LP0067 - The Protidian Gate - The road from Thebes, from Pausanias' Description of Greece

Legendary Passages #0067 - The Protidian Gate -
The road from Thebes, from Pausanias' Description of Greece.

Last time we heard how Heracles decided his own destiny. This time we explore the impact that he and his family had on the Theban lands.

First, the tomb of Semele is near the temple of her son Dionysus; although Heracles' mother Alcmena has no tomb of her own, as her body was replaced by a stone. Then comes the tombs of the daughters of Antipoenus, who sacrificed their lives so that Heracles and the Thebans could defeat the Orchomenians. Heracles dedicated a stone lion for this victory. Heracles' father Amphitryon dedicated images to Athena on the spot where he put on, or 'girded', his armor.

On the edge of the city are the tombs of Zethus & Amphion, Melanippus & Tydeus, Oedipus' children, Teiresias, the Trojan Hector, and lastly, Asphodicus.

The road next goes to Teumessus, best known for the legend of the Teumessian fox, which Amphitryon helped defeat. Past Glisas and The Snake's Head, and below supreme Mount Hypastus, is the tomb of Chalcodon, slain by Amphitryon during battle with the Euboeans.

Finally, we come to the Sanctuary of Mycalessian Demeter, where each night the doors are closed and opened again by Heracles, here called one of the Idaean Dactyls.

Next time, stories of Heracles etched onto the Shield of Eurypylus.

http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias9A.html#8

The Protidian Gate,
a Legendary Passage,
from Pausanias' Description of Greece,
translated by W. H. S. Jones.

[9.16.6] - [9.19.8]

Near the Proetidian gate is built a theater, and quite close to the theater is a temple of Dionysus surnamed Deliverer. For when some Theban prisoners in the hands of Thracians had reached Haliartia on their march, they were delivered by the god, who gave up the sleeping Thracians to be put to death. One of the two images here the Thebans say is Semele. Once in each year, they say, they open the sanctuary on stated days.

There are also ruins of the house of Lycus, and the tomb of Semele, but Alcmena has no tomb. It is said that on her death she was turned from human form to a stone, but the Theban account does not agree with the Megarian. The Greek legends generally have for the most part different versions. Here too at Thebes are the tombs of the children of Amphion. The boys lie apart; the girls are buried by themselves.

XVII. Near is the temple of Artemis of Fair Fame. The image was made by Scopas. They say that within the sanctuary were buried Androcleia and Aleis, daughters of Antipoenus. For when Heracles and the Thebans were about to engage in battle with the Orchomenians, an oracle was delivered to them that success in the war would be theirs if their citizen of the most noble descent would consent to die by his own hand. Now Antipoenus, who had the most famous ancestors, was loath to die for the people, but his daughters were quite ready to do so. So they took their own lives and are honored therefor.

Before the temple of Artemis of Fair Fame is a lion made of stone, said to have been dedicated by Heracles after he had conquered in the battle the Orchomenians and their king, Erginus son of Clymenus. Near it is Apollo surnamed Rescuer, and Hermes called of the Market-place, another of the votive offerings of Pindar. The pyre of the children of Amphion is about half a stade from the graves. The ashes from the pyre are still there.

Near this are two stone images of Athena, surnamed Girder, said to have been dedicated by Amphitryon. For here, they say, he put on his armour when he was about to give battle to Chalcodon and the Euboeans. It seems that the ancients used the verb “to gird oneself” in the sense of “to put on one's armour,” and so they say that when Homer compares Agamemnon to Ares “in respect of his girdle,” he is really saying that they were alike in the fashion of their armour.

The tomb shared by Zethus and Amphion is a small mound of earth. The inhabitants of Tithorea in Phocis like to steal earth from it when the sun is passing through the constellation Taurus. For if at that time they take earth from the mound and set it on Antiope's tomb, the land of Tithorea will yield a harvest, but that of Thebes be less fertile. For this reason the Thebans at that time keep watch over the tomb.

Both these cities hold this belief, and they do so because of the oracles of Bacis, in which are the lines:–

But when a man of Tithorea to Amphion and to Zethus
Pours on the earth peace-offerings of libation and prayer,
When Taurus is warmed by the might of the glorious sun,
Beware then of no slight disaster threatening the city;
For the harvest wastes away in it,
When they take of the earth, and bring it to the tomb of Phocus.

Bacis calls it the tomb of Phocus for the following reason. The wife of Lycus worshipped Dionysus more than any other deity. When she had suffered what the story says she suffered, Dionysus was angry with Antiope. For some reason extravagant punishments always arouse the resentment of the gods. They say that Antiope went mad, and when out of her wits roamed all over Greece; but Phocus, son of Ornytion, son of Sisyphus, chanced to meet her, cured her madness, and then married her.

So Antiope and Phocus share the same grave. The roughly quarried stones, laid along the tomb of Amphion at its base, are said to be the very rocks that followed the singing of Amphion. A similar story is told of Orpheus, how wild creatures followed him as he played the harp.

PROETIDIAN GATE OF THEBES

XVIII. The road from Thebes to Chalcis is by this Proetidian gate. On the highway is pointed out the grave of Melanippus, one of the very best of the soldiers of Thebes. When the Argive invasion occurred this Melanippus killed Tydeus, as well as Mecisteus, one of the brothers of Adrastus, while he himself, they say, met his death at the hands of Amphiaraus.

