards the hill of Ithome, where the Messenians have their citadel, is the spring called Clepsydra. However willing one may be it is a matter of no small difficulty to enumerate all the people who put in the claim that Zeus was born and bred among them. The people of Messene have this tradition among others. They say that Zeus was reared among them, and that Ithome and Neda were his nurses, and that Neda gave her name to the river, and Ithome hers to the mountain. And these Nymphs they say, when Zeus was stolen away by the Curetes from fear of Cronos, washed him here at Clepsydra, and the spring got its name from the theft of the Curetes: and every day they take water from this spring to the temple of Zeus of Ithome. And the statue of Zeus is the work of Ageladas, and was made originally for the Messenians that dwelt at Naupactus. And a priest chosen annually keeps the statue in his house. And they have an annual feast at Ithome, and originally they had a musical contest, as one may infer from other sources, but especially from the lines of Eumelus, which are part of his Processional Hymn at Delos, “Welcome to Zeus of Ithome was the pure muse with free sandals.” I think from these verses that Eumelus knew that they had a musical contest at the Feast of Zeus of Ithome.
[4.33] At the gates in the direction of Megalopolis in Arcadia there is a statue of Hermes of Athenian design: the busts of Hermes among the Athenians are square, and others have borrowed this design from them. And if you go about 30 stades down from these gates you come to the river Balyra. It was so called they say because Thamyris threw his lyre away there in his blindness, Thamyris the son of Philammon and the nymph Argiope. Argiope they say lived at Parnassus for a while, but when she became pregnant removed to Odrysæ, because Philammon would not marry her. And this is the reason why they call Thamyris Odrysian and Thracian. And the rivers Leucasia and Amphitus are tributaries of the Balyra.
[4.33] After you have crossed these you come to the plain called the plain of Stenyclerus; this Stenyclerus was a hero. And right opposite the plain is what was called of old Œchalia, but in our day the Carnasian grove, mostly of cypress trees. And the gods who have statues are Carnean Apollo and Hermes carrying a ram. And the daughter of Demeter is here called the Virgin, and near her statue water wells from a spring. But the rites of the Great Goddesses, who have their Mysteries at the Carnasian grove, I must not reveal: but they are in my opinion second only in sanctity to the Eleusinian Mysteries. I am also prevented by a dream from revealing to the public all about the cinerary urn of brass found by the Argive General, in which the remains of Eurytus the son of Melaneus are kept. And the river Charadrus flows along the Carnasian grove, and as you go on about 8 stades to the left you come to the ruins of Andania. That the town was so named from a woman called Andania is admitted by the antiquarians: I know however nothing about her parents, or who she married. And on the road from Andania to Cyparissiæ you come to a place called Polichne, where the rivers Electra and Cœus flow. Perhaps the names of these rivers refer to Electra the daughter of Atlas and to Cœus the father of Leto, or Electra and Cœus are possibly some local heroes.
[4.33] And after crossing the Electra you come to the well called Achaia, and the ruins of the city Dorium. And it is here at Dorium that Homer has described Thamyris as having been stricken blind, because he said he could excel the Muses in singing.³² But Prodicus the Phocæan, (if the poem called the Minyad is indeed his), says that punishments were reserved for Thamyris in Hades because of his boastful language to the Muses. But I am of opinion that Thamyris lost his eyesight through disease: as indeed happened to Homer subsequently. But Homer went on composing all his life, for he did not yield to his misfortune, whereas Thamyris wooed the Muse no longer, completely overcome by his ever-present trouble.
[4.34] From Messene to the mouth of the Pamisus is about 80 stades, and the Pamisus flows clear and limpid through arable land, and is navigable some 10 stades inland. And some sea fish swim up it especially at the season of spring, as they do also up the rivers Rhenus and Mæander: but mostly do they swim up the river Achelous, which has its outlet near the islands called the Echinades. And the fish that swim up the Pamisus are finer in appearance, because the water is clear, and not full of mud like the other rivers I have mentioned. And mullets, being fishes that love mud, are fond of muddy rivers. Now the Greek rivers do not seem to produce beasts dangerous to man’s life, like the Indus, and the Nile in Egypt, and the Rhenus, the Ister, the Euphrates, and the Phasis. For they produce beasts that devour man, in appearance like the Glanides at Hermus and Mæander, except that they have a darker skin and more strength. In these respects the Glanides are deficient. And the Indus and Nile both furnish crocodiles, and the Nile hippopotamuses also, which are as destructive to man as the crocodile. But the Greek rivers are not formidable for wild beasts, for even in the river Aous, that flows through the Thesprotian mainland, the dogs are not river dogs but sea dogs that swim up from the sea.
