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
still earlier Stesichorus of Himera, and they say like the Argives
that Iphigenia was the daughter of Theseus by Helen. And beyond the
temple of Ilithyia is the temple of Hecate, and the statue is the work
of Scopas. It is of stone and right opposite are two brazen statues
of Hecate, one by Polycletus, and the other by his brother Naucydes
the son of Mothon. And as you go straight for the gymnasium, which
is called Cylarabis after Cylarabus, the son of Sthenelus, you come
to the tomb of Licymnius the son of Electryon. Homer says he was
slain by Tleptolemus the son of Hercules, who had to fly from Argos
in consequence of this murder. And, as you turn off a little towards
Cylarabis and the gate in this direction, is the sepulchre of Sacadas,
who was the first who played the Hymn to Apollo at Delphi on the flute:
and it seems the anger of Apollo against flute-players (which he had
in consequence of the contest with Marsyas the Silenus) was appeased
by this Sacadas. In this gymnasium of Cylarabus is a bust of Athene
Capanea, and they show the tomb of Sthenelus, and of Cylarabus himself.
And not far from this gymnasium is a monument to the Argives who sailed
with the Athenians to reduce Syracuse and Sicily.
CHAPTER XXIII.
As you go thence on the road called the Hollow Way, there is on the
right hand a temple of Dionysus: the statue of the god they say came
from Eubœa. For when the Greeks returning from Ilium were shipwrecked
at Caphareus, those of the Argives who contrived to escape to shore
were in evil plight from cold and hunger. But when they prayed that one
of the gods would save them in their present emergency, immediately as
they went forward they saw a cave of Dionysus, and a statue of the god
in the cave, and some wild goats that had taken refuge from the cold
were huddled together in it. These the Argives killed, and eat their
flesh, and used their skins for clothing. And when the winter was over,
they repaired their vessels and sailed homewards, and took with them
the wooden statue from the cave, and worship it to this day. And very
near the temple of Dionysus you will see the house of Adrastus, and at
some distance from it the temple of Amphiaraus, and beyond that the
tomb of Eriphyle. And next these is the shrine of Æsculapius, and close
to it the temple of Bato, who was of the family of Amphiaraus and one
of the Melampodidæ, and was Amphiaraus’ charioteer when he went out
to battle: and when the rout from Thebes came about, the earth opened
and swallowed up Amphiaraus and the chariot and Bato all together.
And as you return from the Hollow Way you come to the reputed tomb
of Hyrnetho. If it is a cenotaph and merely in memory of her, their
account is probable enough, but if they say that the body of Hyrnetho
lies there I cannot believe them, but let him believe them who knows
nothing about Epidaurus. The most famous of the temples of Æsculapius
at Argos has a statue still to be seen, Æsculapius seated, in white
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