Pausanias, Description of Greece, W.H.S. Jones (Translator), H.A. Ormerod (Translator), 2.38

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[1]
Temenium is in Argive territory, and was named after Temenus, the son of Aristomachus. For, having seized and strengthened the position, he waged therefrom with the Dorians the war against Tisamenus and the Achaeans. On the way to Temenium from Lerna the river Phrixus empties itself into the sea, and in Temenium is built a sanctuary of Poseidon, as well as one of Aphrodite; there is also the tomb of Temenus, which is worshipped by the Dorians in Argos .

[2] Fifty stades, I conjecture, from Temenium is Nauplia , which at the present day is uninhabited; its founder was Nauplius, reputed to be a son of Poseidon and Amymone. Of the walls, too, ruins still remain and in Nauplia are a sanctuary of Poseidon, harbors, and a spring called Canathus. Here, say the Argives, Hera bathes every year and recovers her maidenhood.

[3] This is one of the sayings told as a holy secret at the mysteries which they celebrate in honor of Hera. The story told by the people in Nauplia about the ass, how by nibbling down the shoots of a vine he caused a more plenteous crop of grapes in the future, and how for this reason they have carved an ass on a rock, because he taught the pruning of vines—all this I pass over as trivial.

[4]
From Lerna there is also another road, which skirts the sea and leads to a place called Genesium. By the sea is a small sanctuary of Poseidon Genesius. Next to this is another place, called Apobathmi (Steps). The story is that this is the first place in Argolis where Danaus landed with his daughters. From here we pass through what is called Anigraea, along a narrow and difficult road, until we reach a tract on the left which stretches down to the sea;

[5] it is fertile in trees, especially the olive. As you go up inland from this is a place where three hundred picked Argives fought for this land with an equal number of specially chosen Lacedaemonian warriors¹. All were killed except one Spartan and two Argives, and here were raised the graves for the dead. But the Lacedaemonians, having fought against the Argives with all their forces, won a decisive victory; at first they themselves enjoyed the fruits of the land, but afterwards they assigned it to the Aeginetans, when they were expelled from their island by the Athenians². In my time Thyreatis was inhabited by the Argives, who say that they recovered it by the award of an arbitration³

[6] As you go from these common graves you come to Athene, where Aeginetans once made their home, another village Neris , and a third Eua, the largest of the villages, in which there is a sanctuary of Polemocrates. This Polemocrates is one of the sons of Machaon, and the brother of Alexanor; he cures the people of the district, and receives honors from the neighbours.

[7] Above the villages extends Mount Parnon, on which the Lacedaemonian border meets the borders of the Argives and Tegeatae. On the borders stand stone figures of Hermes, from which the name of the place is derived. A river called Tanaus, which is the only one descending from Mount Parnon, flows through the Argive territory and empties itself into the Gulf of Thyrea.

Description of Greece. Pausanias. W.H.S. Jones (Translator), H.A. Ormerod (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1918-1935.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Description of Greece (English) (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.)

Editions (1)

Ἑλλάδος Περιηγήσεως Perseus (Pausanias. Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, Volumes 1-3. Spiro, Friedrich, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903.) — 2.38 focus

[1]
ἐκ Λέρνης δὲ ἰοῦσιν ἐς Τημένιον—τὸ δὲ Τημένιόν ἐστιν Ἀργείων, ὠνομάσθη δὲ ἀπὸ Τημένου τοῦ Ἀριστομάχου· καταλαβὼν γὰρ καὶ ἐχυρωσάμενος τὸ χωρίον ἐπολέμει σὺν τοῖς Δωριεῦσιν αὐτόθεν τὸν πρὸς Τισαμενὸν καὶ Ἀχαιοὺς πόλεμον—ἐς τοῦτο οὖν τὸ Τημένιον ἰοῦσιν ὅ τε Φρίξος ποταμὸς ἐκδίδωσιν ἐς θάλασσαν καὶ Ποσειδῶνος ἱερὸν ἐν Τημενίῳ πεποίηται καὶ Ἀφροδίτης ἕτερον καὶ μνῆμά ἐστι Τημένου τιμὰς ἔχον παρὰ Δωριέων τῶν ἐν Ἄργει.

