Description of Greece

When Demeter was wandering in search of her daughter, she was followed, it is said, by Poseidon, who lusted after her. So she turned, the story runs, into a mare, and grazed with the mares of Oncius; realizing that he was outwitted, Poseidon too changed into a stallion and enjoyed Demeter.

At first, they say, Demeter was angry at what had happened, but later on she laid aside her wrath and wished to bathe in the Ladon. So the goddess has obtained two surnames, Fury because of her avenging anger, because the Arcadians call being wrathful “being furious,” and Bather (Lusia) because she bathed in the Ladon. The images in the temple are of wood, but their faces, hands and feet are of Parian marble.

The image of Fury holds what is called the chest, and in her right hand a torch; her height I conjecture to be nine feet. Lusia seemed to be six feet high. Those who think the image to be Themis and not Demeter Lusia are, I would have them know, mistaken in their opinion. Demeter, they say, had by Poseidon a daughter, whose name they are not wont to divulge to the uninitiated, and a horse called Areion. For this reason they say that they were the first Arcadians to call Poseidon Horse.

They quote verses from the Iliad and from the Thebaid in confirmation of their story. In the Iliad there are verses about Areion himself:

1. Not even if he drive divine Areion behind,
2. The swift horse of Adrastus, who was of the race of the gods.

1. Wearing wretched clothes, and with him dark-maned Areion.

1. Adrastus, son of Talaus, son of Cretheus,
2. The very first of the Danai to drive his famous horses,
3. Swift Caerus and Areion of Thelpusa,
4. Whom near the grove of Oncean Apollo
5. Earth herself sent up, a marvel for mortals to see.

But even though sprung from Earth the horse might be of divine lineage and the color of his hair might still be dark. Legend also has it that when Heracles was warring on Elis he asked Oncus for the horse, and was carried to battle on the back of Areion when he took Elis, but afterwards the horse was given to Adrastus by Heracles. Wherefore Antimachus says about Areion:

1. Adrastus was the third lord who tamed him.

The Ladon, leaving on the left the sanctuary of the Fury, passes on the left the temple of Oncaeatian Apollo, and on the right a sanctuary of Boy Asclepius, where is the tomb of Trygon, who is said to have been the nurse of Asclepius. For the story is that Asclepius, when little, was exposed in Thelpusa, but was found by Autolaus, the illegitimate son of Arcas, who reared the baby, and for this reason Boy Asclepius . . . I thought more likely, as also I set forth in my account of Epidaurus.[*](See Paus. 2.26.4 foll.)

There is a river Tuthoa, and it falls into the Ladon at the boundary between Thelpusa and Heraea, called Plain by the Arcadians. Where the Ladon itself falls into the Alpheius is an island called the Island of Crows. Those who have thought that Enispe, Stratia and Rhipe, mentioned by Homer,[*](Hom. Il. 2.606) were once inhabited islands in the Ladon, cherish, I would tell them, a false belief.

For the Ladon could never show islands even as large as a ferry-boat. As far as beauty is concerned, it is second to no river, either in Greece or in foreign lands, but it is not big enough to carry islands on its waters, as do the Danube and the Eridanus.

The founder of Heraea was Heraeeus the son of Lycaon, and the city lies on the right of the Alpheius, mostly upon a gentle slope, though a part descends right to the Alpheius. Walks have been made along the river, separated by myrtles and other cultivated trees; the baths are there, as are also two temples to Dionysus. One is to the god named Citizen, the other to the Giver of Increase, and they have a building there where they celebrate their mysteries in honor of Dionysus.

There is also in Heraea a temple of Pan, as he is native to Arcadia, and of the temple of Hera I found remaining various ruins, including the pillars. Of Arcadian athletes the most renowned has been Damaretus of Heraea, who was the first to win the race in armour at Olympia.

As you go down to the land of Elis from Heraea, at a distance of about fifteen stades from Heraea you will cross the Ladon, and from it to the Erymanthus is a journey of roughly twenty stades. The boundary between Heraea and the land of Elis is according to the Arcadians the Erymanthus, but the people of Elis say that the grave of Coroebus bounds their territory.

But when the Olympic games, after not being held for a long period, were revived by Iphitus, and the Olympic festival was again held, the only prizes offered were for running, and Coroebus won. On the tomb is an inscription that Coroebus was the first man to win at Olympia, and that his grave was made at the end of Elean territory.

There is a town, Aliphera, of no great size, for it was abandoned by many of its inhabitants at the union of the Arcadians into Megalopolis. As you go to this town from Heraea you will cross the Alpheius, and after going over a plain of just about ten stades you will reach a mountain, and ascending across the mountain for some thirty stades more you will come to the town.

The city of Aliphera has received its name from Alipherus, the son of Lycaon, and there are sanctuaries here of Asclepius and Athena; the latter they worship more than any other god, saying that she was born and bred among them. They also set up an altar of Zeus Lecheates (In child-bed), because here he gave birth to Athena. There is a stream they call Tritonis, adopting the story about the river Triton.

The image of Athena is made of bronze, the work of Hypatodorus, worth seeing for its size and workmanship. They keep a general festival in honor of some god or other; I think in honor of Athena. At this festival they sacrifice first to Fly-catcher, praying to the hero over the victims and calling upon the Fly-catcher. When they have done this the flies trouble them no longer.

On the road from Heraea to Megalopolis is Melaeneae. It was founded by Melaeneus, the son of Lycaon; in my time it was uninhabited, but there is plenty of water flowing over it. Forty stades above Melaeneae is Buphagium,and here is the source of the Buphagus, which flows down into the Alpheius. Near the source of the Buphagus is the boundary between Megalopolis and Heraea.