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
Delphi is everywhere hilly, the sacred precincts of Apollo and other
parts of the town alike. The sacred precincts are very large and in the
upper part of the town, and have several entrances. I will enumerate
all the votive offerings that are best worthy of mention. The athletes
however, and musical competitors, of no great merit I do not think
worthy of attention, and notable athletes I have already described in
my account of Elis. At Delphi then there is a statue of Phayllus of
Croton, who had no victory at Olympia, but was twice victor in the
pentathlum and once in the course in the Pythian games, and fought a
naval engagement against the Medes, having furnished a ship himself,
and manned it with some people of Croton who were sojourners in
Greece. So much for Phayllus of Croton. On the entrance to the sacred
enclosure is a bull in brass by Theopropus the Æginetan, the votive
offering of the Corcyræans. The tradition is that a bull in Corcyra
left the herd and pasture, and used to resort to the sea bellowing
as he went; and as this happened every day the herdsman went down to
the sea, and beheld a large shoal of tunny fish. And he informed the
people of Corcyra, and they, as they had great difficulty in catching
these tunnies much as they wished, sent messengers to Delphi. And then
in obedience to the oracle they sacrificed the bull to Poseidon, and
after this sacrifice caught the fish, and offered both at Olympia and
Delphi the tenth of their catch. And next are the votive offerings
of the people of Tegea from the spoils of the Lacedæmonians, an
Apollo and Victory, and some local heroes; as Callisto the daughter
of Lycaon, and Arcas who gave his name to Arcadia, and the sons of
Arcas, Elatus and Aphidas and Azan; and besides them Triphylus,
(whose mother was not Erato but Laodamia, the daughter of Amyclas
king at Lacedæmon), and also Erasus the son of Triphylus. As to the
artificers of these statues, Pausanias of Apollonia made the Apollo
and Callisto, and the Victory and effigy of Arcas were by Dædalus of
Sicyon, Triphylus and Azan were by the Arcadian Samolas, and Elatus
and Aphidas and Erasus were by the Argive Antiphanes. All these the
people of Tegea sent to Delphi after the capture of the Lacedæmonians
who invaded them. And opposite them are the votive offerings of the
Lacedæmonians when they vanquished the Athenians, statues of Castor
and Pollux and Zeus and Apollo and Artemis, and besides them Poseidon
crowning Lysander the son of Aristocritus, and Abas who was Lysander’s
prophet, and Hermon the pilot of Lysander’s flag-ship. This statue
of Hermon was designed by Theocosmus the Megarian, as the Megarians
ranked Hermon among their citizens. And Castor and Pollux are by the
Argive Antiphanes, and Abas is by Pison from Calauria near Trœzen,
and Artemis and Poseidon and Lysander are by Dameas, and Apollo and
Zeus by Athenodorus. Both Dameas and Athenodorus were Arcadians from
Clitor.
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