Pausanias, Description of Greece (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Paus.].
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8.44.3

About twenty stades away from Athenaeum are ruins of Asea, and the hill that once was the citadel has traces of fortifications to this day. Some five stades from Asea are the sources of the Alpheius and of the Eurotas, the former a little distance from the road, the latter just by the road itself. Near the source of the Alpheius is a temple of the Mother of the Gods without a roof, and two lions made of stone.

8.44.4

The waters of the Eurotas mingle with the Alpheius, and the united streams flow on for some twenty stades. Then they fall into a chasm, and the Eurotas comes again to the surface in the Lacedaemonian territory, the Alpheius at Pegae (Sources) in the land of Megalopolis. From Asea is an ascent up Mount Boreius, and on the top of the mountain are traces of a sanctuary. It is said that the sanctuary was built in honor of Athena Saviour and Poseidon by Odysseus after his return from Troy.

8.44.5

What is called the Dyke is the boundary between Megalopolis on the one hand and Tegea and Pallantium on the other. The plain of Pallantium you reach by turning aside to the left from the Dyke. In Pallantium is a temple with two stone images, one of Pallas, the other of Evander. There is also a sanctuary of the Maid, the daughter of Demeter, and not far away is a statue of Polybius. The hill above the city was of old used as a citadel. On the crest of the hill there still remains a sanctuary of certain gods.

8.44.6

Their surname is the Pure, and here it is customary to take the most solemn oaths. The names of the gods either they do not know, or knowing will not divulge; but it might be inferred that they were called Pure because Pallas did not sacrifice to them after the same fashion as his father sacrificed to Lycaean Zeus.

8.44.7

On the right of the so-called Dyke lies the Manthuric plain. The plain is on the borders of Tegea, stretching just about fifty stades to that city. On the right of the road is a small mountain called Mount Cresius, on which stands the sanctuary of Aphneius. For Ares, the Tegeans say, mated with Aerope, daughter of Cepheus, the son of Aleus.

8.44.8

She died in giving birth to a child, who clung to his mother even when she was dead, and sucked great abundance of milk from her breasts. Now this took place by the will of Ares, and because of it they name the god Aphneius (Abundant); but the name given to the hill was, it is said, Aeropus. There is on the way to Tegea a fountain called Leuconian. They say that Apheidas was the father of Leucone, and not far from Tegea is her tomb.

ch. 45 8.45.1

The Tegeans say that in the time of Tegeates, son of Lycaon, only the district got its name from him, and that the inhabitants dwelt in parishes, Gareatae, Phylacenses, Caryatae, Corythenses, Potachidae, Oeatae, Manthyrenses, Echeuethenses. But in the reign of Apheidas a ninth parish was added to them, namely Apheidantes. Of the modern city Aleus was founder.

8.45.2

Besides the exploits shared by the Tegeans with the Arcadians, which include the Trojan war, the Persian wars and the battle at Dipaea with the Lacedaemonians, the Tegeans have, besides the deeds already mentioned, the following claims of their own to fame. Ancaeus, the son of Lycurgus, though wounded, stood up to the Calydonian boar, which Atalanta shot at, being the first to hit the beast. For this feat she received, as a prize for valor, the head and hide of the boar.

8.45.3

When the Heracleidae returned to the Peloponnesus, Echemus, son of Aeropus, a Tegean, fought a duel with Hyllus, and overcame him in the fight. The Tegeans again were the first Arcadians to overcome Lacedaemonians; when invaded they defeated their enemies and took most of them prisoners.

8.45.4

The ancient sanctuary of Athena Alea was made for the Tegeans by Aleus. Later on the Tegeans set up for the goddess a large temple, worth seeing. The sanctuary was utterly destroyed by a fire which suddenly broke out when Diophantus was archon at Athens, in the second year of the ninety-sixth Olympiad, at which Eupolemus of Elis won the foot-race.

8.45.5

The modern temple is far superior to all other temples in the Peloponnesus on many grounds, especially for its size. Its first row of pillars is Doric, and the next to it Corinthian; also, outside the temple, stand pillars of the Ionic order. I discovered that its architect was Scopas the Parian, who made images in many places of ancient Greece, and some besides in Ionia and Caria.



Pausanias, Description of Greece (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Paus.].
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