Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Section

← Previous Next →

[1] There is also an ascent through Daulis to the summit of Parnassus, a longer one than that from Delphi, though not so difficult. Turning back from Daulis to the straight road to Delphi and going forwards, you see on the left of the road a building called the Phocian Building of the People of Phokis, where assemble the delegates from each city of Phokis.

[2] The building is large, and within are pillars standing throughout its length. From the pillars rise steps to each wall, on which steps the delegates of Phokis take their seats. At the end are neither pillars nor steps, but images of Zeus, Athena, and Hērā. That of Zeus is on a throne; on his right stands Hērā, on his left, Athena.

The Cleft Road

[3] Going forward from here, you will come to a road called the Cleft Road, the very road on which Oedipus slew his father. Fate would have it that memorials of the sufferings of Oedipus should be left throughout the length and width of Greece. At his birth, they pieced his ankles with goads and exposed him on Mount Kithairon in Plataean territory. Corinth and the land at the Isthmus were the scenes of his upbringing. Phokis and the Cleft Road received the pollution of his murdered father’s blood. Thebes is even more notorious for the marriage of Oedipus and for the sin of Eteokles.

[4] The Cleft Road and the rash deed committed on it by Oedipus were the beginning of his troubles, and the tombs of Laios and the servant who followed him are still just as they were in the very middle of the place where the three roads meet, and over them have been piled unhewn stones. According to the story, it was Damasistratos, king of Plataea, who found the bodies lying and buried them.

Delphi, Mythical History

[5] From here, the high road to Delphi becomes both steeper and more difficult for the walker. Many and different are the stories told about Delphi, and even more so about the oracle of Apollo. For they say that in the earliest times, the oracular seat belonged to Earth, who appointed as prophetess at it Daphnis, one of the nymphs of the mountain.

[6] There is extant among the Greeks an hexameter poem, the name of which is Eumolpia, and it is assigned to Musaeus, son of Antiophemus. In it, the poet states that the oracle belonged to Poseidon and Earth in common; that Earth gave her oracles herself, but Poseidon used Pyrcon as his mouthpiece in giving responses. The verses are these:

Forthwith the voice of the Earth goddess uttered a wise word,
And with her Pyrcon, servant of the renowned Earth-shaker.

[Musaeus,] Eumolpia

They say that afterwards Earth gave her share to Themis, who gave it to Apollo as a gift. It is said that he gave to Poseidon Kalaureia, that lies off Troizen, in exchange for his oracle.

[7] I have heard too that shepherds feeding their flocks came upon the oracle, were inspired by the vapor, and prophesied as the mouthpiece of Apollo. The most prevalent view, however, is that Phemonoe was the first prophetess of the god, and first sang in hexameter verse. Boeo, a native woman who composed a hymn for the Delphians, said that the oracle was established for the god by comers from the Hyperboreans, Olen, and others and that he was the first to prophesy and the first to chant the hexameter oracles.

[8] The verses of Boeo are:

Here in truth, a mindful oracle was built
By the sons of the Hyperboreans, Pagasus, and divine Agyieus.

Boeo, work unknown

After enumerating others also of the Hyperboreans, at the end of the hymn she names Olen:

And Olen, who became the first prophet of Phoebus,
And first fashioned a song of ancient verses.

Boeo, work unknown

Tradition, however, reports no other man as prophet but makes mention of prophetesses only.

[9] They say that the most ancient temple of Apollo was made of laurel, the branches of which were brought from the laurel in Tempe. This temple must have had the form of a hut. The Delphians say that the second temple was made by bees from bees’ wax and feathers and that it was sent to the Hyperboreans by Apollo.

[10] Another story is current, that the temple was set up by a Delphian, whose name was Pteras, and so the temple received its name from the builder. After this, Pteras, so they say, the city in Crete was named, with the addition of a letter, Apterei. The story that the temple was built of the fern [ pteris] that grows on the mountains, by interweaving fresh stalks of it, I do not accept at all.

