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 there is a road to Hermione from Trœzen along the rock which was
formerly called the altar of Zeus Sthenius, but after Theseus removed
the shoes and sword of Ægeus, it was called Theseus’ rock. As you go
by this rock on the mountain side, you come to the temple of Apollo
called _The God of the Plane-Trees_, and the hamlet is called Ilei,
and in it are temples of Demeter and her daughter Proserpine. And near
the sea, on the border of the territory of Hermione, is a temple of
Demeter under the title Thermasia. And at the distance of about eighty
stades is the promontory called Scyllæum from Scylla, the daughter
of Nisus. For after Minos took Nisæa and Megara through her treason,
he refused to marry her though he had promised, and even ordered the
Cretans to throw her overboard, and the tide washed her dead body on
to this promontory. And they exhibit no tomb of her, for they say that
her body was neglected, and carried away by sea birds bit by bit. And
as you sail from Scyllæum in the direction of the city is another
promontory called Bucephala, and next to it 3 islands, of which the
first is Haliusa, which affords a convenient harbour for ships to ride
at anchor, and next is Pityusa, and the third they call Aristeræ. And
as you coast along by these islands, there is another promontory called
Colyergia jutting out from the mainland, and next it an island called
Tricrana, and a mountain Buporthmus jutting out into the sea from the
Peloponnese. And at Buporthmus is a temple of Demeter and Proserpine,
and also one of Athene under the title Promachorma. And in front of
Buporthmus lies an island called Aperopia. And at no great distance
from Aperopia is another island called Hydrea. And the shore on the
mainland opposite these islands extends in a crescent shape, and is
rocky from the easterly direction close to the sea as far as the temple
of Poseidon, but slopes at the westerly end of the bay, where it has
its harbours. The length of this rocky headland is about seven stades,
and the breadth in the broadest part about three stades or a little
more. Here was the old town of Hermione. And even now there are several
temples there, one of Poseidon at the commencement of the headland,
and as you go from the sea to the heights a temple of Athene, and near
it some remains of a race-course, where they say the sons of Tyndareus
used to practise. There is also another small temple of Athene, but
the roof has fallen in. And there is a temple to the Sun, and another
to the Graces, and another to Serapis and Isis. And there is a circle
of huge unhewn stones, and inside this circle they perform the sacred
rites of Demeter. Such are the objects to be seen at the old town of
Hermione. But the new town is at about four stades’ distance from the
promontory on which there is the temple of Poseidon, and it lies on a
gentle slope as you ascend the hill called Pron, for that is its name.
There is a wall all round Hermione. And it has various objects of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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