Pausanias, Description of Greece, W.H.S. Jones (Translator), H.A. Ormerod (Translator), 5.23

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[1]
As you pass by the entrance to the Council Chamber you see an image of Zeus standing with no inscription on it, and then on turning to the north another image of Zeus. This is turned towards the rising sun, and was dedicated by those Greeks who at Plataea fought against the Persians under Mardonius.¹ On the right of the pedestal are inscribed the cities which took part in the engagement: first the Lacedaemonians, after them the Athenians, third the Corinthians, fourth the Sicyonians,

[2] fifth the Aeginetans; after the Aeginetans, the Megarians and Epidaurians, of the Arcadians the people of Tegea and Orchomenus , after them the dwellers in Phlius, Troezen and Hermion , the Tirynthians from the Argolid , the Plataeans alone of the Boeotians, the Argives of Mycenae , the islanders of Ceos and Melos , Ambraciots of the Thesprotian mainland, the Tenians and the Lepreans, who were the only people from Triphylia, but from the Aegean and the Cyclades there came not only the Tenians but also the Naxians and Cythnians, Styrians too from Euboea , after them Eleans, Potidaeans, Anactorians, and lastly the Chalcidians on the Euripus.

[3] Of these cities the following are at the present day uninhabited: Mycenae and Tiryns were destroyed by the Argives after the Persian wars. The Ambraciots and Anactorians, colonists of Corinth , were taken away by the Roman emperor² to help to found Nicopolis near Actium . The Potidaeans twice suffered removal from their city, once at the hands of Philip, the son of Amyntas³, and once before this at the hands of the Athenians⁴. Afterwards, however, Cassander restored the Potidaeans to their homes, but the name of the city was changed from Potidaea to Cassandreia after the name of its founder⁵. The image at Olympia dedicated by the Greeks was made by Anaxagoras of Aegina . The name of this artist is omitted by the historians of Plataea .

[4]
In front of this Zeus there is a bronze slab, on which are the terms of the Thirty-years Peace between the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians. The Athenians made this peace after they had reduced Euboea for the second time, in the third year of the eighty-third Olympiad, when Crison of Himera won the foot-race⁶. One of the articles of the treaty is to the effect that although Argos has no part in the treaty between Athens and Sparta , yet the Athenians and the Argives may privately, if they wish, be at peace with each other. Such are the terms of this treaty.

[5] There is yet another image of Zeus dedicated beside the chariot of Cleosthenes. This chariot I will describe later; the image of Zeus was dedicated by the Megarians, and made by the brothers Psylacus and Onaethus with the help of their sons. About their date, their nation and their master, I can tell you nothing.

[6] By the chariot of Gelon stands an ancient Zeus holding a scepter which is said to be an offering of the Hyblaeans. There were two cities in Sicily called Hybla, one surnamed Gereatis and the other Greater, it being in fact the greater of the two. They still retain their old names, and are in the district of Catana . Greater Hybla is entirely uninhabited, but Gereatis is a village of Catana , with a sanctuary of the goddess Hyblaea which is held in honor by the Sicilians. The people of Gereatis, I think, brought the image to Olympia . For Philistus, the son of Archomenides, says that they were interpreters of portents and dreams, and more given to devotions than any other foreigners in Sicily .

The Cleitorians dedicated this image to the god, a tithe

From many cities that they had reduced by force.

The sculptors were Aristo and Telestas,

Own brothers and Laconians.⁷

I do not think that these Laconians were famous all over Greece , for had they been so the Eleans would have had something to say about them, and the Lacedaemonians more still, seeing that they were their fellow-citizens.