[11] It is no wonder that the third temple was made of bronze, seeing that Akrisios made a bedchamber of bronze for his daughter, the Lacedaemonians still possess a sanctuary of Athena of the Bronze House, and the Roman forum, a marvel for its size and style, possesses a roof of bronze. So it would not be unlikely that a temple of bronze was made for Apollo.

[12] The rest of the story I cannot believe, either that the temple was the work of Hephaistos, or what they say about the golden singers, referred to by Pindar in his verses about this bronze temple:

Above the pediment sang Golden Charmers.

Pindar, work unknown

These words, it seems to me, are but an imitation of Homer’s account of the Sirens. Neither did I find the accounts agree of the way this temple disappeared. Some say that it fell into a chasm in the earth, others that it was melted by fire.

[13] The fourth temple was made by Trophonios and Agamedes; the tradition is that it was made of stone. It was burned down in the year when Erxikleides was archon [ arkhōn] in Athens, in the first year of the fifty-eighth Olympiad, when Diognetos of Kroton was victorious. The modern temple was built for the god by the Amphiktyones from the sacred treasures, and the architect was one Spintharus of Corinth.

Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy. . .

Current edition Experimental

English (Jones and Ormerod; retranslated Gregory Nagy, CHS, 2018) (OCR draft) (English) (CHS Pausanias Reader retranslation by Gregory Nagy, based on Jones and Ormerod, with marked Greek terms, notes, quotations, and bibliographic attributions preserved.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Ἑλλάδος Περιηγήσεως Perseus (Pausanias. Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, Volumes 1-3. Spiro, Friedrich, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903.) — 10.5 focus

[1]
ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄνοδος διὰ τῆς Δαυλίδος ἐς τὰ ἄκρα τοῦ Παρνασσοῦ μακροτέρα τῆς ἐκ Δελφῶν, οὐ μέντοι καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ χαλεπή. ἐς δὲ τὴν ἐπὶ Δελφῶν εὐθεῖαν ἀναστρέψαντι ἐκ Δαυλίδος καὶ ἰόντι ἐπὶ τὸ πρόσω, ἔστιν οἰκοδόμημα ἐν ἀριστερᾷ τῆς ὁδοῦ καλούμενον Φωκικόν, ἐς ὃ ἀπὸ ἑκάστης πόλεως συνίασιν οἱ Φωκεῖς.

[2] μεγέθει μὲν μέγα τὸ οἴκημα, ἐντὸς δὲ 0 αὐτοῦ κίονες κατὰ μῆκός εἰσιν ἑστηκότες· ἀναβασμοὶ δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν κιόνων ἀνήκουσιν ἐς ἑκάτερον τοῖχον, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀναβασμῶν τούτων οἱ συνιόντες τῶν Φωκέων καθέζονται. πρὸς δὲ τῷ πέρατι κίονες μὲν οὐκ εἰσὶν οὐδὲ ἀναβασμοί, Διὸς δὲ ἄγαλμα καὶ Ἀθηνᾶς καὶ Ἥρας, τὸ μὲν ἐν θρόνῳ τοῦ Διός, ἑκατέρωθεν δὲ ἡ μὲν κατὰ δεξιά, ἡ δὲ κατὰ ἀριστερὰ παρεστῶσα ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ πεποίηται.

[3]
προϊὼν δὲ αὐτόθεν ἐπὶ ὁδὸν ἀφίξῃ καλουμένην Σχιστήν· ἐπʼ αὐτῇ τῇ ὁδῷ τὰ ἐς τὸν φόνον τοῦ πατρὸς Οἰδίποδι εἰργάσθη. ἔδει δὲ ἄρα παθημάτων τῶν Οἰδίποδος ἀνὰ πᾶσαν τὴν Ἑλλάδα ὑπολειφθῆναι μνημόσυνα. τεχθέντος μέν γε διαπείραντες διὰ τῶν σφυρῶν κέντρα ἐκτιθέασιν αὐτὸν ἐς τὴν Πλαταιίδα, ὄρος τὸν Κιθαιρῶνα· Κόρινθος δὲ καὶ ἡ ἐπὶ τῷ ἰσθμῷ χώρα τροφὸς τῷ Οἰδίποδι ἐγένετο· γῆ δὲ ἡ Φωκὶς καὶ ὁδὸς ἡ Σχιστὴ τοῦ πατρῴου φόνου τὸ μίασμα ὑπεδέξατο· Θηβαίοις δὲ καὶ ἐς πλέον γάμων τέ σφισι τῶν Οἰδίποδος καὶ ἀδικίας τῆς Ἐτεοκλέους ἐστὶν ἡ φήμη.