[4.34] On the right of the Pamisus is Corone, a town near the sea, and under the mountain Mathia. And on the road to it is a place near the sea, which they think is the temple of Ino: for they say that the goddess landed here from the sea, and was worshipped by the name of Leucothea instead of Ino. And at no great distance the river Bias discharges itself into the sea, which river took its name they say from Bias the son of Amythaon. About 20 stades from the road is the well Plataniston, the water flows from a plane-tree, broad and hollow inside, and like a small cave, and fresh water flows from thence to Corone. The name of the town was of old Æpea, but after the Messenians were restored to the Peloponnese by the Thebans, they say that Epimelides, who was sent to rebuild it, called it Coronea, after Coronea in Bœotia where he came from, but the Messenians mispronounced the name Corone from the first, and in process of time their mistake became prevalent. There is also another tradition that when they were digging the foundations of their walls they found a brass crow.³³ The gods here who have temples are Artemis called the Rearer of children, and Dionysus, and Æsculapius. The statues of Æsculapius and Dionysus are of stone, and there is a brazen statue of Zeus Soter in the market-place. There is also a brazen statue of Athene in the citadel in the open air, with a crow in her hand. I also saw the tomb of Epimelides. Why they call the harbour the harbour of the Achæans I do not know.
[4.34] As you go on about 80 stades from Corone you come to a temple of Apollo, near the sea, which is held in high honour: according to the Messenian tradition it is the most ancient of all Apollo’s temples, and the god heals diseases. They call the god Corydus.³⁴ His statue here is of wood, but there is a brazen statue the work of Argeotas, a votive offering they say of the Argonauts. And near the town of Corone is Colonides. Its inhabitants say they were not Messenians but were brought by Colænus from Attica, who according to an oracle followed the crested lark there. And in process of time they picked up the Dorian dialect and customs. And the town of Colonides is on a height not far from the sea.
[4.34] And the people of Asine were originally neighbours of the Lycoritæ, and dwelt near Mount Parnassus. They were then called Dryopes from their founder, which name they retained when they came to the Peloponnese. But in the third generation afterwards, when Phylas was king, the Dryopes were beaten in battle by Hercules, and were taken to Delphi and offered to Apollo. And being brought back to the Peloponnese by the oracle which the god gave Hercules, they first occupied Asine near Hermion, and, having been expelled thence by the Argives, they dwelt in Messenia by permission of the Lacedæmonians, and when in process of time the Messenians were restored they were not turned out by them from Asine. And the account the people of Asine themselves give is as follows. They admit they were conquered in battle by Hercules, and that their town on Mount Parnassus was captured, but they deny that they were led captive to Apollo, but when their walls were taken by Hercules, they left their town they say and fled for refuge to the heights of Parnassus; and afterwards crossing over in ships to the Peloponnese became suppliants of Eurystheus, and he being a bitter enemy of Hercules gave them Asine in Argolis to dwell in. And the Asinæi are the only descendants of the Dryopes that still plume themselves on that name, very unlike the Eubœans that live at Styra. For they too are Dryopes by origin, who did not participate in the contest with Hercules but dwelt at some distance from the town. But they despise the name Dryopes, just as the inhabitants of Delphi object to be called Phocians. Whereas the Asinæi rejoice in the name of Dryopes, and have evidently made the holiest of their temples an imitation of those they formerly erected at Mount Parnassus. They have not only a temple of Apollo, but a temple and ancient statue of Dryops, whose mysteries they celebrate annually, and say that he was the son of Apollo. And Asine lies by the sea just as the old Asine in Argolis did, and the distance from Colonides is about 40 stades, and at about the same distance in the other direction is the Promontory of Acritas, just in front of which is the deserted island of Theganussa. And not far from Acritas is the harbour of Phœnicus and some islands called Œnussæ opposite the harbour.