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.) — 5.23 focus

[1]
παρεξιόντι δὲ παρὰ τὴν ἐς τὸ βουλευτήριον ἔσοδον Ζεύς τε ἕστηκεν ἐπίγραμμα ἔχων οὐδὲν καὶ αὖθις ὡς πρὸς ἄρκτον ἐπιστρέψαντι ἄγαλμά ἐστι Διός· τοῦτο τέτραπται μὲν πρὸς ἀνίσχοντα ἥλιον, ἀνέθεσαν δὲ Ἑλλήνων ὅσοι Πλαταιᾶσιν ἐμαχέσαντο ἐναντία Μαρδονίου τε καὶ Μήδων. εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ ἐγγεγραμμέναι κατὰ τοῦ βάθρου τὰ δεξιὰ αἱ μετασχοῦσαι πόλεις τοῦ ἔργου, Λακεδαιμόνιοι μὲν πρῶτοι, μετὰ δὲ αὐτοὺς Ἀθηναῖοι, τρίτοι δὲ γεγραμμένοι καὶ τέταρτοι Κορίνθιοί τε καὶ Σικυώνιοι,

[2] πέμπτοι δὲ Αἰγινῆται, μετὰ δὲ Αἰγινήτας Μεγαρεῖς καὶ Ἐπιδαύριοι, Ἀρκάδων δὲ Τεγεᾶταί τε 0 καὶ Ὀρχομένιοι, ἐπὶ δὲ αὐτοῖς ὅσοι Φλιοῦντα καὶ Τροίζηνα καὶ Ἑρμιόνα οἰκοῦσιν, ἐκ δὲ χώρας τῆς Ἀργείας Τιρύνθιοι, Πλαταιεῖς δὲ μόνοι Βοιωτῶν, καὶ Ἀργείων οἱ Μυκήνας ἔχοντες, νησιῶται δὲ Κεῖοι καὶ Μήλιοι, Ἀμβρακιῶται δὲ ἐξ ἠπείρου τῆς Θεσπρωτίδος, Τήνιοί τε καὶ Λεπρεᾶται, Λεπρεᾶται μὲν τῶν ἐκ τῆς Τριφυλίας μόνοι, ἐκ δὲ Αἰγαίου καὶ τῶν Κυκλάδων οὐ Τήνιοι μόνοι ἀλλὰ καὶ Νάξιοι καὶ Κύθνιοι, ἀπὸ δὲ Εὐβοίας Στυρεῖς, μετὰ δὲ τούτους Ἠλεῖοι καὶ Ποτιδαιᾶται καὶ Ἀνακτόριοι, τελευταῖοι δὲ Χαλκιδεῖς οἱ ἐπὶ τῷ Εὐρίπῳ.

[3] τούτων τῶν πόλεων τοσαίδε ἦσαν ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἔρημοι· Μυκηναῖοι μὲν καὶ Τιρύνθιοι ὑπὸ τῶν Μηδικῶν ὕστερον ἐγένοντο ὑπὸ Ἀργείων ἀνάστατοι· Ἀμβρακιώτας δὲ καὶ Ἀνακτορίους ἀποίκους Κορινθίων ὄντας ἐπηγάγετο ὁ Ῥωμαίων βασιλεὺς ἐς Νικοπόλεως συνοικισμὸν πρὸς τῷ Ἀκτίῳ· Ποτιδαιάτας δὲ δὶς μὲν ἐπέλαβεν ἀναστάτους ἐκ τῆς σφετέρας ὑπὸ Φιλίππου τε γενέσθαι τοῦ Ἀμύντου καὶ πρότερον ἔτι ὑπὸ Ἀθηναίων, χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον Κάσσανδρος κατήγαγε μὲν Ποτιδαιάτας ἐπὶ τὰ οἰκεῖα, ὄνομα δὲ οὐ τὸ ἀρχαῖον τῇ πόλει, Κασσάνδρεια δὲ ἐγένετο ἀπὸ τοῦ οἰκιστοῦ. τὸ δὲ ἄγαλμα ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ τὸ ἀνατεθὲν ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐποίησεν Ἀναξαγόρας Αἰγινήτης· τοῦτον οἱ συγγράψαντες τὰ ἐς Πλαταιὰς παριᾶσιν ἐν τοῖς λόγοις.