[2] Τημενίου δὲ ἀπέχει Ναυπλία πεντήκοντα ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν σταδίους, τὰ μὲν ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἔρημος, οἰκιστὴς δὲ ἐγένετο αὐτῆς Ναύπλιος Ποσειδῶνος λεγόμενος καὶ Ἀμυμώνης εἶναι. λείπεται δὲ καὶ τειχῶν ἔτι ἐρείπια, καὶ Ποσειδῶνος ἱερὸν καὶ λιμένες εἰσὶν ἐν Ναυπλίᾳ καὶ πηγὴ Κάναθος καλουμένη· ἐνταῦθα τὴν Ἥραν φασὶν Ἀργεῖοι κατὰ ἔτος 0 λουμένην παρθένον γίνεσθαι.

[3] οὗτος μὲν δή σφισιν ἐκ τελετῆς, ἣν ἄγουσι τῇ Ἥρᾳ, λόγος τῶν ἀπορρήτων ἐστίν· τὰ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν Ναυπλίᾳ λεγόμενα ἐς τὸν ὄνον, ὡς ἐπιφαγὼν ἀμπέλου κλῆμα ἀφθονώτερον ἐς τὸ μέλλον ἀπέφηνε τὸν καρπόν—καὶ ὄνος σφίσιν ἐν πέτρᾳ πεποιημένος διὰ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἅτε ἀμπέλων διδάξας τομήν—, παρίημι οὐκ ἀξιόλογα ἡγούμενος.

[4]
ἔστι δὲ ἐκ Λέρνης καὶ ἑτέρα παρʼ αὐτὴν ὁδὸς τὴν θάλασσαν ἐπὶ χωρίον ὃ Γενέσιον ὀνομάζουσι· πρὸς θαλάσσῃ δὲ τοῦ Γενεσίου Ποσειδῶνος ἱερόν ἐστιν οὐ μέγα. τούτου δʼ ἔχεται χωρίον ἄλλο Ἀπόβαθμοι· γῆς δὲ ἐνταῦθα πρῶτον τῆς Ἀργολίδος Δαναὸν σὺν ταῖς παισὶν ἀποβῆναι λέγουσιν. ἐντεῦθεν διελθοῦσιν Ἀνιγραῖα καλούμενα ὁδὸν καὶ στενὴν καὶ ἄλλως δύσβατον, ἔστιν ἐν ἀριστερᾷ μὲν καθήκουσα ἐπὶ θάλασσαν καὶ δένδρα—ἐλαίας μάλιστα—ἀγαθὴ τρέφειν γῆ, ἰόντι

[5] δὲ ἄνω πρὸς τὴν ἤπειρον ἀπʼ αὐτῆς χωρίον ἐστίν, ἔνθα δὴ ἐμαχέσαντο ὑπὲρ τῆς γῆς ταύτης λογάδες Ἀργείων τριακόσιοι πρὸς ἄνδρας Λακεδαιμονίων ἀριθμόν τε ἴσους καὶ ἐπιλέκτους ὁμοίως. ἀποθανόντων δὲ ἁπάντων πλὴν ἑνὸς Σπαρτιάτου καὶ δυοῖν Ἀργείων, τοῖς μὲν ἀποθανοῦσιν ἐχώσθησαν ἐνταῦθα οἱ τάφοι, τὴν χώραν δὲ οἱ Λακεδαιμόνιοι γενομένου πανδημεί σφισιν ἀγῶνος πρὸς Ἀργείους κρατήσαντες βεβαίως αὐτοί τε παραυτίκα ἐκαρποῦντο καὶ ὕστερον Αἰγινήταις ἔδοσαν ἐκπεσοῦσιν ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων ἐκ τῆς νήσου. τὰ δὲ ἐπʼ ἐμοῦ τὴν Θυρεᾶτιν ἐνέμοντο Ἀργεῖοι· φασὶ δὲ ἀνασώσασθαι δίκῃ νικήσαντες.

