Description of Greece

​Above the Cassotis is a building containing paintings by Polygnotus, a dedication of the Cnidians, and it is called Lesche (Club) by the Delphians, because meeting here in ancient times they used to discuss both the more serious matters and those that are legendary; Homer showed in the abuse of Melantho towards Odysseus that there are many such places throughout all Greece: “And you do not wish to go and sleep in a bronze smithy or in a lesche somewhere, but here you talk much.”

​So to one who has entered this building, the whole of the scene on the right of the painting is Troy captured and the departure of the Greeks. For Menelaus they are preparing the things for the voyage, and a ship is painted, and men among the sailors and boys mixed with them, and in the middle of the ship is the helmsman Phrontis holding two punting-poles. And Homer made Nestor converse with Telemachus about other things and about Phrontis: that he was the son of Onetor, and was the helmsman of Menelaus, most approved in his art, and how, as he was already sailing past Sunium in Attica, his fate overtook him; and Menelaus, who up to that time was sailing together with Nestor, was then left behind for this reason, in order that he might honor Phrontis with a tomb and with whatever other things are due to the dead.

​This man, then, is in the painting of Polygnotus, and below him is a certain Ithaimenes carrying clothing, and Echoiax coming down the gangway, having a bronze water-jar. And Polites, Strophius, and Alphius are taking down the tent of Menelaus, which is not far from the ship. And Amphiatus is dismantling another tent, and at the feet of Amphiatus sits a boy; there is no inscription for the boy, and Phrontis alone has a beard. And he learned the name of this man alone from the poetry concerning Odysseus, but of the others, in my opinion, Polygnotus himself invented the names.

​And Briseis standing, and Diomede above her, and Iphis in front of both, seem to be contemplating the beauty of Helen. And Helen herself is sitting, and Eurybates near her; we guess that he is the herald of Odysseus, but indeed he did not yet have a beard. And the handmaids are Electra and Panthalis; the one stands beside Helen, while the other, Electra, is putting on the shoes of her mistress. These names also are different from those which Homer gave in the *Iliad*, where he has represented both Helen and the slave-women going along with Helen to the wall.

​Above Helen sits a man clothed in a purple cloak, and exceedingly downcast; even before reading the inscription, you would guess that he is Helenus, the son of Priam. And near Helenus is Meges; and Meges is wounded in the arm, just as Lesches, the son of Aeschylinus, of Pyrrha, wrote in the *Sack of Troy*; and he says that this man was wounded during the battle which the Trojans fought in the night, by Admetus, the son of Augeas.