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[1] Later on, Aristotīmos, the son of Damaretos, the son of Etymon, became despot of Elis, being aided in his attempt by Antigonos, the son of Demetrios, who was king in Macedonia. After a despotism of six months Aristotīmos was deposed, a rising against him having been organized by Khilon, Hellanikos, Lampis and Kylon; Kylon it was who with his own hand killed the despot when he had sought sanctuary at the altar of Zeus the Savior. Such were the wars of the Eleians, of which my present enumeration must serve as a summary.
[2] The land of Elis contains two marvels. Here, and here only in Greece, does fine flax grow; and secondly, only over the border, and not within it, can the mares be impregnated by asses. The cause of this is said to have been a curse. The fine flax of Elis is as fine as that of the Hebrews, but it is not so yellow.
[3] As you go from Elis, there is a district stretching down to the sea. It is called Samikon, and above it on the right is what is called Triphylia, in which is the city Lepreus. The citizens of this city wish to belong to the Arcadians, but it is plain that from the beginning, they have been subject to the Eleians. Those that have won Olympic victories have been announced by the herald as Eleians from Lepreus, and Aristophanes in a comedy calls Lepreus a town of the Eleians. Leaving the river Anigros, on the left there is a road leading to Lepreus; from Samikon, another leads to it from Olympia and a third from Elis. The longest of them is a day’s journey.
[4] The city got its name, they say, from its founder Lepreus, the son of Pyrgeus. There was also a story that Lepreus contended with Hēraklēs: that he was as good a trencherman. Each killed an ox at the same time and prepared it for the table. It turned out, even as Lepreus maintained, that he was as powerful a trencherman as Hēraklēs. Afterwards, he made bold to challenge him to a duel. Lepreus, they say, lost, was killed and was buried in the land of Phigaleia. The Phigalians, however, could not show a tomb of Lepreus.
[5] I have heard some who maintained that Lepreus was founded by Leprea, the daughter of Pyrgeus. Others say that the first dwellers in the land were afflicted with the disease leprosy and that the city received its name from the misfortune of the inhabitants. The Lepreans told me that in their city once was a temple of Zeus Leukaios (of the White Poplar), the tomb of Lycurgus [Lykourgos], son of Aleus, and the tomb of Kaukon, over which was the figure of a man holding a lyre.
[6] But as far as I could see they had no tomb of distinction and no sanctuary of any deity, save one of Demeter. Even this was built of unburned brick and contained no image. Not far from the city of the Lepreans is a spring called Arene, and they say that it derives its name from the wife of Aphareus.
[7] Returning again to Samikon, and passing through the district, we reach the mouth of the Anigros. The current of this river is often held back by violent gales, which carry the sand from the open sea against it and stop the onward flow of the water. So whenever the sand has become soaked on both sides, by the sea without and by the river within, beasts and still more travelers on foot are in danger of sinking into it.
[8] The Anigros descends from the mountain Lapithos in Arcadia, and right from its source, its water does not smell sweet but actually stinks horribly. Before it receives the tributary Akidas, it plainly cannot support fish life at all. After the rivers unite, the fish that come down into the Anigros with the water are uneatable, though before, if they are caught in the Akidas, they are eatable.
[9] I heard from an Ephesian that the Akidas was called Iardanos in ancient times. I repeat his statement, though I have nowhere found evidence in support of it. I am convinced that the peculiar odor of the Anigros is due to the earth through which the water springs up, just as those rivers beyond Ionia, the exhalation from which is deadly to man, owe their peculiarity to the same cause. Some Greeks say that Kheiron,
[10] others that Pylenor, another Centaur, when shot by Hēraklēs fled wounded to this river and washed his injury in it and that it was the hydra’s poison which gave the Anigros its nasty smell. Others again attribute the quality of the river to Melampos, the son of Amythaon, who threw into it the means he used to purify the daughters of Proitos.
[11] There is in Samikon a cave not far from the river and called the Cave of the Nymphs of Anigros. Whoever enters it suffering from
alphos or
leuke first has to pray to the nymphs and to promise some sacrifice or other, after which he wipes the unhealthy parts of his body. Then, swimming through the river, he leaves his old uncleanness in its water, coming up sound and of one color.
Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy. . .