Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
History
Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.
Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
Greece -- Antiquities; Greece -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
Now the Argives destroyed Mycenæ in jealousy. For though they took no
part against the Medes, the people of Mycenæ sent to Thermopylæ 80 men,
who shared in the glory of the famous 300. This public spirit brought
about their destruction, by provoking the Argives to jealousy. But
there are still some remains of the precincts and the gate, and there
are some lions on it: which were they say executed by the Cyclopes, who
built the wall at Tiryns for Prœtus. And among the ruins at Mycenæ is a
fountain called Perseus’, and some underground buildings belonging to
Atreus and his sons, where their treasures were. And there is the tomb
of Atreus, and of those whom Ægisthus slew at a banquet on their return
from Ilium with Agamemnon. As to Cassandra’s tomb the Lacedæmonians
of Amyclæ claim that they have it. And there is the tomb of Agamemnon
there, and that of Eurymedon the charioteer, and the joint-tomb of
Teledamus and Pelops, who were twins of Cassandra, and were butchered
by Ægisthus (while still babes) after their parents. There is also the
tomb of Electra, who married Pylades, and Orestes gave her away. And
Hellanicus has recorded that Medon and Strophius were the issue of the
marriage. And Clytæmnestra and Ægisthus were buried a little outside
the walls, for they were thought unworthy to lie within the city, and
mingle their ashes with Agamemnon and those who were murdered with him.
CHAPTER XVII.
About fifteen stades from Mycenæ on the left is a temple of Hera. By
the road flows the river Eleutherius. And the priestesses use it for
lustrations and for private sacrifices. And this temple is on the
more level part of Eubœa, for Eubœa is a mountain, and they say the
daughters of the river god Asterion were Eubœa and Prosymna and Acræa,
and that they were nurses of Hera. And Acræa gave her name to all the
mountain opposite the temple of Hera, and Eubœa to the mountain near
the temple, and Prosymna to the ground below the temple. And this
Asterion flows above the temple of Hera and falls into a ravine and so
disappears. And the flower called Asterion grows on its banks: they
carry this flower to Hera and plait her crowns of its leaves. The
architect of the temple was they say Eupolemus the Argive: and all the
carved work above the pillars relates partly to the birth of Zeus and
the gods and the battle with the Giants, and partly to the Trojan war
and the capture of Ilium. And there are some statues in the porch, of
the priestesses of Hera, and of Orestes and other heroes. For they
say the one bearing the inscription that it is the Emperor Augustus
is really Orestes. In the Ante-chapel are some old statues of The
Graces, and on the right hand the bed of Hera, and a votive offering,
the spear which Menelaus took from Euphorbus at Ilium. And there is a
huge statue of Hera seated on a throne, in gold and ivory, the design
of Polycletus. And she has a crown on her head composed of Graces and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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