Legendary Passages #0055 - The Fables of Hercules -
The life & death of a hero, from The Fables of Hyginus.
Last time we reviewed the Stymphalian Birds and the Erymanthian Boar. This passage covers the whole story of Hercules, from his conception and birth to his apotheosis.
But first, the myth of the Aloadae, twin giants named Otos and Ephialtes. Sons or grandsons of Neptune, they dared challenge the gods, and planned to marry Juno and Diana. They were either killed by Apollo, or by each other.
Anyway, Alcimena welcomed home her dear husband Amphitryon from his conquest of Oechalia. But it was in fact Jupiter, king of the gods, who extended the night and together they conceived Hercules.
Next, a quick overview of the serpents in his crib and his twelve labors. Then a list of his other adventures: Antaeus, Busiris, Cygnus, Hesion, Prometheus, Lycus, Achelous, Neleus, Eurytus, Nessus, and the centaur Eurytion.
Euyrtion desired to marry Dejanira, daughter of King Dexamenus, but Hercules killed him and married Dejanira himself.
Then the centaur Nessus carried off Dejanira, but Hercules shot him with his hydra arrows. Dying, Nessus gave her a robe soaked in the hydra blood, and said the robe would keep her husband faithful.
Finally, the beautiful princess Iole was captured by Hercules. Jealous, Dejanira gave the robe to her husband, discovering too late that it was poisoned, and Hercules began to burn.
Water gave no relief, so a wooden pyre was built. In exchange for his hydra arrows, Philoctetes set the wood aflame. The mortal form of Hercules was burned away. And his wife Dejanira, succumbed to grief.
Next time, the stories of Thebes and Thespius.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html#28
The Fables of Hercules,
a Legendary Passage,
from The Fables of Hyginus,
translated by Mary Grant.
Fables [28] - [36]
XXVIII. OTOS AND EPHIALTES
Otos and Ephialtes, sons of Aloeus and Iphimede, . . . daughter [of Neptune], are said to have been of extraordinary size. They each grew nine inches every month, and so when they were nine years old, they tried to climb into heaven. They began this way: they placed Mount Ossa on Pelion (from this Mount Ossa is also called Pelion), and were piling up other mountains. But they were discovered by Apollo and killed.
Other writers, however, say that they were invulnerable sons of Neptunus and Iphimede. When they wished to assault Diana, she could not resist their strength, and Apollo sent a deer between them. Driven mad by anger in trying to kill it with javelins, they killed each other.
In the Land of the Dead they are said to suffer this punishment: they are bound by serpents to a column, back to back. Between them is a screech-owl, sitting on the column to which they are bound.
XXIX. ALCIMENA
When Amphitryon was away subduing Oechalia, Alcimena, thinking Jove was her husband, received him in her chamber. When he had entered her room, and told her what he had done in Oechalia, she lay with him, thinking he was her husband. He lay with her with so much pleasure that he spent one day and doubled two nights, so that Alcimena wondered at such a long night.
Later when the word came to her that her husband was at hand, a victor, she showed no concern, because she thought she had already seen her husband. When Amphitryon came into the palace, and saw her carelessly unconcerned, he began to wonder and to complain that she did not welcome him when he appeared. Alcimena replied: You already came and lay with me, and told me what you had done in Oechalia.
When she had given him all the evidence, Amphitryon realized that some divinity had assumed his form, and from that day did not lie with her. But she, from the embrace of Jove, bore Hercules.
XXX. TWELVE LABORS OF HERCULES ORDERED BY EURYSTHEUS
When he was an infant, he strangled with his two hands the two snakes which Juno had sent – whence his name, Primigenius.
The Nemean Lion, an invulnerable monster, which Luna had nourished in a two-mouthed cave, he slew and took the pelt for defensive covering.
He killed at the spring of Lerna the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra, offspring of Typhon. This monster was so poisonous that she killed men with her breath, and if anyone passed by when she was sleeping, he breathed her tracks and died in the greatest torment. Under Minerva’s instructions he killed her, disembowelled her, and dipped his arrows in her gall; and so whatever later he hit with his arrows did not escape death, and later he himself perished in Phrygia from the same cause.
He killed the Erymanthian Boar.
The wild stag with golden horns in Arcadia he brought alive to show Eurystheus.
He killed with his arrows on the island of Mars the Stymphalian Birds which shoot their feathers out as arrows.