[4] Οἰδίποδι μὲν ὁδὸς ἡ Σχιστὴ καὶ τόλμημα τὸ ἐπʼ αὐτῇ κακῶν ἦρχε, καὶ τὰ τοῦ Λαΐου μνήματα καὶ οἰκέτου τοῦ ἑπομένου ταὐτὰ ἔτι ἐν μεσαιτάτῳ τῆς τριόδου ἐστὶ καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῷ λίθοι λογάδες σεσωρευμένοι· Δαμασίστρατον δὲ ἄνδρα ἐν Πλαταιαῖς βασιλεύοντα ἐπιτυχεῖν τε κειμένοις τοῖς νεκροῖς καὶ θάψαι φασὶν αὐτούς. 0

[5]
ἡ δὲ λεωφόρος αὐτόθεν ἡ ἐς Δελφοὺς καὶ προσάντης γίνεται μᾶλλον καὶ ἀνδρὶ εὐζώνῳ χαλεπωτέρα. λέγεται δὲ πολλὰ μὲν καὶ διάφορα ἐς αὐτοὺς τοὺς Δελφούς, πλείω δὲ ἔτι ἐς τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος τὸ μαντεῖον. φασὶ γὰρ δὴ τὰ ἀρχαιότατα Γῆς εἶναι τὸ χρηστήριον, καὶ Δαφνίδα ἐπʼ αὐτῷ τετάχθαι πρόμαντιν ὑπὸ τῆς Γῆς·

[6] εἶναι δὲ αὐτὴν τῶν περὶ τὸ ὄρος νυμφῶν. ἔστι δὲ ἐν Ἕλλησι ποίησις, ὄνομα μὲν τοῖς ἔπεσίν ἐστιν Εὐμολπία, Μουσαίῳ δὲ τῷ Ἀντιοφήμου προσποιοῦσι τὰ ἔπη· πεποιημένον οὖν ἐστιν ἐν τούτοις Ποσειδῶνος ἐν κοινῷ καὶ Γῆς εἶναι τὸ μαντεῖον, καὶ τὴν μὲν χρᾶν αὐτήν, Ποσειδῶνι δὲ ὑπηρέτην ἐς τὰ μαντεύματα εἶναι Πύρκωνα. καὶ οὕτως ἔχει τὰ ἔπη·

αὐτίκα δὲ Χθονίης φωνὴ πινυτὸν φάτο μῦθον,

σὺν δὲ τε Πύρκων ἀμφίπολος κλυτοῦ Ἐννοσιγαίου.

Musaeus, Eumolpia χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον, ὅσον τῇ Γῇ μετῆν, δοθῆναι Θέμιδι ὑπʼ αὐτῆς λέγουσιν, Ἀπόλλωνα δὲ παρὰ Θέμιδος λαβεῖν δωρεάν· Ποσειδῶνι δὲ ἀντὶ τοῦ μαντείου Καλαύρειαν ἀντιδοῦναί φασιν αὐτὸν τὴν πρὸ Τροιζῆνος.

