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 being very anxious to know accurately who the sons of Polycaon
were by Messene, I perused the poem called _the Great EϾ_ and the
Naupactian poems, and also all the genealogical information of Cinæthon
and Asius. And yet I did not discover anything in them except that
_the Great Eœæ_ say that Polycaon the son of Butes married Euæchme,
the daughter of Hyllus the son of Hercules, but they make no mention
of either Messene or her husband. But in after time, when none of the
descendants of Polycaon survived, they continued five generations and
no more, they introduced as King Perieres the son of Æolus. To his
court came as the Messenians say Melaneus, a skilful archer and for
that reason thought to be the son of Apollo, and Perieres assigned
to him Carnasium to dwell in, which was formerly called Œchalia from
the wife of Melaneus. But the Thessalians and Eubœans--for there are
almost always disputed accounts of most Grecian events--give different
accounts. The former say that Eurytium a place deserted in our days
was a city in old times and called Œchalia: but Creophylus in his
Heraclea has written what corresponds with the account of the Eubœans.
And Hecatæus the Milesian writes that Œchalia is in Scium a part of
Eretria. But the Messenians seem to me to give the most probable
account, especially about the bones of Eurytus, which I shall touch
upon later. And Perieres had by Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus
Aphareus and Leucippus who, on his death, succeeded their father as
kings of the Messenians, but Aphareus had most power. During his reign
he built the city Arene which got its name from the daughter of Œbalus,
his wife and uterine sister. For Gorgophone was married to Œbalus, as
I have already mentioned, in my account of Argolis, and also in my
account of Laconia. Aphareus then built the city Arene in Messenia, and
received into his house his cousin Neleus, the son of Cretheus, the
son of Æolus (who was surnamed Poseidon), when he fled from Pelias at
Iolcus, and gave him the maritime parts of the land, among which were
several other cities besides Pylos, where Neleus dwelt, and made it his
seat of government. And Lycus the son of Pandion came also to Arene,
when he also fled from Athens from his brother Ægeus. And he taught the
mysteries of the Great Goddesses to Aphareus and his sons and his wife
Arene. And he introduced them into Andania, for Caucon there initiated
Messene. And the elder and more manly of Aphareus’ children was Idas,
and the younger was Lynceus, of whom Pindar said, believe it who will,
that he had such keen eyesight that he could see through the trunk of
a tree. We do not know of Lynceus having had a son, but Ides had by
Marpessa a daughter Cleopatra, who married Meleager. And the writer
of the Cyprian Poems says that the wife of Protesilaus, (who when the
Greeks got to the Troad was the first who ventured to land), was by
name Polydora, and he also says that she was the daughter of Meleager
the son of Œneus.
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