Description of Greece

​And of the women between Aethra and Nestor, there are above these, they too being captives, Clymene, Creusa, Aristomache, and Xenodice. Now Stesichorus in the *Sack of Troy* has numbered Clymene among the captives; and likewise the author of the *Returns* made Aristomache to be a daughter of Priam, and the wife of Critolaus, the son of Hicetaon; but as for Xenodice, I know of no poet or prose writer who has made mention of her. And concerning Creusa, they say that the Mother of the Gods and Aphrodite rescued her from slavery under the Greeks, for Creusa was indeed the wife of Aeneas; but Lesches and the epic *Cypria* give Eurydice as the wife to Aeneas.

​And painted on a couch above these are Deinome, Metioche, Peisis, and Cleodice; of these, the name of Deinome alone is in the so-called *Little Iliad*, but those of the others, in my opinion, Polygnotus invented. And Epeius is also painted naked, throwing down the wall of the Trojans to the ground; and above it rises only the head of the wooden horse. And Polypoetes the son of Peirithous has his head bound with a fillet, and near him is Acamas, the son of Theseus, wearing on his head a helmet;

​and a crest is made upon the helmet. And Odysseus also is there, and Odysseus has put on a breastplate. And Ajax the son of Oileus, holding a shield, stands by an altar, taking an oath concerning his outrage against Cassandra; and she, Cassandra, sits on the ground and holds the image of Athena, since indeed she overturned the wooden image from its pedestal when Ajax was dragging her away from her supplication. And the sons of Atreus are also painted, these too wearing helmets; and on Menelaus, who has a shield, a dragon is wrought upon the shield, because of the portent that appeared at the sacrifices in Aulis. Below these who are administering the oath to Ajax, and directly opposite the horse which is ​near Nestor, Neoptolemus has slain Elasus, whoever this Elasus may be. This man, indeed, is represented as still breathing a little; and Astynous, of whom Lesches also made mention, who has fallen upon his knee, Neoptolemus strikes with a sword. And Polygnotus represented Neoptolemus alone of the Greek army as still slaughtering the Trojans, because the whole painting was intended by him to be above the tomb of Neoptolemus. And Homer in all his poetry gives to the son of Achilles the name Neoptolemus; but the epic *Cypria* says that he was named Pyrrhus by Lycomedes, and Neoptolemus by Phoenix, because Achilles began to make war when he was still young in age.

​And there is painted an altar, and a little child holding on to the altar out of fear; and there also lies a bronze breastplate upon the altar. In my own time the shape of these breastplates was rare, but in ancient times they used to wear them. There were two bronze pieces, the one fitting the chest and the parts around the belly, and the other to be a protection for the back—they were called *gyala* (plates)—; they applied the one in front and the other behind, and then clasped them to each other with pins.

​And it seemed to afford sufficient security even without a shield; for this reason Homer also made Phorcys the Phrygian not to have a shield, because he had a plate-breastplate. And I have seen this represented in a painting by Polygnotus, and in the temple of Artemis of Ephesus, Calliphon of Samos painted women fitting the plates of the breastplate for Patroclus.

​And beyond the altar he painted Laodice standing. I did not find her enrolled among the captive Trojan women by any poet, nor did it seem to me reasonable on any other ground than that Laodice was let go by the Greeks. For Homer, at least, showed in the *Iliad* the guest-friendship of Menelaus and Odysseus with Antenor, and how Laodice was married to Helicaon, the son of Antenor;

​and Lesches says that Helicaon, having been wounded in the night-battle, was recognized by Odysseus and led out alive from the fight. It would follow, then, from the care of Menelaus and Odysseus for the house of Antenor, that no hostile act was done to the wife of Helicaon either, by Agamemnon and Menelaus; but Euphorion, a man of Chalcis, wrote concerning Laodice with no probability.

​And next to Laodice is a pedestal of stone and a bronze basin upon the pedestal, and Medusa sits on the ground, holding the pedestal with both hands; and one might number this woman also among the daughters of Priam, according to the song of the Himeraean. And near Medusa is an old woman close-shorn to the skin, or a eunuch, holding a naked child on her knees; and the child is represented as holding his hand before his eyes out of fear.