Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
History
Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.
Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
Greece -- Antiquities; Greece -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
Hercules, and the rope made of hair is still kept by the people of
Erythræ. They also say that the fisherman recovered his sight, and
saw for the rest of his life. At Erythræ there is also a temple of
Athene Polias, and a huge wooden statue of the goddess seated on a
throne, in one hand a distaff in the other a globe. We conjecture it
to be by Endœus from several circumstances, especially looking at the
workmanship of the statue inside, and the Graces and Seasons in white
marble, which used to stand in the open air. The people of Smyrna also
had in my time a temple of Æsculapius between the mountain Coryphe and
the sea which is unmixed with any other water.
Ionia besides the temples and the salubrity of the air has several
other things worthy of record. Near Ephesus is the river Cenchrius,
and the fertile Mount Pion, and the well Halitæa. And in Milesia is
the well Biblis: of the love passages of Biblis they still sing. And
in Colophonia is the grove of Apollo, consisting of ash trees, and not
far from the grove the river Ales, the coldest river in Ionia. And
the people of Lebedus have baths which are both wonderful and useful
to men. The people of Teos also have baths at the promontory Macria,
some natural consisting of sea-water that bursts in at a crevice of
the rock, others built at wonderful cost. The people of Clazomenæ also
have baths. Agamemnon is honoured there. And there is a grotto called
the grotto of Pyrrhus’ mother, and they have a tradition about Pyrrhus
as a shepherd. The people of Erythræ have also a place called Chalcis,
from which the third of their tribes takes its name, where there is a
promontory extending to the sea, and some sea baths, which of all the
baths in Ionia are most beneficial to men. And the people of Smyrna
have the most beautiful river Meles and a cave near its springs, where
they say Homer wrote his Poems. The Chians also have a notable sight in
the tomb of Œnopion, about whose deeds they have several legends. The
Samians too on the way to the temple of Hera have the tomb of Rhadine
and Leontichus, which those are accustomed to visit who are melancholy
through love. The wonderful things indeed in Ionia are not far short of
those in Greece altogether.
CHAPTER VI.
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