[4]
ἔστι δὲ πρὸ τοῦ Διὸς τούτου στήλη χαλκῆ, Λακεδαιμονίων καὶ Ἀθηναίων συνθήκας ἔχουσα εἰρήνης ἐς 0 τριάκοντα ἐτῶν ἀριθμόν. ταύτας ἐποιήσαντο Ἀθηναῖοι παραστησάμενοι τὸ δεύτερον Εὔβοιαν, ἔτει τρίτῳ τῆς τρίτης πρὸς τὰς ὀγδοήκοντα Ὀλυμπιάδος, ἣν Κρίσων Ἱμεραῖος ἐνίκα στάδιον. ἔστι δὲ ἐν ταῖς συνθήκαις καὶ τόδε εἰρημένον, εἰρήνης μὲν τῆς Ἀθηναίων καὶ Λακεδαιμονίων τῇ Ἀργείων μὴ μετεῖναι πόλει, ἰδίᾳ δὲ Ἀθηναίους καὶ Ἀργείους, ἢν ἐθέλωσιν, ἐπιτηδείως ἔχειν πρὸς ἀλλήλους. αὗται μὲν λέγουσι τοιαῦτα αἱ συνθῆκαι, Διὸς δὲ ἄλλο ἄγαλμα παρὰ τὸ ἅρμα

[5] ἀνάκειται τὸ Κλεοσθένους· τούτου μὲν δὴ ἡμῖν καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἔπειτα ἔσται μνήμη, τὸ δὲ ἄγαλμα τοῦ Διὸς Μεγαρέων μέν ἐστιν ἀνάθημα, ἀδελφοὶ δὲ αὐτὸ Ψύλακός τε καὶ Ὄναιθος καὶ οἱ παῖδες οἱ τούτων εἰργάσαντο· ἡλικίαν δὲ αὐτῶν ἢ πατρίδα ἢ παρʼ ᾧ τινι ἐδιδάχθησαν, οὐκ ἔχω δηλῶσαι.

[6] πρὸς δὲ τῷ ἅρματι τῷ Γέλωνος Ζεὺς ἕστηκεν ἀρχαῖος ἔχων σκῆπτρον, Ὑβλαίων δέ φασιν εἶναι ἀνάθημα· αἱ δὲ ἦσαν ἐν Σικελίᾳ πόλεις αἱ Ὕβλαι, ἡ μὲν Γερεᾶτις ἐπίκλησιν, τὴν δὲ—ὥσπερ γε καὶ ἦν —ἐκάλουν Μείζονα. ἔχουσι δὲ καὶ κατʼ ἐμὲ ἔτι τὰ ὀνόματα, ἐν τῇ Καταναίᾳ δὲ ἡ μὲν ἔρημος ἐς ἅπαν, ἡ δὲ κώμη τε Καταναίων ἡ Γερεᾶτις καὶ ἱερόν σφισιν Ὑβλαίας ἐστὶ θεοῦ, παρὰ Σικελιωτῶν ἔχον τιμάς. παρὰ τούτων δὲ κομισθῆναι τὸ ἄγαλμα ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν ἡγοῦμαι· τεράτων γὰρ σφᾶς καὶ ἐνυπνίων Φίλιστος ὁ Ἀρχομενίδου φησὶν ἐξηγητὰς εἶναι καὶ μάλιστα εὐσεβείᾳ τῶν ἐν Σικελίᾳ βαρβάρων προσκεῖσθαι.

[7] πλησίον δὲ τοῦ Ὑβλαίων ἀναθήματος βάθρον τε πεποίηται
χαλκοῦν καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῷ Ζεύς· τοῦτον ὀκτὼ μάλιστα εἶναι ποδῶν καὶ δέκα εἰκάζομεν. οἵτινες δὲ αὐτὸν ἔδοσαν τῷ θεῷ καὶ ὧντινών ἐστιν ἔργον, ἐλεγεῖον γεγραμμένον σημαίνει·

Κλειτόριοι τόδʼ ἄγαλμα θεῷ δεκάταν ἀνέθηκαν,

πολλᾶν ἐκ πολίων χερσὶ βιασσάμενοι.

† καιμετρειτ Ἀρίστων ἠδὲ Τελέστας

αὐτοκασίγνητοι καλὰ Λάκωνες ἔθεν.

τούτους οὐκ ἐς ἅπαν τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν ἐπιφανεῖς νομίζω γενέσθαι· εἶχον γὰρ ἄν τι καὶ Ἠλεῖοι περὶ αὐτῶν λέγειν, καὶ πλέονα ἔτι Λακεδαιμόνιοι πολιτῶν γε ὄντων.

