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 another road leads from Eleusis to Megara: as you go along this
road is a well called the Well of Flowers. Pamphus records that it
was at this well that Demeter sat in the guise of an old woman after
the rape of Proserpine: and that she was taken thence as an old woman
of the country by the daughters of Celeus to their mother, and that
Metanira entrusted her with the education of her son. And not far
from the well is the temple of Metanira, and next to it the tombs of
those that fell at Thebes. For Creon, who was at that time the ruler
at Thebes (being Regent for Laodamas the son of Eteocles), would not
allow their relations to bury the dead: and Adrastus having supplicated
Theseus, and a battle having been fought between the Athenians and
Bœotians, when Theseus was the victor, he conveyed the dead bodies
to Eleusis and there buried them. But the Thebans say that they
surrendered the dead bodies of their own free will, and did not fight
on this question. And next to the tombs of the Argives is the monument
of Alope, who they say was the mother of Hippothoon by Poseidon,
and was in consequence put to death by her father Cercyon. Now this
Cercyon is said in other respects to have been harsh to strangers, and
especially to those who would not contend with him in wrestling: and
this place was called even in my day Cercyon’s wrestling ground, at a
little distance from the tomb of Alope. And Cercyon is said to have
killed all that wrestled with him but Theseus. But Theseus wrestled
against him cunningly throw for throw and beat him: for he was the
first who elevated wrestling into a science, and afterwards established
training schools for wrestling: for before the time of Theseus only
size and strength were made use of in wrestling.
Such in my opinion are the most noteworthy among Athenian traditions
or sights. And in my account I have selected out of a mass of material
that only which was important enough to be considered history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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