Greek Texts & Translations

On turning back to the road, and having crossed the Asopus again and reached the summit of the hill, you come to the place where the natives say that Titan first dwelt. They add that he was the brother of Helius (Sun), and that after him the place got the name Titane. My own view is that he proved clever at observing the seasons of the year and the times when the sun increases and ripens seeds and fruits, and for this reason was held to be the brother of Helius. Afterwards Alexanor, the son of Machaon, the son of Asclepius, came to Sicyonia and built the sanctuary of Asclepius at Titane.

The neighbors are chiefly servants of the god, and within the enclosure are old cypress trees. One cannot learn of what wood or metal the image is, nor do they know the name of the maker, though one or two attribute it to Alexanor himself. Of the image can be seen only the face, hands, and feet, for it has about it a tunic of white wool and a cloak. There is a similar image of Health; this, too, one cannot see easily because it is so surrounded with the locks of women, who cut them off and offer them to the goddess, and with strips of Babylonian raiment. With whichever of these a votary here is willing to propitiate heaven, the same instructions have been given to him, to worship this image which they are pleased to call Health.

There are images also of Alexanor and of Euamerion; to the former they give offerings as to a hero after the setting of the sun; to Euamerion, as being a god, they give burnt sacrifices. If I conjecture aright, the Pergamenes, in accordance with an oracle, call this Euamerion Telesphorus (Accomplisher) while the Epidaurians call him Acesis (Cure). There is also a wooden image of Coronis, but it has no fixed position anywhere in the temple. While to the god are being sacrificed a bull, a lamb, and a pig, they remove Coronis to the sanctuary of Athena and honor her there. The parts of the victims which they offer as a burnt sacrifice, and they are not content with cutting out the thighs, they burn on the ground, except the birds, which they burn on the altar.

In the gable at the ends are figures of Heracles and of Victories. In the portico are dedicated images of Dionysus and Hecate, with Aphrodite, the Mother of the gods, and Fortune. These are wooden, but Asclepius, surnamed Gortynian, is of stone. They are unwilling to enter among the sacred serpents through fear, but they place their food before the entrance and take no further trouble. Within the enclosure is a bronze statue of a Sicyonian named Granianus, who won the following victories at Olympia: the pentathlon ^note twice, the foot-race, the double-course foot-race twice, once without and once with the shield.

On reaching Sicyon from Titane, as you go down to the shore you see on the left of the road a temple of Hera having now neither image nor roof. They say that its founder was Proetus, the son of Abas. When you have gone down to the harbor called the Sicyonians' and turned towards Aristonautae, the Port of Pellene, you see a little above the road on the left hand a sanctuary of Poseidon. Farther along the highway is a river called the Helisson, and after it the Sythas, both emptying themselves into the sea.

Phliasia borders on Sicyonia. The city is just about forty stades distant from Titane, and there is a straight road to it from Sicyon. That the Phliasians are in no way related to the Arcadians is shown by the passage in Homer that deals with the list of the Arcadians, in which the Sicyonians are not included among the Arcadian confederates. As my narrative progresses it will become clear that they were Argive originally, and became Dorian later after the return of the Heracleidae to the Peloponnesus. I know that most of the traditions concerning the Phliasians are contradictory, but I shall make use of those which have been most generally accepted.

They say that the first man in this land was Aras, who sprang from the soil. He founded a city around that hillock which even down to our day is called the Arantine Hill, not far distant from a second hill on which the Phliasians have their citadel and their sanctuary of Hebe. Here, then, he founded a city, and after him in ancient times both the land and the city were called Arantia. While he was king, Asopus, said to be the son of Celusa and Poseidon, discovered for him the water of the river which the present inhabitants call after him Asopus. The tomb of Aras is in the place called Celeae, where they say is also buried Dysaules of Eleusis.