He cleaned in one day the ox dung of King Augeas, Jove helping him for the most part. By letting in a river he washed away all the dung.
The bull with which Pasiphaë lay he brought alive from the island of Crete to Mycenae.
Diomede, King of Thrace, and his four horses which fed on human flesh he killed along with the slave Abderus. The horses’ names were Podargus, Lampon, Xanthus, and Dinus.
[He slew] Hippolyte, daughter of Mars and Queen Otrera, and took from her the belt of the Amazon Queen; then he presented Antiopa as captive to Theseus.
The triple-bodied Geryon, son of Chrysaor, he killed with a single weapon.
The huge dragon, Typhon’s son, which used to guard the golden apples of the Hesperides, he killed near Mount Atlas, and brought the apples to King Eurystheus.
He brought from the Lower World for the king to see, the dog Cerberus, offspring of Typhon.
XXXI. INCIDENTAL LABORS OF THE SAME HERCULES
He slew Antaeus, son of Earth, in Libya. This man would compel visitors to wrestle with him, and when they were exhausted would kill them. He slew them in wrestling.
[He slew] in Egypt, Busiris, whose custom it was to sacrifice visitors. When Hercules heard of his customary practice, he allowed himself to be led to the altar with the fillet of sacrifice, but when Busiris was about to invoke the gods, Hercules with his club killed him and the attendants at the sacrifice as well.
He killed Cygnus, son of Mars, conquering him by force of arms. When Mars came there, and wanted to contend with him in arms because of his son, Jove hurled a thunderbolt between them.
He killed at Troy the sea-monster to whom Hesione was offered. Laomedon, Hesione’s father, he killed with arrows because he did not give her back.
The shining eagle which was eating out the heart of Prometheus he killed with arrows.
He killed Lycus, son of Neptune, because he was planning to kill his wife Megara, daughter of Creon, and their sons Therimachus and Ophites.
The River Achelous used to change himself into all sorts of shapes. When he fought with Hercules to win Dejanira in marriage, he changed himself into a bull. Hercules tore of his horn, presenting it to the Hesperides or the Nymphs, and the goddesses filled it with fruits and called it Cornucopia.
He killed Neleus and his ten sons for refusing to cleanse him or purify him at the time when he had killed his wife Megara, daughter of Creon, and his sons Therimachus and Ophites.
He killed Eurytus because he refused him when he sought his daughter Iole in marriage.
He killed the centaur Nessus because he tried to violate Dejanira.
He killed Eurytion the Centaur because he wooed Dejanira, daughter of Dexamenus, his hoped-for bride.
XXXII. MEGARA
When Hercules had been sent for the three-headed dog by King Eurystheus, and Lycus, son of Neptune, thought he had perished, he planned to kill his wife Megara, daughter of Creon, and his sons, Therimachus and Ophites, and seize the kingdom. Hercules prevented him and killed Lycus.
Later, when madness was sent upon him by Juno, he killed Megara and his sons Therimachus and Ophites. When he came to his right mind, he begged Apollo to give him an oracular reply on how to expiate his crime. Because Apollo was unwilling, Hercules wrathfully carried off the tripod from his shrine.
Later, at the command of Jove, he returned it, and bade him give the reply, though unwilling. Hercules because of this offence was given in servitude to Queen Omphale by Mercury.
XXXIII. CENTAURS
When Hercules had come to the court of King Dexamenus and had violated his daughter Dejanira, promising he would marry her, Eurytion a centaur, son of Ixion and Nubes, after his departure sought Dejanira as a wife. Her father, fearing violence, promised her to him. On the appointed day he came with his brothers to the wedding. Hercules intervened, and killed the Centaur, and led home his betrothed.
Likewise at another marriage, when Pirithous was taking Hippodamia, daughter of Adrastus, Centaurs, full of wine, attempted to carry off the wives of the Lapithae. The Centaurs killed many of them, but by them perished.
XXXIV. NESSUS
Nessus, son of Ixion and Nubes, a centaur, was asked by Dejanira to carry her across the river Evenus, but as he was carrying her, in the very river he tried to ravish her. When Hercules came there, and Dejanira implored his aid, he pierced Nessus with his arrows.