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.) — 5.23 focus

[1] As you pass by the entrance to the Council Chamber, you see an image of Zeus standing with no inscription on it, and then on turning to the north, another image of Zeus. This is turned towards the rising sun, and was dedicated by those Greeks who at Plataea fought against the Persians under Mardonios. On the right of the pedestal are inscribed the cities which took part in the engagement: first the Lacedaemonians, after them the Athenians, third the Corinthians, fourth the Sikyonians,

[2] fifth the Aeginetans; after the Aeginetans, the Megarians and Epidaurians, of the Arcadians the people of Tegea and Orkhomenos, after them the dwellers in Phleious, Troizen and Hermion, the Tirynthians from the Argolid, the Plataeans alone of the Boeotians, the Argives of Mycenae, the islanders of Ceos and Mēlos, Ambraciots of the Thesprotian mainland, the Tenians and the Lepreans, who were the only people from Triphylia, but from the Aegean and the Cyclades there came not only the Tenians but also the Naxians and Cythnians, Styrians too from Euboea, after them Eleians, Potidaeans, Anaktorioi, and lastly the people of Khalkis-on-the-Euripos.

[3] Of these cities the following are at the present day uninhabited: Mycenae and Tiryns were destroyed by the Argives after the Persian wars. The Ambraciots and Anaktorioi, colonists of Corinth, were taken away by the Roman emperor to help to found Nikopolis near Actium. The Potidaeans twice suffered removal from their city, once at the hands of Philip, the son of Amyntas , and once before this at the hands of the Athenians. Afterwards, however, Kassandros restored the Potidaeans to their homes, but the name of the city was changed from Potidaea to Kassandreia after the name of its founder. The image at Olympia dedicated by the Greeks was made by Anaxagoras of Aegina. The name of this artist is omitted by the historians of Plataea.

[4] In front of this Zeus, there is a bronze slab, on which are the terms of the Thirty-years Peace between the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians. The Athenians made this peace after they had reduced Euboea for the second time, in the third year of the eighty-third Olympiad, when Crison of Himera won the foot-race . One of the articles of the treaty is to the effect that although Argos has no part in the treaty between Athens and Sparta, yet the Athenians and the Argives may privately, if they wish, be at peace with each other. Such are the terms of this treaty.

[5] There is yet another image of Zeus dedicated beside the chariot of Kleosthenes. This chariot I will describe later; the image of Zeus was dedicated by the Megarians, and made by the brothers Psylakos and Onaithos with the help of their sons. About their date, their nation and their master, I can tell you nothing.

[6] By the chariot of Gelon stands an ancient Zeus holding a scepter which is said to be an offering of the Hyblaeans. There were two cities in Sicily called Hybla, one surnamed Gereatis and the other Greater, it being in fact the greater of the two. They still retain their old names, and are in the district of Catana. Greater Hybla is entirely uninhabited, but Gereatis is a village of Catana, with a sanctuary of the goddess Hyblaea which is held in honor by the Sicilians. The people of Gereatis, I think, brought the image to Olympia. For Philistos, the son of Arkhomenides, says that they were interpreters of portents and dreams, and more given to devotions than any other barbarians in Sicily.

[7] Near the offering of the Hyblaeans has been made a pedestal of bronze with a Zeus upon it, which I conjecture to be about eighteen feet high. The donors and sculptors are set forth in elegiac verse: The Clitorians [people of Kleitor] dedicated this image to the god, a tithe from many cities that they had reduced by force. The sculptors were Ariston and Telestas, Own brothers and Laconians. I do not think that these Laconians were famous all over Greece, for had they been so the Eleians would have had something to say about them, and the Lacedaemonians more still, seeing that they were their fellow citizens.

Notes on the current edition

Description of Greece

1. 479 B.C.

2. Augustus

3. 356 B.C.

4. 430-429 B.C.

5. 316 B.C.

6. 446-445 B.C.

7. The last two verses are corrupt in all our MSS. No emendation has been proposed which can be considered satisfactory, and I will not venture on one of my own. But the general sense must be such as I have indicated.

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 5.23

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

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