Description of Greece

When the Greek fleet was scattered on the voyage home from Troy, Locrians from Thronium, a city on the river Boagrius, and Abantes from Euboea, with eight ships altogether, were driven on the Ceraunian mountains. Settling here and founding the city of Thronium, by common agreement they gave the name of Abantis to the land as far as they occupied it. Afterwards, however, they were conquered in war and expelled by the people of Apollonia, their neighbors. Apollonia was a colony of Corcyra, they say, and Corcyra of Corinth, and the Corinthians had their share of the spoils.

A little farther on is a Zeus turned towards the rising sun; he holds an eagle in one hand and in the other a thunderbolt. On him are set spring flowers, with a crown of them on his head.[*](Such is the only meaning of the Greek. Frazer's translation, which omitsαὐτῷ καὶaltogether, is impossible. On the other handαὐτῷ καὶmakes poor sense, and may be an interpolation. The emendationκρίναis attractive.) It is an offering of the people of Metapontum. The artist was Aristonus of Aegina, but we do not know when he lived nor who his teacher was.

The Phliasians also dedicated a Zeus, the daughters of Asopus, and Asopus himself. Their images have been ordered thus: Nemea is the first of the sisters, and after her comes Zeus seizing Aegina; by Aegina stands Harpina, who, according to the tradition of the Eleans and Phliasians, mated with Ares and was the mother of Oenomaus, king around Pisa; after her is Corcyra, with Thebe next; last of all comes Aesopus. There is a legend about Corcyra that she mated with Poseidon, and the same thing is said by Pindar of Thebe and Zeus.[*](Fr. 290.)

Men of Leontini have set up a Zeus, not at public expense but out of their private purse. The height of the image is seven cubits, and in its hands are an eagle and the bolt of Zeus, in accordance with the poets' tales. It was dedicated by Hippagoras, Phrynon, and Aenesidemus, who in my opinion was some other Aenesidemus and not the tyrant of Leontini.

As you pass by the entrance to the Council Chamber you see an image of Zeus standing with no inscription on it, and then on turning to the north another image of Zeus. This is turned towards the rising sun, and was dedicated by those Greeks who at Plataea fought against the Persians under Mardonius.[*](479 B.C.) On the right of the pedestal are inscribed the cities which took part in the engagement: first the Lacedaemonians, after them the Athenians, third the Corinthians, fourth the Sicyonians,

fifth the Aeginetans; after the Aeginetans, the Megarians and Epidaurians, of the Arcadians the people of Tegea and Orchomenus, after them the dwellers in Phlius, Troezen and Hermion, the Tirynthians from the Argolid, the Plataeans alone of the Boeotians, the Argives of Mycenae, the islanders of Ceos and Melos, Ambraciots of the Thesprotian mainland, the Tenians and the Lepreans, who were the only people from Triphylia, but from the Aegean and the Cyclades there came not only the Tenians but also the Naxians and Cythnians, Styrians too from Euboea, after them Eleans, Potidaeans, Anactorians, and lastly the Chalcidians on the Euripus.

Of these cities the following are at the present day uninhabited: Mycenae and Tiryns were destroyed by the Argives after the Persian wars. The Ambraciots and Anactorians, colonists of Corinth, were taken away by the Roman emperor[*](Augustus) to help to found Nicopolis near Actium. The Potidaeans twice suffered removal from their city, once at the hands of Philip, the son of Amyntas[*](356 B.C.), and once before this at the hands of the Athenians[*](430-429 B.C.). Afterwards, however, Cassander restored the Potidaeans to their homes, but the name of the city was changed from Potidaea to Cassandreia after the name of its founder[*](316 B.C.). The image at Olympia dedicated by the Greeks was made by Anaxagoras of Aegina. The name of this artist is omitted by the historians of Plataea.

In front of this Zeus there is a bronze slab, on which are the terms of the Thirty-years Peace between the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians. The Athenians made this peace after they had reduced Euboea for the second time, in the third year of the eighty-third Olympiad, when Crison of Himera won the foot-race[*](446-445 B.C.). One of the articles of the treaty is to the effect that although Argos has no part in the treaty between Athens and Sparta, yet the Athenians and the Argives may privately, if they wish, be at peace with each other. Such are the terms of this treaty.

There is yet another image of Zeus dedicated beside the chariot of Cleosthenes. This chariot I will describe later; the image of Zeus was dedicated by the Megarians, and made by the brothers Psylacus and Onaethus with the help of their sons. About their date, their nation and their master, I can tell you nothing.

By the chariot of Gelon stands an ancient Zeus holding a scepter which is said to be an offering of the Hyblaeans. There were two cities in Sicily called Hybla, one surnamed Gereatis and the other Greater, it being in fact the greater of the two. They still retain their old names, and are in the district of Catana. Greater Hybla is entirely uninhabited, but Gereatis is a village of Catana, with a sanctuary of the goddess Hyblaea which is held in honor by the Sicilians. The people of Gereatis, I think, brought the image to Olympia. For Philistus, the son of Archomenides, says that they were interpreters of portents and dreams, and more given to devotions than any other foreigners in Sicily.

Near the offering of the Hyblaeans has been made a pedestal of bronze with a Zeus upon it, which I conjecture to be about eighteen feet high. The donors and sculptors are set forth in elegiac verse:—

1. The Cleitorians dedicated this image to the god, a tithe
2. From many cities that they had reduced by force.
3. The sculptors were Aristo and Telestas,
4. Own brothers and Laconians.[*](The last two verses are corrupt in all our MSS. No emendation has been proposed which can be considered satisfactory, and I will not venture on one of my own. But the general sense must be such as I have indicated.)