As he died, Nessus, knowing how poisonous the arrows were, since they had been dipped in the gall of the Lernaean Hydra, drew out some of his blood and gave it to Dejanira, telling her it was a love-charm. If she wanted her husband not to desert her, she should have his garments smeared with this blood. Dejanira, believing him, kept it carefully preserved.
XXXV. IOLE
Hercules, when he had sought in marriage Iole, daughter of Eurytus, and had been refused, attacked Oechalia. In order to bend the girl to his will[?], he threatened to kill her relatives in her presence. She, with resolute mind, suffered them to be slain before her eyes. When he had killed them all, he sent Iole as captive before him to Dejanira.
XXXVI. DEJANIRA
When Dejanira, daughter of Oeneus and wife of Hercules, saw the captive Iole, a maiden of remarkable beauty, arrive, she feared that she would steal her marriage. So mindful of the instructions of Nessus, she sent a servant named Lichas to take to Hercules a robe dipped in the blood of the centaur. A little of it fell to the earth, and when the sun touched it, it began to burn. When Dejanira saw this, she knew that Nessus had spoken falsely, and sent a man to recall the one to whom she had given the garment.
Hercules had already put it on, and it started at once to blaze; when he leaped into a stream to put out the blaze, still greater flames burst forth; when he tried to take off the garment the flesh came with it. Then Hercules, whirling Lichas, who had brought the garment, round and round, threw him into the sea, and at the place where he fell a rock appeared which is called Lichas.
Then Philoctetes, son of Poeas, is said to have built a pyre for Hercules on Mount Oeta, and he mounted it . . . [and cast off his] mortality. For this service he gave Philoctetes his bow and arrows.
But Dejanira, because of what had happened to Hercules, killed herself.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html#28
Greek and Roman mythology from the original sources, from Atlantis to Hercules to the Trojan War. Email: LegendaryPassages@gmail.com
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Thursday, September 8, 2016
LP0054 - The Birds & The Boar - Stymphalus & Erymanthus, from Pausanias' Description of Greece
Legendary Passages #0054 - The Birds & The Boar -
Stymphalus & Erymanthus, from Pausanias' Description of Greece.
Last time we reviewed the early labors of Heracles. This time we explore the regions of Stymphalus, Alea, Condylea, Psophis, and Mount Erymanthus.
Stymphalus is a land of many legends, including Temenus, the son of Pelasgus; Heracles and the Stymphalian Birds; and a great chasm that floods and drains the Stymphalian plain.
Alea was named after Aleus, son of Apheidas. Condylea, the Strangled Lady, is so named because some children tied a rope around an image of Artemis. Psophis was named after a grandson of Erymanthus, or a daughter of Eryx who had relations with Heracles.
Lastly, Erymanthus was descended from Aristas, Parthaon, Periphetes, and Nyctimus. In the sanctuary of Apollo, the Cumae People claim to still have the tusks of the Eyrmanthian Boar.
Next time, from beginning to end, the complete Fables of Hercules.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8B.html#5
The Birds & The Boar,
a Legendary Passage,
from Pausanias' Description of Greece,
translated by W. H. S. Jones.
[8.22.1] - [8.24.5]
STYMPHALUS
My narrative returns to Stymphalus and to Geronteium, as it is called, the boundary between Stymphalus and Pheneus. The Stymphalians are no longer included among the Arcadians, but are numbered with the Argive League, which they joined of their own accord. That they are by race Arcadians is testified by the verses of Homer, and Stymphalus their founder was a grandson of Arcas, the son of Callisto. It is said that it was originally founded on another site, and not on that of the modern city.
The story has it that in the old Stymphalus dwelt Temenus, the son of Pelasgus, and that Hera was reared by this Temenus, who himself established three sanctuaries for the goddess, and gave her three surnames when she was still a maiden, Girl; when married to Zeus he called her Grown-up; when for some cause or other she quarrelled with Zeus and came back to Stymphalus, Temenus named her Widow. This is the account which, to my own knowledge, the Stymphalians give of the goddess.
The modern city contains none of these sanctuaries, but I found the following notable things. In the Stymphalian territory is a spring, from which the emperor Hadrian brought water to Corinth. In winter the spring makes a small lake in Stymphalus, and the river Stymphalus issues from the lake; in summer there is no lake, but the river comes straight from the spring. This river descends into a chasm in the earth, and reappearing once more in Argolis it changes its name, and is called Erasinus instead of Stymphalus.
