Pausanias, Description of Greece (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Paus.]. | ||
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Between the temple of Laphria and the altar stands the tomb of Eurypylus. Who he was and for what reason he came to this land I shall set forth presently; but I must first describe what the condition of affairs was at his arrival. The Ionians who lived in Aroe, Antheia and Mesatis had in common a precinct and a temple of Artemis surnamed Triclaria, and in her honor the Ionians used to celebrate every year a festival and an all-night vigil. The priesthood of the goddess was held by a maiden until the time came for her to be sent to a husband.
7.19.2Now the story is that once upon a time it happened that the priestess of the goddess was Comaetho, a most beautiful maiden, who had a lover called Melanippus, who was far better and handsomer than his fellows. When Melanippus had won the love of the maiden, he asked the father for his daughter's hand. It is somehow a characteristic of old age to oppose the young in most things, and especially is it insensible to the desires of lovers. So Melanippus found it; although both he and Comaetho were eager to wed, he met with nothing but harshness from both his own parents and from those of his lover.
7.19.3The history of Melanippus, like that of many others, proved that love is apt both to break the laws of men and to desecrate the worship of the gods, seeing that this pair had their fill of the passion of love in the sanctuary of Artemis. And hereafter also were they to use the sanctuary as a bridal-chamber. Forthwith the wrath of Artemis began to destroy the inhabitants; the earth yielded no harvest, and strange diseases occurred of an unusually fatal character.
7.19.4When they appealed to the oracle at
The innocent youths and maidens who perished because of Melanippus and Comaetho suffered a piteous fate, as did also their relatives; but the pair, I hold, were exempt from suffering, for the one thing note that is worth a man's life is to be successful in love.
7.19.6The sacrifice to Artemis of human beings is said to have ceased in this way. An oracle had been given from
But there are two other accounts of it. One is that this chest was left by Aeneas when he fled; the other that it was thrown away by Cassandra to be a curse to the Greek who found it. Be this as it may, Eurypylus opened the chest, saw the image, and forthwith on seeing it went mad. He continued to be insane for the greater part of the time, with rare lucid intervals. Being in this condition he did not proceed on his voyage to
They say that the oracle given him was to the effect that where he should come across a people offering a strange sacrifice, there he was to set down the chest and make his home. Now the ships of Eurypylus were carried down by the wind to the sea off Aroe. On landing he came across a youth and a maiden who had been brought to the altar of Triclaria. So Eurypylus found it easy to understand about the sacrifice, while the people of the place remembered their oracle seeing a king whom they had never seen before, they also suspected that the chest had some god inside it.
7.19.9And so the malady of Eurypylus and the sacrifice of these people came to an end, and the river was given its present name Meilichus. Certain writers have said that the events I have related happened not to the Thessalian Eurypylus, but to Eurypylus the son of Dexamenus who was king in
But I cannot bring myself to believe that Heracles did not know the facts about the chest, if they were as described, nor, if he were aware of them, do I think that he would ever have given it to an ally as a gift. Further, the people of
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7.20.1
The surname of the god inside the chest is Aesymnetes ( Dictator), and his chief attendants are nine men, elected by the people from all the citizens for their reputation, and women equal in number to the men. On one night of the festival the priest carries the chest outside. Now this is a privilege that this night has received, and there go down to the river Meilichus a certain number of the native children, wearing on their heads garlands of corn-ears. It was in this way that they used to array of old those whom they led to be sacrificed to Artemis.
Pausanias, Description of Greece (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Paus.]. | ||
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