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
And as you go from Argos to the district of Epidaurus there is a
building on the right hand like a pyramid, with some Argolic shields
worked on it as a design. Here Prœtus fought with Acrisius for the
supremacy, and their contest was they say drawn, and they had a peace
afterwards, as neither of them could conquer the other. And they say
that they engaged first with shields, and then they and the army
on both sides in full armour. And those who fell on both sides, as
they were fellow citizens and kinsmen, had one tomb and monument in
common. And as you go on from thence and turn to the right you come
to the ruins of Tiryns. And the Argives dispossessed the inhabitants
of Tiryns, wishing to take them in as settlers to aggrandize Argos.
And they say the hero Tiryns, from whom the city got its name, was the
son of Argus the son of Zeus. And the walls of the city, which are the
only ruins left, are the work of the Cyclopes made of rude stones, each
stone of so gigantic a size that the smallest of them could hardly
be moved by a pair of mules. And in ancient times small stones were
inserted so as to dovetail in with the large stones. And as you go down
to the sea, are the chambers of the daughters of Prœtus. And when you
return to the high road you will come to Midea on the left. They say
that Electryon the father of Alcmena was king of Midea. But now nothing
is left of Midea but the site. And on the direct road to Epidaurus is
the village Lessa, and there is a temple of Athene in it, and a wooden
statue very similar to that in the citadel at Larissa. And above Lessa
is the Mountain Arachnæum, which in old times in the days of Inachus
had the name of Sapyselaton. And there are altars on it to Zeus and
Hera. They sacrifice to these gods here when there is a deficiency of
rain.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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