10.25.1 Beyond the Kassotis stands a building with paintings of Polygnotus. It was dedicated by the people of Knidos, and is called by the Delphians Leskhē (Place of Talk), because here in days of old they used to meet and talk about the more serious matters and things that had to do with myth. That there used to be many such places all over Greece is shown by Homer’s words in the passage where Melantho abuses Odysseus:

10.25.2 Inside this building the whole of the painting on the right depicts Troy taken and the Greeks sailing away. On the ship of Menelaos, they are preparing to put to sea. The ship is painted [graphein] with children among the grown up sailors; amid ships is Phrontis the steersman [kubernētēs] holding two boat hooks. Homer^* represents [poieîn] Nestor as speaking about Phrontis in his conversation with Telemachus, saying that he was the son of Onētor and the steersman [kubernētēs] of Menelaos, of very high repute in his craft, and how he came to his end when he was already rounding Sounion in Attica. Up to this point, Menelaos had been sailing along with Nestor, but now he was left behind to build Phrontis a tomb [mnēmē] and to pay him the due rites of burial.

10.25.3 Phrontis then is in the painting of Polygnotus, and beneath him is one Ithaimenēs carrying clothes, and Ekhoiax is going down the gangway, carrying a bronze urn. Polites, Strophios, and Alphios are pulling down the hut [skēnē] of Menelaos, which is not far from the ship. Another hut [skēnē] is being pulled down by Amphialos, at whose feet is seated a boy. There is no inscription [epigramma] on the boy, and Phrontis is the only one with a beard. His too is the only name that Polygnotus took from the Odyssey; the names of the others he invented, I think, himself.

10.25.4 Briseis is standing with Diomede above her and Iphis in front of both; they appear to be examining the form of Helen. Helen herself is sitting, and so is Eurybates near her. We inferred that he was the herald [kērux] of Odysseus, although he had yet no beard. One handmaid, Panthalis, is standing beside Helen; another, Electra, is fastening the sandals of her mistress. These names too are different from those given by Homer in the Iliad,^* where he tells of [poieîn] Helen going to the wall with her slave women.

10.25.5 Beyond Helen, a man wrapped in a purple cloak is sitting in an attitude of the deepest dejection; one might conjecture that he was Helenos, the son of Priam, even before reading the inscription [epigramma]. Near Helenos is Meges, who is wounded in the arm, as Lescheos of Pyrrha, son of Aiskhylinos, describes [poieîn] in the Sack of Troy. For he says that he was wounded by Admetos, son of Augeias, in the battle that the Trojans fought in the night.

10.25.6 Beside Meges is also painted Lykomedes the son of Creon, who has a wound in the wrist; Lescheos says he was so wounded by Agenor. So it is plain that Polygnotus would not have represented [graphein] them so wounded, if he had not read the poem [poiēsis] of Lescheos. However, he has painted Lykomedes as wounded also in the ankle and yet again in the head. Euryalos the son of Mekisteus has also received a wound in the head and another in the wrist.

10.25.7 These are painted higher up than Helen in the picture [graphē]. Next to Helen comes the mother of Theseus with her head shaved, and Demophon, one of the sons of Theseus, is considering, to judge from his attitude [skhēma], whether it will be possible for him to rescue Aithra. The Argives say that Theseus had also a son Melanippos by the daughter of Sinis and that Melanippos won a running race when the Epigonoi, as they are called, held the second celebration of the Nemean Games, that of Adrastos being the first.

10.25.8 Lescheos says of [poieîn] Aithra that, when Troy was taken, she came stealthily to the Greek camp. She was recognized by the sons of Theseus, and Demophon asked for her from Agamemnon. He was ready to grant the favor [kharizesthai] to Demophon, but said that Helen must first give her consent. He sent a herald [kērux], and Helen granted him the favor [kharis]. So in the painting [graphē], Eurybates appears to have come to Helen to ask about Aithra, and to be saying what he had been told to say by Agamemnon.

10.25.9 The Trojan women are represented as already captives and lamenting. Andromache is in the painting, and near stands her boy grasping her breast; this child Lescheos says was put to death by being flung from the tower, not that the Greeks had so decreed, but Neoptolemos, of his own accord, was minded to murder him. In the painting is also Medesikaste, another of Priam’s illegitimate daughters, who according to Homer^* left her home and went to the city of Pedaion to be the wife of Imbrios, the son of Mentor.

10.25.10 Andromache and Medesikaste are wearing head-coverings [kalumma], but the hair of Polyxena is braided after the custom of girls [parthenoi]. Poets sing of her death at the tomb [mnēmē] of Achilles, and both in Athens and in Pergamon-on-the-Kaïkos, I have seen the tragedy of Polyxena depicted in paintings [graphē, pl.].

10.25.11 The artist has painted Nestor with a cap on his head and a spear in his hand. There is also a horse, in the attitude [skhēma] of one about to roll in the dust. Right up to the horse, there is a beach with what appear to be pebbles, but beyond the horse, the sea scene breaks off.