Pausanias, Description of Greece (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Paus.]. | ||
<<Paus. 5.9.2 | Paus. 5.10.4 (Greek) | >>Paus. 5.11.3 |
Many are the sights to be seen in
The sacred grove of Zeus has been called from of old Altis, a corruption of the word “alsos,” which means a grove. Pindar note too calls the place Altis in an ode composed for an Olympic victor.
5.10.2The temple and the image were made for Zeus from spoils, when
Pheidias, son of Charmides, an Athenian, made me.
The temple is in the Doric style, and the outside has columns all around it. It is built of native stone.
Its height up to the pediment is sixty-eight feet, its breadth is ninety-five, its length two hundred and thirty. The architect was Libon, a native. The tiles are not of baked earth, but of Pentelic marble cut into the shape of tiles. The invention is said to be that of Byzes of
To the offspring of Leto was I dedicated by Euergus,
A Naxian, son of Byzes, who first made tiles of stone.
This Byzes lived about the time of Alyattes the Lydian note, when Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, reigned over the Medes.
5.10.4At
The temple has a golden shield; from
This battle I also mentioned in my history of
The Lacedaemonians and their allies dedicated it,
A gift taken from the Argives, Athenians and Ionians,
The tithe offered for victory in war.
On the outside of the frieze that runs round the temple at
To come to the pediments: in the front pediment there is, not yet begun, the chariot-race between Pelops and Oenomaus, and preparation for the actual race is being made by both. An image of Zeus has been carved in about the middle of the pediment; on the right of Zeus is Oenomaus with a helmet on his head, and by him Sterope his wife, who was one of the daughters of Atlas. Myrtilus too, the charioteer of Oenomaus, sits in front of the horses, which are four in number. After him are two men. They have no names, but they too must be under orders from Oenomaus to attend to the horses.
5.10.7At the very edge lies Cladeus, the river which, in other ways also, the Eleans honor most after the Alpheius. On the left from Zeus are Pelops, Hippodameia, the charioteer of Pelops, horses, and two men, who are apparently grooms of Pelops. Then the pediment narrows again, and in this part of it is represented the Alpheius. The name of the charioteer of Pelops is, according to the account of the Troezenians, Sphaerus, but the guide at
The sculptures in the front pediment are by Paeonius, who came from Mende in
Pausanias, Description of Greece (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Paus.]. | ||
<<Paus. 5.9.2 | Paus. 5.10.4 (Greek) | >>Paus. 5.11.3 |