BOOK III — Laconia

CHAPTER I.

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.

CHAPTER II.

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.” 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.

CHAPTER III.

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.

CHAPTER IV.

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.

CHAPTER V.

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.

CHAPTER VI.

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.

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.

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.

CHAPTER VII.

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 Iliad 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.

CHAPTER VIII.

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.

CHAPTER IX.

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.

CHAPTER X.

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.

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.

Next to the Hermæ 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.

CHAPTER XI.

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, (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.

CHAPTER XII.

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.

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.

CHAPTER XIII.

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.

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.

CHAPTER XIV.

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.

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. 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, 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.

CHAPTER XV.

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. 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!

CHAPTER XVI.

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.

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, 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.

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.

CHAPTER XVII.

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.

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.

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.

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.

CHAPTER XVIII.

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. 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.

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, three 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.

CHAPTER XIX.

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.

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).

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.

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.”

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.

CHAPTER XX.

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.’

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.

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.

CHAPTER XXI.

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.

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.

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, ‘Ye now enter Ocean’s spacious bosom, to visit the old man of the sea and the homes of our sire.’ And the gates here are called Castorides, and in the citadel there is a temple and statue of Athene.

CHAPTER XXII.

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.

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.

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.

CHAPTER XXIII.

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.

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.

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.

CHAPTER XXIV.

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.

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 _brashed_ 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 Iliad 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, 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.

CHAPTER XXV.

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,

‘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.

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. 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 Herodotus 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.

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.

CHAPTER XXVI.

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.

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.

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.

And Cardamyle, which Homer 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.

And the city called, by Homer 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 _ciphos_ 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.

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.

FOOTNOTES:

_Odyssey_, xix. 178, 179.

Iliad, xix. 117.

Mentioned ii, 38; iii, i. Pausanias now returns to topography.

_Gymnopædia_, as its name denotes, was a yearly festival at which boys danced naked and went through gymnastic exercises.

The cornel tree is in Greek κράνεια. Transposition of the ρ will give κάρνειος as the title of the god. This will explain text.

It means boxers, or football players.

A name for Ares the god of war, the Latin Mars.

So Bacon calls revenge ‘a kind of wild justice.’ _Essay_ iv.

Reading the emendation of _Sylburgius_ κατὰ τὸ Σκύλλαιον τὴν ἄκραν.

Iliad, xiv. 231.

Reading τρεῖς with Facius.

Iliad, xxiv. 41. Pausanias derives from Θήρ or Θηρίον.

Iliad, ii. 584.

Iliad, xviii. 140, 141.

We coin a word to keep the Paronomasia.

Iliad, i. 158-160.

Is this a slip of Pausanias for _Menelaus_? See Iliad, xxiii. 587, 588.

Only found as a fragment now.

In Odyssey, xi. 623, he is simply called κύνα, in Iliad, viii. 368, κύνα στυγερoῦ Ἀΐδαο. And κύων has various senses.

Herodotus, i. 23, 24.

Iliad, ix. 292.

Iliad, ix. 292.

Our _coif_.