There is a story current about the water of the Stymphalus, that at one time man-eating birds bred on it, which Heracles is said to have shot down. Peisander of Camira, however, says that Heracles did not kill the birds, but drove them away with the noise of rattles. The Arabian desert breeds among other wild creatures birds called Stymphalian, which are quite as savage against men as lions or leopards.
These fly against those who come to hunt them, wounding and killing them with their beaks. All armour of bronze or iron that men wear is pierced by the birds; but if they weave a garment of thick cork, the beaks of the Stymphalian birds are caught in the cork garment, just as the wings of small birds stick in bird-lime. These birds are of the size of a crane, and are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like that of the ibis.
Whether the modern Arabian birds with the same name as the old Arcadian birds are also of the same breed, I do not know. But if there have been from all time Stymphalian birds, just as there have been hawks and eagles, I should call these birds of Arabian origin, and a section of them might have flown on some occasion to Arcadia and reached Stymphalus. Originally they would be called by the Arabians, not Stymphalian, but by another name. But the fame of Heracles, and the superiority of the Greek over the foreigner, has resulted in the birds of the Arabian desert being called Stymphalian even in modern times.
In Stymphalus there is also an old sanctuary of Stymphalian Artemis, the image being of wood, for the most part gilded. Near the roof of the temple have been carved, among other things, the Stymphalian birds. Now it was difficult to discern clearly whether the carving was in wood or in gypsum, but such evidence as I had led me to conclude that it was not of gypsum but of wood. There are here also maidens of white marble, with the legs of birds, and they stand behind the temple.
Even in our own day the following miracle is said to have occurred. The festival of Stymphalian Artemis at Stymphalus was carelessly celebrated, and its established ritual in great part transgressed. Now a log fell into the mouth of the chasm into which the river descends, and so prevented the water from draining away, and (so it is said) the plain became a lake for a distance of four hundred stades.
They also say that a hunter chased a deer, which fled and plunged into the marsh, followed by the hunter, who, in the excitement of the hunt, swam after the deer. So the chasm swallowed up both the deer and her pursuer. They are said to have been followed by the water of the river, so that by the next day the whole of the water was dried up that flooded the Stymphalian plain. Hereafter they put greater zeal into the festival in honor of Artemis.
ALEA
After Stymphalus comes Alea, which too belongs to the Argive federation, and its citizens point to Aleus, the son of Apheidas, as their founder. The sanctuaries of the gods here are those of Ephesian Artemis and Athena Alea, and there is a temple of Dionysus with an image. In honor of Dionysus they celebrate every other year a festival called Sciereia, and at this festival, in obedience to a response from Delphi, women are flogged, just as the Spartan lads are flogged at the image of the Orthian goddess.
In my account of Orchomenus, I explained how the straight road runs at first beside the gully, and afterwards to the left of the flood water. On the plain of Caphyae has been made a dyke of earth, which prevents the water from the Orchomenian territory from doing harm to the tilled land of Caphyae. Inside the dyke flows along another stream, in size big enough to be called a river, and descending into a chasm of the earth it rises again at Nasi, as it is called. The place where it reappears is called Rheunus; the stream having risen here, hereafter the water forms an ever-flowing river, the Tagus.
The name of the city is clearly derived from Cepheus, the son of Aleus, but its form in the Arcadian dialect, Caphyae, is the one that has survived. The inhabitants say that originally they were from Attica, but on being expelled from Athens by Aegeus they fled to Arcadia, threw themselves on the mercy of Cepheus, and found a home in the country. The town is on the border of the plain at the foot of some inconsiderable mountains. The Caphyatans have a sanctuary of the god Poseidon, and one of the goddess Artemis, surnamed Cnacalesia.
They have also a mountain called Cnacalus, where every year they celebrate mysteries in honor of their Artemis. A little beyond the city is a spring, and by the spring grows a large and beautiful plane tree. They call it Menelais, saying that the plane was planted by the spring by Menelaus, who came to the spot when he was collecting his army against Troy. To-day they give the name Menelais to the spring as well as to the plane.
If I am to base my calculations on the accounts of the Greeks in fixing the relative ages of such trees as are still preserved and flourish, the oldest of them is the withy growing in the Samian sanctuary of Hera, after which come the oak in Dodona, the olive on the Acropolis and the olive in Delos. The third place in respect of age the Syrians would assign to the bay-tree they have in their country. Of the others this plane-tree is the oldest.