[7] ἤκουσα δὲ καὶ ὡς ἄνδρες ποιμαίνοντες ἐπιτύχοιεν τῷ μαντείῳ, καὶ ἔνθεοί τε ἐγένοντο ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀτμοῦ καὶ ἐμαντεύσαντο ἐξ Ἀπόλλωνος. μεγίστη δὲ καὶ παρὰ πλείστων ἐς Φημονόην δόξα ἐστίν, ὡς πρόμαντις γένοιτο ἡ Φημονόη τοῦ θεοῦ πρώτη καὶ πρώτη τὸ ἑξάμετρον ᾖσεν. Βοιὼ δὲ ἐπιχωρία γυνὴ ποιήσασα ὕμνον Δελφοῖς ἔφη κατασκευάσασθαι τὸ μαντεῖον τῷ θεῷ τοὺς ἀφικομένους ἐξ Ὑπερβορέων τούς τε ἄλλους 0 καὶ Ὠλῆνα· τοῦτον δὲ καὶ μαντεύσασθαι πρῶτον καὶ ᾄσαι πρῶτον τὸ ἑξάμετρον.

[8] πεποίηκε δὲ ἡ Βοιὼ τοιάδε·

ἔνθα τοι εὔμνηστον χρηστήριον ἐκτελέσαντο

παῖδες Ὑπερβορέων Παγασὸς καὶ δῖος Ἀγυιεύς.

Boeo, work unknown ἐπαριθμοῦσα δὲ καὶ ἄλλους τῶν Ὑπερβορέων, ἐπὶ τελευτῇ τοῦ ὕμνου τὸν Ὠλῆνα ὠνόμασεν·

Ὠλήν θʼ, ὃς γένετο πρῶτος Φοίβοιο προφάτας,

πρῶτος δʼ ἀρχαίων ἐπέων τεκτάνατʼ ἀοιδάν.

Boeo, work unknown οὐ μέντοι τά γε ἥκοντα ἐς μνήμην ἐς ἄλλον τινά, ἐς δὲ γυναικῶν μαντείαν ἀνήκει μόνων.

[9] ποιηθῆναι δὲ τὸν ναὸν τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι τὸ ἀρχαιότατον δάφνης φασί, κομισθῆναι δὲ τοὺς κλάδους ἀπὸ τῆς δάφνης τῆς ἐν τοῖς Τέμπεσι· καλύβης δʼ ἂν σχῆμα οὗτός γε ἂν εἴη παρεσχηματισμένος ὁ ναός. δεύτερα δὲ λέγουσιν οἱ Δελφοὶ γενέσθαι ὑπὸ μελισσῶν τὸν ναὸν ἀπό τε τοῦ κηροῦ τῶν μελισσῶν καὶ ἐκ πτερῶν· πεμφθῆναι δὲ ἐς Ὑπερβορέους φασὶν αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος.

[10] λέγεται δὲ καὶ ἕτερος λόγος, ὡς τὸν ναὸν κατεσκευάσατο ἀνὴρ Δελφός, ὄνομα δὲ αὐτῷ Πτερᾶν εἶναι· κατὰ τοῦτο οὖν γενέσθαι καὶ τῷ ναῷ τοὔνομα ἀπὸ τοῦ οἰκοδομήσαντος· ἀπὸ τούτου δὲ τοῦ Πτερᾶ καὶ πόλιν Κρητικὴν προσθήκῃ γράμματος Ἀπτερεούς φασιν ὀνομάζεσθαι. τὸν γὰρ δὴ λόγον τὸν ἔχοντα ἐς τὴν ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν αὐξομένην πτέριν, ὡς ἐκ τῆς πόας ταύτης χλωρᾶς ἔτι διεπλέξαντο ναόν, οὐδὲ ἀρχὴν προσίεμαι τὸν λόγον τοῦτον.

[11] τὰ δὲ ἐς τὸν τρίτον τῶν ναῶν, ὅτι ἐγένετο ἐκ χαλκοῦ, θαῦμα οὐδέν, εἴ γε Ἀκρίσιος 0 μὲν θάλαμον χαλκοῦν τῇ θυγατρὶ ἐποιήσατο, Λακεδαιμονίοις δὲ Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερὸν Χαλκιοίκου καὶ ἐς ἡμᾶς ἔτι λείπεται, Ῥωμαίοις δὲ ἡ ἀγορὰ μεγέθους ἕνεκα καὶ κατασκευῆς τῆς ἄλλης θαῦμα οὖσα παρέχεται τὸν ὄροφον χαλκοῦν· οὕτω καὶ ναὸν τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι οὐκ ἂν ἄπο γε τοῦ εἰκότος εἴη γενέσθαι χαλκοῦν.