Quite close to it are three unwrought stones. The Theban antiquaries assert that the man lying here is Tydeus, and that his burial was carried out by Maeon. As proof of their assertion they quoted a line of the Iliad:–

Of Tydeus, who at Thebes is covered by a heap of earth. Hom. Il. 14.114

Adjoining are the tombs of the children of Oedipus. The ritual observed at them I have never seen, but I regard it as credible. For the Thebans say that among those called heroes to whom they offer sacrifice are the children of Oedipus. As the sacrifice is being offered, the flame, so they say, and the smoke from it divide themselves into two. I was led to believe their story by the fact that I have seen a similar wonder. It was this.

In Mysia beyond the Caicus is a town called Pioniae, the founder of which according to the inhabitants was Pionis, one of the descendants of Heracles. When they are going to sacrifice to him as to a hero, smoke of itself rises up out of the grave. This occurrence, then, I have seen happening.

The Thebans show also the tomb of Teiresias, about fifteen stades from the grave of the children of Oedipus. The Thebans themselves agree that Teiresias met his end in Haliartia, and admit that the monument at Thebes is a cenotaph.

There is also at Thebes the grave of Hector, the son of Priam. It is near the spring called the Fountain of Oedipus, and the Thebans say that they brought Hector's bones from Troy because of the following oracle:–

Ye Thebans who dwell in the city of Cadmus,
If you wish blameless wealth for the country in which you live,
Bring to your homes the bones of Hector, Priam's son,
From Asia, and reverence him as a hero,
According to the bidding of Zeus.

The Fountain of Oedipus was so named because Oedipus washed off into it the blood of his murdered father. Hard by the spring is the grave of Asphodicus. He it was who in the fighting with the Argives killed Parthenopaeus, the son of Talaus. This is the Theban account, but according to the passage in the Thebaid which tells of the death of Parthenopaeus it was Periclymenus who killed him.

TEUMESSUS

XIX. On this highway is a place called Teumessus, where it is said that Europa was hidden by Zeus. There is also another legend, which tells of a fox called the Teumessian fox, how owing to the wrath of Dionysus the beast was reared to destroy the Thebans, and how, when about to be caught by the hound given by Artemis to Procris the daughter of Erechtheus, the fox was turned into a stone, as was likewise this hound. In Teumessus there is also a sanctuary of Telchinian Athena, which contains no image. As to her surname, we may hazard the conjecture that a division of the Telchinians who once dwelt in Cyprus came to Boeotia and established a sanctuary of Telchinian Athena.

GLISAS & MT HYPASTUS

Seven stades from Teumessus on the left are the ruins of Glisas, and before them on the right of the way a small mound shaded by cultivated trees and a wood of wild ones. Here were buried Promachus, the son of Parthenopaeus, and other Argive officers, who joined with Aegialeus, the son of Adrastus, in the expedition against Thebes. That the tomb of Aegialeus is at Pegae I have already stated in an earlier part of my history that deals with Megara.

On the straight road from Thebes to Glisas is a place surrounded by unhewn stones, called by the Thebans the Snake's Head. This snake, whatever it was, popped its head, they say, out of its hole here, and Teiresias, chancing to meet it, cut off the head with his sword. This then is how the place got its name. Above Glisas is a mountain called Supreme, and on it a temple and image of Supreme Zeus. The river, a torrent, they call the Thermodon.

Returning to Teumessus and the road to Chalcis, you come to the tomb of Chalcodon, who was killed by Amphitryon in a fight between the Thebans and the Euboeans.

HARMA & MYCALESSUS

Adjoining are the ruins of the cities Harma (Chariot) and Mycalessus. The former got its name, according to the people of Tanagra, because the chariot of Amphiaraus disappeared here, and not where the Thebans say it did. Both peoples agree that Mycalessus was so named because the cow lowed (emykesato) here that was guiding Cadmus and his host to Thebes. How Mycalessus was laid waste I have related in that part of my history that deals with the Athenians.

On the way to the coast of Mycalessus is a sanctuary of Mycalessian Demeter. They say that each night it is shut up and opened again by Heracles, and that Heracles is one of what are called the Idaean Dactyls. Here is shown the following marvel. Before the feet of the image they place all the fruits of autumn, and these remain fresh throughout all the year.

At this place the Euripus separates Euboea from Boeotia. On the right is the sanctuary of Mycalessian Demeter, and a little farther on is Aulis, said to have been named after the daughter of Ogygus. Here there is a temple of Artemis with two images of white marble; one carries torches, and the other is like to one shooting an arrow. The story is that when, in obedience to the soothsaying of Calchas, the Greeks were about to sacrifice Iphigeneia on the altar, the goddess substituted a deer to be the victim instead of her. They preserve in the temple what still survives of the plane-tree mentioned by Homer in the Iliad. The story is that the Greeks were kept at Aulis by contrary winds, and when suddenly a favouring breeze sprang up, each sacrificed to Artemis the victim he had to hand, female and male alike. From that time the rule has held good at Aulis that oil victims are permissible. There is also shown the spring, by which the plane-tree grew, and on a hill near by the bronze threshold of Agamemnon's tent.

In front of the sanctuary grow palm-trees, the fruit of which, though not wholly edible like the dates of Palestine, yet are riper than those of Ionia. There are but few inhabitants of Aulis, and these are potters. This land, and that about Mycalessus and Harma, is tilled by the people of Tanagra.

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