CONDYLEA
About a stade distant from Caphyae is a place called Condylea, where there are a grove and a temple of Artemis called of old Condyleatis. They say that the name of the goddess was changed for the following reason. Some children, the number of whom is not recorded, while playing about the sanctuary found a rope, and tying it round the neck of the image said that Artemis was being strangled.
The Caphyans, detecting what the children had done, stoned them to death. When they had done this, a malady befell their women, whose babies were stillborn, until the Pythian priestess bade them bury the children, and sacrifice to them every year as sacrifice is made to heroes, because they had been wrongly put to death.
The Caphyans still obey this oracle, and call the goddess at Condyleae, as they say the oracle also bade them, the Strangled Lady from that day to this.
ROAD TO PSOPHIS
Going up about seven stades from Caphyae you will go down to what is called Nasi. Fifty stades farther on is the Ladon. You will then cross the river and reach a grove called Soron, passing through Argeathae, Lycuntes, as it is called, and Scotane.
Now the road to Psophis passes by way of Soron, which, like other Arcadian groves, breeds the following beasts- wild boars, bears, and tortoises of vast size. One could of the last make harps not inferior to those made from the Indian tortoise. At the end of Soron are the ruins of the village Paus, and a little farther what is called Seirae; this Seirae forms a boundary between Cleitor and Psophis.
PSOPHIS, MYTHICAL HISTORY
The founder of Psophis, according to some, was Psophis, the son of Arrhon, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Aristas, the son of Parthaon, the son of Periphetes, the son of Nyctimus. Others say that Psophis was the daughter of Xanthus, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Arcas.
Such are the Arcadian traditions concerning their kings, but the most accurate version is that Eryx, the despot of Sicania, had a daughter named Psophis, whom Heracles, though he had intercourse with her, refused to take to his home, but left with child in the care of his friend Lycortas, who lived at Phegia, a city called Erymanthus before the reign of Phegeus. Having been brought up here, Echephron and Promachus, the sons of Heracles and the Sicanian woman, changed the name of Phegia to Psophis, the name of their mother.
MT ERYMANTHUS
Psophis is also the name of the Zacynthian acropolis, because the first man to sail across to the island was Zacynthus, the son of Dardanus, a Psophidian who became its founder. From Seirae it is thirty stades to Psophis, by the side of which runs the river Aroanius, and a little farther away the river Erymanthus.
The Erymanthus has its source in Mount Lampeia, which is said to be sacred to Pan. One might regard Lampeia as a part of Mount Erymanthus. Homer says that in Taygetus and Erymanthus . . . hunter . . . so . . . of Lampeia, Erymanthus, and passing through Arcadia, with Mount Pholoe on the right and the district of Thelpusa on the left, flows into the Alpheius.
There is also a legend that Heracles at the command of Eurystheus hunted by the side of the Erymanthus a boar that surpassed all others in size and in strength. The people of Cumae among the Opici say that the boar's tusks dedicated in their sanctuary of Apollo are those of the Erymanthian boar, but the saying is altogether improbable.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8B.html#5
Stymphalus & Erymanthus, from Pausanias' Description of Greece.
Last time we reviewed the early labors of Heracles. This time we explore the regions of Stymphalus, Alea, Condylea, Psophis, and Mount Erymanthus.
Stymphalus is a land of many legends, including Temenus, the son of Pelasgus; Heracles and the Stymphalian Birds; and a great chasm that floods and drains the Stymphalian plain.
Alea was named after Aleus, son of Apheidas. Condylea, the Strangled Lady, is so named because some children tied a rope around an image of Artemis. Psophis was named after a grandson of Erymanthus, or a daughter of Eryx who had relations with Heracles.
Lastly, Erymanthus was descended from Aristas, Parthaon, Periphetes, and Nyctimus. In the sanctuary of Apollo, the Cumae People claim to still have the tusks of the Eyrmanthian Boar.
Next time, from beginning to end, the complete Fables of Hercules.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8B.html#5
The Birds & The Boar,
a Legendary Passage,
from Pausanias' Description of Greece,
translated by W. H. S. Jones.