[12] τὰ μέντοι ἄλλα με οὐκ ἔπειθεν ὁ λόγος ἢ Ἡφαίστου τὸν ναὸν τέχνην εἶναι ἢ τὰ ἐς τὰς ᾠδοὺς τὰς χρυσᾶς, ἃ δὴ Πίνδαρος ᾖσεν ἐπʼ ἐκείνῳ τῷ ναῷ·

χρύσειαι δʼ ἐξύπερθʼ αἰετοῦ

ἄειδον Κηληδόνες.

Pindar, work unknown οὗτος μὲν δὴ ταῦτα ἐς μίμησιν ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν τῶν παρʼ Ὁμήρῳ Σειρήνων ἐποίησεν· οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ τρόπον ὅντινα ἀφανισθῆναι συνέπεσε τῷ ναῷ, κατὰ ταὐτὰ εἰρημένα εὕρισκον· καὶ γὰρ ἐς χάσμα γῆς ἐμπεσεῖν αὐτὸν καὶ ὑπὸ πυρὸς τακῆναι λέγουσιν.

[13] τέταρτος δὲ ὑπὸ Τροφωνίου μὲν εἰργάσθη καὶ Ἀγαμήδους, λίθου δὲ αὐτὸν ποιηθῆναι μνημονεύουσι· κατεκαύθη δὲ Ἐρξικλείδου μὲν Ἀθήνῃσιν ἄρχοντος, πρώτῳ δὲ τῆς ὀγδόης Ὀλυμπιάδος ἔτει καὶ πεντηκοστῆς, ἣν Κροτωνιάτης ἐνίκα Διόγνητος. τὸν δʼ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν τῷ θεῷ ναὸν ᾠκοδόμησαν μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερῶν οἱ Ἀμφικτύονες χρημάτων, ἀρχιτέκτων δέ τις Σπίνθαρος ἐγένετο αὐτοῦ Κορίνθιος.

Translations (1)

Description of Greece Perseus (Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece, Volumes 1-4. Jones, W.H.S. (William Henry Samuel), translator; Ormerod, Henry Arderne, translator. London, New York: W. Heinemann, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1918-1935.) — 10.5 focus

[1]
There is also an ascent through Daulis to the summit of Parnassus , a longer one than that from Delphi , though not so difficult. Turning back from Daulis to the straight road to Delphi and going forwards, you see on the left of the road a building called the Phocian Building, where assemble the Phocian delegates from each city.

[2] The building is large, and within are pillars standing throughout its length. From the pillars rise steps to each wall, on which steps the Phocian delegates take their seats. At the end are neither pillars nor steps, but images of Zeus, Athena and Hera. That of Zeus is on a throne; on his right stands Hera, on his left Athena.

[3]
Going forward from here you will come to a road called the Cleft Road, the very road on which¹ Oedipus slew his father. Fate would have it that memorials of the sufferings of Oedipus should be left throughout the length and breadth of Greece . At his birth they pieced his ankles with goads and exposed him on Mount Cithaeron in Plataean territory. Corinth and the land at the Isthmus were the scene of his upbringing. Phocis and the Cleft Road received the pollution of his murdered father's blood. Thebes is even more notorious for the marriage of Oedipus and for the sin of Eteocles.

[4] The Cleft Road and the rash deed committed on it by Oedipus were the beginning of his troubles, and the tombs of Laius and the servant who followed him are still just as they were in the very middle of the place where the three roads meet, and over them have been piled unhewn stones. According to the story, it was Damasistratus, king of Plataea, who found the bodies lying and buried them.

