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
There is also another tradition about Oxylus, that he suspected the
sons of Aristomachus of an unwillingness to give him the kingdom of
Elis, as it was fertile and well cultivated everywhere, and this was
why he led the Dorians through Arcadia and not through Elis. And when
Oxylus hastened to take the kingdom of Elis without contention Dius
would not permit him, but challenged him not to a contention with all
their forces, but to a single combat between two soldiers one from each
side. And both agreed to this. And the men selected for this single
combat were Degmenus a bowman of Elis, and Pyræchmes on the Ætolian
side a famous slinger. And as Pyræchmes was victorious Oxylus got
the kingdom, and he allowed the ancient Epeans to remain there, but
introduced Ætolians as colonists with them, and gave them also a share
in the land. And to Dius he gave various honours, and observed the
rights of all the heroes according to old precedents, and introduced
sacrificial offerings to Augeas which have continued to our day. It
is said that he also persuaded the men in the villages, who were at
no great distance from the walls, to come into the city, and thus
increased the population of Elis and made it more powerful in other
respects. And an oracle came to him from Delphi to associate with him
as colonist a descendant of Pelops, and he made diligent search, and
discovered Agorius the son of Damasius, the son of Penthilus, the son
of Orestes, and invited him from Helice in Achaia and with him a few
Achæans. And they say Oxylus had a wife called Pieria, but they record
nothing further about her. And the sons of Oxylus were they say Ætolus
and Laias. And Ætolus dying in his father’s lifetime, his parents
buried him and erected a sepulchre to him by the gate, which leads to
Olympia and the temple of Zeus. And they buried him there in accordance
with the oracle, which said that his dead body was to be neither in nor
out of the city. And annually still the master of the gymnasium offers
victims to Ætolus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I. — John Shaqi
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