[8.22.1] - [8.24.5]
STYMPHALUS
My narrative returns to Stymphalus and to Geronteium, as it is called, the boundary between Stymphalus and Pheneus. The Stymphalians are no longer included among the Arcadians, but are numbered with the Argive League, which they joined of their own accord. That they are by race Arcadians is testified by the verses of Homer, and Stymphalus their founder was a grandson of Arcas, the son of Callisto. It is said that it was originally founded on another site, and not on that of the modern city.
The story has it that in the old Stymphalus dwelt Temenus, the son of Pelasgus, and that Hera was reared by this Temenus, who himself established three sanctuaries for the goddess, and gave her three surnames when she was still a maiden, Girl; when married to Zeus he called her Grown-up; when for some cause or other she quarrelled with Zeus and came back to Stymphalus, Temenus named her Widow. This is the account which, to my own knowledge, the Stymphalians give of the goddess.
The modern city contains none of these sanctuaries, but I found the following notable things. In the Stymphalian territory is a spring, from which the emperor Hadrian brought water to Corinth. In winter the spring makes a small lake in Stymphalus, and the river Stymphalus issues from the lake; in summer there is no lake, but the river comes straight from the spring. This river descends into a chasm in the earth, and reappearing once more in Argolis it changes its name, and is called Erasinus instead of Stymphalus.
There is a story current about the water of the Stymphalus, that at one time man-eating birds bred on it, which Heracles is said to have shot down. Peisander of Camira, however, says that Heracles did not kill the birds, but drove them away with the noise of rattles. The Arabian desert breeds among other wild creatures birds called Stymphalian, which are quite as savage against men as lions or leopards.
These fly against those who come to hunt them, wounding and killing them with their beaks. All armour of bronze or iron that men wear is pierced by the birds; but if they weave a garment of thick cork, the beaks of the Stymphalian birds are caught in the cork garment, just as the wings of small birds stick in bird-lime. These birds are of the size of a crane, and are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like that of the ibis.
Whether the modern Arabian birds with the same name as the old Arcadian birds are also of the same breed, I do not know. But if there have been from all time Stymphalian birds, just as there have been hawks and eagles, I should call these birds of Arabian origin, and a section of them might have flown on some occasion to Arcadia and reached Stymphalus. Originally they would be called by the Arabians, not Stymphalian, but by another name. But the fame of Heracles, and the superiority of the Greek over the foreigner, has resulted in the birds of the Arabian desert being called Stymphalian even in modern times.
In Stymphalus there is also an old sanctuary of Stymphalian Artemis, the image being of wood, for the most part gilded. Near the roof of the temple have been carved, among other things, the Stymphalian birds. Now it was difficult to discern clearly whether the carving was in wood or in gypsum, but such evidence as I had led me to conclude that it was not of gypsum but of wood. There are here also maidens of white marble, with the legs of birds, and they stand behind the temple.
Even in our own day the following miracle is said to have occurred. The festival of Stymphalian Artemis at Stymphalus was carelessly celebrated, and its established ritual in great part transgressed. Now a log fell into the mouth of the chasm into which the river descends, and so prevented the water from draining away, and (so it is said) the plain became a lake for a distance of four hundred stades.
They also say that a hunter chased a deer, which fled and plunged into the marsh, followed by the hunter, who, in the excitement of the hunt, swam after the deer. So the chasm swallowed up both the deer and her pursuer. They are said to have been followed by the water of the river, so that by the next day the whole of the water was dried up that flooded the Stymphalian plain. Hereafter they put greater zeal into the festival in honor of Artemis.
ALEA
After Stymphalus comes Alea, which too belongs to the Argive federation, and its citizens point to Aleus, the son of Apheidas, as their founder. The sanctuaries of the gods here are those of Ephesian Artemis and Athena Alea, and there is a temple of Dionysus with an image. In honor of Dionysus they celebrate every other year a festival called Sciereia, and at this festival, in obedience to a response from Delphi, women are flogged, just as the Spartan lads are flogged at the image of the Orthian goddess.
In my account of Orchomenus, I explained how the straight road runs at first beside the gully, and afterwards to the left of the flood water. On the plain of Caphyae has been made a dyke of earth, which prevents the water from the Orchomenian territory from doing harm to the tilled land of Caphyae. Inside the dyke flows along another stream, in size big enough to be called a river, and descending into a chasm of the earth it rises again at Nasi, as it is called. The place where it reappears is called Rheunus; the stream having risen here, hereafter the water forms an ever-flowing river, the Tagus.