[6] ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν
πολυανδρίων ἰόντι Ἀ νθήνη τέ ἐστιν, ἐς ἣν Αἰγινῆταί ποτε ᾤκησαν, καὶ ἑτέρα κώμη Νηρίς, τρίτη δὲ Εὔα μεγίστη τῶν κωμῶν· καὶ ἱερὸν τοῦ Πολεμοκράτους ἐστὶν ἐν ταύτῃ. ὁ δὲ Πολεμοκράτης ἐστὶ καὶ οὗτος Μαχάονος υἱός, ἀδελφὸς δὲ Ἀλεξάνορος, καὶ ἰᾶται τοὺς ταύτῃ καὶ τιμὰς παρὰ τῶν προσοίκων ἔχει.

[7] ἀνατείνει δὲ ὑπὲρ τὰς κώμας ὄρος Πάρνων, καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ πρὸς Ἀργείους ὅροι καὶ Τεγεάτας εἰσίν· ἑστήκασι δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὅροις Ἑρμαῖ λίθου, καὶ τοῦ χωρίου τὸ ὄνομά ἐστιν ἀπʼ αὐτῶν. ποταμὸς δὲ καλούμενος Τάναος—εἷς γὰρ δὴ οὗτος ἐκ τοῦ Πάρνωνος κάτεισι—ῥέων διὰ τῆς Ἀργείας καὶ ἐκδίδωσιν ἐς τὸν Θυρεάτην κόλπον.

Translations (1)

English (Jones and Ormerod; retranslated Gregory Nagy, CHS, 2018) (OCR draft) Experimental (CHS Pausanias Reader retranslation by Gregory Nagy, based on Jones and Ormerod, with marked Greek terms, notes, quotations, and bibliographic attributions preserved.) — 2.38 focus

[1] Temenium is in Argive territory, and was named after Temenus, the son of Aristomakhos. For, having seized and strengthened the position, he waged therefrom with the Dorians the war against Tisamenus and the Achaeans. On the way to Temenium from Lerna the river Phrixos empties itself into the sea, and in Temenium is built a sanctuary of Poseidon, as well as one of Aphrodite; there is also the tomb of Temenus, which is worshipped by the Dorians in Argos.

[2] Fifty stadium-lengths, I conjecture, from Temenium is Nauplia, which at the present day is uninhabited; its founder was Nauplios, reputed to be a son of Poseidon and Amymone. Of the walls, too, ruins still remain and in Nauplia are a sanctuary of Poseidon, harbors, and a spring called Canathus. Here, say the Argives, Hērā bathes every year and recovers her virginity.

[3] This is one of the sayings told as a holy secret at the mysteries which they celebrate in honor of Hērā. The story told by the people in Nauplia about the ass, how by nibbling down the shoots of a vine he caused a more plenteous crop of grapes in the future, and how for this reason they have carved an ass on a rock, because he taught the pruning of vines—all this I pass over as trivial.

[4] From Lerna there is also another road, which skirts the sea and leads to a place called Genesium. By the sea is a small sanctuary of Poseidon Genesios. Next to this is another place, called Apobathmi (Steps). The story is that this is the first place in Argolis where Danaos landed with his daughters. From here we pass through what is called Anigraea, along a narrow and difficult road, until we reach a tract on the left which stretches down to the sea;

[5] it is fertile in trees, especially the olive. As you go up inland from this is a place where three hundred picked Argives fought for this land with an equal number of specially chosen Lacedaemonian warriors. All were killed except one Spartan and two Argives, and here were raised the tombs for the dead. But the Lacedaemonians, having fought against the Argives with all their forces, won a decisive victory; at first they themselves enjoyed the fruits of the land, but afterwards they assigned it to the Aeginetans, when they were expelled from their island by the Athenians. In my time Thyreatis was inhabited by the Argives, who say that they recovered it by the award of an arbitration.

[6] As you go from these common graves you come to Athene, where Aeginetans once made their home, another village Neris, and a third Eua, the largest of the villages, in which there is a sanctuary of Polemocrates. This Polemocrates is one of the sons of Makhaon, and the brother of Alexanor; he cures the people of the district, and receives honors from the neighbors.

Notes on the current edition

Description of Greece

1. 548 B.C.

2. 431 B.C.

3. 338 B.C.

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 2.38

W.H.S. Jones (Translator), H.A. Ormerod (Translator)

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