[4.35] And Mothone, which before the expedition against Troy and even subsequently to that war was called Pedasus, afterwards changed its name to Mothone from the daughter of Œneus as the inhabitants say: for Œneus the son of Porthaon after the capture of Ilium retired they say with Diomede to the Peloponnese, and had by a concubine a daughter Mothone. But in my opinion the Rock called Mothon gave its name to Mothone, a rock which constitutes a natural harbour, for being much of it sunken under the water it narrows the entrance for ships, and at the same time is a kind of breakwater against the violence of the waves. I have already described how the Lacedæmonians, in the days when Damocratidas was king at Argos, gave Mothone to the people of Nauplia, who had been expelled from their city for their Laconian proclivities; and how even after the restoration of the Messenians they were not interfered with. The people of Nauplia were I imagine in ancient times Egyptians, and, having come to Argolis in their ships with Danaus, they formed three generations afterwards a colony at Nauplia under Nauplius the son of Amymone. And the Emperor Trajan granted the people of Mothone a free constitution. But in older days they alone of all the Messenians had the following serious misfortune. Thesprotia in Epirus was in a ruinous condition from anarchy. For Deidamia the daughter of Pyrrhus had no children, and on her death handed over the government to the people. She was the daughter of Pyrrhus, the son of Ptolemy, the son of Alexander, the son of Pyrrhus: of this last Pyrrhus the son of Æacides I have given an account earlier in my description of Attica. Procles the Carthaginian has given Alexander the son of Philip more praise for his good fortune and the lustre of his exploits, but for the disposition of an army and strategical tactics in the face of an enemy he says Pyrrhus was the better man. And when the people of Epirus became a democracy, they shewed a want of ballast in several respects, and entirely disregarded their rulers: and the Illyrians that dwelt north of Epirus by the Ionian sea became their masters by sudden attack. For we know of no democracy but Athens that ever rose to greatness. The Athenians indeed rose to their zenith by democracy: but in native intelligence they were superior to the other Greeks, and obeyed the laws more than democracies generally do.
[4.35] And the Illyrians, when they had once tasted the sweets of conquest, longed for more and still more, and equipped a fleet, and made piratic excursions everywhere, and sailed to Mothone and anchored there as with friendly intent, and sent a messenger into the town and asked for some wine for their ships. And when a few men brought this wine, they paid for it the price the people of Mothone asked for it, and sold them in turn some of their cargoes. And on the following day more came from the city and a brisker traffic ensued. And at last women and men came down to the ships, and sold wine and received goods in turn from the barbarians. Then the Illyrians in the height of their daring captured many men and still more women, and clapped them on board, and sailed away for the Ionian sea, having half stripped the town of its population.
[4.35] At Mothone is a temple of Athene the Goddess of Winds, Diomede they say dedicated the statue of the goddess and gave her that title, for violent winds and unseasonable used to blow over the place and do much harm, but after Diomede prayed to Athene, no trouble from winds ever came to them thenceforward. There is also a temple of Artemis here, and some water mixed with pitch in a well, in appearance very like Cyzicenian ointment. Water indeed can assume every colour and smell. The bluest I have ever seen is at Thermopylæ, not all the water but that which flows into the swimming-bath which the people of the place call the women’s Pots. And reddish water very like blood is seen in the land of the Hebrews near Joppa: the water is very near the sea, and the tradition about the spring is that Perseus, after killing the sea monster to whom the daughter of Cepheus was exposed, washed away the blood there. And black water welling up from springs I have seen at Astyra which is opposite Lesbos, the warm baths are in a village called Atarneus, which was given to the Chians by the Medes as a reward for giving up to them the suppliant Pactyas the Lydian. This water is black: and not far from a town across the river Anio the Romans have some white water: and when one bathes in it it is at first cold and makes one shudder, but if one stays in it a little time it is hot as fire. All these wonderful springs I have myself seen, and those of lesser wonder I purposely pass over, for to find water salt and rough to the palate is no great wonder. But there are two very remarkable kinds of water: one at Caria in the plain called White, near a village called Dascylus, warm and sweeter to drink than milk: and the other Herodotus describes as a spring of bitter water discharging itself into the river Hypanis. How then shall we refuse to credit that warm water is found at Dicæarchia³⁵ among the Tyrrhenians, so hot that in a few years it melts the lead through which it flows?