The name of the city is clearly derived from Cepheus, the son of Aleus, but its form in the Arcadian dialect, Caphyae, is the one that has survived. The inhabitants say that originally they were from Attica, but on being expelled from Athens by Aegeus they fled to Arcadia, threw themselves on the mercy of Cepheus, and found a home in the country. The town is on the border of the plain at the foot of some inconsiderable mountains. The Caphyatans have a sanctuary of the god Poseidon, and one of the goddess Artemis, surnamed Cnacalesia.
They have also a mountain called Cnacalus, where every year they celebrate mysteries in honor of their Artemis. A little beyond the city is a spring, and by the spring grows a large and beautiful plane tree. They call it Menelais, saying that the plane was planted by the spring by Menelaus, who came to the spot when he was collecting his army against Troy. To-day they give the name Menelais to the spring as well as to the plane.
If I am to base my calculations on the accounts of the Greeks in fixing the relative ages of such trees as are still preserved and flourish, the oldest of them is the withy growing in the Samian sanctuary of Hera, after which come the oak in Dodona, the olive on the Acropolis and the olive in Delos. The third place in respect of age the Syrians would assign to the bay-tree they have in their country. Of the others this plane-tree is the oldest.
CONDYLEA
About a stade distant from Caphyae is a place called Condylea, where there are a grove and a temple of Artemis called of old Condyleatis. They say that the name of the goddess was changed for the following reason. Some children, the number of whom is not recorded, while playing about the sanctuary found a rope, and tying it round the neck of the image said that Artemis was being strangled.
The Caphyans, detecting what the children had done, stoned them to death. When they had done this, a malady befell their women, whose babies were stillborn, until the Pythian priestess bade them bury the children, and sacrifice to them every year as sacrifice is made to heroes, because they had been wrongly put to death.
The Caphyans still obey this oracle, and call the goddess at Condyleae, as they say the oracle also bade them, the Strangled Lady from that day to this.
ROAD TO PSOPHIS
Going up about seven stades from Caphyae you will go down to what is called Nasi. Fifty stades farther on is the Ladon. You will then cross the river and reach a grove called Soron, passing through Argeathae, Lycuntes, as it is called, and Scotane.
Now the road to Psophis passes by way of Soron, which, like other Arcadian groves, breeds the following beasts- wild boars, bears, and tortoises of vast size. One could of the last make harps not inferior to those made from the Indian tortoise. At the end of Soron are the ruins of the village Paus, and a little farther what is called Seirae; this Seirae forms a boundary between Cleitor and Psophis.
PSOPHIS, MYTHICAL HISTORY
The founder of Psophis, according to some, was Psophis, the son of Arrhon, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Aristas, the son of Parthaon, the son of Periphetes, the son of Nyctimus. Others say that Psophis was the daughter of Xanthus, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Arcas.
Such are the Arcadian traditions concerning their kings, but the most accurate version is that Eryx, the despot of Sicania, had a daughter named Psophis, whom Heracles, though he had intercourse with her, refused to take to his home, but left with child in the care of his friend Lycortas, who lived at Phegia, a city called Erymanthus before the reign of Phegeus. Having been brought up here, Echephron and Promachus, the sons of Heracles and the Sicanian woman, changed the name of Phegia to Psophis, the name of their mother.
MT ERYMANTHUS
Psophis is also the name of the Zacynthian acropolis, because the first man to sail across to the island was Zacynthus, the son of Dardanus, a Psophidian who became its founder. From Seirae it is thirty stades to Psophis, by the side of which runs the river Aroanius, and a little farther away the river Erymanthus.
The Erymanthus has its source in Mount Lampeia, which is said to be sacred to Pan. One might regard Lampeia as a part of Mount Erymanthus. Homer says that in Taygetus and Erymanthus . . . hunter . . . so . . . of Lampeia, Erymanthus, and passing through Arcadia, with Mount Pholoe on the right and the district of Thelpusa on the left, flows into the Alpheius.
There is also a legend that Heracles at the command of Eurystheus hunted by the side of the Erymanthus a boar that surpassed all others in size and in strength. The people of Cumae among the Opici say that the boar's tusks dedicated in their sanctuary of Apollo are those of the Erymanthian boar, but the saying is altogether improbable.
http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8B.html#5
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