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[1] At Plane tree Grove there is also a hero-shrine of Kyniska, daughter of Arkhidamos king of the Spartans. She was the first woman to breed horses, and the first to win a chariot-race at Olympia. Behind the portico built by the side of Plane tree Grove are other hero-shrines, of Alcimus, of Enaraephorus, at a little distance away one of Dorceus, and close to it one of Sebrus.
[2] These are said to be sons of Hippokoön. The fountain near the hero-shrine of Dorceus they call Dorcean after him; the place Sebrium is named after Sebrus. On the right of Sebrium is the tomb of Alcman, the lyric poet, the charm of whose works was not in the least spoilt by the Laconian dialect, which is the least musical of them all.
[3] There are sanctuaries of Helen and of Hēraklēs; the former is near the tomb of Alcman, the latter is quite close to the wall and contains an armed image of Hēraklēs. The attitude of the image is due, they say, to the fight with Hippokoön and his sons. The enmity of Hēraklēs towards the lineage of Hippokoön is said to have sprung out of their refusing to purify him when he came to Sparta for purifying after the death of Iphitos.
[4] The following incident, too, helped to begin the feud. Oeonus, a young cousin of Hēraklēs—he was the son of Licymnius the brother of Alcmene—came to Sparta along with Hēraklēs, and went round to view the city. When he came to the house of Hippokoön, a house-dog attacked him. Oeonus happened to throw a stone which knocked over the dog. So the sons of Hippokoön ran out, and dispatched Oeonus with their clubs.
[5] This made Hēraklēs most bitterly angry with Hippokoön and his sons, and straightway, angry as he was, he set out to give them battle. On this occasion he was wounded, and made good his retreat by stealth but afterwards he made an expedition against Sparta and succeeded in avenging himself on Hippokoön, and also on the sons of Hippokoön for their murder of Oeonus. The tomb of Oeonus is built by the side of the sanctuary of Hēraklēs.
[6] As you go from the Course towards the east, there is a path on the right, with a sanctuary of Athena called Axiopoinos (Just Requital or Tit for Tat). For when Hēraklēs, in avenging himself on Hippokoön and his sons, had inflicted upon them a just requital for their treatment of his relative, he founded a sanctuary of Athena, and surnamed her Axiopoinos because the ancients used to call vengeance poinai. There is another sanctuary of Athena on another road from the Course. It was dedicated, they say, by Theras son of Autesion son of Tisamenus son of Thersandros, when he was leading a colony to the island now called Thera after him, the name of which in ancient times was Kalliste (Fairest).
[7] Near is a temple of Hipposthenes, who won so many victories in wrestling. They worship Hipposthenes in accordance with an oracle, paying him honors as to Poseidon. Opposite this temple is an old image of Enyalios in fetters. The idea the Lacedaemonians express by this image is the same as the Athenians express by their Wingless Victory; the former think that Enyalios will never run away from them, being bound in the fetters, while the Athenians think that Victory, having no wings, will always remain where she is.
[8] In this fashion, and with such a belief have these cities set up the wooden images. In Sparta is a lounge called Painted, and by it hero-shrines of Kadmos the son of Agenor, and of his descendants Oiolykos, son of Theras, and Aigeus, son of Oiolykos. They are said to have been made by Maesis, Laeas and Europas, sons of Hyraeus, son of Aigeus. They made for Amphilokhos too his hero-shrine, because their ancestor Tisamenus had for his mother Demonassa, the sister of Amphilokhos.
[9] The Lacedaemonians are the only Greeks who surname Hērā Goat-eater, and sacrifice goats to the goddess. They say that Hēraklēs founded the sanctuary and was the first to sacrifice goats, because in his fight against Hippokoön and his children he met with no hindrance from Hērā, although in his other adventures he thought that the goddess opposed him. He sacrificed goats, they say, because he lacked other kinds of victims.
[10] Not far from the theater is a sanctuary of Poseidon God of Kin, and there are hero-shrines of Kleodaios, son of Hyllos, and of Oibalos. The most famous of their sanctuaries of Asklepios has been built near Boöneta, and on the left is the hero-shrine of Teleklos. I shall mention him again later in my history of Messenia.
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A little farther on is a small hill, on which is an ancient temple with a wooden image of Aphrodite armed. This is the only temple I know that has an upper storey built upon it.
[11] It is a sanctuary of Morpho, a surname of Aphrodite, who sits wearing a veil and with fetters on her feet. The story is that the fetters were put on her by Tyndareus, who symbolized by the bonds the faithfulness of wives to their husbands. The other account, that Tyndareus punished the goddess with fetters because he thought that from Aphrodite had come the shame of his daughters, I will not admit for a moment. For it were surely altogether silly to expect to punish the goddess by making a cedar figure and naming it Aphrodite.
Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy. . .