[4.36] From Mothone to the promontory of Coryphasium is about 100 stades, and near it is Pylos, which was founded by Pylos, the son of Cleson, who brought from Megaris the Leleges who then occupied Megaris. But he did not enjoy it long, being turned out by Neleus and the Pelasgians of Iolcus. And he went away to the neighbouring country and occupied Pylos in Elis. And king Neleus advanced Pylos to such renown that Homer in his Iliad calls it the city of Neleus.³⁶ There is a temple there of Athene called Coryphasia, and a house called Nestor’s house, in which is a painting of Nestor, and there is his tomb inside the city, and at a little distance from Pylos is (they say) the tomb of Thrasymedes. And there is a cave inside the city, which they say was the stall of the oxen of Nestor and still earlier of Neleus. The breed of these oxen would be Thessalian, of the herd of Iphiclus the father of Protesilaus, for Neleus asked them as wedding presents from the wooers of his daughter, and it was on their account that Melampus to gratify his brother Bias went to Thessalia, and was bound by the herdsmen of Iphiclus, but eventually by answering the questions which Iphiclus put obtained these oxen as a reward. The men of that day were anxious to amass wealth in the shape of herds of horses and oxen, for not only did Neleus desire for his own the oxen of Iphiclus, but Eurystheus ordered Hercules, in consequence of the fame of those oxen in Spain, to drive off the herd that belonged to Geryon. And Eryx, who was at that time king in Sicily, was manifestly so keenly in love with the oxen from Erythea, that when he wrestled with Hercules he staked his kingdom against them. And Homer in the Iliad has represented Iphidimas, the son of Antenor, giving 100 oxen as the first wedding present to his father in law.³⁷ All this confirms my theory that the men of those days were especially fond of oxen. And the oxen of Neleus grazed I imagine mostly over the borders, for the district of Pylos is mostly sandy, and unable to afford sufficient pasture. My authority is Homer who, whenever he mentions Nestor, always calls him the king of sandy Pylos.
[4.36] Before the harbour is the island Sphacteria, situated very much as Rhenea is in reference to the harbour of Delos. It seems the destiny of both men and places to be for a while unknown and then to come to renown. Such was the case with Caphareus, a promontory in Eubœa, by a storm which came there upon the Greeks returning with Agamemnon from Ilium. So too with Psyttalea off Salamis, where we know the Medes perished in great numbers. So too the reverses of the Lacedæmonians at Sphacteria made the place world-famed. And the Athenians erected a brazen statue of Victory in their Acropolis as a record of their success at Sphacteria.
[4.36] And as you go in the direction of Cyparissiæ from Pylos there is a spring under the city close to the sea. They say the water welled up in consequence of Dionysus striking the ground with his thyrsus, and so they call the spring Dionysus’ spring. There are also at Cyparissiæ temples of Apollo and Cyparissian Athene. And at the place called Aulon there is a temple of Æsculapius, and a statue of Aulonian Æsculapius. From this place the river Neda, till it falls into the sea, is the boundary between Messenia and Elis.

## Notes

[1] Odyssey, xix. 178, 179.
[2] Iliad, xix. 117.
[3] Mentioned ii, 38; iii, i. Pausanias now returns to topography.
[4] Gymnopædia, as its name denotes, was a yearly festival at which boys danced naked and went through gymnastic exercises.
[5] The cornel tree is in Greek κράνεια. Transposition of the ρ will give κάρνειος as the title of the god. This will explain text.
[6] It means boxers, or football players.
[7] A name for Ares the god of war, the Latin Mars.
[8] So Bacon calls revenge ‘a kind of wild justice.’ Essay iv.
[9] Reading the emendation of Sylburgius κατὰ τὸ Σκύλλαιον τὴν ἄκραν.
[10] Iliad, xiv. 231.
[11] Reading τρεῖς with Facius.
[12] Iliad, xxiv. 41. Pausanias derives from Θήρ or Θηρίον.
[13] Iliad, ii. 584.
[14] Iliad, xviii. 140, 141.
[15] We coin a word to keep the Paronomasia.
[16] Iliad, i. 158-160.
[17] Is this a slip of Pausanias for Menelaus? See Iliad, xxiii. 587, 588.
[18] Only found as a fragment now.
[19] In Odyssey, xi. 623, he is simply called κύνα, in Iliad, viii. 368, κύνα στυγεροῦ Ἀΐδαο. And κύων has various senses.
[20] Herodotus, i. 23, 24.
[21] Iliad, ix. 292.
[22] Iliad, ix. 292.
[23] Our coif.
[24] Odyssey, xxi. 18.
[25] Odyssey, xxi. 15, 16.
[26] Ibid. iii. 488, 489.
[27] Iliad, ii. 729.
[28] This seems strange. Ingeniosissime διακόψας Corayus. Siebelis defends the text. “Sacerdos, quo majus esset miraculum, videtur dixisse, eum se advolvisse igni, eique admovisse vincula, usque dum solverentur.”
[29] Reading ἤμυνεν.
[30] Hymn to Demeter, lines 417, 418, 420.
[31] See Hom. Il. ix. 122; xxiii. 267.
[32] Iliad, ii. 594-600.
[33] Crow in Greek is Corone. Hence the Paronomasia.
[34] That is, crested lark. The explanation of this title is given somewhat lower down.
[35] Puteoli is the Latin name.
[36] Iliad, xi. 682.
[37] Iliad, xi. 244.