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
Let so much suffice for Ægina, and Æacus and his exploits. And
next to Epidauria come the people of Trœzen, who are proud of their
country if any people are. And they say that Orus was a native of
their country. To me however the name Orus seems decidedly Egyptian
and not at all Greek. However they say he was their king, and that the
country was called Oræa after him, and Althepus the son of Poseidon
by Leis the daughter of Orus, succeeding to Orus, called the country
Althepia. When he was king they say that Athene and Poseidon had a
dispute about the country, and resolved to hold it in common, for so
Zeus ordered them to do. And so they worship Athene under the names
Polias and Sthenias, and Poseidon under the name of king. And so their
ancient coins have on them a trident and the head of Athene. And next
to Althepus Saron was king, who they say built the temple to Saronian
Artemis near the sea where it was muddy on the surface, insomuch that
it was called the Phœbæan marsh. And it chanced that Saron, who was
very fond of hunting, was pursuing a stag and followed it to the sea
as it fled. And it swam further and further from the land, and Saron
continued to follow it up, till in his impetuosity he got out to open
sea, and, as he was by now tired, and the waves were too much for him,
he was drowned. And his dead body was cast on shore on the Phœbæan
marsh, and they buried him in the grove of Artemis, and they call the
sea here after him the Saronian marsh instead of the Phœbæan. The
names of the kings that followed him they do not know till Hyperes and
Anthas, who they say were the sons of Poseidon by Alcyone the daughter
of Atlas, and built the cities in that country called Hyperea and
Anthea. And Aetius the son of Anthas, succeeding his father and uncle
in the kingdom, called one of these two cities Poseidonias. And when
Trœzen and Pittheus joined Aetius, there were three kings instead of
one, and the sons of Pelops were the stronger. And this proves it.
After the death of Trœzen Pittheus joined together Hyperea and Anthea,
and combined the inhabitants into one city, which he called Trœzen from
the name of his brother. And many years afterwards the descendants
of Aetius, the son of Anthas, were sent on a colony from Trœzen, and
colonized Halicarnassus in Caria, and Myndus. And the sons of Trœzen,
Anaphlystus and Sphettus, migrated to Attica, and gave their names to
two townships. And as regards Theseus the son of Pittheus’ daughter I
do not write to people who know all the history. But I must narrate
thus much. When the Heraclidæ returned to the Peloponnese the people
of Trœzen received as colonists the Dorians from Argos, having been
formerly subject to the Argives. And Homer in his catalogue says that
they were under the rule of Diomede. Diomede at least and Euryalus the
son of Mecisteus, who were Regents for Cyanippus the son of Ægialeus,
led the Argives to Troy. But Sthenelus, as I have shown before, was of
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