[5]
From here the high road to Delphi becomes both steeper and more difficult for the walker. Many and different are the stories told about Delphi , and even more so about the oracle of Apollo. For they say that in the earliest times the oracular seat belonged to Earth, who appointed as prophetess at it Daphnis, one of the nymphs of the mountain.

[6] There is extant among the Greeks an hexameter poem, the name of which is Eumolpia, and it is assigned to Musaeus, son of Antiophemus. In it the poet states that the oracle belonged to Poseidon and Earth in common; that Earth gave her oracles herself, but Poseidon used Pyrcon as his mouthpiece in giving responses. The verses are these:—

Forthwith the voice of the Earth-goddess uttered a wise word,

And with her Pyrcon, servant of the renowned Earth-shaker.

[Musaeus], Eumolpia They say that afterwards Earth gave her share to Themis, who gave it to Apollo as a gift. It is said that he gave to Poseidon Calaureia, that lies off Troezen , in exchange for his oracle.

[7] I have heard too that shepherds feeding their flocks came upon the oracle, were inspired by the vapor, and prophesied as the mouthpiece of Apollo. The most prevalent view, however, is that Phemonoe was the first prophetess of the god, and first sang in hexameter verse. Boeo, a native woman who composed a hymn for the Delphians, said that the oracle was established for the god by comers from the Hyperboreans, Olen and others, and that he was the first to prophesy and the first to chant the hexameter oracles.

[8] The verses of Boeo are:—

Here in truth a mindful oracle was built

By the sons of the Hyperboreans, Pagasus and divine Agyieus.

Boeo, work unknown After enumerating others also of the Hyperboreans, at the end of the hymn she names Olen :—

And Olen, who became the first prophet of Phoebus,

And first fashioned a song of ancient verses.

Boeo, work unknown
Tradition, however, reports no other man as prophet, but makes mention of prophetesses only.

[9] They say that the most ancient temple of Apollo was made of laurel, the branches of which were brought from the laurel in Tempe . This temple must have had the form of a hut. The Delphians say that the second temple was made by bees from bees-wax and feathers, and that it was sent to the Hyperboreans by Apollo.

[10] Another story is current, that the temple was set up by a Delphian, whose name was Pteras, and so the temple received its name from the builder. After this Pteras, so they say, the city in Crete was named, with the addition of a letter, Apterei. The story that the temple was built of the fern ( pteris) that grows on the mountains, by interweaving fresh stalks of it, I do not accept at all.

[11] It is no wonder that the third temple was made of bronze, seeing that Acrisius made a bedchamber of bronze for his daughter, the Lacedaemonians still possess a sanctuary of Athena of the Bronze House, and the Roman forum, a marvel for its size and style, possesses a roof of bronze. So it would not be unlikely that a temple of bronze was made for Apollo.

[12] The rest of the story I cannot believe, either that the temple was the work of Hephaestus, or the legend about the golden singers, referred to by Pindar in his verses about this bronze temple:—

Above the pediment sang

Golden Charmers.

Pindar, work unknown These words, it seems to me, are but an imitation of Homer's² account of the Sirens. Neither did I find the accounts agree of the way this temple disappeared. Some say that it fell into a chasm in the earth, others that it was melted by fire.

[13] The fourth temple was made by Trophonius and Agamedes; the tradition is that it was made of stone. It was burnt down in the archonship of Erxicleides at Athens , in the first year of the fifty-eighth Olympiad,³ when Diognetus of Crotona was victorious. The modern temple was built for the god by the Amphictyons from the sacred treasures, and the architect was one Spintharus of Corinth .

New Alexandria Commentaries

Gregory Nagy, Editors: Angelia Hanhardt and Keith DeStone, Web producer: Noel Spencer, Consultant for images: Jill Curry Robbins, \[\[Noel gives this a separate URN\]\]

Pausanias Description of Greece 10.5

ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

The Cleft Road

Delphi, Mythical History

Current edition Experimental

New Alexandria Commentaries

Stable identifiers