A Pausanias Reader in Progress

An ongoing retranslation of the Greek text of Pausanias, with ongoing annotations, primarily by Gregory Nagy from 2014 to 2022, and continued since 2022 by Nagy together with an intergenerational team. Based on an original translation by W. H. S. Jones, 1918 (Scroll 2 with H. A. Ormerod), containing some of the footnotes added by Jones. Editors: Keith DeStone, Elizabeth Gipson, Charles Pletcher Editor Emerita: Angelia Hanhardt Web Producer: Noel Spencer Consultant for images: Jill Curry Robbins To cite this work, use the following persistent identifier: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.prim-src:A_Pausanias_Reader_in_Progress.2018-.

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.aprip-en


1.36.1 But I will return to my subject. In Salamis is a sanctuary of Artemis, and also a trophy erected in honor of the victory which Themistocles the son of Neokles won for the Greeks [Hellēnes].* There is also a sanctuary of Kykhreus. When the Athenians were fighting the Persians at sea, a serpent is said to have appeared in the fleet, and the god in an oracle told the Athenians that it was Kykhreus the hero.

1.36.2 Before Salamis there is an island called Psyttalea. Here they say that about four hundred of the barbarians [= Persians] landed, and when the fleet of Xerxes was defeated, these also were killed after the Greeks [Hellēnes] had crossed over to Psyttaleia. The island has no artistic statue [agalma], only some roughly carved-wooden-statues [xoana] of Pan.

1.36.3 As one goes to Eleusis from Athens along what the Athenians call the Sacred Way [Hierā Hodos], there is a tomb [mnēma] that was made [poieîn]—the tomb of Anthemokritos.* The people of Megara committed against him a most wicked deed, for when he had come as a herald to forbid them to encroach upon the land in future they put him to death. For this act the wrath of the Two Goddesses [theai] lies upon them even to this day, for they are the only Greeks [Hellēnes] that not even ‘King’ [basileus] Hadrian could make more prosperous.

1.36.4 After the tombstone of Anthemokritos comes the tomb of Molottos, who was deemed worthy of commanding the Athenians when they crossed into Euboea* to reinforce Plutarch,* and also a place called Skiron, which received its name for the following reason. The Eleusinians were making war against Erekhtheus when there came from Dodona a seer called Skiros, who also set up at Phaleron the ancient sanctuary of Athena Skiras. When he fell in the fighting the Eleusinians buried him near a torrent, and the hero has given his name to both place and torrent.

1.36.5 Close by is the tomb of Kephisodoros, who was champion of the people and opposed to the utmost Philip, the son of Demetrios, king of Macedon. Kephisodoros induced to become allies of Athens two kings, Attalos the Mysian and Ptolemy the Egyptian, and, of the self-governing peoples, the Aetolians with the Rhodians and the Cretans among the islanders.

1.36.6 As the reinforcements from Egypt, Mysia, and Crete were for the most part too late, and the Rhodians, whose strength lay only in their fleet, were of little help against the Macedonian men-at-arms, Kephisodoros sailed with other Athenians to Italy and begged aid of the Romans.* They sent a force and a general, who so reduced Philip and the Macedonians that afterwards Perseus, the son of Philip, lost his throne and was himself taken prisoner to Italy. This Philip was the son of Demetrios. Demetrios was the first of this house to hold the throne of Macedon, having put to death Alexander, son of Kassandros, as I have related in a former part of my account.

1 480 BCE.

2 Just before the Peloponnesian War.

3 350 BCE.

4 Tyrant of Eretria in Euboea.

5 198 BCE.