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[1] At Orkhomenos is a sanctuary of Dionysus, but the oldest is one of the Graces. They worship the stones most, and say that they fell for Eteokles out of the sky [
ouranos]. The artistic images were dedicated in my time, and they too are of stone.
[2] They have also a fountain worth seeing, and go down to it to fetch water. The treasury of Minyas, a wonder second to none either in Greece itself or elsewhere, has been built in the following way. It is made of stone; its shape is round, rising to a rather blunt apex; they say that the highest stone is the keystone of the whole building.
[3] There are tombs of Minyas and Hesiod. They say that they thus recovered the bones of Hesiod. A pestilence fell on men and beasts, so that they sent envoys to the god. To these, it is said, the Pythian priestess made answer that to bring the bones of Hesiod from the land of Naupaktos to the land of Orkhomenos was their one and only remedy. Whereupon the envoys asked a further question, where in the land of Naupaktos they would find the bones; to which the Pythian priestess answered again that a crow would indicate to them the place.
[4] So when the envoys landed, they saw, it is said, a rock not far from the road, with the bird upon the rock; the bones of Hesiod they found in a cleft of the rock. Elegiac verses are inscribed on the tomb:
“Ascra rich in wheat was his native land, but when Hesiod died,
The land of the horse-striking Minyans holds his bones,
Whose fame will rise very high in Greece
When men are judged by the touchstone of artistry.”
The land of the horse-striking Minyans holds his bones,
Whose fame will rise very high in Greece
When men are judged by the touchstone of artistry.”
[5] About Aktaion the Orkhomenians had the following story. A ghost, they say, carrying a rock
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was ravaging the land. When they inquired at Delphi, the god ordered them to discover the remains of Aktaion and bury them in the earth. He also ordered them to make a bronze likeness of the ghost and fasten it to a rock with iron. I have myself seen this image thus fastened. They also sacrifice every year to Aktaion as to a hero.
[6] Seven stadium-lengths from Orkhomenos is a temple of Hēraklēs with a small image. Here is the source of the river Melas (black), one of the streams running into the Cephisian Lake. The lake at all times covers the greater part of the Orkhomenian territory, but in the winter season, after the south-west wind has generally prevailed, the water spreads over a yet greater extent of the territory.
[7] The Thebans declare that the river Kephisos was diverted into the Orkhomenian plain by Hēraklēs, and that for a time it passed under the mountain and entered the sea, until Hēraklēs blocked up the chasm through the mountain. Now Homer too knows that the Cephisian Lake was a lake of itself, and not made by Hēraklēs. Wherefore Homer says:
“Sloping towards the Cephisian Lake.”
Iliad 5.709
[8] It is not likely either that the Orkhomenians would not have discovered the chasm, and, breaking down the work put up by Hēraklēs, have given back to the Gephisus its ancient passage, since right down to the Trojan war they were a wealthy people. There is evidence in my favor in the passage of Homer where Achilles replies to the envoys from Agamemnon:
“Not even the wealth that comes to Orkhomenos,”
Iliad 9.381
a line that clearly shows that even then the revenues coming to Orkhomenos were large.
[9] They say that Aspledon was left by the inhabitants because of a shortage of water. They say also that the city got its name from Aspledon, who was a son of the nymph Mideia and Poseidon. Their view is confirmed by some verses composed by Chersias, a man of Orkhomenos:
“To Poseidon and glorious Mideia
Was born Aspledon in the spacious city.”
Chersias of Orkhomenos, unknown location
Was born Aspledon in the spacious city.”
[10] The poem of Chersias was no longer extant in my day, but these verses are quoted by Kallippos in the same history of Orkhomenos. The Orkhomenians have a tradition that this Chersias wrote also the inscription on the tomb of Hesiod.
Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy. . .