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
more illustrious birth, being of the family of the Anaxagoridæ, and
the kingdom of the Argives was more his by right. Such are all the
historical details about Trœzen, except a list of the cities which
are said to have been colonized from Trœzen. I will now describe the
contents of the temples and other notable things in Trœzen.
CHAPTER XXXI.
In the market-place is a temple, and statues, of Artemis the Saviour.
And it is said that Theseus built it and called her Saviour, when he
returned from Crete after having killed Asterion the son of Minos. This
seems to me to have been the most notable of all his exploits, not
so much because Asterion excelled in bravery all who were killed by
Theseus, but because he escaped the hidden snares of the labyrinth, and
all this makes it clear that Theseus and his companions were saved by
providence. In this temple are altars of the gods said to rule in the
lower world: and they say that Semele was brought here from Hades by
Dionysus, and that Hercules brought Cerberus here from Hades. But I do
not think that Semele died at all, as she was the wife of Zeus: and as
to Cerberus I shall elsewhere tell what I think.
And behind the temple there is a monument of Pittheus, and three
seats are on it of white stone: and Pittheus and two others with
him are said to be giving sentence on these seats. And at no great
distance is a temple of the Muses, built they say by Ardalus, the son
of Hephæstus: who they think discovered the use of the flute, and so
they call the Muses Ardalian after him. Here they say Pittheus taught
the art of language, and I have myself read a book written by Pittheus,
that was given me by an Epidaurian. And not far from, the temple of
the Muses is an ancient altar, erected as they say also by Ardalus. And
they sacrifice on it to the Muses and Sleep, saying that Sleep is the
god most friendly to the Muses. And near the theatre is a temple of
Lycean Artemis, which Hippolytus built. Why the goddess was so called I
could not find from the antiquarians, but it seems to me it was either
because Hippolytus drove out the wolves that ravaged Trœzen and the
neighbourhood, or that it was a title of Artemis among the Amazons, of
whom his mother was one. Or there may be some other explanation which I
do not know. And the stone in front of the temple called the holy stone
was they say the stone on which formerly the 9 men of Trœzen cleared
Orestes of the murder of his mother. And not far from the temple of
Lycean Artemis are altars at no great distance from one another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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