Greek Texts & Translations

The territory of Aegium is crossed by a river Phoenix, and by another called Meiganitas, both of which flow into the sea. A portico near the city was made for Straton, an athlete who won at Olympia on the same day victories in the pancratium and in wrestling. The portico was built that this man might exercise himself in it. At Aegium is an ancient sanctuary of Eileithyia, and her image is covered from head to foot with finely-woven drapery; it is of wood except the face, hands and feet,

which are made of Pentelic marble. One hand is stretched out straight; the other holds up a torch. One might conjecture that torches are an attribute of Eileithyia because the pangs of women are just like fire. The torches might also be explained by the fact that it is Eileithyia who brings children to the light. The image is a work of Damophon the Messenian.

Not far from Eileithyia is a precinct of Asclepius, with images of him and of Health. An iambic line on the pedestal says that the artist was Damophon the Messenian. In this sanctuary of Asclepius a man of Sidon entered upon an argument with me. He declared that the Phoenicians had better notions about the gods than the Greeks, giving as an instance that to Asclepius they assign Apollo as father, but no mortal woman as his mother.

Asclepius, he went on, is air, bringing health to mankind and to all animals likewise; Apollo is the sun, and most rightly is he named the father of Asclepius, because the sun, by adapting his course to the seasons, imparts to the air its healthfulness. I replied that I accepted his statements, but that the argument was as much Greek as Phoenician for at Titane in Sicyonia the same image is called both Health and . . . ^note thus clearly showing that it is the course of the sun that brings health to mankind.

At Aegium you find a temple of Athena and a grove of Hera. Of Athena there are two images of white marble; the image of Hera may be seen by nobody except the woman who happens to hold the office of priestess to the goddess. Near the theater they have a sanctuary of Dionysus with an image of the god as a beardless youth. There is also in the market-place a precinct of Zeus surnamed Saviour, with two images, both of bronze, on the left as you go in; the one without a beard seemed to me the more ancient.

In a building right in front of the entrance are images, of bronze like the others, representing Poseidon, Heracles, Zeus and Athena. They are called gods from Argos. The Argives say it is because they were made in Argos; the people of Aegium themselves say that the images were deposited by the Argives with them on trust.

They say further that they were ordered to sacrifice each day to the images. But bethinking themselves of a trick they sacrificed a vast number of animals, but the victims they ate up at public feasts, so that they were not put to any expense. At last the Argives asked for the images to be returned, whereupon the people of Aegium asked for the cost of the sacrifices. As the Argives had not the means to pay, they left the images at Aegium.

By the sea at Aegium is a sanctuary of Aphrodite, and after it one of Poseidon; there is also one of the Maiden, daughter of Demeter, and one to Zeus Homagyrius ( Assembler). Here are images of Zeus, of Aphrodite and of Athena. The surname Assembler was given to Zeus because in this place Agamemnon assembled the most eminent men in Greece, in order that they might consult together how to make war on the empire of Priam. Among the claims of Agamemnon to renown is that he destroyed Troy and the cities around her ^note with the forces that followed him originally, without any later reinforcements.

Adjoining Zeus the Assembler is a sanctuary of Demeter Panachaean. The beach, on which the people of Aegium have the sanctuaries I have mentioned, affords a plentiful supply of water from a spring; it is pleasing both to the eye and to the taste. They have also a sanctuary of Safety. Her image may be seen by none but the priests, and the following ritual is performed. They take cakes of the district from the goddess and throw them into the sea, saying that they send them to Arethusa at Syracuse.

There are at Aegium other images made of bronze, Zeus as a boy and Heracles as a beardless youth, the work of Ageladas of Argos. Priests are elected for them every year, and each of the two images remains at the house of the priest. In a more remote age there was chosen to be priest for Zeus from the boys he who won the prize for beauty. When his beard began to grow the honor for beauty passed to another boy. Such were the customs. Even in my time the Achaean assembly still meets at Aegium, just as the Amphictyons do at Thermopylae and at Delphi.